Color Obsessions and Phobias in Autism Spectrum Disorders: the Case of J.G.

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Ludlow, A.; Heaton, Pam F.; Hill, Elisabeth L. and Franklin, A.. 2014. Color Obsessions and Phobias in Autism Spectrum Disorders: the Case of J.G. Neurocase, 20(3), pp. 296-306. ISSN 1355-4794 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

The current study is the first investigation of color ‘obsessions’ and ‘phobias’ in ASD. We investigate the color perception and cognition of J.G., a boy with ASD who has a strong obsession with blue, and a strong phobia of other colors. J.G.’s performance on a series of color tasks (color-entity association; chromatic discrimination; color classification) is compared to 13 children with and without autism who do not have color obsessions or phobias. The findings lead to the formalization of two hypotheses: (i) color obsessions and phobias in individuals with ASD are related to an unusually strong ability to associate colors with entities; (ii) color obsessions are related to hyposensitivity, and color phobias to hypersensitivity, in the affected regions of color space.

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Article

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https://doi.org/10.1080/13554794.2013.770880