SynthesisJournal of autism and developmental disorders2014
Visuo-spatial performance in autism: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Motor imagery in autism: a systematic review.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Embedded Figures Test Performance in the Broader Autism Phenotype: A Meta-analysis.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2016Pooled it
- Body dysmorphic symptoms in autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A comorbidity study.The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Visual Exploration and Construction Strategies Underlying Performance in the Block Design Task in Autism.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- Visual Search Performance in Children With ASD: A Combined Case-Control and Longitudinal Study.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- Cognitive and affective empathy, executive functions, and the key role of personal distress: Why do autistic traits predict mental health symptoms in neurotypical adults?Cognitive processing · 2026Article
- Experiences of Trauma and PTSD Symptoms in Autistic Adolescents: Preliminary Findings.Clinical child psychology and psychiatry · 2026Article
- Evaluation of a Visual Cognitive Style in Autism: A Cluster Analysis.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Psychiatric Emergency Visits of Autistic Adults With or Without Documented Borderline Personality Disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
- Pupil size tracks attentional breadth in the Navon task.Perception · 2025Article
- The DCIDE framework: systematic investigation of evolutionary hypotheses, exemplified with autism.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Figure disembedding facility and reduced left visual field bias are linked to the social dimension of autistic traits.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2025Article
- Metacognition and Cognitive Flexibility in Autistic and Neurotypically-Developing Populations.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Task-evoked pupil responses during free-viewing of hierarchical figures in relation to autistic traits in adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Decoding the peripheral transcriptomic and meta-genomic response to music in autism spectrum disorder via saliva-based RNA sequencing.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2025Article
- Intelligence and executive functioning in adolescence: comparing autism spectrum disorder and typical development.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Using the cognitive rigidity-flexibility dimension to deepen our understanding of the autism spectrum.Personality neuroscience · 2025Review
- Co-production of the 'EPIC' multidimensional tool-kit to support neurodivergent children and young people at home and school: a feasibility and pilot study.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2024Article
- Perceptual Grouping in Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Exploratory Magnetoencephalography Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2024Article
- The Impact of Audio-Visual, Visual and Auditory Cues on Multiple Object Tracking Performance in Children with Autism.Perceptual and motor skills · 2023Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Visuo-spatial skills are believed to be enhanced in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This meta-analysis tests the current state of evidence for Figure Disembedding, Block Design, Mental Rotation and Navon tasks in ASD and neurotypicals. Block Design (d = 0.32) and Figure Disembedding (d = 0.26) showed superior performance for ASD with large heterogeneity that is unaccounted for. No clear differences were found for Mental Rotation. ASD samples showed a stronger local processing preference for Navon tasks (d = 0.35); less clear evidence for performance differences of a similar magnitude emerged. We discuss the meta-analysis results together with other findings relating to visuo-spatial processing and three cognitive theories of ASD: Weak Central Coherence, Enhanced Perceptual Functioning and Extreme Male Brain theory.
Indexed as
Identifiers
25022252What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.