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The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism
Open accessAbstract
We present an overview of current literature addressing cognitive flexibility in autism spectrum disorders. Based on recent studies at multiple sites, using diverse methods and participants of different autism subtypes, ages and cognitive levels, no consistent evidence for cognitive flexibility deficits was found. Researchers and clinicians assume that inflexible everyday behaviors in autism are directly related to cognitive flexibility deficits as assessed by clinical and experimental measures. However, there is a large gap between the day-to-day behavioral flexibility and that measured with these cognitive flexibility tasks. To advance the field, experimental measures must evolve to reflect mechanistic models of flexibility deficits. Moreover, ecologically valid measures are required to be able to resolve the paradox between cognitive and behavioral inflexibility.
Checked 2026-10-06 · 2 references not checked yet
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In the paper
“Despite the strong face-validity of this relationship (Table 1), it has proven difficult to clearly articulate the links between them [6,7]”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why is this important?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [6] Joseph, 2004, The relationship of theory of mind and executive functions to symptom type and severity in children with autism, Dev. Psychopathol. source
- Not checked yetcites [7] Landa, 2005, Language, social, and executive functions in high functioning Autism: a continuum of performance, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
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In the paper
“To date, the obtained correlations seem to be aspecific because other executive functions like working memory and inhibition also seem to relate to autism characteristics [9].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why is this important?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [9] Lopez, 2005, Examining the relationship between executive functions and restricted, repetitive symptoms of Autistic disorder, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
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In the paper
“Hence, we do not dispute that people with autism encounter difficulties when performing on this task.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
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In the paper
“Two studies showed that children and adults with autism had no difficulties on the TMT [9,29].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [9] Lopez, 2005, Examining the relationship between executive functions and restricted, repetitive symptoms of Autistic disorder, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [29] Corbett, B.A. et al. Examining executive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and typical development. Psychiatry Res. (in press)
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In the paper
“Studies using another clinical neuropsychological measure, the trail making test (TMT), report mixed conclusions [8,9,15–17,29].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8] Hill, 2006, Executive processes in Asperger syndrome: patterns of performance in a multiple case series, Neuropsychologia source
- Not checked yetcites [9] Lopez, 2005, Examining the relationship between executive functions and restricted, repetitive symptoms of Autistic disorder, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [15] Goldstein, 2001, Attentional processes in autism, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [16] Goldstein, 2002, High-functioning autism and schizophrenia - A comparison of an early and late onset neurodevelopmental disorder, Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. source
- Not checked yetcites [17] Minshew, 2002, Abstract reasoning in autism: a dissociation between concept formation and concept identification, Neuropsychology source
- Not checked yetcites [29] Corbett, B.A. et al. Examining executive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and typical development. Psychiatry Res. (in press)
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In the paper
“By contrast, four studies reported that participants with autism did have difficulties with this task [8,15–17]”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8] Hill, 2006, Executive processes in Asperger syndrome: patterns of performance in a multiple case series, Neuropsychologia source
- Not checked yetcites [15] Goldstein, 2001, Attentional processes in autism, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [16] Goldstein, 2002, High-functioning autism and schizophrenia - A comparison of an early and late onset neurodevelopmental disorder, Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. source
- Not checked yetcites [17] Minshew, 2002, Abstract reasoning in autism: a dissociation between concept formation and concept identification, Neuropsychology source
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In the paper
“The majority of the studies that reported cognitive flexibility deficits in autism included a clinical neuropsychological measure, the wisconsin card sorting task (WCST, Table 2).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
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In the paper
“Second, many cognitive flexibility autism studies using clinical neuropsychological measures indicate that there are cognitive flexibility deficits.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
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In the paper
“Based on recent studies at multiple sites, using diverse methods and participants of different autism subtypes, ages and cognitive levels, no consistent evidence for cognitive flexibility deficits was found.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Abstract
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In the paper
“Recent studies using this measure in autism also demonstrate deficits in changing sorting strategy across populations of various autism subtypes, ages and cognitive levels ([9,13–22], but see Ref. [23]).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [9] Lopez, 2005, Examining the relationship between executive functions and restricted, repetitive symptoms of Autistic disorder, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [13] Ambery, 2006, Differences in neuroanatomy and their relationship to cognitive functioning in people with Asperger's syndrome and high functioning autism, Biol. Psychiatry
- Not checked yetcites [14] Geurts, 2004, How specific are executive functioning deficits in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and autism?, J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry Allied Discip. source
- Not checked yetcites [15] Goldstein, 2001, Attentional processes in autism, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [16] Goldstein, 2002, High-functioning autism and schizophrenia - A comparison of an early and late onset neurodevelopmental disorder, Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. source
- Not checked yetcites [17] Minshew, 2002, Abstract reasoning in autism: a dissociation between concept formation and concept identification, Neuropsychology source
- Not checked yetcites [18] Pellicano, 2006, Multiple cognitive capabilities/deficits in children with an autism spectrum disorder: “Weak” central coherence and its relationship to theory of mind and executive control, Dev. Psychopathol. source
- Not checked yetcites [19] Pellicano, 2007, Links between theory of mind and executive function in young children with autism: clues to developmental primacy, Dev. Psychol. source
- Not checked yetcites [20] Tsuchiya, 2005, Computerized version of the Wisconsin card sorting test in children with high-functioning autistic disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Brain Dev. source
- Not checked yetcites [21] Verté, 2005, Executive functioning in children with autism and Tourette syndrome, Dev. Psychopathol. source
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In the paper
“Illustrative in this respect is that two studies that used an adjusted version of this task, the modified card sorting task (MCST) could not differentiate between adults with autism (low [27] and high functioning [8]) and typically developing adults.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
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In the paper
“There are a handful of fMRI studies examining EFs in ASD, but only two of these have focused on cognitive flexibility.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
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In the paper
“The majority of recent studies using this task (including participants of various ages and cognitive levels) could not differentiate between individuals with autism and typically developing individuals [29,32,34,35].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [29] Corbett, B.A. et al. Examining executive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and typical development. Psychiatry Res. (in press)
- Not checked yetcites [32] Happé, 2006, Executive function deficits in autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: examining profiles across domains and ages, Brain Cogn. source
- Not checked yetcites [34] Goldberg, 2005, Subtle executive impairment in children with Autism and children with ADHD, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [35] Sinzig, 2008, Inhibition, flexibility, working memory and planning in autism spectrum disorders with and without comorbid ADHD-symptoms, Child Adolesc. Psychiatry Ment. Health source
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In the paper
“However, other studies which included children with autism that had comorbid symptoms of ADHD [29,34] did not show a group difference on the ID/ED task.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [29] Corbett, B.A. et al. Examining executive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and typical development. Psychiatry Res. (in press)
- Not checked yetcites [34] Goldberg, 2005, Subtle executive impairment in children with Autism and children with ADHD, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
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In the paper
“In direct comparisons between ADHD and ASD on the WCST, the findings are inconsistent.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
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In the paper
“Second, as described later, studies in autism using experimental cognitive psychology measures that are developed to examine the function of specific cognitive systems, often do not report cognitive flexibility deficits in autism.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
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In the paper
“Shafritz and colleagues [41] showed in a larger study that adult with ASD performed worse than TYP controls in inhibiting responses to rare stimuli.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [41] Shafritz, 2008, The neural circuitry mediating shifts in behavioral response and cognitive set in autism, Biol. Psychiatry source
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In the paper
“It seems that the better the task (i.e. more mechanistic), the smaller the groups.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
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In the paper
“Second, the discussed studies differ enormously in the number of participants.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
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In the paper
“These results indicated some quantitative evidence for cognitive inflexibility in autism (Table 2).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
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In the paper
“Grouping the studies (Table S1 in supplementary material) according to each of these three factors instead of according to task type did not reveal more consistent results.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
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In the paper
“Besides the differences in the applied cognitive flexibility tasks among the studies, there is considerable heterogeneity in age, cognitive level and autism subtype of the participants.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
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In the paper
“It has proven challenging to link performances on the current cognitive flexibility measures to actual behavior [6–10].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [6] Joseph, 2004, The relationship of theory of mind and executive functions to symptom type and severity in children with autism, Dev. Psychopathol. source
- Not checked yetcites [7] Landa, 2005, Language, social, and executive functions in high functioning Autism: a continuum of performance, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [8] Hill, 2006, Executive processes in Asperger syndrome: patterns of performance in a multiple case series, Neuropsychologia source
- Not checked yetcites [9] Lopez, 2005, Examining the relationship between executive functions and restricted, repetitive symptoms of Autistic disorder, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [10] South, 2007, The relationship between executive functions, central coherence, and repetitive behavior in the high-functioning autism spectrum, Autism source
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In the paper
“However, there is a large gap between the day-to-day behavioral flexibility and that measured with these cognitive flexibility tasks.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Abstract
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Rests on an assumption: Autism involves pervasive cognitive and behavioral rigidity across functional domains.
- Rests on an assumption: Individuals with autism encounter difficulties changing strategy during daily activities and adapting their perspective during social interactions.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“but it is not clear whether this was because of cognitive inflexibility because only times for each part of the task, as opposed to difference scores, were reported.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
hedgedconditionaln = 4- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“However, also in this modified task, multiple cognitive processes come into play.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
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In the paper
“Willcutt and colleagues [12] demonstrated, in their meta-analysis, a large effect size (Cohen’s d between 1.0 and 1.5) for the difference in ‘cognitive flexibility’ between individuals with autism compared to typically developing groups.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [12] Willcutt, 2008, Recent developments in neuropsychological models of childhood psychiatric disorders, Adv. Biol. Psychiatry source
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In the paper
“The findings indicate that being provided with knowledge of a change facilitates performance in individuals with autism.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
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In the paper
“Hence, we cannot determine why individuals with autism fail on this task.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
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In the paper
“None of these processes can be distinguished by the traditional task scoring system [24–26].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [24] Barcelo, 1999, Role of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in attentional set shifting: parsing the cognitive significance of WCST errors with event-related potentials, Psychophysiology
- Not checked yetcites [25] Ozonoff, 1995, Reliability and validity of the Wisconsin card sorting test in studies of autism, Neuropsychology source
- Not checked yetcites [26] Sergeant, 2002, How specific is a deficit of executive functioning for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?, Behav. Brain Res. source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“However, because many of the participants never reach the crucial level, it cannot be unequivocally determined whether individuals with ASD demonstrate problems with cognitive flexibility.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“As shown in Table 1 (in the main text), regions commonly activated during these tasks are related to fronto-parietal and fronto-striatal brain regions [59–65].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [59] Konishi, 2002, Hemispheric asymmetry in human lateral prefrontal cortex during cognitive set shifting, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. source
- Not checked yetcites [60] Konishi, 2008, Differential superior prefrontal activity on initial versus subsequent shifts in naive subjects, Neuroimage source
- Not checked yetcites [61] Moll, 2002, The cerebral correlates of set-shifting: an fMRI study of the trail making test, Arq. Neuropsiquiatr. source
- Not checked yetcites [62] O’Reilly, 2002, Prefrontal cortex and dynamic categorization tasks: representational organization and neuromodulatory control, Cereb. Cortex source
- Not checked yetcites [63] Smith, 2004, Neural correlates of switching set as measured in fast, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, Hum. Brain Mapp. source
- Not checked yetcites [64] Yochim, 2007, D-KEFS trail making test performance in patients with lateral prefrontal cortex lesions, J. Int. Neuropsychol. Soc. source
- Not checked yetcites [65] Zakzanis, 2005, An fMR1 study of the trail making test, Neuropsychologia source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“However, according to a recent meta-analysis of Willcutt and colleagues [12], people with ADHD do experience mild difficulties in this domain (effect size [Cohen’s d] was .01–0.3, which is small).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [12] Willcutt, 2008, Recent developments in neuropsychological models of childhood psychiatric disorders, Adv. Biol. Psychiatry source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“These findings also indicate that in interpreting cognitive flexibility studies, developmental factors need to be taken into account [11,32].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [11] Russo, 2007, Deconstructing executive deficits among persons with autism: implications for cognitive neuroscience, Brain Cogn. source
- Not checked yetcites [32] Happé, 2006, Executive function deficits in autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: examining profiles across domains and ages, Brain Cogn. source
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“In cognitive neuroscience it is more common to use task-switching paradigms, which employ a more controlled experimental design, to measure cognitive flexibility.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“Findings from two recent studies of children with ASD indicate that 40% to 50% meet symptom criteria for at least one of the three ADHD subtypes [38,39].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [38] Gadow, 2005, Comparison of DSM-IV symptoms in elementary school-age children with PDD versus clinic and community samples, Autism source
- Not checked yetcites [39] Gadow, 2006, ADHD symptom subtypes in children with pervasive developmental disorder, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
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In the paper
“Furthermore, monkey studies [66] indicate that different regions of the PFC are recruited in the ID and ED-shifts (see Table 2 in main text).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [66] Dias, 1996, Primate analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: effects of excitotoxic lesions of the prefrontal cortex in the marmoset, Behav. Neurosci. source
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“Recent studies reporting a lack of difficulty with the ID/ED task [29,32,34,35] all included direct comparisons of autism to both typically developing individuals and individuals with ADHD.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [29] Corbett, B.A. et al. Examining executive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and typical development. Psychiatry Res. (in press)
- Not checked yetcites [32] Happé, 2006, Executive function deficits in autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: examining profiles across domains and ages, Brain Cogn. source
- Not checked yetcites [34] Goldberg, 2005, Subtle executive impairment in children with Autism and children with ADHD, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [35] Sinzig, 2008, Inhibition, flexibility, working memory and planning in autism spectrum disorders with and without comorbid ADHD-symptoms, Child Adolesc. Psychiatry Ment. Health source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“What the data indicate is that these tasks are not equivalent in regards to measuring the same construct.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This suggests that the groups might have employed different strategies.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, because of the stepwise task design (Box 1) it can be assumed that failure on the ID or ED-shift cannot be attributed to impairments in learning from feedback, maintaining a response over time or keeping a future goal in mind because this has been tested at the beginning of the task.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The ID/ED task seems to be a more specific measure of cognitive control than the WCST because distinctions can be made between relevant cognitive processes.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The ED-shift is regarded as a more demanding shift than an ID-shift because it included a perceptual shift in addition to a shift from one dimension to another (i.e. shifting cognitive set).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“however, excessive elevation can result in reduced performance [53].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [53] Yerkes, 1908, The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation, J. Comp. Neurol. Psychol. source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“and these deficits could be linked to difficulties with joint attention.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Although we cannot conclude whether cognitive inflexibility as currently measured is central to autism”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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In the paper
“Psychobiological factors, such as stress, might underlie the poor response to novelty and changes in routine in autism [52].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [52] Corbett, 2006, Cortisol circadian rhythms and response to stress in children with autism, Psychoneuroendocrinology source
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Also South and colleagues [10] showed that WCST performance correlated with the amount of repetitive behavior (see also Ref. [9]).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [10] South, 2007, The relationship between executive functions, central coherence, and repetitive behavior in the high-functioning autism spectrum, Autism source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Moreover, non-significant group differences are not indicative of fully intact performance”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“For example, Hill and Bird [8] showed clear correlations between autism characteristics (i.e. mainly in the communication domain) with a more ecologically valid task.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8] Hill, 2006, Executive processes in Asperger syndrome: patterns of performance in a multiple case series, Neuropsychologia source
boostedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Interestingly, perceptual shifting has shown to be deficient in individuals with autism [50]”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [50] Landry, 2004, Impaired disengagement of attention in young children with autism, J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry Allied Discip. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“whereas inflexible application of social rules might be a more prefrontal mediated problem.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Both circuitries seem to be implicated in the etiology of autism [51].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [51] Kana, 2007, Inhibitory control in high-functioning Autism: decreased activation and underconnectivity in inhibition networks, Biol. Psychiatry source
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Hence, sustained attention difficulties do not confound interpretation of findings.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“These two shift types are associated with different brain activation patterns.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [49] Ravizza, 2008, Shifting set about task switching: behavioral and neural evidence for distinct forms of cognitive flexibility, Neuropsychologia source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Difficulties initiating and responding to joint attention might be because of problems with perceptual shifting that are attributable more to the parietal neural circuitry”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Therefore, firm conclusions that there is no evidence for failure on these tasks might be premature.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Current measures might be unable to capture the multitude or complexity of environmental factors that impinge on an individual with autism in the real world.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: unclear — It is unclear whether it could be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Elevations in stress related hormones (i.e. cortisol) have been associated with poor performance on measures of cognitive flexibility in typically developing adults [54].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [54] McCormick, 2007, Individual differences in cortisol levels and performance on a test of executive function in men and women, Physiol. Behav. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“but we cannot determine whether this correlation can be explained by a specific cognitive flexibility deficit.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Although one might assume that this also partly explains the inconsistent findings [3,11,32], we believe that these factors do not provide a sufficient explanation for the current findings.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [3] Hill, 2004, Evaluating the theory of executive dysfunction in autism, Dev. Rev. source
- Not checked yetcites [11] Russo, 2007, Deconstructing executive deficits among persons with autism: implications for cognitive neuroscience, Brain Cogn. source
- Not checked yetcites [32] Happé, 2006, Executive function deficits in autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: examining profiles across domains and ages, Brain Cogn. source
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“and in these group comparisons individual differences might not become apparent.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Probably not a substantial claim. 24
- It may state two separate claims as one. 24
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“So far, none of the other prominent cognitive autism theories gives an explanation for the observed inflexibility in autism.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why is this important?
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“If we calculate this ratio (autism groups 2.0 [15,16] or 2.1 [8], schizophrenia groups >3 [16]), none of the studies actually showed evidence for difficulties with cognitive flexibility in autism.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [15] Goldstein, 2001, Attentional processes in autism, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [16] Goldstein, 2002, High-functioning autism and schizophrenia - A comparison of an early and late onset neurodevelopmental disorder, Arch. Clin. Neuropsychol. source
- Not checked yetcites [8] Hill, 2006, Executive processes in Asperger syndrome: patterns of performance in a multiple case series, Neuropsychologia source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“By contrast, Landa and colleagues [7] reported that children with high functioning autism had difficulties with ID-shifts, but outperformed typically developing children on ED-shifts.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [7] Landa, 2005, Language, social, and executive functions in high functioning Autism: a continuum of performance, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“One study of adults with autism reported no cognitive flexibility deficits [9], but another study including children with autism reported deficits [29].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [9] Lopez, 2005, Examining the relationship between executive functions and restricted, repetitive symptoms of Autistic disorder, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [29] Corbett, B.A. et al. Examining executive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and typical development. Psychiatry Res. (in press)
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“However, the discrepancies in cognitive flexibility findings might not be so straight forward because ADHD children seem to be primarily challenged on switch paradigms [70,71] but not on the ID/ED task [29,32,34,35].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [70] Cepeda, 2000, Task switching and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. source
- Not checked yetcites [71] Smith, 2006, Task-specific hypoactivation in prefrontal and temporoparietal brain regions during motor inhibition and task switching in medication-naive children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Am. J. Psychiatry source
- Not checked yetcites [29] Corbett, B.A. et al. Examining executive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and typical development. Psychiatry Res. (in press)
- Not checked yetcites [32] Happé, 2006, Executive function deficits in autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: examining profiles across domains and ages, Brain Cogn. source
- Not checked yetcites [34] Goldberg, 2005, Subtle executive impairment in children with Autism and children with ADHD, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
- Not checked yetcites [35] Sinzig, 2008, Inhibition, flexibility, working memory and planning in autism spectrum disorders with and without comorbid ADHD-symptoms, Child Adolesc. Psychiatry Ment. Health source
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“In these studies, neither the children with autism nor the children with ADHD failed the task (see also Box 2).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Task-related activation for individuals with ASD was limited to the ventrolateral PFC when a response shift or shift in cognitive set was required, whereas many other areas including dorsolateral PFC, anterior cingulate cortex, premotor cortex and the basal ganglia were activated in the TYP group.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [41] Shafritz, 2008, The neural circuitry mediating shifts in behavioral response and cognitive set in autism, Biol. Psychiatry source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“ADHD children showed difficulties with the WCST in two studies [20,68], but not in two other studies [14,69].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [20] Tsuchiya, 2005, Computerized version of the Wisconsin card sorting test in children with high-functioning autistic disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Brain Dev. source
- Not checked yetcites [68] Nyden, 1999, Executive function/attention deficits in boys with Asperger syndrome, attention disorder and reading/writing disorder, Autism source
- Not checked yetcites [14] Geurts, 2004, How specific are executive functioning deficits in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and autism?, J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry Allied Discip. source
- Not checked yetcites [69] Ozonoff, 1999, Brief report: specific executive function profiles in three neurodevelopmental disorders, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“There were no differences between the groups in behavioral performance for switching, but there was reduced activation in frontal, striatal and parietal regions in the ASD group.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [41] Shafritz, 2008, The neural circuitry mediating shifts in behavioral response and cognitive set in autism, Biol. Psychiatry source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“However, Ozonoff and colleagues [36] reported difficulties with ED-shifts and not with ID-shifts in the largest autism study to date, which included a very well-characterized national sample of children with high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [36] Ozonoff, 2004, Performance on Cambridge neuropsychological test automated battery subtests sensitive to frontal lobe function in people with autistic disorder: evidence from the collaborative programs of excellence in autism network, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The findings of Sinzig and colleagues [35] suggest that children with autism with comorbid ADHD show difficulties with the task, whereas children with autism without any comorbid ADHD do not.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [35] Sinzig, 2008, Inhibition, flexibility, working memory and planning in autism spectrum disorders with and without comorbid ADHD-symptoms, Child Adolesc. Psychiatry Ment. Health source
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In summary, with respect to clinical neuropsychological measures, only studies using the WCST clearly report deficits (i.e. has high discriminating power), whereas the findings of studies using other measures are inconsistent, but generally do not support these findings.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
boosted- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“In a relatively small study with a wide age range, Schmitz and colleagues [40] reported that adults with ASD, who performed behavioral tasks comparably to typically developing (TYP) adults, showed increased activation in the right inferior and parietal areas associated with performance on a task-switching paradigm in ASD.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [40] Schmitz, 2006, Neural correlates of executive function in autistic spectrum disorders, Biol. Psychiatry source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“To our knowledge, only four studies have investigated task-switching in people with autism and none of them reported performance deficits [40–43].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [40] Schmitz, 2006, Neural correlates of executive function in autistic spectrum disorders, Biol. Psychiatry source
- Not checked yetcites [41] Shafritz, 2008, The neural circuitry mediating shifts in behavioral response and cognitive set in autism, Biol. Psychiatry source
- Not checked yetcites [42] Stahl, 2002, Joint attention and set-shifting in young children with autism, Autism source
- Not checked yetcites [43] Whitehouse, 2006, Inner speech impairments in autism, J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry Allied Discip. source
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This qualitative literature overview shows that the findings regarding cognitive flexibility deficits in individuals with autism as assessed by either clinical neuropsychology (other than the WCST) or experimental cognitive psychology paradigms, are rather inconsistent, despite exhibiting behavioral inflexibility in many respects.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: Autism involves pervasive cognitive and behavioral rigidity across functional domains.
- Rests on an assumption: Individuals with autism encounter difficulties changing strategy during daily activities and adapting their perspective during social interactions.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The field lacks clear mechanistic hypotheses about the autism related deficits that can be tested and validated.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, we question that failure on these measures is indeed because of cognitive inflexibility because performance on these measures draws upon a broad range of cognitive processes.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Failure on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task can be because of deficits in various cognitive processes including learning from feedback, keeping the goal of the task in mind, noticing that a change in strategy is necessary, inhibiting a previous motor response, switching to another response and sustaining responding over time.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [24] Barcelo, 1999, Role of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in attentional set shifting: parsing the cognitive significance of WCST errors with event-related potentials, Psychophysiology
- Not checked yetcites [25] Ozonoff, 1995, Reliability and validity of the Wisconsin card sorting test in studies of autism, Neuropsychology source
- Not checked yetcites [26] Sergeant, 2002, How specific is a deficit of executive functioning for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?, Behav. Brain Res. source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The MCST includes a warning that the sorting rule needs to be changed, however this does not ensure the participants can do so or ascertain the new sorting rule [28].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [28] Zelazo, 1996, An age-related dissociation between knowing rules and using them, Cogn. Dev. source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Arbuthnott and Frank [30] showed that a ratio score of the first part of the task in relation to the second part that is higher than three is indicative of cognitive flexibility difficulties.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why are such cognitive flexibility deficits considered central to autism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [30] Arbuthnott, 2000, Trail making test, part B as a measure of executive control: validation using a set-switching paradigm, J. Clin. Exp. Neuropsychol. source
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Nonetheless, there are two potential confounds in this task. First, participants failing to reach the final stages of the task are automatically given the highest error score, which might obscure findings (Box 1). Sustaining attention difficulties, as opposed to cognitive flexibility, can decrease performance on this task, which is the second potential confound.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This very brief overview of recent neuroimaging findings indicates that more studies based on mechanistically plausible hypotheses using well-controlled experimental paradigms, including large samples of children with ASD, will be required before it is possible to draw conclusions about cognitive flexibility from imaging studies.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Hence, both ASD and ADHD have been associated with cognitive control difficulties, but ostensibly diverge when we focus on cognitive flexibility.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“First, as described in the previous paragraph, there are serious issues with the WCST that makes it impossible to conclude that failure is indeed because of cognitive inflexibility, although failure might be because of generalized performance deficits (i.e. executive functioning deficits).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Stated simply, success on the ID/ED task does not predict success on a task-switch paradigm because other factors, such as the level of attention shifting (i.e. feature versus dimension) probably have a role in determining performance (Box 1).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Thus, it remains unclear whether comorbidity of ADHD in autism is a valid explanation for mixed findings (Box 3).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“Because Happé [32] only included children with ADHD of the combined subtype, differences related to subtype do not provide a sufficient explanation for these mixed findings.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [32] Happé, 2006, Executive function deficits in autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: examining profiles across domains and ages, Brain Cogn. source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Some argue that attention difficulties are central to autism [37], and there is a striking co-occurrence of autism with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [38,39].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [38] Gadow, 2005, Comparison of DSM-IV symptoms in elementary school-age children with PDD versus clinic and community samples, Autism source
- Not checked yetcites [39] Gadow, 2006, ADHD symptom subtypes in children with pervasive developmental disorder, J. Autism Dev. Disord. source
boostedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“It is well established that people with ADHD encounter various severe cognitive control difficulties [57], but cognitive flexibility does not seem to be a key deficit [4,12,26,57,67].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [57] Nigg, 2005, An integrative theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder based on the cognitive and affective neurosciences, Dev. Psychopathol. source
- Not checked yetcites [4] Pennington, 1996, Executive functions and developmental psychopathology, J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry Allied Discip. source
- Not checked yetcites [12] Willcutt, 2008, Recent developments in neuropsychological models of childhood psychiatric disorders, Adv. Biol. Psychiatry source
- Not checked yetcites [26] Sergeant, 2002, How specific is a deficit of executive functioning for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?, Behav. Brain Res. source
- Not checked yetcites [67] Willcutt, 2005, Validity of the executive function theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analytic review, Biol. Psychiatry source
boosted- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Second, to our knowledge the sequence of trial types involved in the ID/ED is not based on a validated neural network model of cognitive control.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Why the skepticism?
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“For example, Wager and colleagues [48] reported that in typically developing adults, good and poor performance on a cognitive flexibility task were associated with activation of different neural circuits (ventral medial prefrontal cortex [MPFC] and rostral anterior cingulate cortex [ACC], and dorsolateral PFC [DLPFC], MPFC and parietal cortex, respectively).”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [48] Wager, 2005, Towards a taxonomy of attention shifting: individual differences in fMRI during multiple shift types, Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Therefore, the correlations obtained in the given examples [8–10] might be because of a general executive functioning deficit”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Other top down factors and/or mediating variables (bottom up) might better explain inflexibility than the measures discussed so far.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, increasing ecological validity always comes at the cost of reducing the mechanistic purity of the task.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Hence, these comparisons between clinical groups might help us to unravel the etiology of each of these disorders and will provide insight into the differences and similarities among various neurodevelopmental disorders [44].”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [44] Casey, 2001, Evidence for a mechanistic model of cognitive control, Clin. Neurosci. Res. source
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: Neurodevelopmental disorders may differ in the onset of apparent deficits and in the neurobiological substrate where those deficits arise.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, there is considerable evidence that ADHD characteristics need to be carefully considered when studying autism (Box 2)”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
boosted- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
- Rests on an assumption: Attention difficulties may interact with deficits in other developmental domains in autism.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“For example, failure on the WCST might be because of social-motivational factors [25,26]”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [25] Ozonoff, 1995, Reliability and validity of the Wisconsin card sorting test in studies of autism, Neuropsychology source
- Not checked yetcites [26] Sergeant, 2002, How specific is a deficit of executive functioning for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?, Behav. Brain Res. source
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“or uncertainty regarding the expectations of the task which might evoke stress.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“In the current diagnostic statistical manual (DSM)-IV-text revision [1], both diagnoses cannot be given simultaneously.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [1] American Psychiatric Association (2000) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., TR) American Psychiatric Association
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Ravizza and Carter [49] have argued that all switches are not created equal”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [49] Ravizza, 2008, Shifting set about task switching: behavioral and neural evidence for distinct forms of cognitive flexibility, Neuropsychologia source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“It is well-established that a certain level of arousal and/or stress is conducive for optimal performance”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [53] Yerkes, 1908, The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation, J. Comp. Neurol. Psychol. source
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Although unstudied, over or under arousal might provide a plausible connection between psychobiological factors and performance on cognitive flexibility tasks in autism.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“One benefit of task-switching paradigms is that they have been extensively studied in typical development, providing a context for use in atypically developing populations.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
boosted- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“To go directly from the mechanistic tasks to observable behavior might be too large a gap to bridge.”
§ The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism > Conclusions and future directions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
The paper relies on this without support.
Autism involves pervasive cognitive and behavioral rigidity across functional domains.
“Clinical observation indicates that pervasive cognitive and behavioral rigidity across functional domains is diagnostic of autism.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Individuals with autism encounter difficulties changing strategy during daily activities and adapting their perspective during social interactions.
“They encounter difficulties in changing strategy during daily activities or adapting their perspective during social interactions.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Autism involves deficits in both cognitive and motivational domains.
“because we know that autism is associated with deficits in both domains.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Neurodevelopmental disorders may differ in the onset of apparent deficits and in the neurobiological substrate where those deficits arise.
“Moreover, neurodevelopmental disorders might differ in terms of onset of apparent deficits in addition to the neurobiological substrate level in which these deficits arise.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Attention difficulties may interact with deficits in other developmental domains in autism.
“because attention difficulties might interact with deficits in other developmental domains where people with autism are challenged.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“ACT presents a promising alternative to CBT for autistic individuals, as it addresses some of the difficulties associated with core symptoms of autism, including lack of cognitive flexibility (Geurts et al ., 2009) and perseveration or rumination (Gotham et al ., 2014; Patel et al ., 2017).”
From ACT-i, an insomnia intervention for autistic adults: A pilot study (2023) · cites this paper as Geurts et al., 2009
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“It is likewise difficult to understand relationships between behavioral data and psychophysiological data (Geurts et al., 2009; Watts et al., 2016).”
From Sensory, emotional and cognitive contributions to anxiety in autism spectrum disorders (2017) · cites this paper as Geurts et al., 2009
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“It is important to note that well-documented inflexible everyday behaviours in ASD are not necessarily directly related to cognitive flexibility deficits assessed experimentally85.”
From Cognitive and behavioural flexibility: Neural mechanisms and clinical considerations (2021) · cites this paper as [85]
In the citing paper
“Despite reports of cognitive flexibility deficits in ASD (70,71), particularly in younger children (72,73), there are conflicting notions regarding the extent, nature, etiology, and neurobiology of these deficits (74).”
From Brain Mechanisms Supporting Flexible Cognition and Behavior in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder (2021) · cites this paper as [74]
In the citing paper
“Although individuals with ASD appear behaviorally rigid in daily activities, neuropsychological and laboratory-based measures of cognitive flexibility provide mixed results with respect to patterns of EF deficits (74).”
From Brain Mechanisms Supporting Flexible Cognition and Behavior in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder (2021) · cites this paper as [74]
Citations
Cites
Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Emerson, M. J., Witzki, A. H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T. D. (2000) · Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1006/cogp.1999.0734 · Cited by 15,798
The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit formation
Yerkes, R. M., & Dodson, J. D. (1908) · Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology · doi:10.1002/cne.920180503 · Cited by 6,911
Willcutt, E. G., Doyle, A. E., Nigg, J. T., Faraone, S. V., & Pennington, B. F. (2005) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.02.006 · Cited by 3,568
Executive functions and developmental psychopathology.
Pennington, B. F., & Ozonoff, S. (1996) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1996.tb01380.x · Cited by 3,150
Monsell, S. (2003) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00028-7 · Cited by 2,984
Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System
Delis, D. C., Kaplan, E., & Kramer, J. H. (2012) · PsycTESTS Dataset · doi:10.1037/t15082-000 · Cited by 2,683
Ridderinkhof, K. R., van den Wildenberg, W. P. M., Segalowitz, S. J., & Carter, C. S. (2004) · Brain and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2004.09.016 · Cited by 1,407
Arbuthnott, K., & Frank, J. (2000) · Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology · doi:10.1076/1380-3395(200008)22:4;1-0;ft518 · Cited by 1,087
Autism and the pervasive developmental disorders
Volkmar, F. R., & Klin, A. (2012) · doi:10.1093/med/9780199696758.003.0214 · Cited by 931
Evaluating the theory of executive dysfunction in autism
Hill, E. L. (2004) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/j.dr.2004.01.001 · Cited by 846
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Ambery, 2006, Differences in neuroanatomy and their relationship to cognitive functioning in people with Asperger's syndrome and high functioning autism, Biol. Psychiatry, 59
- Barcelo, 1999, Role of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in attentional set shifting: parsing the cognitive significance of WCST errors with event-related potentials, Psychophysiology, 36, S30
- Cambridge, 2002
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Lai, M.-C., Lombardo, M. V., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2014) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61539-1 · Cited by 2,371
Precise minds in uncertain worlds: Predictive coding in autism.
Van de Cruys, S., Evers, K., Van der Hallen, R., Van Eylen, L., Boets, B., de-Wit, L., & Wagemans, J. (2014) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/a0037665 · Cited by 885
Cognitive and behavioural flexibility: Neural mechanisms and clinical considerations
Uddin, L. Q. (2021) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00428-w · Cited by 698
Exploring the nature of cognitive flexibility
Ionescu, T. (2011) · New Ideas in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2011.11.001 · Cited by 686
Nakatani, J., Tamada, K., Hatanaka, F., Ise, S., Ohta, H., Inoue, K., Tomonaga, S., Watanabe, Y., Chung, Y. J., Banerjee, R., et al. (2009) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2009.04.024 · Cited by 482
Metadata
- Authors
- Geurts, H. M., Corbett, B., & Solomon, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- University of California Davis Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Geurts, Hilde M.
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-02
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 74-82
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5538880
- OpenAlex
- W2172212100
- Semantic Scholar
- 9cc30d3a092a72fa716448ca4e1e29565e01e55c
- Cited by
- 538
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 33
- FWCI
- 1.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of California, Davis
- National Institute of Mental Health (K08MH074967)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- cognitive flexibility, autism spectrum disorder, behavioral inflexibility, ecological validity, autism subtypes
- MeSH terms
- Autistic Disorder, Cognition, Humans, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychomotor Performance, Pliability
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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