PNAS：自闭症搜索能力并不能扩大范围

    自闭症儿童在小范围视觉搜寻方面的能力通常超过其他儿童，例如，在一个盘子的各种物体中找到一只苹果，但是近来的一项研究发现他们在大范围内的搜寻方面的效率较低，例如在一个食品杂货店中寻找一只苹果。Elizabeth Pellicano及其同事研究了自闭症儿童的这种异乎寻常的搜寻能力是否能够用于独立生活必需的大范围任务。这组作者特别检验了一种观点，即自闭症者更需要系统化--即分析其所处环境，并且构建一系列的在此环境中导航的规则。这组作者用一个搜寻游戏测试了20位自闭症儿童和20位非自闭症儿童。在该游戏中，80%的目标在空间的一侧。这组作者预测这种安排会让具有高度系统化能力的人更可能发现这种不均匀的分布。令人吃惊的是，典型发育的儿童在游戏中的表现超过了自闭症儿童，后者的搜寻效率不高。这组科研人员把此结果部分归结于短期空间记忆的问题，它可能阻止了自闭症儿童识别并应用这种搜索的规则。（生物谷Bioon.com）

生物谷推荐原文出处：

PNAS   doi: 10.1073/pnas.1014076108

Children with autism are neither systematic nor optimal foragers

Elizabeth Pellicanoa,b,1, Alastair D. Smithc, Filipe Cristinod, Bruce M. Hoode, Josie Briscoee, and Iain D. Gilchriste

Abstract

It is well established that children with autism often show outstanding visual search skills. To date, however, no study has tested whether these skills, usually assessed on a table-top or computer, translate to more true-to-life settings. One prominent account of autism, Baron-Cohen's “systemizing” theory, gives us good reason to suspect that they should. In this study, we tested whether autistic children's exceptional skills at small-scale search extend to a large-scale environment and, in so doing, tested key claims of the systemizing account. Twenty school-age children with autism and 20 age- and ability-matched typical children took part in a large-scale search task in the “foraging room”: a purpose-built laboratory, with numerous possible search locations embedded into the floor. Children were instructed to search an array of 16 (green) locations to find the hidden (red) target as quickly as possible. The distribution of target locations was manipulated so that they appeared on one side of the midline for 80% of trials. Contrary to predictions of the systemizing account, autistic children's search behavior was much less efficient than that of typical children: they showed reduced sensitivity to the statistical properties of the search array, and furthermore, their search patterns were strikingly less optimal and less systematic. The nature of large-scale search behavior in autism cannot therefore be explained by a facility for systemizing. Rather, children with autism showed difficulties exploring and exploiting the large-scale space, which might instead be attributed to constraints (rather than benefits) in their cognitive repertoire.