Teachers' College, Beijing Union University, Beijing, China.
School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Autism Res. 2020 May;13(5):810-820. doi: 10.1002/aur.2274. Epub 2020 Feb 3.
Impaired self-processing in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is believed to be closely associated with social-communicative deficits, a core symptom of ASD. In three experiments, we aimed to investigate (a) whether children with ASD exhibited deficient in self-processing, as reflected by their superior memory for self-related items as compared to other-related items, and (b) the role that action played in promoting self-processing in ASD. In Experiment 1, children with ASD, children with intellectual disability (ID), and typically developing children were asked to memorize items on the cards assigned to them or to the experimenter. The results indicated that the TD and ID groups had a self-referential memory advantage, but the ASD group did not. Experiments 2 and 3 examined whether the deficit in self-processing among children with ASDs was ameliorated when participants performed or observed an action to indicate the ownership of the items. We found that when children with ASD performed self-generated actions or observed virtual actions, they displayed a similar self-referential memory advantage as the other two groups. Our findings reveal that action plays an important role in the self-processing in children with ASD, and thereby contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of self-processing deficits in this population. Autism Res 2020, 13: 810-820. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research,Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: We aimed to study whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibited deficient in self-processing and the role of action in promoting self-processing in ASD. We found that the typically developing and intellectual disability groups had a self-referential memory advantage, but the ASD group did not. However, children with ASD showed a significant self-referential advantage when they performed or observed an action to indicate the ownership of items. These findings highlight the vital role that action plays in cognitively enhancing their self-processing.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童的自我加工受损被认为与社交沟通缺陷密切相关，而社交沟通缺陷是 ASD 的核心症状。在三项实验中，我们旨在研究：（a）自闭症儿童是否表现出自加工受损，表现为与他人相关的项目相比，他们对自身相关项目的记忆更好；（b）动作在促进 ASD 中的自我加工方面所起的作用。在实验 1 中，要求自闭症儿童、智力障碍儿童和典型发展儿童记住分配给他们或实验者的卡片上的项目。结果表明，TD 和 ID 组具有自我参照记忆优势，但 ASD 组没有。实验 2 和 3 检验了 ASD 儿童的自我加工缺陷是否在参与者执行或观察动作以指示项目所有权时得到改善。我们发现，当 ASD 儿童执行自我产生的动作或观察虚拟动作时，他们表现出与其他两组相似的自我参照记忆优势。我们的发现表明，动作在 ASD 儿童的自我加工中起着重要作用，从而有助于更全面地理解该人群的自我加工缺陷。自闭症研究 2020, 13: 810-820. © 2020 国际自闭症研究协会，Wiley 期刊，公司。
