Short-term memory in autism spectrum disorder.

Three experiments examined verbal short-term memory in comparison and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) participants. Experiment 1 involved forward and backward digit recall. Experiment 2 used a standard immediate serial recall task where, contrary to the digit-span task, items (words) were not repeated from list to list. Hence, this task called more heavily on item memory. Experiment 3 tested short-term order memory with an order recognition test: Each word list was repeated with or without the position of 2 adjacent items swapped. The ASD group showed poorer performance in all 3 experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that group differences were due to memory for the order of the items, not to memory for the items themselves. Confirming these findings, the results of Experiment 3 showed that the ASD group had more difficulty detecting a change in the temporal sequence of the items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory functioning in children and adolescents with autism.

Objective: Memory functioning in children and adolescents ages 5–19 with autism (n = 50) and typically developing controls (n = 36) was assessed using a clinical assessment battery, the Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL). Method: Participant groups were statistically comparable in age, nonverbal IQ, handedness, and head circumference, and were administered the TOMAL. Results: Test performance on the TOMAL demonstrated broad differences in memory functioning in the autism group, across multiple task formats, including verbal and nonverbal, immediate and delayed, attention and concentration, sequential recall, free recall, associative recall, and multiple-trial learning memory. All index and nearly all subtest differences remained significant even after comparing a subset of the autism group (n = 36) and controls that were matched for verbal IQ (p > .05). However, retention of previously remembered information after a delay was similar in autism and controls. Conclusions: These findings indicate that performance on measures of episodic memory is broadly reduced in autism, and support the conclusion that information encoding and organization, possibly due to inefficient cognitive processing strategies, rather than storage and retrieval, are the primary factors that limit memory performance in autism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word learning in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been gaining attention, partly as an example of unusual developmental trajectories related to early neurobiological differences. The present investigation addressed the process of learning new words to explore mechanisms of language delay and impairment. The sample included 21 typically developing toddlers matched on expressive vocabulary with 21 young children with ASD. Two tasks were administered to teach children a new word and were supplemented by cognitive and diagnostic measures. In most analyses, there were no group differences in performance. Children with ASD did not consistently make mapping errors, even in word learning situations that required the use of social information. These findings indicate that some children with ASD, in developmentally appropriate tasks, are able to use information from social interactions to guide word–object mappings. This result has important implications for understanding of how children with ASD learn language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A practical approach to implementing theraplay for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Theraplay is a counseling approach that uses elements of play therapy to help children build better attachment relationships with others through attachment-based play. This article describes a practical approach for implementing Group Theraplay with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), particularly those that are mainstreamed in a kindergarten classroom setting. The approach uses resources that are already in place in schools today, such as mental health professionals (e.g., school counselor, social worker, etc.) and teachers. Foundational Theraplay assumptions, therapeutic goals, empirical support, and implementation guidelines are provided. Comparative effectiveness research examining the use of Group Theraplay with this population in this setting versus the use of alternative therapeutic approaches is needed. To help guide future research in this needed area of outcomes investigation, several assessment instruments appropriate for clinical research use with this population are suggested. Ethical and cultural implications pertinent to the application of Group Theraplay for children with ASD also are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for selective inhibitory impairment in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Objective: The social and communicative challenges faced by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often compounded by additional difficulties with executive function. It remains unclear, however, to what the extent individuals with ASD experienced impairment in inhibitory control. The objective of the present study was to assess the three main subtypes of executive inhibitory control within a single ASD sample thus providing new insight into the unique ASD-related pattern of sparing and impairment observed across different aspects of inhibitory control. Method: A sample of 28 children with ASD (mean age = 13.1 years) and a comparison group of 49 neurologically uncompromised children (mean age = 13.3 years) participated. A prepotent response inhibition task, a flanker visual filtering task, and a proactive interference memory task were used to evaluate prepotent response inhibition, resistance to distracter interference, and resistance to proactive interference, respectively. Results: After accounting for individual differences in noninhibition abilities (e.g., processing speed) and overall level of functioning, there was no evidence of group-related differences in inhibitory performance on the prepotent response inhibition test or proactive interference test. ASD-related impairments in inhibitory control were evident, however, on the flanker visual filtering task. Conclusions: Taken together, the present findings indicate that ASD is associated with impairments in some, but not all, aspects of inhibitory control. Individuals with ASD appear to have difficulty ignoring distracting visual information, but prepotent response inhibition and resistance to proactive interference are relatively intact. The current findings also provide support for a multitype model of inhibitory control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relative risk and timing of divorce in families of children with an autism spectrum disorder.

We compared the occurrence and timing of divorce in 391 parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a matched representative sample of parents of children without disabilities using a survival analysis. Parents of children with an ASD had a higher rate of divorce than the comparison group (23.5% vs. 13.8%). The rate of divorce remained high throughout the son's or daughter's childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood for parents of children with an ASD, whereas it decreased following the son's or daughter's childhood (after about age 8 years) in the comparison group. Younger maternal age when the child with ASD was born and having the child born later in the birth order were positively predictive of divorce for parents of children with an ASD. Findings have implications for interventions focused on ameliorating ongoing and long-term marital strains for parents of children with an ASD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in verbal learning.

"An old and a young group of Ss, mean ages 78.1 and 26.8 years, were given 3 paired-associate learning tasks which differed in the degree to which prior experience might be expected to facilitate or block present learning. They consisted of: (a) Familiar word pairs, (b) nonsense equations, and (c) false equations. Both groups performed best on the word-associate task, but there was little difference between the learning of nonsense and false equations within either group. On all 3 procedures the old group was significantly poorer, but they were proportionately more deficient in the learning of materials in which the facilitative effects of prior experience are minimized, i.e., the 2 forms of equations. However, they had no greater difficulty with the interference than with the nonsense material." 16 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Play and the child with autism spectrum disorder: From possibilities to practice.

In this article, the author (a) examines the nature of play as it pertains to children with autism spectrum disorder and (b) analyzes the theories surrounding play deficit explanations in this population of children. Possibilities for practice are discussed in terms of behavioral and developmental approaches to play. An argument is made in favor of developmental play therapy for children who have autism spectrum disorder. Support for developmental approaches is shaped by a definition of play that embraces a child-directed model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Weak central coherence, poor joint attention, and low verbal ability: Independent deficits in early autism.

C. Jarrold, W. Butler, E. M. Cottington, and F. Jiminez (2000) proposed that weak central coherence is a primary cognitive deficit in autism and speculated that it may even account for theory of mind impairments. The current study investigated whether weak central coherence could account for deficits in 2 behaviors purported to tap capabilities fundamental to a theory of mind: joint attention and pretend play. Twenty-one children (ages 3-5 years) with autism spectrum disorders were matched to 21 control children on chronological age, nonverbal ability, and gender. Pretend play did not differentiate the groups. Weak central coherence, poor joint attention, and low verbal ability contributed significantly and independently to the prediction of autism group membership, a finding consistent with 3 independent cognitive deficits underlying autism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling longitudinal change in the language abilities of children with autism: Parent behaviors and child characteristics as predictors of change.

The objective of the current study was to evaluate the patterns of longitudinal change in the language abilities of 28 children with autism during early and middle childhood. Results from fitting a series of multilevel models showed that children's rate of language growth was independently predicted by (a) children's responsiveness to others' bids for joint attention and (b) parents' responsiveness to their children's attention and activity during play. Both predictive relations could not be explained by initial variation in global developmental characteristics, such as IQ, mental age, or language abilities. These findings support a social?pragmatic view on language acquisition, which emphasizes the collaborative process through which children and their parents negotiate shared meaning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intact implicit learning of spatial context and temporal sequences in childhood autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined by atypicalities in domains that are posited to rely on implicit learning processes such as social communication, language, and motor behavior. The authors examined 2 forms of implicit learning in 14 children with high-functioning ASD (10 of whom were diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome) and 14 control children, learning of spatial context known to be mediated by the medial temporal lobes (using the contextual cueing task) and of sequences known to be mediated by frontal-striatal and frontal-cerebellar circuits (using the alternating serial reaction time task). Both forms of learning were unimpaired in ASD. Spatial contextual implicit learning was spared in ASD despite slower visual search of spatial displays. The present findings provide evidence for the integrity of learning processes dependent on integration of spatial and sequential contextual information in high-functioning children with ASD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anticipation interval and age differences in verbal learning.

Age differences were demonstrated to be greater at the shorter anticipation interval than at the longer in 2 paired-associate studies. Earlier work had suggested that this age-pace interaction was not a true learning effect but a performance deficit due to the difficulty the older person has in responding rapidly. The 2nd study provided evidence that relatively few of the errors made by the old Ss at the fast pace could be attributed to insufficient time to emit a learned response. Even when Ss were permitted to take as much time as needed to respond, the age-pace interaction was found. Several possible explanations for such a learning deficit were noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Complexity of adult verbal behavior in a dyadic situation with retarded children.

The purpose of the study was to observe the verbal behavior of young normal adults assembled with retarded children characterized in advance as either high (H) or low (L) with a standardized language test. Each adult was asked to "interview" 1 child at a time for ? hr. 6 adults interviewed 4 different H children and the 6 other adults interviewed 4 different L children. A measure of the child's verbal output during the interview confirmed usefulness of the language test to classify children in advance. Adults assembled with L children had a significantly lower average type-token ratio than those assembled with H children. Measures of the complexity and number of adult questions did not show any significant differences between H and L children. Possible implications of adult reactions to retarded children were briefly discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting reading and mathematics achievement in fourth-grade children from kindergarten readiness scores.

This study examined age and gender differences in verbal skills and visuomotor skills at kindergarten, in achievement in reading and mathematics at Grade 4, and in the link between skills at kindergarten and later achievement (n?=?281). Older children had higher verbal skills and visuomotor skills than younger children, and girls had higher visuomotor skills and reading achievement than boys. With controls for age, verbal skills uniquely predicted later reading achievement, whereas both verbal skills and visuomotor skills uniquely predicted later mathematics achievement. Readiness in the specific areas of auditory memory and verbal associations predicted later reading achievement, whereas readiness in the specific areas of auditory memory, number skills, and visual discrimination predicted later mathematics achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The profile of memory function in children with autism.

A clinical memory test was administered to 38 high-functioning children with autism and 38 individually matched normal controls, 8-16 years of age. The resulting profile of memory abilities in the children with autism was characterized by relatively poor memory for complex visual and verbal information and spatial working memory with relatively intact associative learning ability, verbal working memory, and recognition memory. A stepwise discriminant function analysis of the subtests found that the Finger Windows subtest, a measure of spatial working memory, discriminated most accurately between the autism and normal control groups. A principal components analysis indicated that the factor structure of the subtests differed substantially between the children with autism and controls, suggesting differing organizations of memory ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer of task-switching training in older age: The role of verbal processes.

This study investigated the influence of verbal self-instructions (VSI) on the transfer of task-switching training in older adults (56–78 years). We applied an internally cued switching paradigm in a pretest–training–posttest design. Training-related improvements were not modulated by VSI. Transfer (the pretest–posttest reduction of switch costs) was most pronounced when participants applied the VSI at posttest after practicing the switching task without VSI. The results indicate that in contrast to transfer of executive control training, transfer of (verbal) strategy training seems to be limited and that VSI is most beneficial when the task-switching abilities are already well practiced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The world of competitive Scrabble: Novice and expert differences in visuopatial and verbal abilities.

Competitive Scrabble players spend a mean of 4.5 hr a week memorizing words from the official Scrabble dictionary. When asked if they learn word meanings when studying word lists, only 6.4% replied "always," with the rest split between "sometimes" and "rarely or never." Number of years of play correlated positively with expertise ratings, suggesting that expertise develops with practice. To determine the effect of hours of practice (M = 1,904), the authors compared experts with high-achieving college students on a battery of cognitive tests. Despite reporting that they usually memorize word lists without learning meanings, experts defined more words correctly. Reaction times on a lexical decision task (controlling for age) correlated with expertise ratings, suggesting that experts develop faster access to word identification. Experts' superiority on visuospatial processing was found for reaction time on 1 of 3 visuospatial tests. In a study of memory for altered Scrabble boards, experts outperformed novices, with differences between high and low expertise on memory for boards with structure-deforming transformations. Expert Scrabble players showed superior performance on selected verbal and visuospatial tasks that correspond to abilities that are implicated in competitive play. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early patterns of verbal memory impairment in children treated for medulloblastoma.

Children treated for medulloblastoma demonstrate a variety of cognitive deficits in addition to white matter and hippocampal neuropathology. This study examined 40 children treated for medulloblastoma as compared with 40 demographically matched controls on the California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version (D. C. Delis, J. H. Kramer, E. Kaplan, & B. A. Ober, 1994). Results revealed significantly poorer performance on indices of word recall in the patient group as compared with the controls in addition to milder but still significantly poorer recognition memory. These findings suggest that children treated for medulloblastoma demonstrate a mixed profile of memory impairment consisting of both retrieval and recognition deficits. Implications of these findings for understanding neurobehavioral sequelae within pediatric medulloblastoma populations and for designing educational and remediation strategies to be used with these children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Randomized comparison of two communication interventions for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders.

This randomized group experiment compared the efficacy of 2 communication interventions (Responsive Education and Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching [RPMT] and the Picture Exchange Communication System [PECS]) in 36 preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders. Each treatment was delivered 3 times per week, in 20-min sessions, for 6 months. The results revealed that the RPMT facilitated the frequency of generalized turn taking and generalized initiating joint attention more than did the PECS. The latter effect occurred only for children who began treatment with at least some initiating joint attention. In contrast, the PECS facilitated generalized requests more than the RPMT in children with very little initiating joint attention prior to treatment. These effect sizes were large. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure of verbal abilities in young and older adults.

Four language sample measures as well as measures of vocabulary, verbal fluency, and memory span were obtained from a sample of young adults and a sample of older adults. Factor analysis was used to analyze the structure of the vocabulary, fluency, and span measures for each age group. Then an "extension" analysis was performed by using structural modeling techniques to determine how the language sample measures were related to the other measures. The measure of grammatical complexity was associated with measures of working memory including reading span and digit span. Two measures, sentence length in words and a measure of lexical diversity, were associated with the vocabulary measures. The fourth measure, propositional density, was associated with the fluency measures as a measure of processing efficiency. The structure of verbal abilities in young and older adults is somewhat different, suggesting age differences in processing efficiency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)