title: Stimulus over-selectivity and extinction-induced recovery of performance as a product of intellectual impairment and autism severity.
abstract: The current experiment investigated the extent to which three variables (autism severity, nonverbal intellectual functioning, and verbal intellectual functioning) are associated with over-selective responding in a group of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This paper also analyzed the association of these three variables with the recovery of responding to a previously under-selected stimulus following extinction of the previously over-selected stimulus. The results demonstrated that participants showed over-selectivity, and demonstrated that extinction of the over-selected stimulus led to recovery of responding to the previously under-selected stimulus. For both over-selectivity, and recovery from over-selectivity, verbal functioning appeared to predict the effects most strongly, with greater over-selectivity in the lower functioning individuals, and greater recovery in the higher functioning individuals.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Arts Millennium Building Extension (AMBE), National University of Ireland, Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland. mkelly@ecae.ac.ae.|Health and Special Education Division, Emirates College for Advanced Education, P.O. Box 126662, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. mkelly@ecae.ac.ae.
authors.forename: Michelle P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Arts Millennium Building Extension (AMBE), National University of Ireland, Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland.
authors.forename: Geraldine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leader
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Singleton Park Swansea, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK.
authors.forename: Phil
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reed
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male
keywords: Autism severity; Comparator deficit; Extinction; Intellectual impairment; Over-selectivity