Research Publications by Jen Mayer
Autism, 2021
Atypical attention is considered to have an important role in the development of autism. Yet, it ... more Atypical attention is considered to have an important role in the development of autism. Yet, it remains unclear whether these attentional difficulties are specific to the social domain. The study aimed to examine attentional orienting in autistic (A) and non-autistic (NA) adults from and to non-social and social stimuli. We utilized a modified gap-overlap task with schematic images (Experiment 1: A=27, NA=26) and photographs (Experiment 2: A=18, NA=17). Eye-tracking data (i.e., saccadic latencies) were then compared across condition and type of stimulus (social or non-social) using multi-level modelling. Autistic adults exhibited mostly typical gap and overlap effects, as well as a bias towards social stimuli. Yet, autistic participants benefited from exogenous disengagement when orienting to social information more than non-autistic participants. Neither a domain general nor social domain specific account for attentional atypicalities in autism was supported separately. Yet, subtle combined domain differences were revealed in the gap condition.
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Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2020
Previous research suggests that autistic individuals exhibit atypical hierarchical processing, ho... more Previous research suggests that autistic individuals exhibit atypical hierarchical processing, however, most of these studies focused solely on children. Thus, the main aim of the current study was to investigate the presence of atypical local or global processing in autistic adults using a traditional divided attention task with Navon's hierarchical figures. Reaction time data of 27 autistic and 25 neurotypical (NT) adults was analysed using multilevel modelling and Bayesian analysis. The results revealed that autistic, like NT, adults experienced a global precedence effect. Moreover, both autistic and NT participants experienced global and local interference effects. In contrast to previous findings with children, the current study suggests that autistic adults exhibit a typical, albeit unexpected, processing of hierarchical figures.
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Sensory functioning atypicalities are a common feature in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and hav... more Sensory functioning atypicalities are a common feature in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and have previously been linked to a range of behaviours in individuals with ASD and atypical neurological development. More recently research has demonstrated a relationship between autistic traits in the neurotypical (NT) population and increased levels of atypical sensory behaviours. The aim of the present study is to extend previous research by examining specific patterns across aspects of autistic traits and sensory behaviours within both ASD and NT populations. The present study recruited 580 NT adults and 42 high-functioning ASD adults with a confirmed diagnosis to investigate the relationship between specific aspects of autistic traits and sensory functioning using the subscales of the autism spectrum quotient (AQ) and adult/adolescent sensory profile (AASP). Results showed a significant relationship between all subscales except for attention to detail and imagination on the AQ and provided the first evidence that the strength and pattern of this relationship is largely identical between NT and ASD adults. These data also provided support for the broader autism phenotype, uncovering a clear progression of sensory atypicalities in line with an increase in autistic traits, regardless of diagnostic status, which has potential implications for the spectrum approach to ASD and how sensory behaviours across the whole of the neurotypical population are conceptualised.
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Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2014
Whilst enhanced perception has been widely reported in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders... more Whilst enhanced perception has been widely reported in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), relatively little is known about the developmental trajectory and impact of atypical auditory processing on speech perception in intellectually high-functioning adults with ASD. This paper presents data on perception of complex tones and speech pitch in adult participants with high-functioning ASD and typical development, and compares these with pre-existing data using the same paradigm with groups of children and adolescents with and without ASD. As perceptual processing abnormalities are likely to influence behavioural performance, regression analyses were carried out on the adult data set. The findings revealed markedly different pitch discrimination trajectories and language correlates across diagnostic groups. While pitch discrimination increased with age and correlated with receptive vocabulary in groups without ASD, it was enhanced in childhood and stable across development in ASD. Pitch discrimination scores did not correlate with receptive vocabulary scores in the ASD group and for adults with ASD superior pitch perception was associated with sensory atypicalities and diagnostic measures of symptom severity. We conclude that the development of pitch discrimination, and its associated mechanisms markedly distinguish those with and without ASD.
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Autism Research, 2013
While temporal and perceptual processing abnormalities, identified in a number of electrophysiolo... more While temporal and perceptual processing abnormalities, identified in a number of electrophysiological and brain imaging studies of individuals with (ASD), are likely to impact on speech perception, surprisingly little is known about the behavioral outcomes of such abnormalities. It has been hypothesized that rapid temporal processing deficits may be linked to impaired language development through interference with acoustic information during speech perception. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of temporal changes on encoding and recall of speech, and the associated cognitive, clinical, and behavioral correlates in adults with ASD. Research carried out with typically developing (TD) adults has shown that word recall diminishes as the speed of speech increases, and it was predicted that the magnitude of this effect would be far greater in those with ASD because of a preexisting rapid temporal processing deficit. Nineteen high-functioning adults with ASD, and age- and intelligence-matched TD controls performed verbatim recall of tempo- rally manipulated sentences. Reduced levels of word recall in response to increases in presentation speed were observed, and this effect was greater in the older participants in the ASD group than in the control group. This is the first study to show that both sensory abnormalities and aging impact on speech encoding in ASD. Auditory processing deficits in ASD may be indicative of an association with the sensory abnormalities and social and communication impairments characterizing the disorder.
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Autism Research, 2013
It has been suggested that autism-specific imitative deficits may be reduced or even spared in ob... more It has been suggested that autism-specific imitative deficits may be reduced or even spared in object-related activities. However, most previous research has not sufficiently distinguished object movement reenactment (learning about the ways in which object move) from imitation (learning about the topography of demonstrated actions). Twenty children with autism (CWA) and 20 typically developing children (TDC) were presented with puzzle boxes containing prizes. Test objects and experimental conditions were designed to isolate object- and action-related aspects of demonstrations. There were four types of video demonstrations: (a) a full demonstration by an adult; (b) a ghost demonstration with object movements alone; (c) mimed solutions demonstrated adjacent to the objects; and (d) random actions performed on the surface of the objects. There were no significant between-group differences in the degree to which CWA and TDC matched the full demonstrations, the actual demonstrations or in their times to first solution in any of the conditions. Although there was no clear imitative deficit in the CWA, regression analyses were conducted to explore in more detail whether diagnosis, verbal intelligence quotient (VIQ), nonverbal IQ NVIQ, age or motor coordination predicted performance. The results are discussed in relation to the use of extrinsic vs. intrinsic rewards and the interplay between motor coordination and the relative rigidity vs. pliability of objects.
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Teaching Practice Publications by Jen Mayer
Psychological Literacy: A Compendium of Practice. , 2015
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Conference Presentations by Jen Mayer
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often experience difficulties processing emotion... more Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often experience difficulties processing emotions (e.g. Ashwin et al., 2006). Around 50% of the ASD population are believed to have alexithymia (Lombardo et al., 2007), which refers to a difficulty using appropriate language to express and describe own or other’s feelings. Thus, emotion processing difficulties in ASD may come about due to atypical processing of words semantically related to emotions. To test this, 20 high functioning adults with ASD and 20 age and IQ matched controls were asked to complete two standard emotion perception tasks: matching emotion words to emotion labels and matching them to universal expressions of emotions; as well as provide semantic judgment of paired emotion word. Results revealed a high level of similarity between participants with ASD and controls when matching emotion words to labels or faces. However, face matching was more consistent in control than ASD group. Also, considerable group differences were apparent in their semantic judgment of paired emotion words.
This presentation will provide insight into difficulties with emotion recognition and understanding of emotions in ASD and how these might be related to semantic processing/categorisation of emotion words. We will outline specifically how performance on standard emotion perception tasks might map on to atypical categorisation and understanding of emotion words in ASD.
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The value of diagnosis within the field of ASDs (Autistic Spectrum Disorders) is a topic of debat... more The value of diagnosis within the field of ASDs (Autistic Spectrum Disorders) is a topic of debate. Different perspectives on whether diagnoses themselves (particularly those received by adults) are enabling or debilitating exist. It has been argued a diagnosis of an ASD can enable access to therapies that may ameliorate the effects of the condition. However, since there is no specific curative intervention for ASDs, the diagnosis has been portrayed as debilitating, labelling as different and thereby presenting problems rather than solutions. The danger in these perspectives on receiving a diagnosis of an ASD is that the voice of those with an ASD themselves can be lost. This paper draws on ten semi-structured interviews with adults who received a diagnosis in adulthood. These data suggest that the diagnosis is construed as having a dilemmatic nature. On the one hand diagnosis is portrayed as making sense of the past and liberating the present, enabling the individual to understand previous difficulties, and forge contact with others who share and/or understand aspects of their experience. On the other hand the diagnosis is construed as raising problems for the individual’s self-concept as a ‘normal’, well-functioning member of society and presenting a somewhat difficult version of the future in terms of relationships, integration and acceptance. Implications of this dilemmatic nature of adults receiving a diagnosis of an ASD will be discussed and the wider issue of listening to the voice of those with an ASD in order to better understand the phenomenon will be considered.
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This presentation seeks to add to the considerable knowledge about emotion perception in Autism, ... more This presentation seeks to add to the considerable knowledge about emotion perception in Autism, by assessing the perception and understanding of emotion and emotion words in adults with Autism. 30 autism participants and 30 controls, all adults, completed a series of tasks: matching emotions to faces, categorising emotions, and a semantic judgement task of 30 emotion words. 10 participants from each group also completed a semi-structured interview. The interview featured a series of questions ascertaining how participants acquired their understanding of emotions and emotion words and how they feel about their understanding. The interview also included a cognitive task that linked emotions to colours. This presentation will outline how performance on standard emotion perception tasks might map on to atypical categorisation and understanding of emotion words, and how individuals with autism might actively seek to improve their performance.
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Whilst enhanced perception has been reported in individuals with ASD, relatively little is known ... more Whilst enhanced perception has been reported in individuals with ASD, relatively little is known about the impact of atypical auditory processing on speech perception in intellectually high-functioning adults. Previous research carried out with children with ASD has revealed enhanced sensitivity to the psychoacoustic qualities of speech but the extent that this is characteristic in adults has yet to be investigated. The present study aimed to replicate Heaton et al.’s (2008) findings of superior pitch discrimination across speech and non-speech stimuli in children with ASD within a group of 19 high-functioning adults with ASD and age and intelligence matched controls. The findings indicated similar performance in both the typically developing and ASD adults. In order to further explore these findings, data from two groups of children and adolescents with high-functioning ASD and matched controls was compared with data from the adults. Results revealed a significant increase in pitch discrimination abilities from childhood and adolescence into adulthood within typically developing individuals whilst the performance within the ASD groups remained relatively stable. The developmental trajectory of pitch discrimination in typically developing and ASD individuals and the associations with language abilities will be discussed.
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A large body of evidence indicates that typically developing individuals show a semantic bias whe... more A large body of evidence indicates that typically developing individuals show a semantic bias when processing speech information. In contrast, some studies of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) suggest this bias is weakened and that perceptual information may have increased salience for these individuals. One class of perceptual information widely examined in ASD individuals is pitch and numerous studies have demonstrated enhanced pitch discrimination for simple, pure-tone stimuli. In contrast, perception of timbre, another important component in auditory stimuli appears to be similar to that of typically developing individuals. The present study investigated perceptual and semantic processing biases utilizing newly developed auditory Stroop tasks which required participants to identify perceptual components of speech including, pitch and timbre, amid competing semantic information. High-functioning adults with ASD and intelligence and age matched typically developing controls were assessed on standardised measures of social and communication skills, sensory abnormalities, and the experimental paradigm. The extent to which the experimental findings provide evidence of a weakened semantic processing bias in ASD will be examined. Additionally, the implications of how aspects of ASD symptomatology relate to atypical auditory perception and processing biases will be discussed.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Auditory Processing
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Background: Whilst sensory disturbance is well documented in ASD, relatively little is known abou... more Background: Whilst sensory disturbance is well documented in ASD, relatively little is known about the impact of atypical auditory processing on speech perception in intellectually high-functioning adults. Previous research carried out with children with ASD has revealed enhanced sensitivity to the psychoacoustic qualities of speech but the extent that this is characteristic in adults has yet to be investigated. Objectives: To determine whether the spectral and temporal characteristics of speech influence recall of grammatically simple and complex sentences. Methods: 50 sentences with either subordinate or non-subordinate clauses were utilized to assess the effect of grammatical complexity on sentence recall. In order to isolate perceptual as well as higher-order speech processing deficits, speed and pitch manipulations were carried out on the stimuli. 19 HFA adults and intelligence and age matched typically-developing controls participated in the study. ANOVAs were conducted to analyse the main effects of grammatical complexity, perceptual manipulation, and group. Correlational analyses were then used to examine the extent to which sensory processing abnormalities and scores on standardised measures of language and communication were associated with reduced performance in response to perceptual and higher-order changes in the experimental stimuli. Results: Results showed that whilst the ASD group obtained significantly lower scores than controls on standardised measures of language and communication, the effects of grammatical complexity on sentence recall did not differ across groups. Whilst sensory abnormalities across all modalities including the auditory domain were observed in the ASD group, reduced sentence recall, in response to speed manipulations, was not significantly different to that of controls. Conclusions: We conclude that memory for speech is unaffected by grammatical complexity in ASD and that this effect is robust enough to be sustained when speech stimuli are distorted. The associations between sensory processing abnormalities, level of symptom severity and speech perception will be further discussed
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Auditory Processing
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Whilst sensory disturbances affecting speech perception are likely to contribute to the communica... more Whilst sensory disturbances affecting speech perception are likely to contribute to the communication deficits characterising Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), little is known about the nature of these difficulties in high-functioning adults. Objectives: Although research has shown that individuals with ASD experience difficulties appreciating the pragmatic aspects of speech, the extent to which these are associated with grammatical difficulties is unclear. Design: 50 sentences with either subordinate or non-subordinate clauses were utilized to assess the effect of grammatical complexity on sentence recall. In order to isolate perceptual as well as higher-order speech processing deficits, speed and pitch manipulations were carried out on the stimuli. Methods: 19 HFA adults and intelligence and age matched typically-developing controls were assessed on standardised measures of social and communication skills, sensory abnormalities, and the experimental paradigm. ANOVAs were conducted to analyse the main effects of grammatical complexity, perceptual manipulation, and group. Further correlational analyses examined the extent to which difficulties on standardised measures of language and communication were associated with reduced performance in response to perceptual and higher-order changes in the experimental stimuli. Results: Results showed that whilst the ASD group showed significant impairments on the standardised measures of language and communication relative to controls, their sentence recall was unaffected by grammatical complexity. Although speed manipulations did reduce sentence recall scores, ASD and control groups were similarly affected, and no group difference emerged. Conclusions: We conclude that the pragmatic speech abnormalities in ASD do not generalise to difficulties in processing grammar in adults with ASD.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Auditory Processing
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Whilst disturbances in speech perception are likely to contribute to the communication deficits c... more Whilst disturbances in speech perception are likely to contribute to the communication deficits characterising Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) relatively little is known about the nature and prevalence of these difficulties in high-functioning adults. Previous research has shown superior pitch discrimination and memory in ASD individuals and subsequent findings have revealed abnormalities in aspects of speech perception involving pitch components. In two experimental studies, 20 high-functioning adults with ASD and age and intelligence matched controls were assessed on pitch discrimination and speech perception tasks. Experiment one aimed to test reduced domain specificity at a sensory level, and to increase understanding of the behavioural bases of speech perception in ASD. Results revealed superior pitch perception in adults with ASD across word and non-speech pitch contour analogues. Experiment two was designed to test the effect of pitch manipulations on prosodic processing during sentence repetition. The extent to which the experimental findings provide evidence that superior pitch processing is associated with increased perceptual capture in ASD will be discussed. Participants’ performance on experimental tasks was correlated with background measures of symptom severity, sensory processing abnormalities, and social and communication difficulties. The implications of how symptom severity relates to atypical auditory perception will be discussed.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Pitch Discrimination
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Whilst disturbances in speech perception are likely to contribute to the communication deficits c... more Whilst disturbances in speech perception are likely to contribute to the communication deficits characterising Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) relatively little is known about the nature and prevalence of these difficulties in high-functioning adults. Previous research has shown superior pitch discrimination and memory in ASD individuals and subsequent findings have revealed abnormalities in aspects of speech perception involving pitch components. In two experimental studies, 20 high-functioning adults with ASD and age and intelligence matched controls were assessed on pitch discrimination and speech perception tasks. Experiment one aimed to test reduced domain specificity at a sensory level, and to increase understanding of the behavioural bases of speech perception in ASD. Results revealed superior pitch perception in adults with ASD across word and non-speech pitch contour analogues. Experiment two was designed to test the effect of pitch manipulations on prosodic processing during sentence repetition. The extent to which the experimental findings provide evidence that superior pitch processing is associated with increased perceptual capture in ASD will be discussed. Participants’ performance on experimental tasks was correlated with background measures of symptom severity, sensory processing abnormalities, and social and communication difficulties. The implications of how symptom severity relates to atypical auditory perception will be discussed.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Pitch Discrimination
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Whilst disturbances in speech perception are likely to contribute to the communication deficits c... more Whilst disturbances in speech perception are likely to contribute to the communication deficits characterising Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) relatively little is known about the nature and prevalence of these difficulties in high-functioning adults. Previous research has shown superior pitch discrimination and memory in ASD individuals and subsequent findings have revealed abnormalities in those aspects of speech perception that involve pitch components. In two experimental studies, 20 high-functioning adults with ASD and age and intelligence matched controls were assessed on pitch discrimination and speech perception tasks. Experiment one aimed to test reduced domain specificity at a sensory level, and to increase understanding of the behavioural bases of speech perception in ASD. Results revealed superior pitch perception in adults with ASD across word and non-speech pitch contour analogues. Experiment two was designed to test the effect of pitch manipulations on prosodic processing during sentence repetition. Results from experiments 1 and 2 are discussed in terms of the extent to which superior pitch processing in ASD leads to increased perceptual capture in speech processing. Participants’ performance on the experimental tasks will be correlated with background measures of symptom severity, sensory processing abnormalities, and social and communication difficulties. The implications of how symptom severity relates to atypical auditory perception are discussed.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Pitch Discrimination
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Whilst disturbances in speech perception are likely to contribute to the communication deficits c... more Whilst disturbances in speech perception are likely to contribute to the communication deficits characterising Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) relatively little is known about the nature and prevalence of these difficulties in high-functioning adults. Such impairments can be evaluated within a complexity account of auditory processing in ASD suggesting that deficits in auditory processing are more pronounced in line with increasing complexity in stimuli. In two experimental studies, groups of typical adults with high and low levels of autistic traits, measured using the Autism Spectrum Quotient test (AQ) and adults with ASD completed language repetition tasks in which psychoacoustic parameters of the speech stimuli were manipulated. It was hypothesised that as speech rate increased or prosody deviated from the norm, individuals with ASD would exhibit greater difficulties in accurately reproducing sentences. Results will be interpreted in the context of a complexity account of auditory processing in ASD. Furthermore, correlational evidence will be examined and discussed with respect to the continuum approach to ASD.
Keywords: autism, language, auditory processing
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Research Publications by Jen Mayer
Teaching Practice Publications by Jen Mayer
Conference Presentations by Jen Mayer
This presentation will provide insight into difficulties with emotion recognition and understanding of emotions in ASD and how these might be related to semantic processing/categorisation of emotion words. We will outline specifically how performance on standard emotion perception tasks might map on to atypical categorisation and understanding of emotion words in ASD.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Auditory Processing
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Auditory Processing
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Auditory Processing
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Pitch Discrimination
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Pitch Discrimination
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Pitch Discrimination
Keywords: autism, language, auditory processing
This presentation will provide insight into difficulties with emotion recognition and understanding of emotions in ASD and how these might be related to semantic processing/categorisation of emotion words. We will outline specifically how performance on standard emotion perception tasks might map on to atypical categorisation and understanding of emotion words in ASD.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Auditory Processing
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Auditory Processing
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Auditory Processing
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Pitch Discrimination
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Pitch Discrimination
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Speech Perception, Pitch Discrimination
Keywords: autism, language, auditory processing