| The present study investigated cue salience in face processing by high-functioning individuals with autism. Specifically, the effect of competing auditorily and visually presented word cues on emotion recognition in static faces was examined in seventeen adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. Their performance was compared to typical controls matched on gender, age, and verbal ability on computer-based tasks of emotion recognition. Participants were asked to make a determination about the emotion expressed by a face presented alone, with competing visually-presented word stimuli, and with competing auditorily-presented word stimuli. Words consisted of emotion-consistent words, emotion-inconsistent words, or irrelevant word labels. Emotions presented in faces and emotion words included happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and surprise. Auditory word cues consisted of words presented in an emotion-neutral tone of voice.;Contrary to hypothesized results, individuals with autism did as well as controls in making determinations about emotions in faces when competing word cues were inconsistent with the emotion in the faces. Consistent with hypothesized findings, individuals with autism were more proficient at recognizing emotions in faces when competing word cues were consistent with the emotion in the face than when they were inconsistent or irrelevant. All participants were more accurate in emotion recognition when competing word cues were presented auditorily rather than visually, and when competing word cues were consistent as opposed to inconsistent or irrelevant. In contrast to hypothesized results, individuals with autism did not show a bias toward inconsistent competing word cues.;Results from this study fail to support the notion of a verbal compensatory strategy in face processing by adolescents with autism, or even a bias toward concrete visual word cues. Rather, results suggest that high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders possess more typical abilities in terms of emotion identification in static faces even in the presence of competing verbal stimuli. |
