Visual Working Memory in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Autistic teens can watch fine but hold less visual information at once.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers tested visual working memory in 30 autistic teens and 30 typical peers. Each teen watched colored squares flash on a screen. After a brief pause they had to recall the colors and locations.
The team also tracked eye movements to see if attention differed between groups. All testing happened in a quiet university lab.
What they found
Autistic teens remembered fewer squares than their peers. The gap was small but consistent across trials.
Eye tracking showed both groups looked at the squares the same amount. Attention was fine; memory space was smaller.
How this fits with other research
Seiverling et al. (2012) and Coutelle et al. (2020) found autistic adults also struggle with autobiographical memory. Together the studies suggest memory differences persist from teen years into adulthood.
van Timmeren et al. (2016) saw autistic kids fail to use visual cues during motor learning. That looks like a contradiction, but the tasks differ. The 2016 study needed quick visual updates; the current study only needed holding still. Memory can be weak even when basic looking is normal.
Boxum et al. (2018) showed autistic teens wobble more on balance beams. Both papers point to small but real sensorimotor gaps in the same age range.
Why it matters
When you give multi-step instructions or show a visual schedule, cut the load. Present two icons at a time, not six. Check recall after a few seconds and re-present if needed. The teen is not inattentive; the visual shelf is simply shorter.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Previous research suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may experience working memory (WM) problems, but the nature of the underlying disruption remains unknown. A recent study (Bodner et al. 2019) found that young adults with ASD experienced intact WM capacity but disruptions in their ability to efficiently filter and allocate attention. The goal of the present study was to extend this work and evaluate potential disruptions in WM capacity and attentional allocation ability in adolescents with ASD. A sample of 38 adolescents with ASD and 39 adolescents without ASD aged 11-15 years completed a computerized WM task. In brief, participants were shown visual arrays consisting of four or six colored stimuli (circles and squares). After a short delay, memory for one of the stimuli was probed. Importantly, participants were informed beforehand that one of the shapes (e.g., circles) was more likely to be probed compared to the other shape (e.g., squares) - thus making it strategically beneficial to focus primarily on the high frequency shapes. The ASD group demonstrated overall lower WM capacity compared to the non-ASD group. However, no group differences were seen in attentional allocation. There was also no evidence of sex-related differences in WM performance in adolescents with ASD. Taken together with previous findings, the current results suggest that adolescents with ASD show disruptions in WM capacity that are resolved by adulthood. Future longitudinal research is needed to further disentangle the component processes of WM and the developmental trajectories of these components.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2026 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0235552