Visual input to identify objects is processed by humans via two broad categories: global assessment, or attention to overall shape despite local feature differences, and Gestalt groupings, or attention to the inter- element relationships to determine boundaries of objects. Recent research has revealed that autistic individuals fail to show the typical global precedence effect and they do not consistently apply Gestalt principles of grouping. In terms of perceptual/attentional processing, autistic individuals lack hierarchical processing from higher-level units to lower, and from holistic processing to components processing. The research proposed here will determine whether NW monkeys may serve as a viable animal model for the attentional deficits commonly found in autism. Three sets of experiments use a response choice procedure to test monkeys' tendencies to process local and global features of objects, to process numbers of objects by groupings implied by proximity and similarity, and to process Gestalt principles to determine the odd item in a set. Establishing an animal model of autism would allow for more accelerated means to test training techniques, neural integration models and biological explanations of autism. Published work suggests that NW monkeys are better candidates than other primates in that they show many of the same attentional deficits. Systematic work must be conducted to establish NW monkeys as a model, and to test training techniques for circumventing attentional failures. The research will also contribute to our understanding of how perceptual processing evolved in primates, and how it may differ among monkeys, apes, and humans. ? ? ?
| Neiworth, Julie J; Whillock, Katherine M; Kim, Seo Hyun et al. (2014) Gestalt principle use in college students, children with autism, toddlers (Homo sapiens), and cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). J Comp Psychol 128:188-98 |
| Neiworth, Julie J; Gleichman, Amy J; Olinick, Anne S et al. (2006) Global and local processing in adult humans (Homo sapiens), 5-year-old children (Homo sapiens), and adult cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). J Comp Psychol 120:323-30 |
