An examination of perseverative errors and cognitive flexibility in autism

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2021-01, Vol.16 (1), p.e0223160-e0223160
Main Authors: Landry, Oriane, Mitchell, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder - physiopathology
Autistic children
Autistic Disorder - physiopathology
Biology and Life Sciences
Child
Child development
Cognition - physiology
Cognition in children
Cognitive ability
Diagnosis
Electronic mail
Errors
Executive function
Executive Function - physiology
Feedback
Female
Flexibility
Humans
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Neuropsychological Tests
People and Places
Perseveration (Psychology)
Psychological aspects
Psychological research
Psychology
Social Sciences
Strategy
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0223160