A novel method of measuring executive function in autistic adults with a view to developing adaptive support strategies

这个项目的重点是衡量自闭症成年人在其环境中成功管理其行为的能力，以期为他们制定创新的适应性支持战略。心理学家认为，控制我们的行为以实现我们的目标涉及到“执行功能”，它结合了在工作记忆中保持目标和抑制与目标无关的分心。然而，执行功能障碍往往与自闭症有关。虽然神经多样性议程正确地质疑了自闭症中的非典型问题需要解决的程度，但执行功能方面的问题与适应功能的降低有关。因此，了解并针对这些困难有可能改善自闭症患者的生活质量。然而，以前针对自闭症执行功能的干预措施很少有效，这项提案试图解决这一问题。该项目将使用新的方法来衡量自闭症患者的执行功能，在单一任务中同时测量工作记忆和不同维度的抑制控制。根据最近的理论发展，它将超越当前行政职能结构理论中强调的简单化离散类别。取而代之的是，它将测试一个多维账户，在该账户中，只有在超过能力时，才会预期高管人员之间的互动。这种多维方法还具有非常新颖的实际应用，并将在开发适应性干预措施时用于生成自闭症成年人的个性化执行功能配置文件。

This project focuses on measuring autistic adults' ability to successfully manage their behaviour within their environment, with a view to developing innovative adaptive support strategies for them. Psychologists argue that controlling our behavior to achieve our goals involves 'executive functioning' which combines holding goals in working memory and the inhibition of goal-irrelevant distraction. However, difficulties in executive functioning are frequently associated with autism. While the neurodiversity agenda rightly questions the extent to which atypicalities in autism need addressing, issues in executive functioning are linked to reduced adaptive functioning. Understanding and targeting these difficulties therefore has the potential to improve quality of life for autistic individuals. However, previous interventions targeting executive functioning in autism have rarely been effective, which this proposal seeks to address.The project will use novel methods for measuring executive functioning in autism, measuring working memory and different dimensions of inhibitory control simultaneously within a single task. In line with recent theoretical developments, it will move beyond the simplistic discrete categories highlighted in current theories of the structure of executive function. Instead, it will test a multi-dimensional account in which the interaction between executive components is only expected when capacity is exceeded. This multidimensional approach also has highly novel practical applications and will be used to generate individualised executive function profiles of autistic adults when developing adaptive interventions.