Recognition memory and source memory in autism spectrum disorder: A study of the intention superiority and enactment effects.
Autistic kids remember planned and enacted actions as well as typical kids, so keep using rehearsal and planning in your sessions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Grainger et al. (2017) compared kids with autism to neurotypical kids on two memory tricks. The tricks were: remembering actions you planned to do, and remembering actions you actually did.
They ran a lab game with both groups. Kids saw or did simple actions, then later had to pick out what they had seen, done, or planned to do.
What they found
Both groups used the same memory boosts. Kids with autism showed the 'enactment effect' and the 'intention superiority effect' just like typical kids.
In plain words: doing an action or planning to do it helped autistic kids remember it just as well as their peers.
How this fits with other research
Greenlee et al. (2024) later tested adults with autism and got the same result. When adults rehearsed steps by moving, their time-based memory improved. This extends the child finding to grown-ups.
Peisley et al. (2020) added reinforcement. They showed that small prizes in a game can lift prospective memory in autistic children. The intact memory found by Catherine et al. gives a green light to add rewards without fear of a basic memory deficit.
Kretschmer et al. (2014) looked at 'if-then' plans in adults. Their gains were tiny, while Catherine's child enactment effect was clear. The gap likely comes from task type: simple action versus complex self-talk.
Why it matters
You do not need to water-down memory-based interventions for kids with ASD. If your program uses 'plan-do-review' or has clients rehearse steps, expect typical memory gains. Pair those steps with reinforcement (Peisley et al., 2020) and you may see even bigger pay-offs.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Have your client physically rehearse each step of a new task, then ask them to recall the sequence five minutes later.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
It is well established that neurotypical individuals generally show better memory for actions they have performed than actions they have observed others perform or merely read about, a so-called 'enactment effect'. Strikingly, research has also shown that neurotypical individuals demonstrate superior memory for actions they intend to perform in the future (but have not yet performed), an effect commonly known as the 'intention superiority effect'. Although the enactment effect has been studied among people with autism spectrum disorder, this study is the first to investigate the intention superiority effect in this disorder. This is surprising given the potential importance this issue has for general theory development, as well as for clinical practice. As such, this study aimed to assess the intention superiority and enactment effects in 22 children with autism spectrum disorder, and 20 intelligence quotient/age-matched neurotypical children. The results showed that children with autism spectrum disorder demonstrated not only undiminished enactment effects in recognition and source memory, but also (surprisingly for some theories) typical intention superiority effects. The implications of these results for theory, as well as clinical practice, are discussed.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2017 · doi:10.1177/1362361316653364