Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

, Volume 37, Issue 7, pp 1279–1288 | Cite as

Adults with Autism Show Increased Sensitivity to Outcomes at Low Error Rates During Decision-Making

  • Arpi Minassian
  • Martin Paulus
  • Alan Lincoln
  • William Perry
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Decision-making is an important function that can be quantified using a two-choice prediction task. Individuals with Autistic Disorder (AD) often show highly restricted and repetitive behavior that may interfere with adaptive decision-making. We assessed whether AD adults showed repetitive behavior on the choice task that was unaffected by changing task demands, by examining the influence of experimenter-determined error rates on decision-making. Sixteen AD adults and 14 typically developed subjects were administered a two-choice task using three error rate conditions. Although AD subjects showed occurrences of stereotyped responding, their decision-making behavior was strongly affected by changes in task demands, especially when they experienced frequent success. Thus, behavioral paradigms that provide frequent reinforcement may be helpful in modifying decision-making abilities in AD.

Keywords

Autistic disorder Decision-making Perseveration Executive functioning Reinforcement Cognition 
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Notes

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by a grant from Cure Autism Now awarded to William Perry. Arpi Minassian was supported in part by NIMH Training Grant T32-MH18399.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006

Authors and Affiliations

  • Arpi Minassian
    • 1
  • Martin Paulus
    • 1
  • Alan Lincoln
    • 2
  • William Perry
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of PsychiatryUniversity of California, San DiegoSan DiegoUSA
  2. 2.Alliant International UniversitySan DiegoUSA

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