TY - JOUR
T1 - Semantic Fields in Low-Functioning Autism
AU - Boser, Katharina
AU - Higgins, Susannah
AU - Fetherston, Anne
AU - Preissler, Melissa Allen
AU - Gordon, Barry
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by gifts from anonymous donors, by the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Gift Fund, the Therapeutic Cognitive Neuroscience Professorship, and by the Benjamin A. Miller Family Endowment for Aging, Alzheimer’s, and Autism. We thank Linda Edwards, Brielle Boedart, and Dr. Stephen Krappes of The Forum School for their help collecting the training data. Drs. Dana Boatman and Argye Hillis provided useful comments on the research.
PY - 2002/12
Y1 - 2002/12
N2 - Restricted semantic fields and resultant stimulus overselectivity are often thought to be typical of low-functioning autism, as is a strong visual processing preference. However, these conclusions may in part be an artifact of testing methodology. A 12-year-old, low-functioning and nonverbal autistic boy was tested on an auditory word-to-picture selection task. The picture foils were chosen to have visual features, semantic features, both, or neither in common with the correct answer. Errors were made more often to semantically than to visually related items, and he showed generalization to items that had not been explicitly trained. This is taken as evidence that his semantic fields are broader than otherwise apparent, and that he was capable of expanding his semantic representations independently of specific training.
AB - Restricted semantic fields and resultant stimulus overselectivity are often thought to be typical of low-functioning autism, as is a strong visual processing preference. However, these conclusions may in part be an artifact of testing methodology. A 12-year-old, low-functioning and nonverbal autistic boy was tested on an auditory word-to-picture selection task. The picture foils were chosen to have visual features, semantic features, both, or neither in common with the correct answer. Errors were made more often to semantically than to visually related items, and he showed generalization to items that had not been explicitly trained. This is taken as evidence that his semantic fields are broader than otherwise apparent, and that he was capable of expanding his semantic representations independently of specific training.
KW - Assessment
KW - Categorization
KW - Low-functioning autism
KW - Overselectivity
KW - Semantic knowledge
KW - Single word learning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0038179524&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0038179524&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1023/A:1021207031114
DO - 10.1023/A:1021207031114
M3 - Article
C2 - 12553593
AN - SCOPUS:0038179524
SN - 0162-3257
VL - 32
SP - 563
EP - 582
JO - Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
JF - Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
IS - 6
ER -