Do adults with autism spectrum disorders compensate in naturalistic prospective memory tasks?
Adults with autism do not self-compensate for prospective memory lapses, so you must supply the prompts.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Altgassen et al. (2012) watched adults with autism make breakfast in a lab kitchen.
They had to remember two future jobs: flip toast when a bell rang and stop cooking after 15 minutes.
The team compared their success with matched adults who do not have autism.
What they found
Adults with autism forgot both time-based and event-based cues more often.
They did not use sticky notes, phone alarms, or any self-help tricks.
The authors saw no sign that the adults tried to compensate on their own.
How this fits with other research
Simó-Pinatella et al. (2013) found the same split in kids: event cues were easier, time cues were hard.
Altgassen et al. (2019) later showed that even personal rewards could not fix the teen time-based gap.
de Graaf et al. (2011) previewed this in adolescents, proving the everyday-memory problem starts early.
Together the four papers trace one clear line: prospective memory is fragile across the autism lifespan.
Why it matters
Do not assume older or brighter clients will remind themselves. Build external prompts into daily routines. Use visual timers, phone alerts, or peer check-ins. Teach caregivers to cue the cue, not the task.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The present study is the first to directly compare event- and time-based prospective memory in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) using a contextual task mirroring real life demands of prospective memory. Twenty-five individuals with ASD and 25 age- and ability-matched controls completed the Dresden Breakfast task which required participants to prepare breakfast following a set of rules and time restrictions. Overall, adults with ASD had less correct time- and event-based prospective memory responses in comparison to controls, which is consistent with previous research in children with ASD. Moreover, ASD participants completed fewer tasks, followed rules less closely, and monitored the elapsing time less closely than controls. Individuals with ASD seem not to be compensating in naturalistic prospective memory tasks.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2012 · doi:10.1007/s10803-012-1466-3