Purpose: Our study addresses three main questions: (a) Do autistics and neurotypicals produce different patterns of disfluencies, depending on the experimenter's direct versus averted gaze? (b) Are these patterns correlated to gender, skin conductance responses, fixations on the experimenter's face, alexithymia, or social anxiety scores? Lastly,…

Depression is associated with biased interpretations and beliefs that are resistant to change. This kind of cognitive rigidity may depend on two distinct factors--a reduced ability for processing information that conflicts with these interpretations and beliefs and a reduced ability for generating alternative representations. Although depressive…

Background: Proxy quality of life (QoL) evaluation has been reported to be influenced by many factors. The present study was designed to investigate the impact that the presence of severe intellectual disability (ID) may have on proxy attribution of QoL in the instrumental assessment. Methods: The "other person" form (proxy…

Difficulties in emotion perception are commonly observed in autism spectrum disorder. However, it is unclear whether these difficulties can be attributed to a general problem of relating to emotional states, or whether they specifically concern the perception of others' expressions. This study addressed this question in the context of pain, a…

Research on sources of individual difference in parental Infant-Directed Speech (IDS) is limited and there is a particular lack of research on fathers' compared to mothers' speech. This study examined the predictive relations between infant characteristics and variability in paternal lexical diversity (LD) in dyadic free play with two-year-olds (M…

The WHO Quality of Life-Brief questionnaire was used to assess quality of life (QoL) among 52 adults with autism (mean age 49 years) followed-up since childhood. Overall, assessments of QOL were more positive than measures of objective social outcome (jobs, independence, relationships etc.) but correlations between caregiver and self-reports were…

There has been an increasing interest in possible connections between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia in the last decade. Neuropsychological comparison studies have, however, been few. The present study examined similarities and differences in intellectual and executive functioning between adults with Asperger syndrome (AS) and…

College students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at greater risk than peers for impaired educational functioning; however, little is known regarding their longitudinal academic outcomes. This study examined: (a) differences between ADHD and control participants in academic outcomes (i.e., semester GPA, credits attempted,…

Older adults tend to have lower emotion-perception accuracy compared to younger adults. Previous studies have centered on individual characteristics, including cognitive decline and positive attentional preferences, as possible mechanisms underlying these age differences in emotion perception; however, thus far, no perceiver-focused factor has…

College attendance is increasing for students who have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet a dearth of literature exists about their progress in postsecondary education. This study describes a group of college students who have the formal diagnosis of an ASD to uncover factors related to their academic performance. Twenty-three first-year…

This study compared neuropsychological test performance of individuals (n = 18) with an occupational history of pesticide exposure to individuals (n = 35) with no such exposure history. Results showed that a history of pesticide-related occupation exposure led to deficits in only Digit Symbol performance. Additionally, the correlation between…

Children who are iron deficient (ID) or iron-deficient anemic (IDA) have been shown to seek and receive less stimulation from their caregivers, contributing to "functional isolation". Over time, the reduced interactions between child and caregiver are thought to interfere with the acquisition of normative social competencies and…

New editions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence and Memory scales are now available. Yet, given the significant changes in these new releases and the skepticism that has met them, independent evidence on their psychometric properties is much needed but currently lacking. We administered the WAIS-IV and the Older Adult version of the WMS-IV to 145…

The goal of the current project was to examine whether engaging in social activity may moderate or mediate the relation between age and cognitive functioning. A large age range sample of adults performed a variety of cognitive tests and completed a social activities questionnaire. Results did not support the moderator hypothesis, as age…

This study examined objective quality of life (work, academic success, living situation, relationships, support system) and subjective quality of life (Sense of Coherence and Short-Form Health Survey-36) in an adult sample of males (n = 50, mean age: 30 years) with Asperger syndrome diagnosed in childhood and followed prospectively over two…