Award Date

5-15-2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

Jennifer Rennels

Second Committee Member

Andrea Kayl

Third Committee Member

Rachael Robnett

Fourth Committee Member

Catharine Lory

Number of Pages

115

Abstract

Research on emotion recognition in autism has traditionally relied on stimuli developed and validated exclusively with allistic populations. Whether these stimuli function equivalently for autistic individuals remains unclear, limiting the field’s ability to draw conclusions about cross-neurotype differences in emotional processing. Grounded in double empathy theory and cross-cultural research demonstrating in-group advantages in emotion recognition, this thesis investigated whether the Database of Emotional Videos from Ottawa (DEVO), a dynamic emotional elicitation database validated with allistic participants, elicits comparable emotional responses in autistic individuals. Participants (N = 116) viewed DEVO video clips and rated their emotional responses using the Multidimensional Visual Scale Assessing Affect, Anxiety, Pride, and Energy (AAPE), a measure developed by autistic researchers for use in autism research. Autism-related traits were assessed dimensionally using the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS-2) rather than formal diagnosis status, with participants classified as High-SRS (n = 45; T ≥ 60) or Low-SRS (n = 71; T < 60). Results indicated that the DEVO cluster structure largely replicated across groups, with 84% agreement in video categorization. However, High-SRS participants showed significantly greater between-person variability in their ratings across all AAPE dimensions. Based on the alexithymia hypothesis, which attributes emotional processing differences in autism to alexithymia rather than autism itself, I predicted that controlling for alexithymia would attenuate group differences in within-person variability. Instead, it strengthened them, suggesting a suppressor effect. Overall, these findings support using the DEVO in cross-neurotype research by demonstrating comparable emotion structures across groups, and the video-level data provided here offers a tool for future studies examining emotional responding in autistic populations.

Keywords

alexithymia; autism; double empathy; emotion recognition; emotional elicitation; neurodiversity

Disciplines

Cognitive Psychology | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

File Format

PDF

File Size

3100 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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