Gehdu, Bayparvah Kaur (2025) Face processing in Autistic individuals. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
Face processing abilities vary significantly among autistic individuals, impacting their ability to recognise facial identities and interpret expressions accurately. These processes are essential for navigating our social environments and living independently. Difficulties in these areas can lead to social anxiety and undermine quality of life. This thesis explores the considerable variability in face processing abilities among autistic individuals. Chapter 1 outlines the theoretical explanations for these difficulties alongside the current literature that motivates subsequent empirical experiments. Chapter 2 outlines the online research processes employed, the measures administered and addresses concerns regarding gender representation in autistic samples. To investigate whether difficulties in facial identity recognition stem from deficits in face learning or perceptual encoding, two experiments in Chapter 3 assessed whether autistic individuals derive less benefit from facial variability when learning new identities as measured by their accuracy in grouping ambient images by facial identity. Next, to examine whether autistic individuals have insight into their face recognition abilities and if they can provide meaningful responses to self-report measures, the relationship between PI20 scores and CFMT performance was assessed in Chapter 4. Here, factors such as autism severity, non-verbal intelligence, alexithymia and ADHD were also considered as potential predictors of face recognition performance. Chapter 5 investigated the influence of alexithymia on facial expression recognition by comparing autistic participants (with and without high levels of alexithymia) to non-autistic participants in their ability to categorise facial expressions under eyes-only and whole face conditions. Finally, Chapter 6 explored the impact of face recognition difficulties on social anxiety and loneliness in autistic individuals, independently of alexithymia and ADHD, through standardised self-report measures and a short bespoke qualitative survey. Chapter 7 summarised these empirical findings, discussing implications for understanding the variability of face processing problems in the autistic population along with potential limitations and future research directions.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Jul 2025 10:11 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Sep 2025 03:39 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/55900 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00055900 |
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