Cargando…

Prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: No evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits

Interpreting the world around us requires integrating incoming sensory signals with prior information. Autistic individuals have been proposed to rely less on prior information and make more cautious responses than non-autistic individuals. Here, we investigated whether these purported features of a...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Retzler, Chris, Boehm, Udo, Cai, Jing, Cochrane, Aimee, Manning, Catherine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450985/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33998332
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17470218211019939
_version_ 1784569755932295168
author Retzler, Chris
Boehm, Udo
Cai, Jing
Cochrane, Aimee
Manning, Catherine
author_facet Retzler, Chris
Boehm, Udo
Cai, Jing
Cochrane, Aimee
Manning, Catherine
author_sort Retzler, Chris
collection PubMed
description Interpreting the world around us requires integrating incoming sensory signals with prior information. Autistic individuals have been proposed to rely less on prior information and make more cautious responses than non-autistic individuals. Here, we investigated whether these purported features of autistic perception vary as a function of autistic-like traits in the general population. We used a diffusion model framework, whereby decisions are modelled as noisy evidence accumulation processes towards one of two bounds. Within this framework, prior information can bias the starting point of the evidence accumulation process. Our pre-registered hypotheses were that higher autistic-like traits would relate to reduced starting point bias caused by prior information and increased response caution (wider boundary separation). 222 participants discriminated the direction of coherent motion stimuli as quickly and accurately as possible. Stimuli were preceded with a neutral cue (square) or a directional cue (arrow). 80% of the directional cues validly predicted the upcoming motion direction. We modelled accuracy and response time data using a hierarchical Bayesian model in which starting point varied with cue condition. We found no evidence for our hypotheses, with starting point bias and response caution seemingly unrelated to Adult Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores. Alongside future research applying this paradigm to autistic individuals, our findings will help refine theories regarding the role of prior information and altered decision-making strategies in autistic perception. Our study also has implications for models of bias in perceptual decision-making, as the most plausible model was one that incorporated bias in both decision-making and sensory processing.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8450985
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher SAGE Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-84509852021-09-21 Prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: No evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits Retzler, Chris Boehm, Udo Cai, Jing Cochrane, Aimee Manning, Catherine Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) Original Articles Interpreting the world around us requires integrating incoming sensory signals with prior information. Autistic individuals have been proposed to rely less on prior information and make more cautious responses than non-autistic individuals. Here, we investigated whether these purported features of autistic perception vary as a function of autistic-like traits in the general population. We used a diffusion model framework, whereby decisions are modelled as noisy evidence accumulation processes towards one of two bounds. Within this framework, prior information can bias the starting point of the evidence accumulation process. Our pre-registered hypotheses were that higher autistic-like traits would relate to reduced starting point bias caused by prior information and increased response caution (wider boundary separation). 222 participants discriminated the direction of coherent motion stimuli as quickly and accurately as possible. Stimuli were preceded with a neutral cue (square) or a directional cue (arrow). 80% of the directional cues validly predicted the upcoming motion direction. We modelled accuracy and response time data using a hierarchical Bayesian model in which starting point varied with cue condition. We found no evidence for our hypotheses, with starting point bias and response caution seemingly unrelated to Adult Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores. Alongside future research applying this paradigm to autistic individuals, our findings will help refine theories regarding the role of prior information and altered decision-making strategies in autistic perception. Our study also has implications for models of bias in perceptual decision-making, as the most plausible model was one that incorporated bias in both decision-making and sensory processing. SAGE Publications 2021-05-25 2021-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8450985/ /pubmed/33998332 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17470218211019939 Text en © Experimental Psychology Society 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Articles
Retzler, Chris
Boehm, Udo
Cai, Jing
Cochrane, Aimee
Manning, Catherine
Prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: No evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits
title Prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: No evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits
title_full Prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: No evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits
title_fullStr Prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: No evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits
title_full_unstemmed Prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: No evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits
title_short Prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: No evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits
title_sort prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: no evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450985/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33998332
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17470218211019939
work_keys_str_mv AT retzlerchris priorinformationuseandresponsecautioninperceptualdecisionmakingnoevidenceforarelationshipwithautisticliketraits
AT boehmudo priorinformationuseandresponsecautioninperceptualdecisionmakingnoevidenceforarelationshipwithautisticliketraits
AT caijing priorinformationuseandresponsecautioninperceptualdecisionmakingnoevidenceforarelationshipwithautisticliketraits
AT cochraneaimee priorinformationuseandresponsecautioninperceptualdecisionmakingnoevidenceforarelationshipwithautisticliketraits
AT manningcatherine priorinformationuseandresponsecautioninperceptualdecisionmakingnoevidenceforarelationshipwithautisticliketraits