Undergraduate Honors Theses

Date of Award

Winter 4-15-2022

Program

Psychology

Supervisor

John Paul Minda

Abstract

Categorization is a fundamental organizational challenge that all organisms must face. However, in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), rudimentary perceptual processes and motor control functions are often impaired, which has led researchers to propose that these deficits are the result of improper category learning mechanisms. Therefore, deficits in category learning may also be impaired in individuals with milder expressions of the traits characteristic of autism, which has been termed the Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP). The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between the BAP and category learning. The category learning abilities of two hundred and seventy undergraduates (218 females, 48 males, 4 gender non-conforming) were tested in a rule-based (RB) and information-integration (II) category learning paradigm. Findings provided some support for the overall hypothesis that the BAP and working memory capacity (WMC) would predict performance on the category learning tasks, though only the model for the RB task was significant, F(2, 267) = 3.60, p = .03. However, autism traits and WMC predicted little variance in categorization performance. Additionally, autism traits were not a significant contributor to either model. Results from a between groups comparison demonstrated no significant differences in categorization performance on either task. Overall, the hypotheses for this study were not supported, and it is not possible to conclude that there is a relationship between autism traits and category learning. Future research should explore the BAP in the relatives of individuals with autism and should seek to analyze which stimulus features participants are using to categorize to further assess perceptual differences in neurotypical individuals and those with ASD.

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