Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Visual Perspective Taking as a Measure of Working Memory in Participants With Autism

  • Published:
Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There is mounting evidence that people with autism have executive function deficits and that those deficits are linked to the social impairment characteristic of autism. Bennetto et al. Child Dev.(1996) 67: 1817–1835 suggest that, more specifically, people with autism may have a deficit in working memory. This hypothesis was tested using a visual perspective-taking task whose working memory load could be systematically varied. The performance of participants with autism on this task was significantly worse than that of the control participants.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • American Psychiatric Association (1987). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennetto, L., Pennington, B. F., and Rogers, S. J. (1996). Intact and impaired memory functions in autism. Child Dev. 67: 1816–1835.

    Google Scholar 

  • Case, R. (1992). The role of the frontal lobes in the regulation of cognitive development. Brain Cognit. 20: 51–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chelune, G. J., Ferguson, W., Koon, R., and Dickey, T. O. (1986). Frontal lobe disinhibition in attention deficit disorder. Child Psychiatry Hum. Dev. 16: 221–234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, P., and Rutter, M. (1979). Task difficulty and task performance in autistic children. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 20: 271–285.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, L. M., and Dunn, L. M. (1981). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised, American Guidance Service, Circle Pines, MN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobson, R. P. (1984). Early childhood autism and the question of egocentrism. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 14: 85–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, M., and Donaldson, M. (1979). The use of hiding games for studying the coordination of viewpoints. Educ. Rev. 31: 133–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, C., and Russell, J. (1993). Autistic children's difficulty with mental disengagement from an object: Its implications for theories of autism. Dev. Psychol. 29: 498–510.

    Google Scholar 

  • Llamas, C., and Diamond, A. (1991). Development of Frontal Cortex Abilities in Children Between 3–8 Years of Age, Biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle,WA.

  • Mazzocco, M. M. M., Hagerman, R. J., Cronister-Silverman, A., and Pennington, B. F. (1992). Specific frontal lobe deficits among women with the fragile X gene. J. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 31: 1141–1148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazzocco, M.M. M., Pennington, B. F., and Hagerman, R. J. (1993). The neurocognitive phenotype of female carriers of fragile X: Further evidence for specificity. J. Dev. Behav. Pediatr. 14: 328–335.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEvoy, R. E., Rogers, S. J., and Pennington, B. F. (1993). Executive function and social communication deficits in young autistic children. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 34: 563–578.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesibov, G. B., Schopler, E., Schaffer, M. A., and Michal, N. (1989). Use of the childhood autism rating scale with autistic adolescents and adults. J. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 28: 538–541.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moffitt, T. E., and Henry, B. (1989). Neuropsychological assessment of executive functions in self-reported delinquents. Dev. Psychopathol. 1: 105–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozonoff, S., Pennington, B. F., and Rogers, S. J. (1991a). Executive function deficits in high-functioning autistic individuals: Relationship to theory of mind. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 32: 1081–1105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozonoff, S., Rogers, S. J., and Pennington, B. F. (1991b). Asperger's syndrome: Evidence of an empirical distinction from high-functioning autism. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 32: 1107–1122.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozonoff, S., Strayer, D. L., McMahon, W. M., and Filloux, F. (1994). Executive function abilities in autism and Tourette Syndrome: An information processing approach. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 35: 1015–1032.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennington, B. F., Groisser, D., and Welsh, M. C. (1993). Contrasting cognitive deficits inattention deficit hyperactivity disorder versus reading disability. Dev. Psychol. 29: 511–523.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prior, M., and Hoffmann, W. (1990). Brief report: Neuropsychological testing of autistic children through an exploration with frontal lobe tests. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 20: 581–590.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed,T. (1994). Performance of autistic and control subjects on three cognitive perspective taking tasks. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 24: 53–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed, T., and Peterson, C. (1990). Acomparative study of autistic subjects' performance at two levels of visual and cognitive perspective taking. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 20: 555–567.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumsey, J. M. (1985). Conceptual problem solving in highly verbal, nonretarded autistic men. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 15: 23–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumsey, J. M., and Hamburger, S. D. (1988). Neuropsychological findings in high functioning autistic men with infantile autism, residual state. J. Clin. Exp. Neuropsychol. 10: 201–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumsey, J. M., and Hamburger, S. D. (1990). Neuropsychological divergence of high-level autism and severe dyslexia. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 20: 155–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, J., Jarrold, C., and Hood, B. (1999). Two intact executive capacities in children with autism: Implications for the core executive dysfunctions in the disorder.J. Autism Dev. Disord. 29: 103–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, J., Mauthner, N., Sharpe, S., and Tidswell, T. (1991). The ‘windows task’ as a measure of strategic deception in preschoolers and autistic subjects. Br. J. Dev. Psychol. 9: 331–349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schopler, E., Reichler, R. J., and Renner, B. R. (1990). The Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Western Psychological Services, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shallice, T., and Burgess, P. (1991). Higher-order cognitive impairments and frontal lobe lesions in man. In Levin, Eisenberg, and Benton (eds.), Frontal Lobe Function and Dysfunction, Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobesky, W. E., Pennington, B. F., Porter, D., Hull, C. E., and Hagerman, R. J. (1994). Emotional and neurocognitive deficits in fragile X. Am. J. Med. Genet. 51: 1–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuss, D. T., and Benson, D. F. (1986). Executive system. In Stuss, D. T., and Benson, D. F. (eds.), The Frontal Lobes, Raven Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Maine at Farmington, Farmington, Maine

    Taffy Reed

Authors
  1. Taffy Reed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Taffy Reed.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Reed, T. Visual Perspective Taking as a Measure of Working Memory in Participants With Autism. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities 14, 63–76 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013515829985

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013515829985

Search

Navigation