ARTICLE SUMMARY

The article of Lawson et. al. (2015) studied adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

and their adaptation to loudness, a process regulating the incoming sensory input. The study

showcased an experiment which tested Simple Loudness Adaptation (SLA) in twenty adults, 12

of those who are male and are diagnosed with ASD, and twenty neurotypical controls, 10 of

those who are male, matched for age and IQ. ASD is a neurodevelopmental condition which is

signified by social-communicative difficulties and repetitive behavior (Lawson et.al, 2015).

According to Canevet (1985), Simple Loudness Adaptation can be defined as loudness decrease

which takes place during prolonged continuous sound presentation.

Loudness adaptation was studied through applying “successive magnitude estimation, a

process deemed to be effective (Crane et. al., 2009). A fixed number of ‘100’ was set as the

initial volume for all participants. After making sure that the participants could hear the tone,

they were informed that such volume might change over time. The participants rated the

loudness of the tone at fixed intervals relative to the initial loudness and wrote the responses

down on a response sheet. Relative to the initial volume, a rating of ’50’ should be given when

the volume decreased in half, a rating of ‘150’ if it increased in half, ‘100’ if there was no

change, and ‘0’ when they could no longer hear the tone.

Through the analysis, it was found out that the ASD group adapted significantly less than

the control group on average across both tasks. An analysis of adaptation rate found out that on

average, the rate of adaptation was slower for the ASD group than the control group. To

summarize, the study’s primary effect was a significant SLA reduction in ASD patients

compared to the control group. However, the level of ILA, contrary to SLA, did not show any

difference between ASD patients and control patients.

 ANALYSIS

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a major pervasive developmental disorder which affects as

many as one in every 150 children in the United States alone, making it an important topic of

research. Many of these ASD patients suffer strange experiences or sensitivities in at least one

sensory modality (Myles et. al., 2000). Sound sensitivity has often been reported by those with

ASD diagnoses (Kellerman et. al., 2005). The article by Lawson (2015) focused on a very

specific aspect of patients suffering from ASD which is sound sensitivity and adaptation,

presenting very promising results. However, a very limited sample size of twenty patients could

arise as a threat to the study’s validity.

In addition, it would be difficult to provide conclusions regarding gender differences due

to the limited number of male and female subsamples being utilized in the study. Because of that,

including age and sex as covariates in the ANOVA measure does not necessarily provide a

meaningful result, given such small number of subjects thus, a supporting study with a larger

sample size would be recommended. Five of the patients studied were also not tested on the

Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale (ADOS-G) as opposed to other patients, thus their ASD

diagnosis was not re-confirmed and such participants were still included in the study. Although

these patients have previously been diagnosed by independent physicians, another test should

have been administered on all subjects in order to be sure if those patients would pass the study’s

inclusion criteria. Such discrepancy could potentially compromise the study’s outcome.

The study used the “successive magnitude estimation” method, which actually has

substantial literature to attest to its validity. A number of experiments have been found to

produce comparable data to those obtained via magnitude estimation (Keller, 2000). However,

this method has actually been cited by studies to lead to substantial biases which could
potentially affect the validity of the study. This method seemingly bypasses a bias of self-reports,

due to its subjective nature (Restuccia, 2015). The study used ANOVA for its statistical analysis.

Although this method is theoretically acceptable even in minimal sample sizes, its feasibility is

questionable. Using a non-parametric test would be preferable given the small size of the sample

(Mayo Clinic, 2016).

The results show that both the magnitude and rate of loudness adaptation were lower in

the group of ASD patients as compared to the control group. Through matching sensory

symptoms, it has been found out that the patients with a significantly higher rates of coping

strategy proved to have faster SLA adaptation as opposed to those with a lower coping level.

However, due to the very limited sample size in both the “high coping level” and “low coping

level” groups, the results gathered from the statistical analysis must not be viewed as conclusive

and should be treated with caution. A higher number of participants would provide a more

conclusive evidence on the study at hand. It should also be noted that the stimulus presentation

only utilized the right ear and not the left ear. There could be possible differences in function in

autistic patients, it would be recommendable to record the loudness and auditory stimuli in both

ears (Canevet et. al, 1985).

The authors tend to use complex language in their discussion. This alienates the general

population from fully comprehending the complexities presented in the study. Fully

understanding medical concepts could be facilitated through using simpler language and could

contribute drastically to the general population being more aware about their health and be more

empathetic to those who suffer from medical disorders. The organization and format of the paper

is also rather peculiar. It presents the results of the study first, before presenting the methodology

and procedures. This might confuse the reader as to the cohesiveness and the flow of the thought
of the entire study. It would be more structurally correct to present its methodology first, before

presenting the results and discussion. The proponents of the study also use strong words to

address certain disorders, such as “abnormality.” This is antithetical to the 21 st century practice

of using less derogatory terms to address persons with disabilities; rather, it could be referred to

as a “particularity” of some sort. The study presents very promising results that could contribute

to the field of behavioral psychology although it needs to tweak some parts of its methodology

that could undermine its validity.

REFERENCES

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Audiology, 24(6), 430-436.
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Reynolds, Catherine E. Rice, Diana Schendel, & Gayle C. Windham. (2007). “The
Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders.”
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Kellerman, G., J. Fan, and J.M. Gorman. (2005). “Auditory abnormalities in autism: toward
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http://www.mayo.edu/mayo-edu-docs/center-for-translational-science-activities-
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