An investigation of global-local processing bias in a large sample of typical individuals varying in autism traits

Although individuals with an autism spectrum disorder display impaired function across several social and behavioral domains, they possess intact, and often superior visual processing abilities for local relative to global aspects of their visual environment. To address whether differences in visual processing similarly vary within typical individuals as a function of their level of social competence, using the Navon hierarchical figures task, here we examined the relationship between global-local visual processing style and the number of autism-like traits in a large sample of 434 typically developed persons. In line with the existing literature, our data indicated an overall global processing bias. However, this overall visual processing style did not vary with participants' number of autism-like traits. These results suggest that the visual processing of Navon figures may be different in typical individuals vs. those with an autism spectrum disorder, with those differences potentially reflecting specific stimulus and task settings.