Cognitive Theories of ASD Flashcards
ASD is a recent condition only discovered within the last
30 years
What does the phrase ‘lost generation’ refer to?
The generation of older adults 50/60s who have missed an ASD diagnosis
There is a misconception that ASD is more common in what age group
Children
How many people have ASD in the UK?
1% of the population
700,000 people
A study in 2006 showed that how many in 100 suffer with ASD
1 in 100
Why is ASD on a spectrum
Mild to serve
ASD is not referred to as an illness but a
Condition
What defines AS and High functioning ASD
They don’t have a language delay or learning disability
When was AS introduced
1992
What diagnosis manual has AS been removed from
DSM V
What way did Kenny et al. 2016 find that ASD people prefer to be refered to?
Autistic people or person
What are the key features of an ASD diagnosis
Innate inability to form the usual biologically provided affective contact with people.
Poverty of facial expressions.
Many stereotypical movements that do no convey meaning.
Impulsive and stimulus driven.
Can have amazing logical and abstract thought.
What were Kanner’s cardinal features?
Autistic aloneness.
Obsessive insistence on sameness (Intolerante to change)
When was ASD define as a social detachment or social non-integration
1940s
Who created the triad of impairments
Wing and Gould 1979
What are the triads of impairment
Socialisation
Communication
Imagination
What are the 3 characteristics of social impairment?
Social attachment
Understanding others minds/thoughts/feelings
Emotion regulation and coping with change.
Define social attachement
- indifference to other people; difficulty making friends - biological independent contact
- may seem independent as a toddler, resists or does not seek affection
- can be affectionate and show attachment on a simple level
Define understanding others minds/thoughts/feelings
- difficulty interpreting other person’s need for affection
- difficult to understand other people’s thoughts and emotions- and responding appropriately to those.
- irregular eye contact -> do not follow gaze -> seem to be ‘in a world of their own’
Define emotional regulation
- difficulty managing emotions, -> expressed as outbursts of anger or aggression - emotional regulation difficulties.
- difficulties coping with new situations
- difficult to accept simple social rules, causing problems at school - parents describe lack of social inhibition or socially limited behaviour.
What forms of communication does impairment of communication effect?
Non-verbal
Verbal
Define impairment of imagination (narrowing of interests and behaviours)
- inability to play imaginatively with objects or toys (pretend play) or others, restirced range of imagnination.
- is an outward manifestation of this impairment
may be overly interested in repetitive activities, resistance to novel topics, narrow interest act out certain interests even from a young age. - may take up a special interest at a young age, such as collecting, or music and art
- older children/adolescents may develop obsessions (excessive interest in timetables or lists, storing up trivial facts/encyclopaedic knowledge)
What earlier symptoms can be found in children with ASD
- sit up or walk later than most children, sensory or motor difficulties.
- be oversensitive to noise or touch
- have odd mannerisms such as rocking back and forth, hand flapping, walking on tip- toes or head banging
- be clumsy and struggle with physical activity
- like sticking to the same routines, and may get very upset if these are disturbed
- be over or under sensitive to sight, sound, smell, touch and taste
What non-social features of ASD have also been identified?
- restricted area of interest/preoccupation with parts of objects* looking at objects in close interest.
- desire for sameness and routine - intolerance of uncertainty.
- excellent rote memory
- savant abilities - out of keeping with the persons functioning, difficulty with language but amazing artists.
- islets of ability
ASD co-ocurance with other difficulties has found to be high by
Gilberg and Billstedt 2000
What percentage of people with ASD have an unspecified cognitive impairment and specific impairment
80% non-specified
10-25% specifed
Lever and Guests 2016 found that what percentage of ASD people meet the criteria for at least 1 psychiatric condition?
79%
What is the gender ratio of ASD diagnosis
10 boys : 1 girl
but this is changing
How is ASD diagnosed?
Autism diagnosis interview (AD)
Autism diagnosis observational schedule (ADOS)
What factors make a good cognitive theory of ASD
Specificity
Uniqueness
Universality
What are the three main theories of ASD
Theory of mind
Executive Dysfunction
Weak central coherence
When was it suggested that ASD might arise from primary cognitive deficits
1980s
Define the Theory of Mind stance
Agent without a machine
Who created the Sally Anne test to support the ToM stance
Baron-Cohen et al. 1985
What was ASD performance on Baron-Cohen 1985 Sally Anne test
80% of ASD failed
What group of people did Baron-Cohen 1985 include to prove Sally Anne performance was not due to learning difficulties?
Downs Syndrome
Who conducted the inferring mental shapes form geometric figures study?
Kiln 2000
What critique was given to Kiln 2000
de Gelder 1987 argued why should people with autism attribute states to dolls, and why test understating that involves make believe when ASD imagination known to be weak.
Who conducting experiments without make believe
Leslie and Frith 1988 (coin hiding)
Perner et al 1989 (smarties task)
From the tasks without make believe what was concluded?
ASD linked to deficit in ToM
Who investigated communication impairment in a message desire task
Mitchell and Isaac 1994
What occurs in Mithcell and Isaac 1994 and Mitchell et al. 1997
- mum has 2 bags of wool,
- puts one in the drawer and other in cupboard
- left the scene; Jane swapped items the other way round
- mum returns and wants bag of wool in drawer
- ‘Get mum the bag she really wants’
What did Mitchell and Isaac 1994 find?
That children with ASD fail
What was the procedure in Mitchell et al. 1997 follow
Participant asked to judge
- (1) which item the mum really wants (interpret) and
- (2) which item the mum put in the drawer (memory)
What did Mitchell et al. 1997 find
ASD moe errors in interpreting desire.
ASD incorrectly interpreted utterances literally suggesting difficulty making non-literal interpreations
From Mitchell 1997 what can be concluded about imagination
Its significantly impaired in ASD
What link did Leslie 1987 find
Link between cognitive impairment and lack of pretend play.
In the ToM hypothesis what features occur in the Good specificity triad
Powerful & convincing
Difficulties in relating, communicating, etc.
All related to understanding of the mind
What is the key issue with the Good Specificity Triad
Not univerasl
What did Sparrevohn and Howie 1995 find to suggest that ASD are more likely to succeed in GST
Higher verbal mental age.
Happe 1995 identified a relationship between what
Childrens verbal mental age and passing FB tasks
Who conducted the 2nd Order FB task about John Mary and the ice cream
Baron-Cohen 1989
What did Baron-Cohen 1989 find in the 2nd order FB task
ASD pass 1st order but fail 2nd.
What did Baron Cohen 1989 concluded about ToM
That ToM is delayed rather than a deficit
What did Bower find when AS didn’t 2nd belief
AS pass
ToM deficit not universal
What percentages did Bower find about 2nd belief
90% pass in typical children 7.5 years
60% downs pass
What percentage of AS young adults pass (Bower)
73%
Who found that children with a visual impairment showed difficulty with FB
Minter, Hobson & Bishop, 1998
Woolfe, Want and Siegal 2002 found a delay of FB in
Children with hearing impairment
Verbal age increases in ASD leads to what in FB task
Better pass rate,
FB is therefore an attainable developmental milestone
What did Frith Happe and Siddon 1994 find?
More responsive children more likely to pass FB
What issues prevent ToM having good specificity
- insistence on sameness
- routines
- narrow interests
- Repetitive behaviour
Who proposed the theory of executive control
Sally Ozonoff et al. 1991
What did the executive control theory propose
Account for social and nonsocial symptoms
The ability to maintain an appropriate problem-solving set for the attainment of a future goal
What behaviours does the EC theory account for?
Planning Impulsive control Inhibition of perpotent Set maintenance Organised speech Flexibility of search and action.
What tasks can be used in the EC theory
Tower of Hanoi
Wisconsin Card Sort - set shifting
What did Ozonoff et al. 1991 find using the Tower of Hanoi
ASD acted impulsively, could not plan moves shifted all loops directly
What did Ozonoff et al. 1991 find using the Wisconsin Card Sort
Unable to shift attentional focus, preserved to sort by established systems
EC were found to be better at distinguishing than what tasks?
ToM and FB tasks
Who used the windows task?
Russell et al. 1991
Hughes and Russell 1993
Hala and Hughes 2003
What did Russell conclude from his windows task?
Children <4 yrs and autistic children unable to inhibit pre-potent response
How could failure on FB be explained through EF
About deception
Resting to point to attentional focus
Acting impulsively
Resist blurring out - inhibition
Could EC be a primary cause of ASD
Unexpected transfer: rigidity of behaviour
Deceptive box: repetitive behaviour
Windows task: pattern of behaviour in ToM test
What could EF leading to acting impulsively on the environment explain
EDF = ASD
How did Welsh et al. 1990 explain impairment
NOT a EF deficit
EF theory doesn’t fulfil which crietria
Not unique
Not universal
What does EF still have to explain
Non-social features of ASD
Savant abilites
Heightended perceptual abilties
Who came up with the Weak Central Coherence theory
Frith 2003
What is the Weak Central Coherence theory
Not a deficit theory, but a thinking cognitive style, all along a spectrum strong local to weak central coherence.
- Do not automatically process contextual meaning or use prior knowledge
- A bias towards piecemeal or local (over global) processing.
WCC was studied with regards to language processing by who
Snowilng and Frith 1986
What did Snowling and Frith 1986 find about language
ASD fail to use context with ambiguous homophones, literal, difficuties with sarcasm and irony.
What results did Shah and Frith 1983 / 1993 find in their embedded figures and block desgin
ASD performed significantly better than matched controls.
What did Bring et al. 1995 find about jigsaws
ASD fast at solving jigsaw upside down and right up - context no differnce
Who has found inconsistent evidence of WCC
Happe 1996
c- Ropar and Mitchell
Mottron et al. 1993
What are the good and bad features of WCC as a primary cause of ASD
Good specificity
Not universal
What are the challenges of WCC
Differentiation from other theories
Enhanced perceptual functioning
Reduced top-down processing
Do any of the 3 main theories explain all symptoms of ASD
NO
Who referred to ASD a a Fractionation of the Triad
Happe and Ronald 2008
Is autism a unitary disorder
No, a mixture of conditons
What changes have occurred in the triad between DSM IV and V
Triad -> Dyad
Social communication and Restrictive repetitive interests
What are the levels of severity for ASD
Level 1 - requiring support
Level 2 - requiring substantial support
Level 3 - requiring very substantial support
What are the alternative theories for ASD
Mirror neuron theory - brain level explanation
Extreme male brain - more descriptive than explanatory
Social motivation theory
Enhanced Perceptual functioning
Sensorimotor theory of autism
Enlarged temporal binding window
