{"id":387,"date":"2020-04-22T20:39:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T19:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/upgrade-rocs\/?p=387"},"modified":"2020-08-21T14:03:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T13:03:38","slug":"intact-inner-speech-use-in-autism-spectrum-disorder-evidence-from-a-short-term-memory-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/intact-inner-speech-use-in-autism-spectrum-disorder-evidence-from-a-short-term-memory-task\/","title":{"rendered":"Intact Inner Speech Use in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence from a Short-Term Memory Task"},"content":{"rendered":"

More information about the Kent author\u00a0here<\/a><\/strong>
\nFind the full paper\u00a0here<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

About<\/span><\/b>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Executive functions describe certain cognitive processes <\/span>that<\/span> are required for managing our own behaviour <\/span>and<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>achieving goals. An example of an executive function is short-term memory<\/span>. <\/span>An important strategy for <\/span>passing tasks of executive function is<\/span> inner speech. Inner speech refers to the process of rehearsing verbal information <\/span>in our head, so that we remember it. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder <\/span>(ASD) <\/span>tend to perform less wel<\/span>l on tasks of executive functioning and some researcher<\/span>s<\/span> suggest this can explained by their lack of inner speech. <\/span>In addition, individuals with ASD often report having visual rath<\/span>er than verbal thinking styles, which means they represent information in images rather than in words when they think about the information.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To investigate these suggestions, the current study presents a task that explored if children with ASD <\/span>use visual or verbal thinking styles to keep information in their short-term memory<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research Objectives<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2022 \u00a0To explore the extent to which children with ASD use inner speech to support recall from short-term memory.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0To explore the extent to which children with ASD use visual thinking styles to recall from short-term memory.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Programme and Methodology<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Participants:<\/strong><\/p>\n

25 children with ASD and 20 typically-developing children<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Memory task in which children had to remember pictures<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Pictures<\/span> that needed to be recalled were either verbally similar<\/span> (bat, cat, hat)<\/span>, visually<\/span> similar<\/span> (spoon, pen, spade)<\/span> or were control items <\/span>(drum, shoe, bird). <\/span><\/p>\n

Findings<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Children with ASD do not differ from the typically-developing children in their ability to use inner speech for a memory task.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Inner speech use in children with ASD is intact, and shows a similar development compared to typically developing children of the same mental age.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Children with ASD start to represent information visually when their mental age equates to approximately 7 years old.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Impact<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2022 \u00a0This project offered <\/span>new and important insight<\/span><\/b>\u00a0on <\/span>the use of inner speech in children with ASD.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Findings showed<\/span>\u00a0that children with ASD do use verbal thinking styles in a memory task, and therefore that their inner speech is intact.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0The findings give\u00a0practical suggestions to educators:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0<\/span>Individuals with ASD with a mental age over 7 years old use inner speech in memory tasks. Knowledge on the thinking styles children use can help educators create an optimal learning environment and can help them make use of the children\u2019s strengths.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More information about the Kent author\u00a0here Find the full paper\u00a0here About\u202f\u00a0 Executive functions describe certain cognitive processes that are required for managing our own behaviour and\u00a0achieving goals. An example of an executive function is short-term memory. An important strategy for passing tasks of executive function is inner speech. Inner speech refers to the process of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2805,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/2805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}