Verbal problem-solving in autism spectrum disorders: a problem of plan construction?

Area of Science:

• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often exhibit less efficient problem-solving strategies compared to typically developing (TD) individuals.
• Previous research suggests potential deficits in planning and selective attention may underlie these differences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether differences in planning processes or selective attention explain the less efficient strategies observed in children with ASD on verbal problem-solving tasks.
• To examine the specific executive functions contributing to strategy differences in ASD.

Main Methods:

• Twenty-two children with ASD and 21 TD controls (mean age 13:7, mean FSIQ 96.42) were assessed.
• Participants completed an adapted Twenty Questions Task and two planning tasks.
• A forced-choice question discrimination task was used to assess understanding of effective questions.

Main Results:

• ASD participants demonstrated comparable ability to TD controls in recognizing effective questions.
• However, ASD participants constructed significantly less efficient plans.
• Performance in ASD was notably reduced when items could not be physically removed, an effect mitigated by maintaining a written record of questions.

Conclusions:

• Children with ASD are sensitive to the executive demands within problem-solving tasks.
• Strategy inefficiency in ASD is primarily linked to pre-task planning and question selection processes, rather than solely attention.
• Findings highlight the role of executive function deficits in the problem-solving challenges faced by individuals with ASD, with implications for daily functioning.