Visual Memory of Meaningless Shapes in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

OBJECTIVE Visual memory is an important cognitive ability, which has been studied in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). In such studies meaningful shapes were used more frequently. Since meaningless shapes provide a better assessment of short term visual memory, in this study we used them to evaluate visual memory in children and adolescents with ASDs compared to the normal group. METHODS Four visual memory tests of Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) including Paired Associates Learning (PAL), Pattern Recognition Memory (PRM), Spatial Recognition Memory (SRM) and Delayed Matching to Sample (DMS) were administered to 15 children and adolescents with ASDs (high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome) and to 15 normal participants aged 8 to 17,with IQ of above 70. RESULTS Individuals with ASDs performed worse than the normal group on visual memory tasks. After eliminating IQ as a covariate, no significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of visual memory performance. CONCLUSION It seems that deficits on visual memory tasks in youths with ASDs could be related to their general intellectual abilities.