Amy Overman, associate professor of psychology, presented collaborative research on the brain and cognition at the Psychonomic Society Annual Scientific Meeting. The presentation was titled, “Do ‘autistic’ traits predict audiovisual integration in speech perception?” It has recently been claimed that among non-autistic individuals who have autistic traits, there is a reduced influence of lexical information on perception of speech sounds. However, the influence of visual information on perception of speech sounds has not yet been investigated. The present study examined data from over 200 students at Elon & North Carolina A&T State University and found no evidence that autistic traits are related to reduced visual influences on speech perception. The study was co-authored with Joseph D.W. Stephens, Ph.D. & Julian Scrivens of North Carolina A&T State University.
The Psychonomic Society “promotes the communication of scientific research in psychology and allied sciences. Its members are qualified to conduct and supervise scientific research, must hold the PhD degree or equivalent, and must have published significant research other than the doctoral dissertation. Society membership, including associate members, is now around 2,050. The main function of the Society is to exchange information among scientists. To this end, it publishes six journals and annually hosts an international scientific meeting.” (http://www.psychonomic.org)