The Effect of Concurrent Task Load on Stimulus Over-Selectivity

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 35; no. 5; pp. 601 - 614
• Main Authors: Reed, Phil, Gibson, Evelyn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Springer 01.10.2005; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Aged; Autism; Autistic children; Autistic Disorder - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Child clinical studies; Cues; Developmental Delays; Developmental disorders; Discrimination (Psychology); Discrimination Learning; Experiments; Female; Foreign Countries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Human beings; Humans; Infantile autism; Interpersonal Relationship; Language; Learning. Memory; Male; Man; Matching tasks; Medical sciences; Memory; Middle Aged; Psychological aspects; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Receptive Language; Resistance (Psychology); Stimuli; Stimulus recognition tasks; United Kingdom; Visual Discrimination; Visual Stimuli; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK; Wales; Human; Memory disorder; overselectivity; Cognitive disorder; Healthy subject; Memory; Developmental disorder; Cognition; Selectivity; Experimental study; Autism; Symptomatology; Delayed response; Theoretical model; Concurrent task; Matching task; Stimulus discrimination; delayed-matching-to-sample; humans; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-005-0004-y

Stimulus over-selectivity is a phenomenon displayed by individuals with autism, and has been implicated as a basis for many autistic-spectrum symptoms. In four experiments, non-autistic adult participants were required to learn a simple discrimination using picture cards, and then were tested for the emergence of stimulus over-selectivity, both with and without a concurrent task. Greater stimulus over-selectivity was noted when participants completed the concurrent task. The results are discussed in relation to the implications for the development of a model of memory deficits in autism.