LE3 .A278 2018

2018

Brodeur, Darlene

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Psychology

Psychology

The present study examined orienting of attention in healthy adults with varying levels of autistic traits (ATs) using a both a more traditional and a more ecologically valid spatial cueing paradigm. Simple and complex scene stimulus arrays were compared to examine the influence of a more ecologically valid task on orienting effects. We investigated the relationship between ATs and various forms of orienting tasks to potentially clarify past variability in research findings. Participants comprised 30 adults aged 18 to 35 years who were in good general health. The cueing paradigm, Spatial Delivery, was a game-like task that measured RTs and accuracy in exogenous and endogenous orienting tasks. ATs were assessed using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ; Baron-Cohen et al., 2001). For the simple scene array, results showed larger endogenous than exogenous cueing effects. For the complex scene array, results showed larger exogenous than endogenous cueing effects. Results also showed that the smallest endogenous cueing effects occurred at the longest SOA while the smallest exogenous cueing effects occurred at the shortest SOA. A pattern of negative correlations were found between AQ scores and RTs in the simple and complex scene arrays, and between AQ scores and accuracy in the complex scene array. Overall, the results demonstrate that differences in orienting were found in the different scene arrays thus more research examining the impact of complex and simple scenes as well as social context on orienting is needed. Future research should examine specific aspects of social stimuli used in Spatial Delivery and their effects on orienting and examine subscales of the AQ and how these relate to orienting abilities.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:2648