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Brief Report: Impaired Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST) in School-Age Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract

Cognitive flexibility has been measured with inductive reasoning or explicit rule tasks in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST) differs from previous cognitive flexibility tasks in ASD research by giving children an abstract, ambiguous rule to switch. The ASD group (N = 22; Mean age = 8.28 years, SD = 1.52) achieved a lower shift percentage than the typically developing verbal mental-age control group (N = 22; Mean age = 6.26 years, SD = 0.82). There was a significant positive correlation between verbal mental age and shift percentage for children with ASD. Group differences on the FIST converge and extend prior evidence documenting an impaired ability to adapt rapidly to changes in task demands for individuals with ASD.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the families and children who participated in this study for their time and energy. This study was in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a dissertation for B.E. Yerys. The following grants funded this research: NICHD’s Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism (HD35468) and the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Center grant (HD04024). The following grants funded the authors’ writing contributions: BEY was supported by an NIMH K23MH086111-02 and funding from the Frederick and Elizabeth Singer Foundation during the writing of this manuscript, and EM was supported by an NIMH F32 HM081409-01.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Autism Research, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 3535 Market Street, Suite 860, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Benjamin E. Yerys

  2. JFK Partners, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO, USA

    Brian C. Wolff, Eric Moody & Susan L. Hepburn

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Bruce F. Pennington

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  1. Benjamin E. Yerys
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  2. Brian C. Wolff
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Correspondence to Benjamin E. Yerys.

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Yerys, B.E., Wolff, B.C., Moody, E. et al. Brief Report: Impaired Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST) in School-Age Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 42, 2013–2020 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1443-x

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