title: Object-location memory in adults with autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: This study tested implicit and explicit spatial relational memory in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants were asked to study pictures of rooms and pictures of daily objects for which locations were highlighted in the rooms. Participants were later tested for their memory of the object locations either by being asked to place objects back into their original locations or into new locations. Proportions of times when participants choose the previously studied locations for the objects irrespective of the instruction were used to derive indices of explicit and implicit memory [process-dissociation procedure, Jacoby, 1991, 1998]. In addition, participants performed object and location recognition and source memory tasks where they were asked about which locations belonged to the objects and which objects to the locations. The data revealed difficulty for ASD individuals in actively retrieving object locations (explicit memory) but not in subconsciously remembering them (implicit memory). These difficulties cannot be explained by difficulties in memory for objects or locations per se (i.e., the difficulty pertains to object-location relations). Together these observations lend further support to the idea that ASD is characterised by relatively circumscribed difficulties in relational rather than item-specific memory processes and show that these difficulties extend to the domain of spatial information. They also lend further support to the idea that memory difficulties in ASD can be reduced when support is provided at test.
authors.affiliation: Autism Research Group, Department of Psychology, City University London, Autismuszentrum Chemnitz e.V., Chemnitz, Germany.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ring
authors.affiliation: Autism Research Group, Department of Psychology, City University London, Autismuszentrum Chemnitz e.V., Chemnitz, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Gaigg
authors.affiliation: Autism Research Group, Department of Psychology, City University London, Autismuszentrum Chemnitz e.V., Chemnitz, Germany.
authors.forename: Dermot M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bowler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; explicit relational memory; implicit relational memory; process-dissociation procedure; recognition memory; source memory; task support hypothesis