Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Weesperplein 4, 1018 XA Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2012 Dec;42(12):2558-68. doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1512-1.
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) show daily cognitive flexibility deficits, but laboratory data are unconvincing. The current study aimed to bridge this gap. Thirty-one children with ASD (8-12 years) and 31 age- and IQ-matched typically developing children performed a gender emotion switch task. Unannounced switches and complex stimuli (emotional faces) improved ecological validity; minimal working memory-load prevented bias in the findings. Overall performance did not differ between groups, but in a part of the ASD group performance was slow and inaccurate. Moreover, within the ASD group switching from emotion to gender trials was slower than vice versa. Children with ASD do not show difficulties on an ecological valid switch task, but have difficulty disengaging from an emotional task set.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童表现出日常认知灵活性缺陷，但实验室数据缺乏说服力。本研究旨在弥补这一差距。31 名自闭症儿童（8-12 岁）和 31 名年龄和智商匹配的正常发育儿童进行了性别情绪转换任务。未宣布的转换和复杂刺激（情绪面孔）提高了生态有效性；最小的工作记忆负荷防止了研究结果的偏差。两组儿童的整体表现没有差异，但在 ASD 组的一部分中，表现缓慢且不准确。此外，在 ASD 组中，从情绪到性别试验的转换比反之更慢。自闭症儿童在生态有效转换任务上没有表现出困难，但在从情绪任务集中解脱出来时存在困难。
