Our youngest, Karla, turned 25 today, and drew this picture to commemorate the occasion! If you want to see more of her art, she has her own website.
Karla's Happy Birthday Self-Portrait
Karla has autism, so we were intrigued by a student presentation in my Sensation/Perception class this quarter on a paper by Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues on vision in autism. According to this study, people with autism spectrum disorder have fantastic vision–on the order of birds of prey [1]. I’m going to see how family Freberg fares on the vision test used by these authors, which is available on Michael Bach’s terrific vision website. Ironically enough, the test is the Freiburg Visual Acuity and Contrast Test (FrACT). I already know that Roger, Kristin, and Karen all use reading glasses and score about 20/10 on the Snellen chart, which is at the superior end of visual acuity.
Stay tuned, and I’ll post our results. Take the test yourself, and let me know how it works out for you!
1. Ashwin, E., Ashwin, C., Rhydderch, D., Howells, J., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2009). Eagle-eyed visual acuity: An experimental investigation of enhanced perception in autism. Biological Psychiatry, 65, 117-21.
3 Comments
Laura Freberg · May 31, 2009 at 8:56 am
Okay, the FrAct is not the easiest thing on the planet to work out, but it appears that I am about 20/40, even with my computer glasses on….maybe I need to see my eye doctor earlier than I thought?
genevieve99 · June 2, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I can’t get over those cartoon that she makes!! I loved when you showed us her website last quarter in Behavior Disorders. I don’t know if I have enough patience to work with that much detail!
V i x · June 23, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Thanks for using my birthday drawing and caring for someone who has autism. That would be me, of course.
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