Individuals with autism spectrum disorders benefit from the addition of coloured tints when discriminating intensities of facial expressions L Whitaker, C R Jones, A Wilkins, D Roberson |
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Psychology Department, University of Essex, United Kingdom
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| Impairments in the processing of facial expressions often occur in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), possibly related to atypical perceptual processing and/or visual stress. An established means of reducing visual stress and improving reading speed in typically developing (TD) individuals is the use of transparent coloured tints (e.g. Wilkins, Jeanes, Pumfrey, & Laskier, 1996). Ludlow, Taylor-Whiffen and Wilkins (2012) recently found that coloured overlays improved recognition of complex emotions from the eye area in individuals with ASD. In the present study we measured judgements of emotional intensity using self-selected transparent coloured tints in 16 children with ASD (mean age=11.6) and 16 age and full-scale IQ matched TD controls (mean age=11.2). Participants judged which of two simultaneously presented faces expressed the most intense emotion for face pairs displaying anger, sadness, disgust, fear, happiness or surprise. The face pairs were presented with or without coloured tints, chosen individually as best improving the perceived clarity of text. ASD children’s judgements of emotional intensity improved significantly in accuracy with the addition of coloured tints, but TD children’s did not; a result that would be consistent with a link between impairments in facial expression processing and visual stress in individuals with ASD. |
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