Rogers S J, Bennetto L, McEvoy R, Pennington B F
Department of Psychiatry, UCHSC, Denver 80262.
Child Dev. 1996 Oct;67(5):2060-73.
A study was designed to test 2 alternative hypotheses--a symbolic hypothesis and an executive function hypotheses--for the imitation and pantomime deficits found in previous studies of autism. The subjects were 17 adolescent high-functioning subjects with autism spectrum disorders and 15 clinical comparison subjects who were matched on chronological age and verbal IQ. Meaning and sequence were manipulated in facial and manual imitation tasks. Sequence was manipulated in the pantomime and control tasks. Recognition memory and motor control tasks were matched to the experimental tasks. The results provided no support for the symbolic deficit hypothesis; meaning aided rather than hindered the performance of the group with autism. Partial support for the executive deficit hypothesis was found. There were no group differences on motor control tasks, and few on the memory control tasks, arguing against deficits in motor initiation, basic motor coordination, or visual recognition memory.
一项研究旨在检验两个替代假设——一个符号假设和一个执行功能假设——以解释先前自闭症研究中发现的模仿和手势缺陷。研究对象为17名患有自闭症谱系障碍的青少年高功能受试者以及15名按实际年龄和语言智商匹配的临床对照受试者。在面部和手部模仿任务中对意义和顺序进行了操控。在手势和对照任务中对顺序进行了操控。识别记忆和运动控制任务与实验任务相匹配。结果不支持符号缺陷假设；意义对自闭症组的表现起到了促进而非阻碍作用。发现了对执行缺陷假设的部分支持。在运动控制任务上没有组间差异，在记忆控制任务上差异也很少，这反驳了运动发起、基本运动协调或视觉识别记忆方面存在缺陷的观点。
