Introduction: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often find visual search difficult, but these characteristics are not clarified. This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of visual search in individuals with ASD using a cancellation task.
Participants: The participants were the ASD group (10 individuals, age: 27.18 ± 7.57 years), the ASD + attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) group (8 individuals, age: 39.03 ± 11.98 years), and the typically developing (TD) group (38 individuals, age: 28.65 ± 11.16 years).
Experimental procedure: Participants performed a cancellation task. Two different types of tasks with different arrays were used (structured and random array task). We examined the characteristics of visual search from multiple perspectives, using not only traditional indicators such as the number of correct responses, but also the ratio of intersections and best R to assess systematicity.
Results: The ASD+ADHD group tended to have fewer correct responses than the other groups (p < .10 for each). The ASD group had a significantly higher ratio of intersections (p < .05) and a significantly lower best R (p < .05) than the TD group. On the other hand, no significant differences in the ratio of intersections and best R were found between the ASD+ADHD and TD groups.
Conclusions: The results suggest that the characteristics of visual search systematicity in individuals with ASD may differ from those in individuals with TD. Furthermore, the results also suggest that the characteristics of visual search may differ depending on whether the individual has a comorbid condition with ADHD or not.