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Assessing Recollection and Familiarity in Low Functioning Autism

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Abstract

Methods to assess recollection and familiarity separately in autism spectrum disorder were recently developed and piloted (Bigham et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 40:878–889, 2010). The preliminary data obtained via these methods showed that whereas recollection was mildly impaired in high functioning autism, familiarity was spared. The current study set out to replicate the methods of assessment for recollection and familiarity devised by Bigham and her colleagues with individuals diagnosed with low functioning autism (LFA). Three critical modifications to the original paradigms were made within the current study. The modifications and implications of the findings for individuals with LFA will be discussed.

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Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge the children, parents and schools who helped make this project feasible. I wish to acknowledge grateful and sincere thanks to Dr Jean Quigley for her endless support and assistance, and the advice and comments of Professor Jill Boucher on two drafts of this paper. This paper was a replication of studies devised and developed by Sally Bigham, Jill Boucher, Andrew Mayes and Sophie Anns, and I need to thank Professor Boucher for her kind permission to do so. This paper is in partial preparation for my PhD at Trinity College Dublin and is part funded by a Higher Education Grant from Carlow County Council, 2009–2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Susan Ni Chuileann & Jean Quigley

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  1. Susan Ni Chuileann
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  2. Jean Quigley
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Correspondence to Susan Ni Chuileann.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Instructions for the Test of Recollection

Special Instructions

Allocate the boxes containing the 12 everyday objects to be used in the Test of Recollection to the teaching staff of participating classrooms. Ask that the teachers allow the children familiarise themselves with same over the following 2 days.

Encourage teachers (and parents if possible) to play children the ‘After Me’ song from Classic Sesame Street (Sesame Street.org. 2010). This song is saved on several memory sticks for this particular allocation.

General Points of Procedure

Test the participant on an individual basis in a quiet room within the school. Make sure that a teacher or second adult is present at all times (Child First 2004). Tester and participant are to sit beside each other at a desk. The desk should be close to the wall to ensure that items will stay in the participant view but not too close as to cause a need to ‘play’ with them. Use verbal praise to maintain the participant’s motivation through out. Give breaks between tests if required.

Materials

Four memory sticks with recordings of the ‘After Me’ song on them.

The Sesame Street Board Game (Sesame Street.org. 2010) which contains a small plastic bowl, a bag of play sand, three small soft toys, and three cards with Before, Between and After written on each one respectively.

Five boxes containing the twelve everyday items to be used in the source memory task

  1. 1.

    A COMB

  2. 2.

    A PEN

  3. 3.

    A CRAYON

  4. 4.

    A SPOON

  5. 5.

    A ROLL OF CELLOTAPE

  6. 6.

    A HIGHLIGHTER PEN

  7. 7.

    A PLASTIC DUCK

  8. 8.

    AN ERASER

  9. 9.

    A WATCH FACE

  10. 10.

    A PENCIL TOPPER SHAPED LIKE A MINATURE BARREL

  11. 11.

    A BROKEN MEMORY STICK

  12. 12.

    A TEA LIGHT CANDLE

One bag of plastic fridge magnet numbers ranging from 1–10.

A ‘BEFORE and AFTER’ laminated strip.

Four Picture Exchange Communication cards comprised of ‘Breakfast Time’, ‘Dinner Time’, ‘Bedtime’, and ‘My Pyjamas’.

Training phase 1: Understanding Before and After

Show the participant the items from the Sesame Street Board Game. Place the bowl of sand in front of the three small toys provided and tell the child that the toys are lining up to play in the sand.

Place the BEFORE card at the first toy, the BETWEEN card at the middle toy, and the AFTER card at the last toy (see photo above).

Point to each card placed by each toy and clearly say the words ‘before, between and after’.

Say to the child ‘Look, this toy’ (point at the first toy) ‘this toy will get to play at the sand BEFORE the other toys.

Next explain who will come last by pointing to the last toy and saying ‘Look at this toy, this toy will play in the sand AFTER all the toys’.

Point to the middle toy and say ‘This toy is in between’.

Place the toys in the sand one by one and rearrange to ensure they all take different positions in the line.

Ask the child to point to who will now go to play in the sand BEFORE the other toys, who will go AFTER and who is IN BETWEEN.

Encourage correct identifications of the three positions (Before, in between, and after) on two separate presentations.

Children who can make three consecutive correct responses without prompts across the following two presentations the child can progress to testing phase.

(Test takes 5-8 min approximately).

Training Phase 2: Understanding Before and After

Show the child the pre-prepared laminated strip of card with three rectangles drawn on it. The words BEFORE and AFTER are written in the left and right rectangles with the centre rectangle clearly stating IN BETWEEN.

 

BEFORE

IN BETWEEN

AFTER

Place a plastic (fridge magnet) number 5 in the centre rectangle. Place the plastic (fridge magnet) numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 in a row toward the left hand side of the desk. Place the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9 in a row toward the right hand side of the desk. Saw that all this group of numbers (1, 2, 3, 4) come BEFORE 5 and all this group of numbers (6, 7, 8, 9) come AFTER number 5.

Pick up the number 4 and place it on the BEFORE rectangle saying ‘However, this comes JUST before the number 5’. Pick up the number 6 and place it on the AFTER rectangle saying, ‘And this comes JUST after the number 5’.

 

Before

In Between

After

4

5

6

Remove the three numbers, placing them back in line with the rest in a slightly spaced and linear formation on the desk facing the child.

Now place the number 2 on the centre rectangle. Show the child how number 1 (slightly separated from the other numbers is BEFORE the number 1. Point clearly to the other group (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) and say how all these numbers come after the number 2.

Prompt the child to pick up the number 1 to place on the BEFORE rectangle. Say ‘However, this comes JUST before the number 2’. Pick up the number 3 and place it on the AFTER rectangle saying, ‘And this comes JUST after the number 2’.

Prompt the child to pick up the number 3 to place on the AFTER rectangle. Praise the child for this correct formation.

Remove the three numbers placing them with the rest in a slightly spaced and linear formation on the desk facing the child.

If necessary repeat with new numbers (e.g. 6, 7, 8).

Place a number on the centre rectangle and ask the child to show you what comes JUST before that number and what comes JUST after that number.

When participants make 3 consecutive correct responses proceed to the Testing phase.

(Test takes 5–8 min approximately).

Training Phase 3: Practice in the Main Test

Use these six of the twelve everyday items from the box for this part of training.

  1. 1.

    A COMB

  2. 2.

    A PEN

  3. 3.

    A CRAYON

  4. 4.

    A SPOON

  5. 5.

    A ROLL OF CELLOTAPE

  6. 6.

    A HIGHLIGHTER PEN

You will also need the ‘Before and After’ laminated strip and a glass paperweight.

Have your score sheet ready (Appendix 2)

Show the child the 6 items in the fixed order above at a rate of one every five seconds. Clearly say what each item is. Remove each item from sight before presenting the next item. Place the glass paperweight after item 5 (cellotape) and before number 6 (highlighter).

Place the strip before the child with the glass paperweight in the centre rectangle. Present the 6 items on the desk in an order different to that of the first presentation.

Ask the child to try to remember what came just before the glass paperweight (cellotape) and just after (highlighter pen). Prompt if necessary and praise on the correct identification.

Note all responses on the scores sheet.

Repeat this procedure on two more occasions without prompting. Use the same six items and the paperweight.

On the first occasion the paperweight should be presented firstly after item one and before item 2. On the second occasion the paperweight should be presented after item 4 and before item 5.

Children who fail on more than two of the four items to be recalled across these two tests cannot go to the main test.

(Test takes 8–10 min approximately)

The Main Test

Use the full set of 12 every items plus the ‘BEFORE and AFTER’ strip from the Training phase. There is also a blue wooden cat. Use the cat in place of the paperweight. You want the child to identify two objects…the one that came just before and the one that arrived just after the blue wooden cat.

General procedures: Tell the participant that you have a host of new objects to show them and that you need them to try to remember if they see the objects just before or just after the blue wooden cat.

Have your score sheet ready (see attached)

Present the objects 1 at a time to the child. Clearly say what each item is. Present the objects in a predetermined order at a rate of 1 every 5 s (3–4 s looking/saying time) in front of the participant, removing each one from sight before presenting the next item (Bigham et al. 2010). Present the blue wooden cat as item 10, then item 8, item 6, item 4, item 2, item 3, item 5, item 7, item 9 and finally item 11.

 

1. Present the cat as item 10:

After: watch face

Before: pencil topper

2. Present the cat as item 8:

After: A duck

Before: eraser

3. Present the cat as item 6:

After: Cellotape

Before: highlighter

4. Present the cat as item 4:

After: Crayon

Before: spoon

5. Present the cat as item 2:

After: Comb

Before: pen

6. Present the cat as item 3:

After: Pen

Before: crayon

7. Present the cat as item 5:

After: Spoon

Before: cellotape

8. Present the cat as item 7:

After: Highlighter

Before: duck

9. Present the cat as item 9

After: Eraser

Before: watch face

10. Present the cat as item 11:

After: Topper

Before: memory stick

Encourage the participants to place the item onto the BEFORE/AFTER strip, but if unable or unwilling to do so a clear indication of choice via pointing will suffice.

Participants score 1 point for an item correctly identified as having come Before/After the cat and 0 for incorrect or non-responses. Scores range from 0–20.

(Test takes 10–12 min approximately)

Appendix 2: Score Sheet for Practice in the Main Test of Recollection

Circle all responses and place the order of responses over the circle:

Appendix 3: Predetermined Sequencing for Temporal Source Memory Recall Test

1. Comb Pen Crayon Spoon Cellotape HL Pen Duck Eraser Watch X Topper USB Candle

2. Comb Pen Crayon Spoon Cellotape HL Pen Duck X Eraser Watch Topper USB Candle

3. Comb Pen Crayon Spoon Cellotape X HL Pen Duck Eraser Watch Topper USB Candle

4. Comb Pen Crayon X Spoon Cellotape HL Pen Duck Eraser Watch Topper USB Candle

5. Comb X Pen Crayon Spoon Cellotape HL Pen Duck Eraser Watch Topper USB Candle

6. Comb Pen X Crayon Spoon Cellotape HL Pen Duck Eraser Watch Topper USB Candle

7. Comb Pen Crayon Spoon X Cellotape HL Pen Duck Eraser Watch Topper USB Candle

8. Comb Pen Crayon Spoon Cellotape HL Pen X Duck Eraser Watch Topper USB Candle

9. Comb Pen Crayon Spoon Cellotape HL Pen Duck Eraser X Watch Topper USB Candle

10. Comb Pen Crayon Spoon Cellotape HL Pen Duck Eraser Watch Topper X USB Candle

X = the Blue Cat

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Ni Chuileann, S., Quigley, J. Assessing Recollection and Familiarity in Low Functioning Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 43, 1406–1422 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1697-3

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