Abstract reasoning in autism: A disassociation between concept formation and concept identification.

Abstract

The concept identification and concept formation aspects of abstract reasoning were examined in 90 nonmentally retarded individuals with autism and 107 normal controls. It was hypothesized that pronounced deficits would be found on concept formation tests, whereas performance on concept identification tests would be relatively intact. There was a significant difference between individuals with autism and individuals from a matched control group on all abstract reasoning tasks, but, with the exception of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (R. K. Heaton et al., 1993), differences on concept identification tests were not clinically significant. Factor analyses showed that concept formation and concept identification tasks loaded on separate factors in the autism group but not in the control group. Stepwise discriminant function analyses revealed that 2 tests of concept formation correctly classified 78.4% of cases, whereas concept identification tasks did not pass the tolerance test.

Caudate Nucleus Volume and Cognitive Performance: Are They Related in Childhood Psychopathology?

“…Parallel results were observed when only those ASD participants with an ADI-R confirmation of diagnosis were analyzed. The present results are thus generally consistent with previous findings of reduced verbal fluency and mental flexibility in individuals with ASD (e.g., Minshew et al 2002;Ozonoff et al 1991a;Prior and Hoffmann 1990;Szatmari et al 1990). The diagnostic groups did not differ on any of the four measures of attention, with or without stimulant medication included as a covariate.…”

“…Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), such as autism or Asperger's syndrome, frequently show deficits on neuropsychological tests that measure executive function (Hughes et al 1994;Minshew et al 2002;Ozonoff et al 1991b;Prior and Hoffmann 1990;Szatmari et al 1990). In addition, children with ASD frequently evidence attentional difficulties consistent with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Ghaziuddin et al 1998;Schatz et al 2002;Yoshida and Uchiyama 2004).…”

Cognitive flexibility in autism spectrum disorder: Explaining the inconsistencies?

“…d Intact performance: Corbett, Constantine, Hendren, Rocke, and Ozonoff (2009) and Hill & Bird (2006). Deficient performance: Goldstein et al (2001) and Minshew et al (2002). Remark: Both studies showing a deficient performance in ASD only looked at the performance on part B, without controlling for group differences on part A. e Lopez et al (2005).…”

Inhibitory Control in High-Functioning Autism: Decreased Activation and Underconnectivity in Inhibition Networks

“…All these functions are part of the type of complex information processing in which people with autism have difficulty (Minshew et al 1997). According to Minshew et al (2002), autism may reflect a disturbance in resolving conflict between different strategies and monitoring and switching strategies to achieve goals. Lower levels of cingulate activation in participants with autism might be the source of difficulty in these functions.…”