The Event-Based Prospective Memory Impairment in Children with ASD Aged 3-6: The Role of Executive Function

Ren Zhi; Sun Fanhui; Yuan Yang; Song Jiarun; Wang Lijuan

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240308

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (3) : 570-580. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240308

General Psychology，Experimental Psychology & Ergonomics

The Event-Based Prospective Memory Impairment in Children with ASD Aged 3-6: The Role of Executive Function

Ren Zhi¹, Sun Fanhui¹, Yuan Yang², Song Jiarun², Wang Lijuan¹

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Abstract

Prospective memory refers to the ability to remember the planned intention or behavior at an appropriate time or situation in the future. A growing body of research has investigated the event-based prospective memory (PM) in typically developing children but research on children with autistic spectrum disorders is limited. The inconsistent findings in studies on event-based prospective memory ability in populations with autistic spectrum disorders and the lack of empirical evidence from preschoolers, have also limited the understanding of the characteristics of prospective memory in children with autistic spectrum disorder. Besides, executive function plays an important role in prospective memory and dysfunctional executive function underlies the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. Given the weight of evidence demonstrating autistic impairment in such processes, and the potentially debilitating PM failures this may lead to, it is vital to better understand the characteristics of prospective memory impairment in children with autistic spectrum disorders.<br/>The present study investigated the developmental characteristics of event-based prospective memory in children with autism spectrum disorders aged 3~6 years and explored the potential impairment and mechanisms. Participants included 27 children with autism spectrum disorder age 3~6 and 30 matched typically developing children. All participants completed an event-based prospective memory embedded in a living task (an ongoing task) and were required to classify the pictures presented on the screen according to the principle of living or non-living. Meanwhile, a series of executive function tasks were also assessed to measure the abilities of working memory updating (the N-back Task), inhibitory control (the Go/No-go task), and cognitive flexibility (the Dimensional Change Card Sorting Task) in both autistic and typically developing children. First, results revealed that the performance of event-based prospective memory in children with autism spectrum disorder was significantly lower than that in typically developing children. That is, the impaired event-based prospective memory ability was found in 3- to 6-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, the impaired executive functions were also found in the children with autism spectrum disorder and the development of various components of executive function was closely related to the development of prospective memory in children with autism spectrum disorder. These have shown that event-based prospective memory deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder were accompanied by the impairment of executive function. Importantly, stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that inhibition control performance of autistic children could significantly predict prospective memory performance, rather than the updating or cognitive flexibility components in executive function. But the performance of prospective memory in typically developing children could not be predicted by inhibition control. <br/>To conclude, the patterns of results indicated that executive function, especially inhibitory control, played an important role in the event-based prospective memory deficits of children with autism spectrum disorder aged 3~6. These findings supported the multiprocess framework of prospective memory and provided empirical evidence for the executive function framework theory of prospective memory from a clinical perspective.

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autism spectrum disorder / event-based prospective memory / executive function / inhibitory control

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Ren Zhi, Sun Fanhui, Yuan Yang, Song Jiarun, Wang Lijuan. The Event-Based Prospective Memory Impairment in Children with ASD Aged 3-6: The Role of Executive Function[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2024, 47(3): 570-580 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240308

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