Dissociable visual perception and executive functioning processes in typically developing adults with varying degrees of autistic-like characteristics.

• ¹ La Trobe University, School of Psychological Science, Australia
• ² The University of Western Ontario, Brain and Mind Institute and the Department of Psychology, Canada
• ³ Dalhousie University, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Canada
• ⁴ McMaster University, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, Canada

Background: Visual discrimination has been noted as a particular strength for individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) whereas executive functioning processes have been recognised as a relative weakness in this population. The purpose of this study was to examine how performance on an associative learning task was affected in the normal population as a function of scores on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) questionnaire. Methods: University students learned a visuomotor association task with Japanese hiragana visual stimuli and button responses. In the first condition (called the no pre-familiarization condition) 50 participants (43 females, age range 17 - 27 years, AQ range 6 - 27) learned the visuomotor associations without any prior familiarization with the stimuli's visual attributes. Under this set of circumstances, visual perception skills afforded an advantage. In the second condition (called the pre-familiarization condition) 50 participants (39 females, age range 18 - 29 years, AQ range 7 - 35) completed a session in which they became familiar with the stimuli's visual appearances prior to completing the visuomotor association learning task. Under this set of circumstances, executive function afforded an advantage. Results: Participants with greater degrees of sub-clinical autistic-like traits had a clear advantage in the no pre-familiarization condition. The bin at which learning criterion was achieved correlated negatively with overall AQ (r(48) = -0.282, p = .047). In contrast to the latter condition, participants with fewer sub-clinical autistic-like traits had a clear advantage in the pre-familiarization condition. The bin at which learning criterion was achieved correlated positively with overall AQ (r(48) = 0.329, p = .019). Conclusions: This study unveils a dissociation between visual perception abilities versus executive functioning skills across the AQ spectrum that mirrors a behavioural pattern that is seen in individuals with ASD.