Abstract
Rehearsal strategies of adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and demographically matched typically developed (TD) adults were strategically manipulated by cueing participants to either learn, or forget each list word prior to a recognition task. Participants were also asked to distinguish between autonoetic and noetic states of awareness using the Remember/Know paradigm. The ASD group recognised a similar number of to-be-forgotten words as the TD group, but significantly fewer to-be-learned words. This deficit was only evident in Remember responses that reflect autonoetic awareness, or episodic memory, and not Know responses. These findings support the elaborative encoding deficit hypothesis and provide a link between the previously established mild episodic memory impairments in adults with high functioning autism and the encoding strategies employed.
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Acknowledgments
The work reported in this article forms part of a D. Phil thesis. This research of the first author was supported by Studentship Grant PTA-030-2002-01037 from the Economic and Social Research Council and the second and third authors’ research was funded by a Grant G0401413 from The Medical Research Council. We are grateful for their support. We would like to thank Sebastian B. Gaigg, Psychology Department, City University London, England for his support and contribution with regard to co-ordinating appointments with participants. We would also like to acknowledge and thank all those who kindly volunteered to take part in this study.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
A list of words will appear on the computer screen one word at a time. After each item has appeared on the screen, it will be followed by a cue to learn the word LLLL or a cue to forget the word FFFF. Sometimes the cue to learn or forget will appear immediately after the word has been shown and sometimes there will be a few seconds delay before the cue to learn or forget will appear. In each case, remember that if you see the cue LLLL, you are to try and learn the previous word as best as you can, and if you see the cue FFFF, you do not need to try and learn the word, you can forget it. Each cue to learn or forget will always refer to the word you have just seen NOT the word you are about to see.
Appendix 2
You will now be shown another set of words on the computer screen one at a time. Some of the words will be words that were also included in the list you have just been asked to learn or forget, while some of the words are new words that you will not have seen before. As each word appears on the screen, please consider whether that word is a new word, or if it is a word that was included in the list of words you have just been shown regardless of the cue to learn or forget, or whether the cue appeared straight away, or after a short delay.
If you are sure that you recognise the word as being one that you saw earlier in this experiment (whether followed by a LLLL cue, or a FFFF cue) then please say “YES” aloud. If you DO NOT recognise the word as being one that you saw earlier in the experiment, then please say “NO” aloud. If you are not sure if the word was one that you saw earlier or not, then please say “NO”. Only say YES if you are SURE that the word is one that you saw on the screen earlier.
After you say “YES”, you will be asked to make another choice about HOW you remember the word. The choice is between TYPE A and TYPE B. TYPE A and TYPE B are two different ways that people remember things.
Memory TYPE A is when you remember seeing the word in this experiment, and you also remember something about when you actually saw the word. You might remember where the word was in the list of words, what it looked like on the screen, something about what you thought about at the time when you saw the word, or you might remember a picture that you had in your head when you saw the word. A TYPE A kind of remembering is when you remember, and you also remember something about the time when you actually saw the word.
TYPE B is the other way that people can remember things. A TYPE B kind of memory is when you are sure that the word was on the list of words in the experiment but you cannot remember any details about the time that you saw it. For example a TYPE B memory is when you can’t remember where the word was in the list, or anything that you thought about at the time, or any picture that you might have had in your head at the time. A TYPE B kind of remembering is when you know that the word was on the list of words that you were asked to remember but you can’t remember anything about the actual time when you saw the word on the screen.
In case you forget what you have been asked to do during the test, there will be a short description of when to say TYPE A and when to say TYPE B on a card in front of you. You can also look at these written instructions at any time. Please ask for help if you have any problems, or you don’t understand what you are to do during the test.
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Meyer, B.J., Gardiner, J.M. & Bowler, D.M. Directed Forgetting in High-Functioning Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 2514–2524 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2121-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2121-y