Flexibility in young people with autism spectrum disorders on a card sort task
Open accessAbstract
Adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have shown deficits in switching between rules governing their behaviour, as have high-functioning children with ASD. However, there are few studies of flexibility in lower-functioning children with ASD. The current study investigated this phenomenon with a group of low-functioning children with ASD compared to a mental-age-matched comparison group. The ASD group learned an initial discrimination task as quickly as the matched comparison group, but when the rule governing the discrimination was shifted, the comparison group learned the task with fewer errors, and made the discrimination more quickly than the groups with ASD. These findings suggest that low-functioning children with ASD do display the predicted deficits in extra-dimensional shift.
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Executive functioning difficulties are correlated with core symptom presentation in autism spectrum disorder.
“Executive functioning (EF) difficulties are correlated with core symptom presentation (e.g., Kenworthy et al. 2009; Lopez et al. 2005; Reed et al. 2013; Yerys et al. 2009a)”
From Characterizing the Factor Structure of Parent Reported Executive Function in Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Impact of Cognitive Inflexibility (2014) · cites this paper as Reed et al. 2013
The findings are consistent with performance-based measures identifying cognitive flexibility deficits in autism spectrum disorder.
“These findings are consistent with performance-based measures identifying cognitive flexibility deficits in ASD (Hill 2004; Reed et al. 2013; Yerys et al. 2009a)”
From Characterizing the Factor Structure of Parent Reported Executive Function in Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Impact of Cognitive Inflexibility (2014) · cites this paper as Reed et al. 2013
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- Authors
- Reed, P., Watts, H., & Truzoli, R.
- Affiliations
- Swansea University (GB)
- University of Milan (IT)
- Venue
- Autism
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-06-20
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 162-171
- ISSN
- 1362-3613 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7005
- OpenAlex
- W2155218355
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- Autism (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca (Universita Degli Studi Di Milano) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, cognitive flexibility, rule switching, low-functioning children, discrimination learning
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Child, Preschool, Discrimination Learning, Female, Humans, Male, Severity of Illness Index, Stereotyped Behavior, Time Factors
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