Fourteen children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and fourteen age-matched typically-developing (TD) controls were tested on an adapted version of the Twenty Questions Task (Mosher and Hornsby in Studies in cognitive growth. Wiley, New York, pp 86-102, 1966) to examine effects of content, executive and verbal IQ factors on category use in problem-solving (age range 8-17). Across conditions participants with ASD asked questions that focussed on smaller categories than controls. Specific group differences were observed in the handling of abstract content and response to additional working memory demands. In addition, post hoc regression analysis indicated that VIQ predicted performance in ASD but not TD participants. The implications for theories of category processing in autism are discussed.
A study is reported in which size sequencing on a touch screen is used as a measure of executive control in 20 high-functioning children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The data show a significant and age-independent effect of the length of sequence that can be executed without errors by these children, in comparison with a chronologically age-matched group of children with normal development. Error data and reaction times are analysed and are interpreted as revealing a constraint on the prospective component of working memory in children on the autistic spectrum even when there is no change in goal or perceptual set. It is concluded that the size sequencing paradigm is an effective measure of executive difficulties associated with autism.
We report a study of the depiction of partial occlusion and its relationship with field independence (FI) in children with ASD. Nineteen ASD children and 29 TD children (5;6-10;0) attempted to copy two 3D occluded scenes, and also selected the 'best' depiction of these scenes in drawings by others. ASD children were not significantly different from controls on FI but were significantly delayed in partial occlusion drawing and selection, independently of chronological age (CA), nonverbal mental age (NVMA) and FI. The results suggest that the depiction of partial occlusion in children with ASD is not qualitatively distinct from that in children with typical development but is significantly and specifically delayed.
15 School-aged high functioning children on the autistic spectrum were compared with a neurotypical cohort on the WISC-III and the KABC-II, to determine the impact of the relatively more strict timing criteria of the former test on the evaluation of nonverbal intelligence. Significant group effects, showing lower performance by the ASD group were found for three of the five sub-tests for the WISC but not for the KABC, peaks and troughs were more evident for the WISC, and the evaluation of intellectual level was also markedly lower for ASD children on the WISC-III as opposed to the KABC-II. The results are discussed in terms of how speed of processing can impact on how children with ASD are 'matched' against neurotypical samples.
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