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Intact inner speech use in autism spectrum disorder: evidence from a short‐term memory task
Author(s) -
Williams David,
Happé Francesca,
Jarrold Christopher
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01836.x
Subject(s) - psychology , recall , autism spectrum disorder , cognition , autism , cognitive psychology , short term memory , developmental psychology , audiology , task (project management) , working memory , mental age , neuroscience , medicine , management , economics
Background: Inner speech has been linked to higher‐order cognitive processes including ‘theory of mind’, self‐awareness and executive functioning, all of which are impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Individuals with ASD, themselves, report a propensity for visual rather than verbal modes of thinking. This study explored the extent to which children with ASD used inner speech or visual imagery to support recall from short‐term memory. Method: Twenty‐five children with ASD and 20 comparison children with moderate learning disabilities completed an immediate serial recall task, in which stimuli consisted of items with either phonologically similar features, visuo‐spatially similar features or control items which were neither visuo‐spatially nor phonologically similar. Results: ASD and comparison participants, with verbal mental ages above 7 years, recalled phonologically similar stimuli less well than control stimuli, indicating that both groups were using inner speech to recode visually presented information into a phonological code. In contrast, those participants with verbal mental ages below 7 years, whether with ASD or not, recalled visuo‐spatially similar stimuli less well than control stimuli, indicating visual rather than phonological coding. This developmental pattern mirrors that found in typically developing children. Conclusions: Under experimental conditions, individuals with ASD use inner speech to the same extent as individuals without ASD of a comparable mental age.