Abstract
Diminished episodic memory and diminished use of semantic information to aid recall by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are both thought to result from diminished relational binding of elements of complex stimuli. To test this hypothesis, we asked high-functioning adults with ASD and typical comparison participants to study grids in which some cells contained drawings of objects in non-canonical colours. Participants were told at study which features (colour, item, location) would be tested in a later memory test. In a second experiment, participants studied similar grids and were told that they would be tested on object-location or object-colour combinations. Recognition of combinations was significantly diminished in ASD, which survived covarying performance on the Color Trails Test (D’Elia et al. Color trails test. Professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources, Lutz, 1996), a test of executive difficulties. The findings raise the possibility that medial temporal as well as frontal lobe processes are dysfunctional in ASD.
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Notes
Although for some individuals observations of difficulties in the domains of communication (N = 4) or Reciprocal Social Interaction (N = 3) did not reach relevant clinical cut-off criteria, sub cut-off difficulties were evident in all individuals. More importantly, all participants had clear statements about their diagnosis by qualified health professionals, and it is widely accepted that ADOS scores must not take precedence over a clinical diagnosis. We thus took the conservative decision not to employ ADOS scores as an exclusion criterion.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the participants for giving their time in these experiments, two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments and the Medical Research Council UK for financial support (Grant Number: G0401413).
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Bowler, D.M., Gaigg, S.B. & Gardiner, J.M. Binding of Multiple Features in Memory by High-Functioning Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 2355–2362 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2105-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2105-y