Relational memory weakness in autism despite the use of a controlled encoding task
IntroductionRecent work challenged past findings that documented relational memory impairments in autism. Previous studies often relied solely on explicit behavioral responses to assess relational memory integrity, but successful performance on behavioral tasks may rely on other cognitive abilities...
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| Format: | Article |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1210259/full |
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| author | Greta N. Minor Deborah E. Hannula Andrew Gordon J. Daniel Ragland Ana-Maria Iosif Marjorie Solomon |
| author_facet | Greta N. Minor Deborah E. Hannula Andrew Gordon J. Daniel Ragland Ana-Maria Iosif Marjorie Solomon |
| author_sort | Greta N. Minor |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionRecent work challenged past findings that documented relational memory impairments in autism. Previous studies often relied solely on explicit behavioral responses to assess relational memory integrity, but successful performance on behavioral tasks may rely on other cognitive abilities (e.g., executive functioning) that are impacted in some autistic individuals. Eye-tracking tasks do not require explicit behavioral responses, and, further, eye movements provide an indirect measure of memory. The current study examined whether memory-specific viewing patterns toward scenes differ between autistic and non-autistic individuals.MethodsUsing a long-term memory paradigm that equated for complexity between item and relational memory tasks, participants studied a series of scenes. Following the initial study phase, scenes were re-presented, accompanied by an orienting question that directed participants to attend to either features of an item (i.e., in the item condition) or spatial relationships between items (i.e., in the relational condition) that might be subsequently modified during test. At test, participants viewed scenes that were unchanged (i.e., repeated from study), scenes that underwent an “item” modification (an exemplar switch) or a “relational” modification (a location switch), and scenes that had not been presented before. Eye movements were recorded throughout.ResultsDuring study, there were no significant group differences in viewing directed to regions of scenes that might be manipulated at test, suggesting comparable processing of scene details during encoding. However, there was a group difference in explicit recognition accuracy for scenes that underwent a relational change. Marginal group differences in the expression of memory-based viewing effects during test for relational scenes were consistent with this behavioral outcome, particularly when analyses were limited to scenes recognized correctly with high confidence. Group differences were also evident in correlational analyses that examined the association between study phase viewing and recognition accuracy and between performance on the Picture Sequence Memory Test and recognition accuracy.DiscussionTogether, our findings suggest differences in the integrity of relational memory representations and/or in the relationships between subcomponents of memory in autism. |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T13:26:47Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-b8ba334540a84ae6b4d4814860637fcd2023-08-25T06:11:42ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-08-011410.3389/fpsyg.2023.12102591210259Relational memory weakness in autism despite the use of a controlled encoding taskGreta N. Minor0Deborah E. Hannula1Andrew Gordon2J. Daniel Ragland3Ana-Maria Iosif4Marjorie Solomon5Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United StatesDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United StatesDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United StatesDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United StatesDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United StatesIntroductionRecent work challenged past findings that documented relational memory impairments in autism. Previous studies often relied solely on explicit behavioral responses to assess relational memory integrity, but successful performance on behavioral tasks may rely on other cognitive abilities (e.g., executive functioning) that are impacted in some autistic individuals. Eye-tracking tasks do not require explicit behavioral responses, and, further, eye movements provide an indirect measure of memory. The current study examined whether memory-specific viewing patterns toward scenes differ between autistic and non-autistic individuals.MethodsUsing a long-term memory paradigm that equated for complexity between item and relational memory tasks, participants studied a series of scenes. Following the initial study phase, scenes were re-presented, accompanied by an orienting question that directed participants to attend to either features of an item (i.e., in the item condition) or spatial relationships between items (i.e., in the relational condition) that might be subsequently modified during test. At test, participants viewed scenes that were unchanged (i.e., repeated from study), scenes that underwent an “item” modification (an exemplar switch) or a “relational” modification (a location switch), and scenes that had not been presented before. Eye movements were recorded throughout.ResultsDuring study, there were no significant group differences in viewing directed to regions of scenes that might be manipulated at test, suggesting comparable processing of scene details during encoding. However, there was a group difference in explicit recognition accuracy for scenes that underwent a relational change. Marginal group differences in the expression of memory-based viewing effects during test for relational scenes were consistent with this behavioral outcome, particularly when analyses were limited to scenes recognized correctly with high confidence. Group differences were also evident in correlational analyses that examined the association between study phase viewing and recognition accuracy and between performance on the Picture Sequence Memory Test and recognition accuracy.DiscussionTogether, our findings suggest differences in the integrity of relational memory representations and/or in the relationships between subcomponents of memory in autism.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1210259/fullASDautismepisodic memoryrelational memoryeye tracking |
| spellingShingle | Greta N. Minor Deborah E. Hannula Andrew Gordon J. Daniel Ragland Ana-Maria Iosif Marjorie Solomon Relational memory weakness in autism despite the use of a controlled encoding task Frontiers in Psychology ASD autism episodic memory relational memory eye tracking |
| title | Relational memory weakness in autism despite the use of a controlled encoding task |
| title_full | Relational memory weakness in autism despite the use of a controlled encoding task |
| title_fullStr | Relational memory weakness in autism despite the use of a controlled encoding task |
| title_full_unstemmed | Relational memory weakness in autism despite the use of a controlled encoding task |
| title_short | Relational memory weakness in autism despite the use of a controlled encoding task |
| title_sort | relational memory weakness in autism despite the use of a controlled encoding task |
| topic | ASD autism episodic memory relational memory eye tracking |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1210259/full |
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