A quantitative measure of JS's memory.
Even highly verbal adults with Asperger syndrome can score low on both verbal and visual memory, so test both areas and use autism-relevant norms.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Dorit et al. (2010) gave one verbal adult with Asperger syndrome the full WMS-III memory battery. They wanted numbers to back up his own complaints about forgetting words and pictures.
The team compared his scores to earlier group norms for high-functioning autism. This single-case check aimed to see if standard memory tests flag real gaps in bright autistic adults.
What they found
Both his verbal and visual memory indexes landed below the prior autism group means. The data matched his self-report: even strong language skills did not protect his memory.
In short, the test caught weaknesses that casual talk could miss.
How this fits with other research
Lifshitz et al. (2016) reviewed working-memory studies in adults with ID. They found visuospatial tasks hold up better than verbal ones. Dorit's case flips that pattern: the adult's visual memory was just as weak as his verbal, showing autism can blunt both channels.
MacLean et al. (2011) showed the WAIS-III four-factor model does not fit adults with ID. Dorit's work extends the warning to the WMS-III in autistic adults without ID. Together, the papers say "question the norms" across Wechsler tools when either ID or autism is present.
MPayne et al. (2020) found the INQ-10 lacks measurement invariance between autistic and non-autistic adults. Dorit's single case adds memory to the list of domains where typical scores may mislead, strengthening the call for autism-specific benchmarks.
Why it matters
If you assess a bright autistic teen or adult, do not skip memory testing just because they talk well. Run both verbal and visual memory tasks; either can be weak. Compare scores to autism samples, not only the test manual. This guards against missing support needs that surface in college, work, or daily living.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
JS is a highly able, well-educated 37 year old man with Asperger syndrome. A recent qualitative paper (Boucher, 2007) described his self-report of verbal and visual memory difficulties. The present paper used the WMS-III to compare the memory profile of JS to that of the adults with HFA in the Williams et al. (2005) WMS-III paper. Results show that JS's self-report of his memory difficulties can by and large be supported, that JS's memory performance is at the lower end of the group examined in the Williams et al. (2005) paper, and that, unlike the group profile in Williams et al. (2005), JS shows reduced performance on both verbal and visual measures of memory. A qualitative analysis of JS's performance raises the possibility that JS is using language to retain details he can generalize over, as a compensatory strategy for some reductions in episodic memory.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2010 · doi:10.1177/1362361310373704