Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1020, USA.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2013 Sep;43(9):2048-61. doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1754-y.
In two experiments, typically developing (TD) children, high-functioning children with autism (HFA) and children with a history of autism who have achieved optimal outcomes (OOs), matched on age (M = 13 years) and nonverbal IQ, were asked to extend properties of categories to new items (categorical induction). All groups demonstrated some knowledge of category structure by extending at above-chance levels; however, the TD group extended more consistently than the OO and HFA groups. More consistent extenders had higher lexical and nonverbal IQ scores (Experiment 1) or higher pragmatics scores (Experiment 2). Thus, even very high functioning individuals with autism, or with an OO, still exhibit residual difficulties with category knowledge and extension; moreover, category tasks relate to a variety of verbal and nonverbal abilities. The difficulty these groups had with categorical induction may be related to their difficulty with generalization more widely; future research should investigate this possibility.
在两项实验中，我们让典型发育（TD）儿童、高功能自闭症儿童（HFA）和自闭症后表现出最佳结果（OO）的儿童（按年龄匹配，M = 13 岁，非言语智商匹配）对新物品进行类别属性扩展（类别归纳）。所有组都表现出了对类别结构的一定了解，通过高于机会水平的方式进行扩展；然而，TD 组的扩展比 OO 和 HFA 组更一致。更一致的扩展者具有更高的词汇和非言语智商分数（实验 1）或更高的语用学分数（实验 2）。因此，即使是自闭症或具有最佳结果的高功能个体，仍然表现出对类别知识和扩展的残余困难；此外，类别任务与各种言语和非言语能力有关。这些群体在类别归纳方面的困难可能与他们更广泛的泛化困难有关；未来的研究应该调查这种可能性。
