Visuo-spatial abilities in autism: A review

Individuals with autism show various signs of heightened abilities in visuo-spatial functioning. First, it is long-established that they excel on embedded figures and block design tests relative to comparison participants. Second, some evidence suggests that processing global features is affected by inappropriate processing of the constituent elements of a stimulus. Third, they are more accurate than comparison participants in judging the shape of a slanted circle in a context in which ambient visual cues are eliminated. This suggests that their perception of the shape is less influenced by prior knowledge. Fourth, they are fast at searching for feature and conjunctive targets in a visual array. Contrary to earlier reports, however, they are susceptible to visual illusions. Also, they do show evidence of utilising prior knowledge when pairing a colour with an atypically coloured target. Accordingly, we conclude that there is something distinctive about autistic visuo-spatial functioning, but not necessarily in ways that are predicted by the 'weak central coherence' hypothesis. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.