This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version.
Permanent repository link:http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/5378/ Link to published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1869-9Copyright and reuse: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. It is now generally agreed that there are 5 separate, but interacting memory systems (Nadel, 1992;Squire, 2004), the procedural memory system, the perceptual representation system, the working memory system, the semantic memory system and, the episodic memory system. The procedural and the perceptual representation system, share the features that they are considered non-declarative, non-conscious and implicit forms of memory, whilst the working memory system, semantic system and episodic system share the common attribute that they are open to consciousness, explicit and declarative memory systems. Declarative memory allows the cognitive registering of relations between objects and events (Tulving, 1985). The working memory system (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974) is different from the semantic and episodic memory systems in that it reflects a short-term, temporary storage for various types of information (e.g., auditory and visual information). The episodic and semantic memory systems are thought to be the most developed of the five human memory systems because they are open to conscious awareness (Schacter & Tulving, 1994). Semantic memory is the memory system responsible for timeless facts, such as the boiling point of water (and is
context-free), whilst episodic memory is responsible for personally experienced andRemembered events that allow an individual to re-experience an event from the past
(and is context-rich).Research in recent decades has highlighted a characteristic profile of memory abilities in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), (see Bowler & Gaigg, 2008;Boucher, Mayes & Bigham, 2012, for reviews). In general, high functioning individuals with ASD show preserved semantic memory. Evidence for this is borne out of studies that have investigated immediate memory, cued recall and recognition in ASD (Boucher & Bowler, 2008; Bowler, Matthews & Gardiner, 2007;Boucher and Lewis, 1989). By contrast, they show some impairment on measures of episodic memory, including tests such as free recall (Smith et al., 2007;Boucher & Warrington, 1976), and significantly diminished memory for personally experienced events (Bruck, London, Landa & Goodman, 2007; Crane & Goddard, 2008;Tanweer, Rathbone & Souchay, 2010). They especially fail to use semantic relations amongst studied items to aid free recall (Bowler et al., 1997) and fail to learn as rapidly as comparison participants when the task involves multiple trials (Bowler, Gaigg & Gardiner, 2008b; Bowler, Mottron & Limoges, 2009). The recall/recognit...