Inner speech impairments in autism.
BACKGROUND
Three experiments investigated the role of inner speech deficit in cognitive performances of children with autism.


METHODS
Experiment 1 compared children with autism with ability-matched controls on a verbal recall task presenting pictures and words. Experiment 2 used pictures for which the typical names were either single syllable or multisyllable. Two encoding conditions manipulated the use of verbal encoding. Experiment 3 employed a task-switching paradigm for which performance has been shown to be contingent upon inner speech.


RESULTS
In Experiment 1, children with autism demonstrated a lower picture-superiority effect compared to controls. In Experiment 2, the children with autism showed a lower word-length effect when pictures were presented alone, but a more substantial word-length effect in a condition requiring overt labelling. In Experiment 3, articulatory suppression affected the task-switching performance of the control participants only.


CONCLUSIONS
Individuals with autism have limitations in their use of inner speech.
Whitehouse
Andrew J O
AJ
University of Western Australia, Australia. andrew.whitehouse@psy.ox.ac.uk
Maybery
Murray T
MT
Durkin
Kevin
K
D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D012016:Reference Values; D012660:Semantics; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014706:Verbal Learning