An Eye-Movement Study of relational Memory in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Melanie Ring, Dermot M Bowler, Sebastian B Gaigg
PMID 28688076WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with autism looked less at previously studied object locations when asked to retrieve them, but were similar to comparison adults when choosing new locations.
Eye-tracking may help test memory without requiring an overt response.
Key findings
01Adults with autism were worse at replacing objects into studied locations but similar to comparison adults when choosing new locations.
02During encoding, comparison adults looked longer at objects they later remembered, while adults with autism did not show this subsequent memory effect.
03During retrieval, adults with autism looked less at studied target locations and less at distracter locations, and eye-tracking differences were associated with overt target choices.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The final sample was modest, with 18 TD and 20 ASD adults. The encoding subsequent-memory analysis used only 12 TD and 17 ASD participants because the remaining participants made no retrieval errors. Each participant had only 24 trials, and splitting the data by condition and response type left few trials for some analyses. The authors note that the number of analyses across this study and the related object-location study raises concern about Type 1 errors. The study tested adults with autism who were matched to comparison adults on age and IQ, so it may not apply to children or people with more severe intellectual or language impairment. The study reported laboratory memory and gaze measures, not communication, occupational performance, therapy outcomes, or diagnostic accuracy.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that adults with autism have normal encoding and only a retrieval problem. The eye-tracking result showed no encoding subsequent-memory effect in autism, but the authors state this could also reflect atypical encoding processes.