Cognitive Theories of ASD Flashcards

1
Q

ASD is a recent condition only discovered within the last

A

30 years

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2
Q

What does the phrase ‘lost generation’ refer to?

A

The generation of older adults 50/60s who have missed an ASD diagnosis

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3
Q

There is a misconception that ASD is more common in what age group

A

Children

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4
Q

How many people have ASD in the UK?

A

1% of the population

700,000 people

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5
Q

A study in 2006 showed that how many in 100 suffer with ASD

A

1 in 100

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6
Q

Why is ASD on a spectrum

A

Mild to serve

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7
Q

ASD is not referred to as an illness but a

A

Condition

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8
Q

What defines AS and High functioning ASD

A

They don’t have a language delay or learning disability

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9
Q

When was AS introduced

A

1992

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10
Q

What diagnosis manual has AS been removed from

A

DSM V

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11
Q

What way did Kenny et al. 2016 find that ASD people prefer to be refered to?

A

Autistic people or person

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12
Q

What are the key features of an ASD diagnosis

A

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.

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13
Q

What were Kanner’s cardinal features?

A

Autistic aloneness.

Obsessive insistence on sameness (Intolerante to change)

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14
Q

When was ASD define as a social detachment or social non-integration

A

1940s

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15
Q

Who created the triad of impairments

A

Wing and Gould 1979

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16
Q

What are the triads of impairment

A

Socialisation
Communication
Imagination

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17
Q

What are the 3 characteristics of social impairment?

A

Social attachment
Understanding others minds/thoughts/feelings
Emotion regulation and coping with change.

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18
Q

Define social attachement

A
  • 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
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19
Q

Define understanding others minds/thoughts/feelings

A
  • 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’
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20
Q

Define emotional regulation

A
  • 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.
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21
Q

What forms of communication does impairment of communication effect?

A

Non-verbal

Verbal

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22
Q

Define impairment of imagination (narrowing of interests and behaviours)

A
  • 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)
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23
Q

What earlier symptoms can be found in children with ASD

A
  • 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
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24
Q

What non-social features of ASD have also been identified?

A
  • 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
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25
Q

ASD co-ocurance with other difficulties has found to be high by

A

Gilberg and Billstedt 2000

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26
Q

What percentage of people with ASD have an unspecified cognitive impairment and specific impairment

A

80% non-specified

10-25% specifed

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27
Q

Lever and Guests 2016 found that what percentage of ASD people meet the criteria for at least 1 psychiatric condition?

A

79%

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28
Q

What is the gender ratio of ASD diagnosis

A

10 boys : 1 girl

but this is changing

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29
Q

How is ASD diagnosed?

A

Autism diagnosis interview (AD)

Autism diagnosis observational schedule (ADOS)

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30
Q

What factors make a good cognitive theory of ASD

A

Specificity
Uniqueness
Universality

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31
Q

What are the three main theories of ASD

A

Theory of mind
Executive Dysfunction
Weak central coherence

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32
Q

When was it suggested that ASD might arise from primary cognitive deficits

A

1980s

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33
Q

Define the Theory of Mind stance

A

Agent without a machine

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34
Q

Who created the Sally Anne test to support the ToM stance

A

Baron-Cohen et al. 1985

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35
Q

What was ASD performance on Baron-Cohen 1985 Sally Anne test

A

80% of ASD failed

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36
Q

What group of people did Baron-Cohen 1985 include to prove Sally Anne performance was not due to learning difficulties?

A

Downs Syndrome

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37
Q

Who conducted the inferring mental shapes form geometric figures study?

A

Kiln 2000

38
Q

What critique was given to Kiln 2000

A

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.

39
Q

Who conducting experiments without make believe

A

Leslie and Frith 1988 (coin hiding)

Perner et al 1989 (smarties task)

40
Q

From the tasks without make believe what was concluded?

A

ASD linked to deficit in ToM

41
Q

Who investigated communication impairment in a message desire task

A

Mitchell and Isaac 1994

42
Q

What occurs in Mithcell and Isaac 1994 and Mitchell et al. 1997

A
  • 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’
43
Q

What did Mitchell and Isaac 1994 find?

A

That children with ASD fail

44
Q

What was the procedure in Mitchell et al. 1997 follow

A

Participant asked to judge

  • (1) which item the mum really wants (interpret) and
  • (2) which item the mum put in the drawer (memory)
45
Q

What did Mitchell et al. 1997 find

A

ASD moe errors in interpreting desire.

ASD incorrectly interpreted utterances literally suggesting difficulty making non-literal interpreations

46
Q

From Mitchell 1997 what can be concluded about imagination

A

Its significantly impaired in ASD

47
Q

What link did Leslie 1987 find

A

Link between cognitive impairment and lack of pretend play.

48
Q

In the ToM hypothesis what features occur in the Good specificity triad

A

Powerful & convincing
Difficulties in relating, communicating, etc.
All related to understanding of the mind

49
Q

What is the key issue with the Good Specificity Triad

A

Not univerasl

50
Q

What did Sparrevohn and Howie 1995 find to suggest that ASD are more likely to succeed in GST

A

Higher verbal mental age.

51
Q

Happe 1995 identified a relationship between what

A

Childrens verbal mental age and passing FB tasks

52
Q

Who conducted the 2nd Order FB task about John Mary and the ice cream

A

Baron-Cohen 1989

53
Q

What did Baron-Cohen 1989 find in the 2nd order FB task

A

ASD pass 1st order but fail 2nd.

54
Q

What did Baron Cohen 1989 concluded about ToM

A

That ToM is delayed rather than a deficit

55
Q

What did Bower find when AS didn’t 2nd belief

A

AS pass

ToM deficit not universal

56
Q

What percentages did Bower find about 2nd belief

A

90% pass in typical children 7.5 years

60% downs pass

57
Q

What percentage of AS young adults pass (Bower)

A

73%

58
Q

Who found that children with a visual impairment showed difficulty with FB

A

Minter, Hobson & Bishop, 1998

59
Q

Woolfe, Want and Siegal 2002 found a delay of FB in

A

Children with hearing impairment

60
Q

Verbal age increases in ASD leads to what in FB task

A

Better pass rate,

FB is therefore an attainable developmental milestone

61
Q

What did Frith Happe and Siddon 1994 find?

A

More responsive children more likely to pass FB

62
Q

What issues prevent ToM having good specificity

A
  • insistence on sameness
  • routines
  • narrow interests
  • Repetitive behaviour
63
Q

Who proposed the theory of executive control

A

Sally Ozonoff et al. 1991

64
Q

What did the executive control theory propose

A

Account for social and nonsocial symptoms

The ability to maintain an appropriate problem-solving set for the attainment of a future goal

65
Q

What behaviours does the EC theory account for?

A
Planning
Impulsive control
Inhibition of perpotent
Set maintenance
Organised speech
Flexibility of search and action.
66
Q

What tasks can be used in the EC theory

A

Tower of Hanoi

Wisconsin Card Sort - set shifting

67
Q

What did Ozonoff et al. 1991 find using the Tower of Hanoi

A

ASD acted impulsively, could not plan moves shifted all loops directly

68
Q

What did Ozonoff et al. 1991 find using the Wisconsin Card Sort

A

Unable to shift attentional focus, preserved to sort by established systems

69
Q

EC were found to be better at distinguishing than what tasks?

A

ToM and FB tasks

70
Q

Who used the windows task?

A

Russell et al. 1991
Hughes and Russell 1993
Hala and Hughes 2003

71
Q

What did Russell conclude from his windows task?

A

Children <4 yrs and autistic children unable to inhibit pre-potent response

72
Q

How could failure on FB be explained through EF

A

About deception
Resting to point to attentional focus
Acting impulsively
Resist blurring out - inhibition

73
Q

Could EC be a primary cause of ASD

A

Unexpected transfer: rigidity of behaviour
Deceptive box: repetitive behaviour
Windows task: pattern of behaviour in ToM test

74
Q

What could EF leading to acting impulsively on the environment explain

A

EDF = ASD

75
Q

How did Welsh et al. 1990 explain impairment

A

NOT a EF deficit

76
Q

EF theory doesn’t fulfil which crietria

A

Not unique

Not universal

77
Q

What does EF still have to explain

A

Non-social features of ASD
Savant abilites
Heightended perceptual abilties

78
Q

Who came up with the Weak Central Coherence theory

A

Frith 2003

79
Q

What is the Weak Central Coherence theory

A

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.
80
Q

WCC was studied with regards to language processing by who

A

Snowilng and Frith 1986

81
Q

What did Snowling and Frith 1986 find about language

A

ASD fail to use context with ambiguous homophones, literal, difficuties with sarcasm and irony.

82
Q

What results did Shah and Frith 1983 / 1993 find in their embedded figures and block desgin

A

ASD performed significantly better than matched controls.

83
Q

What did Bring et al. 1995 find about jigsaws

A

ASD fast at solving jigsaw upside down and right up - context no differnce

84
Q

Who has found inconsistent evidence of WCC

A

Happe 1996
c- Ropar and Mitchell

Mottron et al. 1993

85
Q

What are the good and bad features of WCC as a primary cause of ASD

A

Good specificity

Not universal

86
Q

What are the challenges of WCC

A

Differentiation from other theories
Enhanced perceptual functioning
Reduced top-down processing

87
Q

Do any of the 3 main theories explain all symptoms of ASD

A

NO

88
Q

Who referred to ASD a a Fractionation of the Triad

A

Happe and Ronald 2008

89
Q

Is autism a unitary disorder

A

No, a mixture of conditons

90
Q

What changes have occurred in the triad between DSM IV and V

A

Triad -> Dyad

Social communication and Restrictive repetitive interests

91
Q

What are the levels of severity for ASD

A

Level 1 - requiring support
Level 2 - requiring substantial support
Level 3 - requiring very substantial support

92
Q

What are the alternative theories for ASD

A

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