Impairments on “open‐ended” executive function tests in autism

Abstract

The executive function (EF) theory of autism has received much support recently from a growing number of studies. However, executive impairments have not always been easy to identify consistently and so novel "ecologically valid" tests have been designed which tap into real-life scenarios that are relevant to and representative of everyday behavior. One characteristic of many of these tasks is that they present the participant with an "ill-structured" or "open-ended" situation. Here, we investigated the possibility that tasks with greater degrees of open-endedness might prove more sensitive to detecting executive impairment in autism. Forty-five children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were compared to 27 age- and IQ-matched control children on a range of cognitive tests of EF. Group differences were found on half of the tasks, with the greatest degree of impairment detected on the more open-ended tasks. The ASD group also performed more poorly on a simple control condition of a task. Detailed consideration of task performance suggested that the ASD group tended to create fewer spontaneous strategies and exhibit more idiosyncratic behavior, which particularly disadvantaged them on the more open-ended tasks. These kinds of behaviors have been reported in studies of neurological patients with frontal lobe involvement, prima facie suggesting a link between the scientific fields. However, we suggest that this behavior might equally result from a poor understanding of the implicit demands made by the experimenter in open-ended test situations, due to the socio-communicative difficulties of these children.

Investigating Multitasking in High-Functioning Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders Using the Virtual Errands Task

“…With this caveat, we argue that in general terms our findings support those of others who have found multitasking difficulties in ASD (Emslie et al, 2003;Hill & Bird, 2006;MacKinlay et al, 2006;White et al, 2009). More importantly, these findings have arisen from the use of a novel paradigm involving a virtual environment that couples simulation of a real environment with the scientific control of a laboratory setting for testing participants and collecting high quality data.…”

“…Our ASD participants also performed more poorly on the Modified Six Elements Test sub-task of the BADS, a finding that provides some cross-validation of the novel VET task for assessing ASD. It is also a finding that is consistent with Emslie et al, 2003, Hill & Bird, 2006and White et al, 2009 participants all demonstrated difficulties with either adult or child versions of that test.…”

“…Task demands appear to be crucial in understanding EF in ASD, and using White et al's (2009) classification of EF tasks as either being "OpenEnded'' or "Constrained" -multitasking tasks seem to fall under the umbrella of "Open-…”

“…This is because these tasks, by their very nature, can be tackled using different strategies; strategies that are more likely (than "Constrained EF Tasks") to reveal difficulties with socio-communication and "autistic" idiosyncrasies. Importantly, any idiosyncratic reasons for multitasking problems in ASD may not be mutually exclusive to any executive reasons behind problems of multitasking (White et al, 2009). Nevertheless, the fact that participants are generally not explicitly told to do the tests of multitasking in the most efficient way cannot be ruled out as reason behind poorer performance in ASD groups.…”

“…The fourth, and most recent study on multitasking in ASD, was conducted by White, Burgess and Hill (2009) whose investigation included how children with ASD performed on the BADS-C. Mirroring Hill and Bird's (1996) finding in adults, White et al found that children with ASD completed fewer tasks and took longer on any subtask than the TD control children in the 'Six Parts Test'. Notably, White and colleagues argued for the differentiation of EF tasks depending on whether they are "Constrained" or "OpenEnded".…”