Previous research had shown that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have more difficulty than others in remembering the order in which verbal information appeared such as, for example, the order in which one may pass through various cities on a road trip from Austin to Seattle. Bowler and colleagues wanted to see if this deficit in verbal serial recall would extend to non-verbal visual-spatial information, in this case the sequence of seven points which appeared on a map (a 3 x 4 grid) one point at a time. Participants had to recall the correct locations on the map in the exact order in which each point appeared.
These researchers found that, compared to neurotypical individuals, individuals with ASD had more difficulty remembering the order in which visual-spatial information appeared. Interestingly, their results also suggested that autistic individuals may use verbal strategies to remember non-verbal information.
Abstract
To clarify the role of item and order memory in the serial recall of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we carried out 2 experiments in which adults with ASD and comparison participants matched on chronological age and verbal IQ saw sequences of 7 dots appear sequentially in a 3 × 4 grid. In Experiment 1 (serial recall), they had to recall the locations and the presentation order of the dots by tapping locations on an empty grid. In Experiment 2, (order reconstruction) the studied dots were provided at test and participants had to touch them in their order of appearance at study. Experiment 1 revealed diminished item and order recall in the ASD group; Experiment 2 revealed diminished order recall only when verbal IQ was controlled. The results support the view that people with ASD have particular difficulty with serial order recall but may use their language ability to achieve better serial recall performance.
Citation
Bowler, D. M., Poirier, M., Martin, J. S., & Gaigg, S. B. (2016). Nonverbal short-term serial order memory in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 125(7), 886–893.
Dr Martin Fracker 