Did you hear? Auditory prospective memory cues are more beneficial for autistic than for non-autistic children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The transition from primary to secondary school is particularly difficult for autistic children, a transition underpinned by an increase in prospective memory (PM) demands. AIMS: To better understand PM in autistic children of the relevant age range and its underlying processes, the current study investigated the impact of cue salience (distinctiveness) on PM in autistic and non-autistic children and adolescents. The study was unique in manipulating the visual and auditory salience of PM cues. Salient cues are assumed to put lower demands on executive control resources as compared to cues that blend in with the ongoing activity. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: The children completed a computer-based categorisation task in which an event-based PM task was embedded. The salience of PM cues was manipulated (low, high visual and high auditory salience). OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Results revealed that both groups benefitted from an increase in visual and auditory salience, but only autistic participants were faster to respond to auditory cues. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Increased cue salience improved PM performance for all children. Positive effects of auditory cues were especially evident in autistic children.

The Role of Extrinsic Rewards and Cue-Intention Association in Prospective Memory in Young Children.

The current study examined, for the first time, the effect of cue-intention association, as well as the effects of promised extrinsic rewards, on prospective memory in young children, aged 5-years-old (n = 39) and 7-years-old (n = 40). Children were asked to name pictures for a toy mole, whilst also having to remember to respond differently to certain target pictures (prospective memory task). The level to which the target picture was associated with the intention was manipulated across two conditions (low- or high-association) for all participants, whilst half of the participants were promised a reward for good prospective memory performance. Results showed a main effect of age, with the 7-year-olds outperforming the 5-year-olds. Furthermore, there was a main effect of reward, with those promised a reward performing better than those who were not. No effect was found for cue-association, with the participants of both age groups performing equally well in both association conditions. No significant interactions were found between any of the variables. The potentially important role of reward in young children's everyday prospective memory tasks, and possible reasons for the lack of a reflexive-associative effect, are discussed.