Abstract

Interference suppression is an inhibitory process that allows us to filter out irrelevant information, in situations with high cognitive demands and with target stimuli of low perceptual salience. Although inhibitory difficulties seemed to be associated with core features of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), to date it is still unclear if interference suppression is impaired in people with ASD. This meta-analysis, conducted on 15 studies, including peer-reviewed journal articles and dissertations, using the Flanker test, aimed to investigate interference suppression in ASD, as compared with a typically developing control group. Results reveal a small deficit of group with ASD (Hedges’g = 0,311), compared with controls; in addition, moderator analyses suggest that the deficit did not vary with age and intellective functioning of the participants