ArticleMolecular autism2025
Different exploration strategies along the autism spectrum: diverging effects of autism diagnosis and autism traits.
Article in Molecular autism, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- A web-based spot-the-difference paradigm for studying social information processing in naturalistic visual scenes.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- Reported health-condition history profiles among adults with documented or self-reported autism seeking autism-affirming telehealth care: an exploratory latent class analysis.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Sex differences in exploration-exploitation strategies during home-cage decision making.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Autism-associated learning patterns show reduced credit assignment to outcome-irrelevant features.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Balancing Cognitive Flexibility and Stability: The Role of Reward, Autism, and Transdiagnostic Traits.Journal of cognition · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWhen faced with many options to choose from, humans typically need to explore the utility of new choice options. People with an autism diagnosis or elevated autism traits are thought to avoid exploring such unknown options, but it remains unclear how autism affects exploration in decision spaces with many options.
methodsIn a large online sample (N = 588), we investigated the impact of autism diagnosis or elevated autism traits on exploration behavior during value-based decision-making in vast decision spaces. We used a 121-armed bandit with spatially correlated choice options, and a dedicated computational model to disentangle generalization, uncertainty-guided exploration, and random exploration strategies.
resultsOur findings show that participants with a self-reported autism diagnosis were less likely to explore novel choice options and more likely to exploit known high-value options. Computational modeling suggests they engaged in less uncertainty-driven exploration but exhibited equal random exploration and generalization strategies. Interestingly, among non-diagnosed participants, people with elevated autism traits did not explore less. LIMITATIONS: This study relies on self-reported autism diagnoses and trait measures collected online. This may limit the generalizability of the findings to clinically verified or more diverse autism populations.
conclusionsOur findings highlight important differences in exploration strategies between clinical and subclinical populations and emphasize the importance of cognitive modeling and using vast decision spaces to better understand autism.
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