Robyn Young

Flinders University · School of Psychology

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) must be present early in development, but may not fully manifest until social demands exceed capacities. In the absence of adequate biological or brain imaging markers to detect and diagnose autism, diagnosis relies on clinical judgment based on observation of symptoms. Many tools have been developed in English-speaki...

Little is currently known about the autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-related difficulties of females narrowly below the ASD diagnostic threshold and whether the disorder conceptualisation should be broadened to capture their presentations. We extracted fine-grained information from the assessment reports of 222 children who were either diagnosed with...

Although the ability of autistic adults to recognize others' emotions has been extensively studied, less attention has been given to how they respond to these emotions. We examined two aspects of autistic and non-autistic adults' responsiveness to the emotional expressions of non-autistic actors: their perspectives on the appropriate way of respond...

The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) is a purported theory of mind measure and one that reliably differentiates autistic and non-autistic individuals. However, concerns have been raised about the validity of the measure, with some researchers suggesting that the multiple-choice format of the RMET makes it susceptible to the undue influence...

Objective Unusual behaviours are commonly perceived to indicate deception and low credibility. However, they may also characterise individuals with certain mental health or developmental conditions, thus making those individuals vulnerable to negative judgements. We examined the effect of four behaviours – gaze aversion, body movements, monologuing...

Lay abstract: Difficulties in reading others' minds make it difficult to anticipate their future behaviour. It has often been argued that such difficulties contribute to autistic individuals becoming enmeshed in criminal activity. However, supportive scientific evidence is virtually non-existent. We compared the ability of groups of autistic and n...

Growing evidence suggests that autistic females are more likely to be diagnostically overlooked than males, perhaps due to differences in ASD presentations (van Wijngaarden-Cremers in JAMA 44:627-635, 2014). To investigate specific behaviours in which differences lie, we analysed profiles of 777 children using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Sch...

Emotion recognition difficulties are considered to contribute to social‐communicative problems for autistic individuals and awareness of such difficulties may be critical for the identification and pursuit of strategies that will mitigate their adverse effects. We examined metacognitive awareness of face emotion recognition responses in autistic (...

Certain populations are more vulnerable to the cycle of homelessness. We conducted a systematic review to identify studies on autistic individuals within the homeless community, who are a “hard-to-reach” sub-population. Eight Internet-based databases were used, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelin...

Autistic adults often experience difficulties in taking the perspective of others, potentially undermining their social interactions. We evaluated a quick, forced-choice version of the Adult Theory of Mind (A-ToM) test, which was designed to assess such difficulties and comprehensively evaluated by Brewer et al. (2017). The forced-choice version (t...

Behaviors such as gaze aversion and repetitive movements are commonly believed to be signs of deception and low credibility; however, they may also be characteristic of individuals with developmental or mental health conditions. We examined the effect of five behaviors that are common among autistic individuals—gaze aversion, repetitive movements,...

Objectives We examined problematic eating behaviors among a sample of young autistic adults to better understand the purported relationship between autism and eating disorders. We hypothesized that autistic participants would score higher on measures of problematic eating behavior compared to a non-autistic comparison group, but that autistic parti...

Emotion recognition difficulties are considered to contribute to social‐communicative problems for autistic individuals. Prior research has been dominated by a focus on forced‐choice recognition response accuracy for static face presentations of basic emotions, often involving small samples. Using free‐report and multiple‐choice response formats, w...

This study provided preliminary validation of the Autism Detection in Early Childhood-Virtual (ADEC-V) for telehealth assessment of possible autism. Participants were 121 children (24.79% female) aged 18–47 months who completed telehealth evaluations at a large pediatric hospital in the Midwestern United States between October 2020 and February 202...

We hypothesized that autistic adults may be erroneously judged as deceptive or lacking credibility due to demonstrating unexpected and atypical behaviors. Thirty autistic and 29 neurotypical individuals participated in video-recorded interviews, and we measured their demonstration of gaze aversion, repetitive body movements, literal interpretation...

2021 Australasian Society for Autism Research (ASfAR) State-based Conference: Abstracts and transcripts

Evaluations of early screening tests for autism commonly rely on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and comparisons of area under the curve (AUC). Whether AUC differs significantly from chance or between test items is not always assessed. Two recent and independent evaluations of the Brief Autism Detection in Early Childhood (BADEC) c...

Despite the importance of clinical judgement in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) assessment, little is currently known about challenges faced by diagnosticians when the client is female, any sex/gender biases during the assessment process, and how these issues affect diagnostic outcomes. Forty-seven ASD diagnosticians completed a questionnaire contai...

Verbal intelligence—which relates to memory performance, abstract reasoning, and g—is often important to account for within psychological research. However, the time demands and financial costs associated with researcher-administered testing using valid measures of intelligence limit researchers’ ability to include such measures within their resear...

Use of psychotropic medicines such as antipsychotics, antidepressants, and anxiolytics is common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, very little is known about medicine use in adults with ASD. This pilot project aimed to describe medicines use in Australian adults with ASD. We conducted a retrospective analysis of mental healt...

Although people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not more likely to commit crimes, they are overrep-resented in the criminal justice system as reported by Howlin (Autism and Asperger syndrome: Preparing for adulthood, Routledge, 2004). This may, in part, be due to unfavourable interactions with the criminal judiciary. Evidence sugg...

Reports of cybercrime being committed by people on the autism spectrum often imply that autism may be more prevalent among cybercriminals than the general population, although this remains unproven. In an online survey of 302 participants, we found that autistic individuals (n = 25) were more likely to report engagement in cybercrime than non-autis...

According to expectancy violations theory, displays of behavior considered “unusual” during an interaction will trigger scrutiny of an individual. Such scrutiny may be detrimental in forensic contexts, where deception detection is emphasized. Autistic individuals, in particular, may be scrutinized unfavorably given unusual nonverbal behavior associ...

The image of the non-verbal child, flapping and spinning, totally absorbed in their own obsessive interests, as described by Kanner (Nerv Child 2:217–250, 1943), represents the more traditional view of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the stereotypical behaviors that accompany this condition. However, with the revision of the Diagnostic and Stati...

Early identification of autism, followed by appropriate intervention, has the potential to improve outcomes for autistic individuals. Numerous screening instruments have been developed for children under 3 years of age. Level 1 screeners are used in large-scale screening to detect at-risk children in the general population; Level 2 screeners are co...

Study Objectives This study examines the relationship between experimentally manipulated sleep duration and mood in adolescents. Methods Thirty-four adolescents (20 male), aged 15 to 17 years, lived in a sleep laboratory for ten days and nine nights. They were allocated to one of three sleep “doses” for five consecutive nights for :5 hours’, 7.5 h...

We examined whether perspective taking (or Theory of Mind) deficits that characterize autistic individuals predict whether they have trouble extricating themselves from situations in which police officers erroneously suspect them of a crime. Autistic and typically developing adults listened to scenarios in which they were placed in situations where...

Brewer, Young, and Barnett reported a comprehensive psychometric evaluation of a new adult theory of mind measure (A-ToM) with a sample of high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) adults. Although correlations with existing theory of mind (ToM) instruments (i.e., the Strange Stories; the Frith- Happé animations) were reported, relationships...

While autism spectrum disorder screening tools provide a useful resource for practitioners, the reality is they are underused. The justifications often provided include the time required for administration and the training involved. A brief tool with good psychometric properties that require minimal training is required. This study examined the dev...

Although depression and anxiety are the most common comorbidities in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), descriptive data for their prevalence among autistic adults are limited. This study provides descriptive data for a cohort of 155 autistic adults (mean age = 27.1 years, SD = 11.9) of average IQ on the short-form version of the Depr...

General Audience Summary The ability to understand and predict the intent, behaviors, and emotions of others is crucial for effective social interaction. Deficits in this area—often referred to as deficits in theory of mind—may compromise the interactions an individual has with others. Here we examined whether such deficits may undermine an individ...

Two studies examined whether deficits in theory of mind—the ability to understand and predict the intent, behaviors, and emotions of others—are related to slowness in recognizing that there is something suspicious about the way in which an interaction is unfolding. Participants listened to vignettes, some culminating in a crime, and indicated when...

Deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM)—the ability to interpret others’ beliefs, intentions and emotions—undermine the ability of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to interact in socially normative ways. This study provides psychometric data for the Adult-Theory of Mind (A-ToM) measure using video-scenarios based in part on Happé’s (Instruc...

Poster (with 3 minute presentation)

Objective Screening for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an important first step in the identification of children considered at risk of developing the disorder and in need of further assessment, intervention, and services. In this paper, we reviewed some commonly used ASD-specific screening tools and focused on the use of an ASD-specific screenin...

We examined whether media reports linking criminal behaviour and autism spectrum disorder foster negative attitudes towards individuals with autism spectrum disorder. In a between-subjects design, participants were exposed to (a) a media story in which a murderer was labelled with autism spectrum disorder (media exposure condition) or not labelled...

Objective: To measure upper-extremity and gross motor skill development in infants with and without risk factors for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Method: Data were coded retrospectively from 39 infants who participated in longitudinal structured early developmental assessments. Twenty-five infants were at high risk for ASD, and the remaining...

ull of case studies, this book explores the reasons behind adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) becoming involved in the criminal justice system. It discusses the establishment of intervention programs and calls for a review of forensic assessment for people with ASD.

In the absence of intellectual impairment, girls are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder significantly less and later than boys. This study explored potential reasons for why autism spectrum disorder may be more difficult to identify in girls, based on carer concerns during the pre-diagnosis period. Carers of 92 boys and 60 girls diagnosed with...

In the absence of intellectual impairment, girls are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) significantly less and later than boys. This study explored potential reasons for why ASD may be more difficult to identify in girls, based on carer concerns during the pre-diagnosis period. Carers of 92 boys and 60 girls diagnosed with ASD from schoo...

Autism spectrum disorders are a set of neurodevelopmental disorders that are highly hereditable. Increased genomic instability has been observed in other heritable paediatric neurobiological disorders; therefore, the aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that DNA damage is increased in children with autism and that B vitamin status may explai...

Despite the importance of theory of mind (ToM) for typical development, there remain 2 key issues affecting our ability to draw robust conclusions. One is the continued focus on false belief as the sole measure of ToM. The second is the lack of empirically validated measures of ToM as a broad construct. Our key aim was to examine the validity and r...

Face identity recognition has widely been shown to be impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this study we examined the influence of inversion on face recognition in 26 adults with ASD and 33 age and IQ matched controls. Participants completed a recognition test comprising upright and inverted faces. Participants with ASD...

In the absence of intellectual impairment autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is diagnosed both less and later in females. This study used clinician and teacher report to explore sex differences in the behavioural presentation of 69 girls and 69 boys all diagnosed with high-functioning ASD. Evidence from DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 are presented. Sex difference...

This study evaluated the predictive validity of the Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC; Young, Autism detection in early childhood: ADEC. Australian Council of Educational Research, Camberwell, VIC 2007) and a well-established screening tool, the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS; Schopler et al. The childhood autism rating scale (CARS). W...

The Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC; Young, 2007) was developed as a Level 2 clinician-administered autistic disorder (AD) screening tool that was time-efficient, suitable for children under 3 years, easy to administer, and suitable for persons with minimal training and experience with AD. A best estimate clinical Diagnostic and Statistic...

Despite the importance of theory of mind (ToM) for typical development, there remain two key issues affecting our ability to draw robust conclusions. One is the continued focus on false-belief as the sole measure of ToM. The second is the lack of empirically validated measures of ToM as a broad construct. Our key aim was to examine the validity and...

Deficits in emotion recognition and social interaction characterize individuals with Asperger's Disorder (AS). Moreover they also appear to be less able to accurately use confidence to gauge their emotion recognition accuracy (i.e., metacognitive monitoring). The aim of this study was to extend this finding by considering both monitoring and contro...

A number of changes were made to pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) in the recently released diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (APA, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, American Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA, 2013). Of the 210 participants in the present study who met DSM-IV-TR criteria for a PDD...

Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically show impairment on face recognition tasks. Performance has usually been assessed using overt, explicit recognition tasks. Here, a complementary method involving eye tracking was used to examine implicit face recognition in participants with ASD and in an intelligence quotient-matched non-...

Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)1 have various cognitive and behavioral characteristics that can (a) render them vulnerable to becoming enmeshed in criminal activity, and (b) result in their being evaluated unfavorably when interacting with criminal justice personnel such as the police, lawyers and juries. Here we (1) provide an overview...

Although face recognition deficits in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), including Asperger syndrome (AS), are widely acknowledged, the empirical evidence is mixed. This in part reflects the failure to use standardized and psychometrically sound tests. We contrasted standardized face recognition scores on the Cambridge Face Memory Tes...

Attention was directed towards negative, neutral, and positive word stimuli to explore the effect of emotions on sensorimotor skill performance. Forty novice and 40 experienced basketballers simultaneously completed a free-throw shooting task and a secondary word semantics task. A manipulation check confirmed that the secondary task influenced part...

Data from two groups of children who were randomly allocated to those groups showed that the ability of children with ASD to identify and label basic and complex facial expressions following a 3-week home based DVD intervention significantly improved when viewing The Transporters DVD. Improvements in emotion recognition appear related to the conten...

The relationship between age, IQ test scores and inspection time (IT) was investigated, comparing children from two age groups (6–8 and 10–12 years) and three IQ levels (low, average, above average). The results indicated a reliable estimate of IT could be obtained from all groups, even across two procedures. IT was found to improve with childhood...

Research has shown that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have difficulties recognising emotions from facial expressions. Since eye contact is important for accurate emotion recognition, and individuals with ASD tend to avoid eye contact, this tendency for gaze aversion has been proposed as an explanation for the emotion recognition...

Background: Identification of early signs of autism is a priority for the field as it provides therapeutic targets for early intervention. As it is difficult to detect clinically meaningful variation in language, social and cognitive development in very young children, sensory-motor differences may offer a better means of evaluating autism risk i...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that presents in the first three years of life. Currently, diagnosis of ASD is based on its behavioural manifestations, as laboratory diagnostic tests do not exist. Creatine deficiency syndrome (CDS) is one form of inborn error of metabolism where affected individuals have simi...

This study explored attentional patterns associated with positive and negative emotions during sport competition, and athletes' perceptions of the consequences of these attentional changes for concentration and performance. Sixty-nine athletes completed the Sport Emotion Questionnaire following a national softball competition. They also retrospecti...

Background: Anecdotal reports suggest that the presence of behaviours indicative of autism (AD) are displayed at a very early age, with nearly half (31-51%) of all children with AD displaying abnormalities within the first year of life (Gray & Tonge, 2001). Despite this acknowledgment, a diagnosis of AD is typically not being made until a child i...

A Spanish translation of the Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC-SP) was administered to 115 children aged 15-73 months in Mexico. In Phase 1, children with Autistic Disorder (AD), a non-Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) diagnosis or typical development were assessed with the ADEC-SP by a clinician blind to the child's diagnostic status....

An autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis is based on clinical behaviours as there are no validated biological diagnostic tools. Indolyl-3-acryloylglycine (IAG) is a chemical produced by gut microflora and there are conflicting reports as to whether urinary levels are elevated in children with ASD compared with controls. Urinary IAG levels in mor...

Children with autism are frequently observed to experience difficulties in sensory processing. This study examined specific patterns of sensory processing in 54 children with autistic disorder and their association with adaptive behavior. Model-based cluster analysis revealed three distinct sensory processing subtypes in autism. These subtypes were...

Background: The difficulty in identifying Autistic Disorder at an early age may partly arise from the fact that existing tools and the current diagnostic criteria defined in the ICD-10 (1992) and DSM-IV-TR (2000) describe behaviors thought to occur later in the developmental pathology of the disorder. Objectives: The ADEC (Autism Detection in Early...

Mothers of children aged 2-12 years completed an exhaustive questionnaire assessing feeding and eating behaviors for both themselves and their children with autism, and typically developing siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (where available), or typically developing children with no sibling with a disability. Results indicate that...

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between abilities to initiate and respond to joint attention and symptoms of autism that have, and have not, been theoretically linked to joint attention. Participants were 51 boys and five girls with autistic disorder, aged between 2 years and 6 years 5 months. Measures of joint attention behaviour...

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by complex aetiology, variable presentation and widely divergent outcomes. It is clear that an individual's intrinsic genetic susceptibility, health, nutritional status and environmental exposures all contribute to the aetiology of autism. This article aims to assist the general practitioner in...

Sensory processing (SP) difficulties have been reported in as many as 95% of children with autism, however, empirical research examining the existence of specific patterns of SP difficulties within this population is scarce. Furthermore, little attention has been given to examining the relationship between SP and either the core symptoms or seconda...

The behaviours of infants were observed using home videos, in an attempt to identify social difficulties characteristic of infants with autistic disorder. Three groups of infants were analysed: 15 infants who had later been diagnosed with autism, 15 infants who had a developmental or language delay, and 15 typically developing infants. Social behav...

The present study investigated the relationship between social comparison processes and depressive symptoms in 36 participants (34 males and two females) aged 10 to 16 years with Asperger syndrome. Participants completed the Social Comparison Scale and the Children's Depression Inventory. Depressive symptoms were significantly correlated with the S...

Examples of individuals who demonstrate extreme variations between abilities present a challenge to our understanding of brain functioning and in particular a unified view of intelligence. Such individuals often referred to as “savants” are the focus of this chapter. The question as to how brilliance can be achieved in a specific domain despite lim...

Snyder and Mitchell (1999) have argued that the extraordinary skills of savants, including mathematics and drawing, are within us all but cannot normally be accessed without some form of brain damage. It has also been argued that such skills can be made accessible to normal people by switching off part of their brain artificially using magnetic pul...

The aim of the study was to identify early behavioural abnormalities in children later diagnosed with autistic disorder. Accurate identification of such deficits has implications for early diagnosis, intervention and prognosis. The parents of 153 children with autistic disorder completed a questionnaire asking them to describe early childhood behav...

The failure to identify biological markers that will enable us to map diagnostically valid categories of PDDs forces clinicians and researchers to diagnose and discuss these disorders in terms of observable behaviors. Although the documentation of these behaviors has led to considerable advancement in the clinical description of children with PDDs,...

An adequate theory of intelligence must provide an account for individual variation in specific cognitive abilities but also for the common variance between these that results in a general factor. However, it must also be capable for providing an account of savant syndrome: rare individuals who display high levels of skill beyond the accomplishment...

The ability of a male autistic savant (TR) to play two unfamiliar piano pieces after listening to a tape-recording was tested, closely following the procedures of Sloboda, Hermelin, and O'Connor (1985). Other components of TR's musical ability--pitch recognition, improvisation, and ability to provide harmonic accompaniment--were also examined. TR's...

Strategies of 4 men (WAIS-R range 65 to 76) when making calendar calculations were investigated. Each subject completed a battery of standardized psychological tests. Results suggested that subjects were aware of rules and regularities associated with the calendar, including knowledge of the 14 different calendar templates, one of which describes a...

Remeasures of inspection time (IT) were obtained from 30 of the 47 children reported in Nettelbeck and Young (Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 605–614, 1989). Ages ranged from 7 yr–0 months to 7–11 and Full Scale IQ (WISC-R) ranged from 93 to 142 (mean = 116.5 SD = 12.2). Correlations between IT and the WISC-R subtests, scales and factor...

Estimates of inspection time (IT) were obtained from 47 children aged between 6 years 0 months and 6 years 11 months whose Full Scale IQs (WISC-R) ranged from 86 to 136. Correlations between IT and various subtests, scales and factors derived from WISC-R performance were generally statistically significant although there was no correlation between...

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