Action memory and self-monitoring in children with autism: self versus other

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Hill, Elisabeth L. and Russell, J.. 2002. Action memory and self-monitoring in children with autism: self versus other. Infant and Child Development, 11(2), pp. 159-170. ISSN 1522-7227 [Article]

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/icd.303

Abstract or Description

One key component of executive function is self-monitoring. While a number of studies have implied that self-monitoring deficits may exist in autism (e.g. Russell and Jarrold, 1998), direct tests of this explanation have failed to reveal an autism-specific deficit (Russell and Hill, 2001). In order to assess further whether a self-monitoring deficit is present in autism, three groups of children (20 children with autism, 20 with moderate learning difficulties and 20 typically developing children, all matched for verbal mental age) participated in an action memory task. First, the participant and experimenter took turns to produce actions with pairs of objects. Second, participants were presented with an unexpected recall task in which they were required to (i) make a familiarity judgement, (ii) produce an event memory and (iii) produce a source attribution (self/other) concerning the actions performed on these pairs of objects. Broadly speaking, no performance differences were seen between the three participant groups, although there was a small but significant difference in source attributions for the accurately performing children with autism and the less accurately performing children with moderate learning difficulties. We discuss the findings in relation to the literature concerning self-monitoring in autism.

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Article

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https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.303