AN ISLET OF ABILITY IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN: A RESEARCH NOTE
Amitta Shah,
Uta Frith,
Corresponding Author
Amitta Shah
MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, London
Requests for reprints to: Mrs. Amitta Shah, MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF.Search for more papers by this authorAmitta Shah,
Uta Frith,
Corresponding Author
Amitta Shah
MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, London
Requests for reprints to: Mrs. Amitta Shah, MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF.Search for more papers by this authorSUMMARY
An aspect of cognitive functioning in autistic children was investigated by comparing their performance on the Children's Embedded Figures Test with that of MA-matched normal and MA-and CA-matched mentally retarded non-autistic children. The autistic children were significantly more competent at this task than either group of control children, and also showed qualitatively different strategies. Since the performance of the autistic children was better than predicted from MA and commensurate with CA, it can be regarded as an islet of ability. This finding is discussed in terms of orientation and visualization factors involved in visuo-spatial abilities and is also related to cognitive deficit.
References
- Bartak, L., Rutter, M. and Cox, A. (1975) A comparative study of infantile autism and specific developmental receptive language disorder: I. The children. Br. J. Psychiat. 126, 127–145.
- Cohen, J. (1959) The factorial structure of the Wisc at ages 7–6, 10–16 and 13–6. J. consult. Psychol. 23, 285–299.
- Frith, U. (1970a) Studies in pattern detection. I. Immediate recall of auditory sequences. J. abnorm. Psychol. 76, 413–420.
- Frith, U. (1970b) Studies in pattern detection. II. Reproduction and production of color sequences. J. exp. Child Psychol. 10, 120–135.
- Frith, U. and Hermelin, B. (1969) The role of visual and motor cues for normal, subnormal and autistic children. J. Child Psychol. Psychiat. 10, 153–163.
- Gottschaldt, K. (1926) Uber den Einfluss der Erfahrung auf die Wahrnehmung von Figuren. Psychol. forsch. 8, 261–317.
- Hammes, J. G. W. and Langdell, T. (1981) Precursors of symbol formation and childhood autism. J. Aut. dev. Disord. 11, 331–346.
- Hermelin, B. (1976) Coding and the sense modalities. In Early Childhood Autism (Edited by L. Wing). 2nd Edn, pp. 135–168. Pergamon Press. Oxford .
-
Hermelin, B. (1978) Images and language. In
Autism: A Reappraisal of Concepts and Treatment (Edited by
M. Rutter and
E. Schopler), pp.
141–154. Plenum Press.
New York
.
10.1007/978-1-4684-0787-7_9 Google Scholar
-
Hermelin, B. and
Frith, U. (1971) Psychological studies of childhood autism. Can autistic children make sense of what they see and hear
J. spec. Educ.
5, 1107–1117.
10.1177/002246697100500202 Google Scholar
- Hermelin, B. and O'Connor, N. (1970) Psychological Experiments with Autistic Children. Pergamon Press. Oxford .
- Hermelin, B. and O'Connor, N. (1971) Spatial coding in normal, autistic and blind children. Percept. Motor Skills 33, 127–132.
- Hyde, J. S., Geiringer, E. and Yen, W. (1975) On the empirical relation between spatial ability and sex differences in other aspects of cognitive performance. Multivariate Behav. Res. 10, 289–301.
- Kagan, J. and Kogan, N. (1970) Individuality and cognitive performance. In Carmichael's Manual of Child Psychology (Edited by C. H. Mussen), Vol. 1. 3rd Edn, pp. 1273–1365. John Wiley, New York .
- Kanner, L. (1943) Autistic disturbance of affective contact. New. Child 2, 217–250.
- Koffka, K. (1935) Principles of Gestalt Psychology. Harcourt Brace, New York .
- Lockyer, L. and Rutter, M. (1970) A five to fifteen year follow-up study of infantile psychosis. IV. Patterns of cognitive ability. Br. J. soc. clin. Psychol. 9, 152–163.
- Maxwell, A. E. (1959) A factorial analysis of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Br. J. educ. Psychol. 29, 237–241.
- Maccoby, E. E. and Jacklin, C. N. (1975) The Psychology of Sex Differences. Oxford University Press. London .
- McGee, M. (1979) Human spatial abilities. Psychometric studies and environmental, genetic, hormonial and neurological influences. Psychol. Bull. 86, 889–918.
- Meddis, R. (1980) Unified analysis of variance by ranks. Br. J. math. statist. Psychol. 33, 84–98.
- O'Connor, N. and Hermelin, B. (1975) Modality-specific spatial coordinates. Percept. Psychophys. 17, 2, 213–216.
- O'Connor, N. and Hermelin, B. (1978) Seeing and Hearing and Space and Time. Academic Press. London .
- Prior, M. R. (1979) Cognitive abilities and disabilities in infantile autism: a review. J. abnorm. Child Psychol. 7, 357–380.
- Raven, J. C. (1963) Guideto Using the Coloured Progressive Matrices. H. K. Lewis & Co., London .
- Selfe, L. (1977). Nadia: a Case of Extraordinary Drawing Ability in an Autistic Child. Academic Press. London .
- Tymchuk, A. J., Simmons, J. Q. and Neafsey, S. (1977) Intellectual characteristics of adolescents childhood psychotics with high verbal ability. J. ment. Defic. Res. 21, 133–138.
- Vernon, P. E. (1972) The distinctiveness of field independence. J. Personality 40, 366–391.
- Wertheimer, M. (1923) Untersychungen zur lehre von der gestalt. II. Psychol. Forsch. 4, 301–350.
- Wing, L. (1976) Diagnosis, clinical description and prognosis. In Early Childhood Autism (Edited by L. Wing), 2nd Edn, pp. 15–48. Pergamon Press. Oxford .
- Witkin, H. A., Oltman, P. K., Raskin, E. and Karp, S. (1971) A Manual for the Embedded Figures Test. Consulting Psychologists Press. California .
- Wurst, E. (1976) Autismus. Verlat Hans Huber, Bern .
