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. 2022 Oct 7:13:922291.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.922291. eCollection 2022.

Working memory in pre-school children with autism spectrum disorder: An eye-tracking study

Oleg Zacharov  1 , Rene Jürgen Huster  2 , Anett Kaale  1   3
Affiliations

Working memory in pre-school children with autism spectrum disorder: An eye-tracking study

Oleg Zacharov et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Working memory (WM) was examined in pre-school children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with typical development using eye-tracking technology. The children were presented with a digital A-not-B task (with a short and a long waiting condition) where they passively viewed animations of a moving train. Moreover, the current study investigated the relationship between non-verbal mental age (NVMA) and the performance on the task. No group differences were found in the average looking durations between the ASD and typically developing (TD) groups on either the short or long waiting conditions. Although the NVMA of the ASD group was lower than that of the TD group there were no correlations between NVMA and task performance in either group. The results suggest that WM in young children with ASD might not be different from that of TD children. However, the results might be due to ceiling effects of the task and thus needs to be further investigated.

Keywords: A-not-B task; autism spectrum disorder; eye-tracking; nonverbal mental age; pre-school children; typical development; working memory.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Progression of the A Trial.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Progression of the B Trials with short (10,200 ms) and long (15,200 ms) waiting periods.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Two identical Interest Areas for the left and right tunnels.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Bar graph showing the looking durations at the right and left tunnels in milliseconds on B trials with short and long waiting periods for both groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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