title: Temporal cognition in children with autistic spectrum disorders: tests of diachronic thinking.
abstract: Impaired diachronic thinking-(the propensity and capacity to think about events spreading across time)-was demonstrated in a 2-Phase study in which children with autism were compared with age and ability matched controls. Identical tests of diachronic thinking were administered in both phases of the study, but to different participant groups, with the same results. The marked impairments shown are therefore robust. Various non-temporal explanations of the findings were eliminated by the results of control tasks in Phase 2. Diachronic thinking did not correlate with verbal or non-verbal ability, age, or mentalising ability, consistent with other evidence of the specificity of diachronic thinking ability. Possible causes of impaired diachronic thinking in autism are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. j.boucher@warwick.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Boucher
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pons
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lind
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001076:Aptitude; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D012691:Serial Learning; D013850:Thinking; D013998:Time Perception