A matter of precision? Scene imagery in individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.
Adults with autism can form accurate scene images; weak stories reflect narrative trouble, not failed imagination.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Greenlee et al. (2024) asked adults with high-functioning autism to picture scenes in their mind. They also asked typical adults to do the same task. The team then checked how clear and correct each mental picture was.
Everyone gave a short story about the scene they imagined. The researchers scored the stories for detail and accuracy.
What they found
Scene pictures in the mind were just as clear and correct for both groups. Adults with autism did not show weaker visual imagination.
Story telling was weaker in the autism group. Poorer stories were linked with weaker imagery, but only inside the autism group.
How this fits with other research
Vanmarcke et al. (2016) saw the same pattern for rapid scene viewing. Adults with autism sorted non-social scenes as fast as peers, but slipped only when scenes showed quick social actions. Together these studies show that scene skills are intact when the task is clear and concrete.
Webb et al. (1999) found that autistic children gave fewer make-believe ideas than peers. Their ideas stayed close to real life. The new adult data fit this picture: imagination accuracy is fine, but telling a rich story about it can lag.
O'Hearn et al. (2011) reported that adults with autism miss visual changes in moving scenes. L et al. now show that static scene imagery is spared. This tells us that motion tracking and mental pictures rely on different brain routes.
Why it matters
You can trust that many adults with autism can picture scenes correctly. If a client gives a short or jumbled story, the problem may be narrative language, not poor imagination. Give extra wait time, visual cues, or sentence starters to help them share what they see. Use clear, structured prompts instead of open-ended "imagine anything" tasks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The ability to create mental representations of scenes is essential for remembering, predicting, and imagining. In individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) this ability may be impaired. Considering that autistic characteristics such as weak central coherence or reduced communication abilities may disadvantage autistic participants in traditional imagery tasks, this study attempted to use a novel task design to measure the ability of scene imagery. Thirty high-functioning adults with ASD and 27 non-autistic matched control adults were asked to describe imagined fictitious scenes using two types of scene imagery tasks. In a free imagery task, participants were asked to imagine a scene based on a given keyword. In a guided imagery task, participants had to imagine a scene based on a detailed description of the scene. Additionally, narrative abilities were assessed using the Narrative Scoring Scheme. Statistical analyses revealed no group effects in the free and guided imagery of fictional scenes. Participants with ASD performed worse than control participants in the narrative task. Narrative abilities correlated positively with performance in both imagery tasks in the ASD group only. Hence, individuals with ASD seem to show as good imagery abilities as non-autistic individuals. The results are discussed in the light of the differences between imagery and imagination and possible gender differences.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2024 · doi:10.1002/aur.3119