Working memory in children with autism and with moderate learning difficulties

Author(s): Jarrold, C., Henry, L.

Journal/Book: J Child Psychol Psychiat. 1996; 37: The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, England OX5 1GB. Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd. 673-686.

Abstract: We asked whether children with autism are specifically impaired on tests of working memory. Experiment 1 showed that children with autism were at least as likely as normal children to employ articulatory rehearsal (criterion: evincing the ''word length effect'') and that they had superior spans to that of children with moderate learning difficulties. In Experiment 2, participants were given ''capacity tasks'' in order to examine group differences in the capacity of the central executive of working memory. The performance of the children with autism was inferior to that of the normally developing group and similar to that of the children with moderate learning difficulties.

Note: Article J Russell, Univ Cambridge, Dept Expt Psychol, Downing St, Cambridge CB2 3EB, England

Keyword(s): autism; executive functions; working memory; mental handicap; SHORT-TERM-MEMORY; EXECUTIVE FUNCTION; AMNESIC SYNDROME; FRONTAL LOBES; WORD-LENGTH; FREE-RECALL; SPAN; MIND; INDIVIDUALS; TASK

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