A review of the verbal memory profile of individuals with autism spectrum disorder
A review of the verbal memory profile of individuals with autism spectrum disorder

Summary/Abstract: Behavioral studies concerning the memory of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have yielded inconsistent results over the past few decades. Some have found impairment where as others have reported an intact memory profile in ASD. Therefore, in the present review, we will examine the verbal memory profile of ASD. A systematic search has located 18 articles for review and analysis. It is suggested that ASDs mainly have an intact verbal recognition performance but impaired verbal recall ability. The conflicting memory performance found in ASD may probably be due to confounding factors, including differences in the experimental designs of research studies, the intellectual functioning levels of ASD and their developmental trajectories. In general, the memory processing of ASD is implicated by the frontal lobe function, and the memory problem is primarily caused by the poor utilization of organizational strategies during information encoding. A failure to encode the information properly will directly hinder their later retrieval performance. Finally, priorities for future research in the memory functions of ASD are suggested, and the need for more rigorous research paradigms is highlighted. With a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanism of the memory functions of those with ASD, it is believed that better intervention programs can be developed to aid their memory deficits and to improve their daily-life performances.

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