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Abstract:
Several recent studies have shown that adults usually free
recall lists of semantically related words better than lists of
unrelated words. Subjects also typically tend to include a
non-studied word in free recall when that word is a strong
associate of the study list items. Since individuals with autistic
spectrum disorder have been shown not to make use of category
information to aid their free recall, we hypothesised that they
would not show the illusory memory effect just described. We asked
high-functioning adults with autism and IQ-matched controls to
recall 12 lists of words. Each list comprised the 15 strongest
associates of a non-presented target word. Although our results
replicated existing findings on impaired free recall in autism, we
found that the adults with autism did not differ from the controls
in the proportion of non-presented target items produced in free
recall. But they did generate significantly more non-presented,
non-target items that were related to the category of the study
list being recalled. Correlations between memory and psychometric
and neuropsychological measures showed that reduced free recall in
this group was associated low Wechsler Performance IQ and poor
performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, suggesting right
frontal impairment. These findings are discussed in terms of
theories of semantic impairment in autism and of neuropsychological
theories of memory.
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