Visual Exploration and Construction Strategies Underlying Performance in the Block Design Task in Autism

Visuospatial reasoning in autism is often linked to superior performance on tasks such as the Block Design Task (BDT). While different strategies have been described in the general population, no study has examined how these strategies relate to performance in autistic individuals, even though the task is widely used to characterize their visuospatial profile. To address this gap, the present study examined not only overall scores but also the underlying strategies used by autistic (ASD) and neurotypical (TD) adults during the BDT. Forty-one participants (ASD = 18; TD = 23) completed the standard BDT while eye-tracking and behavioral data captured both visual exploration and construction strategies. Globally, structured strategies-both in visual exploration and construction-were found to be the most effective, as they were associated with higher success rates and faster completion times, consistent with previous findings. At the group level, our results revealed that autistic participants employed these analytic strategies more frequently than neurotypical individuals, along with a stronger alignment between visual and construction approaches. The consistent use of these strategies in the autistic group may help explain the enhanced visuospatial performance observed in our study after controlling for manual dexterity and reported in earlier studies. These findings emphasize the importance of looking beyond traditional performance measures such as accuracy and completion time, highlighting that cognitive strategies are key to understanding visuospatial reasoning.