title: Short-term memory in autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: Three experiments examined verbal short-term memory in comparison and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) participants. Experiment 1 involved forward and backward digit recall. Experiment 2 used a standard immediate serial recall task where, contrary to the digit-span task, items (words) were not repeated from list to list. Hence, this task called more heavily on item memory. Experiment 3 tested short-term order memory with an order recognition test: Each word list was repeated with or without the position of 2 adjacent items swapped. The ASD group showed poorer performance in all 3 experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that group differences were due to memory for the order of the items, not to memory for the items themselves. Confirming these findings, the results of Experiment 3 showed that the ASD group had more difficulty detecting a change in the temporal sequence of the items.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, United Kingdom. m.poirier@city.ac.uk
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poirier
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Sebastian B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Gaigg
authors.forename: Dermot M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bowler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology