NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPATIAL COGNITION IN AUTISM

自闭症空间认知的本质和发展

• 批准号: 6134778
• 负责人: JAMIE S OGLINE
• 金额: $ 3.29万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (COLORADO SEMINARY)
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-09-23 至
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6134778
• 关键词: Downs syndrome; adolescence (12-20); autism; behavioral /social science research tag; clinical research; cognition disorders; developmental psychology; human subject; middle childhood (6-11); neuropsychological tests; short term memory; space perception

The overall goal of the proposed research is to examine the nature and development of spatial cognition in individuals with autism. Although previous research suggests that spatial cognition may be a strength in those with autism, research findings in this area are inconsistent and need further examination. For instance, central coherence theory claims that those with autism have difficulty attending to the gestalt and will focus more on the local parts of a spatial configuration. This theory is inconsistent with the possibility that individuals with autism may have a strength in the spatial domain because many spatial tasks require attention to both the global and local parts of configurations. Another inconsistency is evident between previous findings of executive deficits in autism and the findings that individuals with autism are not impaired on spatial tasks that may require executive processing, such as the WISC block design. The proposed study will attempt to resolve these inconsistencies and add to knowledge about spatial cognition in autism by testing low-functioning children with autism as compared to Down syndrome and normally developing mental age matched control groups using measures of spatial working memory, global/local processing, and a spatial task previously not examined in this population. Broadening knowledge about spatial cognition in this disorder will allow for a better understanding of development in this disorder and any potential strengths that may exist.

这项研究的总体目标是研究自闭症患者空间认知的本质和发展。虽然先前的研究表明空间认知可能是自闭症患者的优势，但这一领域的研究结果并不一致，需要进一步研究。例如，中心连贯理论声称，自闭症患者很难注意到格式塔，他们会更多地关注空间结构的局部部分。这一理论与自闭症患者可能在空间领域具有优势的可能性不一致，因为许多空间任务需要同时注意配置的全局和局部部分。另一个明显的不一致之处是，先前关于自闭症患者执行能力缺陷的研究结果，与自闭症患者在可能需要执行处理的空间任务（如WISC块设计）上没有受损的研究结果之间存在差异。本研究将尝试解决这些不一致之处，并通过测试低功能自闭症儿童与唐氏综合症和正常发育智力年龄匹配的对照组，使用空间工作记忆、全局/局部处理和以前未在该人群中检查过的空间任务来增加对自闭症空间认知的了解。扩大对这种障碍的空间认知的认识将有助于更好地理解这种障碍的发展以及可能存在的任何潜在优势。