The purpose of the project is to learn more about reactions to music by adults with and without autism spectrum disorders. Participants will listen to short pieces of music and answer some questions on a computer. They will also complete some formal testing and answer some interview questions.

Sensory processing is often affected in children and adolescents with ASD (autism). The 8th sensory system, coined interoception, is under studied in how it affects children with autism. Our study will compare children with and without autism (ages 11-18 years) using a tool we are developing. Our study hopes to develop psychometric properties of a tool to measure this new sensory sense.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of context on the processing of words in young adults with and without an autism spectrum disorder. The knowledge gained may lead to further understanding of the cognitive and linguistic processing of individuals with autism spectrum disorder—how they understand and see the world around them. The study is being conducted at our on-campus lab and includes the completion of some standardized paper and pencil tests and some computer-based activities. Participants receive compensation for their participation.

The goal of this study is to help ASD adolescents improve social skills during face-to-face interactions. We have designed an immersive computer game to help them learn these skills in a fun way. Adolescents play the game at home 3 times a week for 3 months on a computer that we give you. In order to see how well the game is working to teach them, we have to test it against another game that is similar but teaches other skills. We measure your adolescent’s attention in the lab through computer games and by measuring their eye movements. We invite you to answer questions about their social behavior. We are flexible in how we work with families to accommodate busy schedules (e.g., weekend appointments).Families come to Penn State for three visits. We pay for all travel expenses (mileage, toll, hotel). Families are also compensated up to $450 for their time.

Pending full eligibility, there are 3 in-person visits to the lab spaced 3 months apart from each other. Completing the entire procedure will take slightly more than 6 months. Between the first and second visit, participants will play a version of our game at home 3 times a week for 3 months.

$440 (one remote visit, three in-person visits, and at-home gameplay time)

This study aims to build upon a previous study that established a different presentation of autism called the ISM presentation by using a large sample size to either confirm or dispute this presentation as an alternative to classical autism.

Participants will be required to complete a survey expected to take no longer than an hour.