Table II.
A listing of: (1) studies included in the meta‐analysis, (2) tasks, (3) stimuli, (4) observed performance, (5) task contrasts, (6) processing domain, and (7) number of maxima for the autistic (AUT) and non‐autistic (nAUT) groups
| Reference | Task | Stimuli | Performance | Contrast | Domain | nAUT | AUT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bird et al.,2006 | Look at a fixation cross in the center of each face or house picture | Photographs of houses and faces | No task | Faces vs. Houses | Faces | 5 | 5 |
| Houses vs. Faces | Objects | 7 | 7 | ||||
| Indicate if two faces or two houses were the same or different (four pictures presented at same time, with attention directed to the houses or faces) | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Attended faces vs. Unattended faces | Faces | 3 | 2 | ||
| Attended houses vs. Unattended houses | Objects | 2 | 0 | ||||
| Bookheimer et al.,2008 | Select one of two choices to match a target face/target shape | Oval forms and pictures of faces (upright or inverted) | Less accurate responses in autistics for upright faces but no between‐group differences in RT | Matching upright face to target vs. Form matching | Faces | 10 | 6 |
| Matching inverted face to target vs. Form matching | Faces | 9 | 8 | ||||
| Dapretto et al.,2006 | Observe or imitate faces | Pictures of emotional faces | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Imitation of emotional faces vs. Fixation | Faces | 36 | 16 |
| Observation of emotional faces vs. Fixation | Faces | 14 | 10 | ||||
| Ditcher and Belger, 2007 | Reaction time flanker task: Indicate by button press whether a central stimulus (flanked by same or different direction stimuli) point to the left of to the right | Arrow flanked by arrows | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Incongruent arrow vs. Congruent arrow | Objects | 8 | 10 |
| Gaze pictures flanked by gaze pictures | Incongruent gaze vs. Congruent gaze | Faces | 8 | 2 | |||
| Gaffrey et al.,2007 | Semantic: Indicate category (Tool, Color, Feeling) membership of words; Perceptual: Indicate if a target letter is present in an consonant string | Words or letters | No between‐group differences in RT, but the control group was more accurate for Colors and Feeling categories | Semantic vs. perceptual | Words | 14 | 13 |
| Greimel et al., 2010 | Empathize with the person whose face is presented and infer the emotional state (Other) or judge their own response (Self); Baseline: Judge the width of neutral faces | Happy, sad, neutral faces | No between‐group differences in RT, but autistics made more errors when judging emotional state from weak expressions. | Other vs. Face width judgment | Faces | 19 | 23 |
| Self vs. Face width judgment | Faces | 19 | 14 | ||||
| Harris et al.,2006 | Indicate if a word is positive/negative (semantic)or in upper/lower case (perceptual) | Words | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Concrete vs. Abstract | Words | 8 | 4 |
| Semantic vs. Perceptual | Words | 7 | 3 | ||||
| Hubl et al.,2003 | Button press to happy face or face of a woman (for the real faces blocks); No task for the scrambled faces blocks | Emotional and scrambled face pictures | No between‐group differences in ACC, however RT were longer in autistics | Real vs. Scrambled | Faces | 12 | 12 |
| Just et al.,2004 | Read a passive or active sentence and respond to a probe | Sentences and probe | No between‐group differences in ACC, but autistics responded faster than controls | Sentence comprehension vs. Fixation | Words | 8 | 10 |
| Just et al.,2007 | Tower of London task : rearrange the position of 3 balls until they match a goal configuration | Initial and goal configuration | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Tower of London (number of steps to goal) vs. Fixation | Objects | 13 | 19 |
| Kana et al.,2009 | Theory of mind: attributing mental state to the movement of geometrical figures | Geometrical figures | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Theory of Mind vs. Random animations | Objects | 12 | 5 |
| Kennedy et al.,2006 | Count the number of presented words (emotional, neutral or number words) and select response (3, 4, 5 words). | Words | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Count number of words vs. Fixation | Objects | 8 | 8 |
| Count emotional vs. neutral words | Objects | 3 | 0 | ||||
| Kennedy et al., 2008 | Statement: Make true/false judgments for statements about themselves (self) or a close other person (other) describing psychological personality traits (internal) or observable characteristics (external); Equation: Indicate if a math equation was true or false | Statements or math equations | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | All statements vs. Equation | Words | 11 | 8 |
| Internal vs.External | Words | 4 | 0 | ||||
| External vs. Internal | Words | 7 | 12 | ||||
| Other vs. Self | Words | 6 | 4 | ||||
| Kleinhans et al., 2008a | Verbal fluency: Generate as many words as possible beginning with a given letter or items in given category | Letters or categories | Autistics generated less words than control group for both conditions, but no between group differences in number of errors (word repetition, non‐target item, neologism) | Generate words starting with a given letter vs. repeat “nothing” | Words | 1 | 1 |
| Generate words in a given category vs. repeat “nothing” | Words | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Generate words in a category vs. starting with a given letter | Words | 5 | 0 | ||||
| Kleinhans et al., 2008b | Press a button whenever identical stimuli appear in succession (1‐back) | Pictures of neutral faces and houses | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Faces vs. Houses | Faces | 1 | 3 |
| Houses vs. Faces | Objects | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Knaus et al.,2008 | Reading: select a word that best match a three‐word phrase description; Letter judgment: Indicate whether letter strings were in upper or lower case | Sentences or letter strings | Autistics have better and faster responses than controls. | Reading and responding vs. Letter judgment | Words | 7 | 8 |
| Koshino et al., 2007 | Face recognition (0‐back, 1‐back, 2‐back): Identify a remembered target face | Grayscale pictures of faces | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Face recognition vs. Fixation | Faces | 15 | 9 |
| Lee et al.,2007 | Embedded Figure Task: Select one of two probe figure that contained the target shape; Matching Task: Select one of two probe figure that is identical to the target shape | Pairs of complex figures and target shapes | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Embedded Figure Task vs. Matching Task | Objects | 11 | 3 |
| Manjaly et al.,2007 | Embedded Figure Task: Decide if a target figure matched a subpart of a complex figure; Matching Task: Indicate if a highlighted part of a complex figure matched a target shape | Complex and target figure | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Embedded Figure Task vs. Matching task | Objects | 2 | 4 |
| Mason et al.,2008 | Read three‐sentence stories and respond to a simple yes/no comprehension question based on a physical (direct consequence), intentional (character's goal) or emotional (character's emotion) inference | Sentence and question | N/A | Intentional inference vs. Fixation | Words | 12 | 20 |
| Emotional inference vs. Fixation | Words | 15 | 17 | ||||
| Physical inference vs. Fixation | Words | 17 | 26 | 26 | |||
| Schmitz et al.,2006 | Motor response inhibited or executed depending on GO /no Go signal | Arrow pointing left or right | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Go vs. No Go | Objects | 11 | 6 |
| Stoop: Press a button if an arrow indicating left (or right) is displayed on left (or right) | Arrow on left or right side | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Correct stroop inhibition vs. Congruent | Objects | 5 | 9 | |
| Shift attention and switch response to new association patterns | Red dot and four squares | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Switch vs. Repeat set trials | Objects | 9 | 9 | |
| Schmitz et al.,2008 | Press a button to two target letters, one of which was linked to monetary reward | Letter | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Successful reward vs. Successful unrewarded | Objects | 5 | 4 |
| Silani et al.,2008 | Rate (visual analogue scale) the emotional value or the ratio of black/white pixels in pleasant, unpleasant or neutral pictures | Affective pictures | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Emotion vs. Color rating | * | 24 | 8 |
| Unpleasant vs. Neutral | * | 3 | 13 | ||||
| Solomon et al.,2009 | Preparing to overcome prepotency (POP) task (response inhibition): Press key on same or different side as target | Squares and arrows | No differences in RT, but autistics made more errors on trials requiring response inhibition | Inhibition vs. No Inhibition | Objects | 16 | 4 |
| Soulières et al.,2009 | Pattern matching: Select one of 8 response that best match a pattern; Raven's standard progressive matrices (RSPM): Select one of 8 response to matrices from which the final entry is missing | Target pattern or RSPM plus 8 response choices | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Pattern matching vs. Fixation | Objects | 33 | 23 |
| Raven vs. Fixation | Objects | 30 | 18 | ||||
| Uddin et al., 2008 | Press a button if the face presented looks like self and another button if it looks like another or scrambled face | Pictures of participant and another person | No between‐group differences in RT or ACC | Own face vs. Fixation | Faces | 12 | 18 |
| Other face vs. Fixation | Faces | 12 | 6 |