Recognition of Face and Non-Face Stimuli in Autistic Spectrum Disorder Leo Arkush, Adam P. R. Smith-Collins, Chiara Fiorentini, and David H. Skuse The ability to remember faces is critical for the development of social competence. From childhood to adulthood, we acquire a high level of expertise in the recognition of facial images, and neural processes become dedicated to sustaining competence. Many people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have poor face recognition memory; changes in hairstyle or other non-facial features in an otherwise familiar person affect their recollection skills. The observation implies that they may not use the configuration of the inner face to achieve memory competence, but bolster performance in other ways. We aimed to test this hypothesis by comparing the performance of a group of high-functioning unmedicated adolescents with ASD and a matched control group on a “surprise” face recognition memory task. We compared their memory for unfamiliar faces with their memory for images of houses. To evaluate the role that is played by peripheral cues in assisting recognition memory, we cropped both sets of pictures, retaining only the most salient central features. ASD adolescents had poorer recognition memory for faces than typical controls, but their recognition memory for houses was unimpaired. Cropping images of faces did not disproportionately influence their recall accuracy, relative to controls. House recognition skills (cropped and uncropped) were similar in both groups. In the ASD group only, performance on both sets of task was closely correlated, implying that memory for faces and other complex pictorial stimuli is achieved by domain-general (non-dedicated) cognitive mechanisms. Adolescents with ASD apparently do not use domain- specialized processing of inner facial cues to support face recognition memory. Autism Res 2013, 6: 550–560. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Keywords: autism; ASD; face expertise; face recognition memory; Warrington Recognition Memory Test Introduction The ability to recognize faces of conspecifics is a vital element of social cognitive development in both humans [Happe, 2004] and in other animals [Kendrick, da Costa, Leigh, Hinton, & Peirce, 2001]. The capacity to assign an identity to another individual enables us to make infer- ences about their personal characteristics, to recall previ- ous encounters, and to guide behavior. By adulthood, humans have usually developed expertise in recognizing the faces of those they have known in the past, regardless of signs of aging or other changes that have occurred since their previous encounter, and expertise is attributed to the development of configural processing skills [Maurer, Le Grand, & Mondloch, 2002]. While evidence is not yet conclusive as to whether individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) process faces in a qualitatively different way [Weigelt, Koldewyn, & Kanwisher, 2012], previous research has shown that they often respond to the faces of others in ways that are atypical. They may fail to make reciprocal eye contact [e.g. Osterling, Dawson, & Munson, 2002; Rutter & Schopler, 1987], show abnormal gaze behavior [e.g. Pelphrey et al., 2002], experience abnormal arousal responses to eye gaze [Hirstein, Iversen, & Ramachan- dran, 2001; Kylliäinen & Hietanen, 2006], and have poor ability to recognize and match facial emotions [e.g. Braverman, Fein, Lucci, & Waterhouse, 1989]. They also often have impaired face recognition memory [findings reviewed by Weigelt et al., 2012]. Facial Recognition Memory Deficits in ASD Difficulties in the domain of face recognition have been reported in association with ASD for many years, and some studies have questioned whether this poor perfor- mance is peculiar to faces or whether it generalizes to other complex pictorial stimuli too [Wallace, Coleman, & From the Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK (L.A., A.P.R.S.-C.); Department of Neonatal Neuroscience, School of Clinical Sciences, St Michael’s Hospital, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK (A.P.R.S.-C.); Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland (C.F.); Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK (D.H.S.) Received August 24, 2012; accepted for publication June 14, 2013 Address for correspondence and reprints: David H. Skuse, Institute of Child Health, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK. E-mail: dskuse@ich.ucl.ac.uk Grant sponsors: INCORE, grant number: 043318; GEBACO, grant number: 028696; C.F. was supported by a Swiss National Science Foundation (FNS) Fellowship for young researchers during the period of this research. Conflict of interest: None. Published online 25 July 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/aur.1318 © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. INSAR 550 Autism Research 6: 550–560, 2013 RESEARCH ARTICLE