Abstract
Perseveration is a well-replicated finding in autism. The aim of this study was to examine how the context of the task influences performance with respect to this phenomenon. We randomly assigned 137 children aged 6–12 with and without autism to complete a modified card-sorting task under one of two conditions: Children were either told the sorting rules on each trial (Explicit), or were given feedback to formulate the rules themselves (Implicit). While performance was enhanced on the Explicit condition for participants without autism, the participants with autism were disadvantaged by this manipulation. In contrast, there were few differences in performance between groups on the Implicit condition. Exploratory analyses were used to examine this unexpected result; increased autism symptomology was associated with poorer performance.
Highlights
Errors committed by participants with autism on executive function tasks such as the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST;[1]) are said to reflect cognitive inflexibility; participants become stuck in set, such that once a response set or strategy is established participants cannot abandon that for a new strategy and instead persevere with the old strategy despite the fact it is no longer effective
The WCST is a widely used test of cognitive flexibility and numerous studies find that performance on the WCST, and cognitive flexibility in general, is a challenge in autism[2]
The aim of this study was to examine cognitive inflexibility by manipulating the rule structure; we presented children with a card-sorting task that increased in the number of potential rules; in addition, we randomly assigned children to one of two instruction conditions
Summary
Errors committed by participants with autism on executive function tasks such as the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST;[1]) are said to reflect cognitive inflexibility; participants become stuck in set, such that once a response set or strategy is established participants cannot abandon that for a new strategy and instead persevere with the old strategy despite the fact it is no longer effective. While the perseverative errors committed by individuals with autism on the WCST resemble the response patterns of adults with frontal lobe damage, they resemble the response patterns of 3-year-old typically developing children[2, 3]. The WCST [1] is one of the most widely used tests of executive function, broadly defined, with a range of outcome measures representing different aspects of performance [2]. The task consists of four target cards that differ on three dimensions
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