J. Child PsycM. Psychiat. Vol. 33, No. 5, pp. 843-859, 1992 0021-9630/92 $5.00+0.

00
Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Presi Ltd
© 1992 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Unfamiliar Face Recognition in Relatively

Able Autistic Children
Jill Boucher* and Vicky Lewis^

Abstract—Two experiments were carried out assessing autistic children's recognition,

discrimination, and fixation of unfamiliar faces and unfamiliar buildings. The experiments
showed that (i) unfamiliar face recognition is impaired relative to normal peers, ron-verbal
ability matched and verbal ability matched controls. Relative to verbal abUit) matched
controls (ii) recognition of buildings is normal; (iii) there is an enhanced discrepancy between
face discrimination and buildings discrimination, in favour of buildings; and (i ) fixation
is normal. Analysis of the results suggests that impaired face recognition does not result
from impaired attention or discrimination

Keywords: Autism, recognition, faces, ibuUdings

Experiment 1: An Assessment of Unfamiliar Face Recognition in Auti|stic Children

and Non-Verbal Ability Matched Controls
Introduction
Study of the social difficulties of autistic people has led to an interest in their face
processing abilities. Face perception discrimination and recognition are hfghly complex
processes, and there are various theories as to how these processes may be organized
in normal people (see Bruce, 1988, for a review). The normal acquisition of face
processing skills is also complex, different face processing skills beinj acquired at
different rates. For example, recognition of a small number of highly i"amiliar faces
occurs remarkably early in normal babies, whereas the ability to recognize large
numbers of less familiar faces develops much later (Carey, 1981; Ellis, Shepherd &
Davies, 1979).
Existing evidence from laboratory experiments suggests that face processing by
autistic subjects is relatively normal in some respects, but abnormal ip. others. For
example, Volkmar, Sparrow, Rende and Cohen (1989) report that autistic children's

Accepted manuscript received 15 May 1991

•Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K.
^Department of Psychology, Warwick University, Warwick, U.K.
Requests for reprints to: Dr Jill Boucher, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield,
SIO 2TN, U.K.

843
 Unfamiliar face recognition in autistic children 859

We would also like to thank the following people from the Department of Psychology at Warwick
University: Dr Glyn Collis for his advice on statisticjil analysis; Dave Allison for preparing the photographs
used in Experiment 2; Jim Brookbank for building the apparatus used in Experiment 2.

References

Bishop, D. V. M. (1989). Test for reception of grammar. D. Bishop: Department of Psychology, University
of Manchester.
Boucher, J. & Lewis, V. (1989). Memory impairments and communication in relatively able autistic
children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 99-122.
Boucher, J. & Warrington, E. K. (1976). Memory deficits in early infantile autism: Some similarities
to the amnesic syndrome. British Journal of Psychology, 67, 73-87.
Braverman, M., Fein, D., Lucci, D. & Waterhouse, L. (1989). Affect comprehension!in children with
pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 19, 301-316.
Bruce, V. (1988). Remembering faces. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Carey, S. (1981). The development of face perception. In G. Davies, H. Ellis & J. Shepherd (Eds),
Perceiving and remembering faces (pp. 12-17, 24). London: Academic Press.
Ellis, H. D., Shepherd, J. W. & Davies, G. M. (1979). Identification of familiar and junfamiliar faces
from internal and external features: some implications for theories of face recogriition. Perception,
8, 431-439.
Fein, D., Pennington, B. F., Markowitz, P., Braverman, M. & Waterhouse, L. (1^86). Towards a
neuropsychological model of infantile autism: are the social deficits primary? Jourkal of the American
Academy of Child Psychiatry, 25, 198-212.
Frith, U. (1989). Autism: explaining the enigma. Oxford: Blackwell.
Frith, U. & Baron-Cohen, S. (1987). Perception in autistic children. In D. J. Cohen & A- M. Donnellan
(Eds), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (p. 94). New York: IWiley.
Fotheringham, J. B. (1987). Facial recognition cells and autism. Science, 238, 1496.
Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1967). The selective visual attention of psychotic ci^ldren. Journal of
Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 167-179.
Hobson, R. P. (1986). The autistic child's appraisal of expressions oi emotion. Journal of Child Psychology
and Psychiatry, 27, 321-342.
Hobson, R. P. (1990). On acquiring knowledge about people, and the capacity to pretend: a response
to Leslie (1987). Psychological Review, 97, 114-121.
Langdell, T. (1978). Recognition of faces: an approach to the study oi autism. Journal of Child Psychology
and Psychiatry, 19, 255-268.
Miyashita, M. (1988). Discrimination of facial components in autistic children. Japanese Journal of
Psychology, 59, 206-212.
Ozonoff, S., Pennington, B. F. & Rogers, S. J. (1990). Are there emotion perception deficits in young
autistic children? youma/ of Child Psychology and Psychiatty, 3 1 , 343-362.
Raven, J. (1963). The coloured progressive matrices. London: H. K. Lewis.
Richer, J. (1976). The social avoidance behaviour of autistic children. Animal BehaviO,ur, 24, 898-906.
Rutter, M. (1978). Diagnosis and definition of childhood autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry,
24, 513-531.
Spiker, D. & Ricks, M. (1984). Visual self-recognition in autistic children's developmental relationships.
Child Development, 55, 214-225.
Tantam, D., Monaghan, L., Nicholson, H. & Stirling, J. (1989). Autistic children's ability to interpret
faces: a research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 623-630.
Timbergen, E. A. & Tinbergen, N. (1972). Infantile autism: an ethological approach. Advances in Ethology,
10, 1-53.
Volkmar, F. R., Sparrow, S. S., Rende, R. D. & Cohen, D. J. (1989). Facial percteption in autism.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 591-598.
Weeks, S. J. & Hobson, R. P. (1987). The salience of facial expression for autistic children. Journal
of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 28, 137-152.