MATCHING VISUAL STIMULI: DOES SIMILARITY MATTER?

Abstract

Three young men with autism spectrum disorder participated in this study investigating whether the form of visual stimuli affects the acquisition of object-to-picture matching. In Experiment 1, object-to-picture matching was assessed with photos and line drawings. In Experiment 2, relations were taught between the objects and arbitrary stimuli, and then probes were conducted for the emergence of untrained relations between the arbitrary stimuli and the photos and line drawings. A multiple-probe design was used to compare performances based on photos vs. line drawings. For two participants, there was no difference in trials to mastery between photos and
line drawings. For the third participant, mastery criteria were more readily achieved with photos than line drawings in eight of eleven comparisons; no differences were observed within the remaining three comparisons. Equivalence relations emerged between arbitrary symbols and both photos and line drawings for the first two participants, but object-to-arbitrary symbol relations were not demonstrated by the third participant, even after direct training. The use of stimuli with greater visual similarity to the target object may yield higher accuracy with object-to-picture relations for some individuals with autism