Visual mental imagery abilities in autism.
Autistic adults hold mental pictures longer and scan them differently—use visual aids and extra wait time.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bled et al. (2024) asked autistic and neurotypical adults to create, hold, spin, and scan mental pictures.
They used computer tasks that timed how long each group took and how many errors they made.
The team wanted to know if autistic adults picture things in their minds the same way as typical adults.
What they found
Autistic adults could build and turn pictures just as fast and as well as typical adults.
They kept the picture in mind longer without it fading.
When they scanned the picture for details, they did not slow down with distance like typical adults did.
How this fits with other research
Pettingell et al. (2022) showed that autistic adults give fuller answers when they act out or draw instead of speak.
Clara’s results help explain why: strong visual imagery makes showing easier than telling.
Baker et al. (2005) once found autistic people were weak on spatial memory tasks.
The new study seems to disagree, but the old task added extra memory loads.
When the job is just to hold and look at a picture, not juggle extra rules, autistic adults shine.
Stanutz et al. (2014) saw sharper pitch memory in autistic kids; Clara finds a matching visual boost in adults.
Why it matters
When you ask clients to picture a scene, give them time— their image lasts longer.
Use visual maps, diagrams, or role-play instead of long verbal chains.
If you test spatial skills, keep the rules simple; extra steps can hide true strength.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Swap one verbal instruction for a quick sketch or gesture and watch if your client responds faster.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Abstract In autistic individuals, the role, performance, and autonomy of perceptual functioning are atypical. Overlapping underlying mechanisms of perception and mental imagery predict that the mental imagery abilities of autistic individuals should differ from those of non‐autistic individuals. While enhanced abilities to manipulate mental images have been demonstrated in autism, the other stages of mental imagery (generation, maintenance, inspection) remain to be explored. Forty‐four autistic adults and 42 typical participants performed four tasks to assess different stages of mental imagery: the Image generation task (mentally generating a letter on a grid and indicating whether it passes over a probe located in the grid), the Visual pattern test (maintaining visual patterns in memory), the Image scanning test (inspecting mental images) and the Mental rotation test (mentally manipulating representations of geometric figures). In the image generation task and the mental rotation test, autistic and typical individuals performed equivalently, both in accuracy and response time. The span observed in the visual pattern test was significantly higher in the autistic group, indicating better maintenance of mental images. In the image scanning test, response times were influenced by the distance to mentally inspect in the typical group but not in the autistic group. Autistic participants were equally fast regardless of distance to inspect. Preserved, greater or differently influenced visual mental imagery abilities are in line with an atypical perceptual functioning in autism, possibly reflecting an increased weight of perception‐based information relatively to the top‐down effect of knowledge and language‐based influence.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2024 · doi:10.1002/aur.3192