自闭症儿童前瞻记忆的影响因素及改善策略

Influencing Factors and Strategies to Improve Prospective Memory in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

前瞻记忆是儿童独立性发展的重要表现,良好的前瞻记忆有助于儿童学习和生活。研究发现自闭症儿童时间性前瞻记忆受损明显,但事件性前瞻记忆是否损伤还存有争议。自闭症儿童前瞻记忆表现受前瞻记忆任务、进行中任务和个体特征的影响。在此基础上,文中总结了自闭症儿童前瞻记忆损伤的机制及改善策略。未来需改进研究方法,注重前瞻记忆任务和进行中任务的差异,增加对同一样本中多种类型前瞻记忆的综合考察,并选取贴近日常生活的任务范式。而且,需注重样本的匹配性,尤其在性别、年龄、智力、症状程度以及动机等方面。其次,可通过脑成像等技术将前瞻记忆各加工阶段进行分离,进而揭示自闭症儿童前瞻记忆受损的认知机制。最后,需注重探究改善自闭症儿童前瞻记忆的策略。

Prospective memory(PM)refers to the ability to remember to perform an intended action in the future.PM is an essential aspect of children's development of independence.Further,a well-developed PM is beneficial to their future growth and development.Previous studies have found impairments in time-based PM in children with autism spectrum disorder;however,it is controversial whether event-based PM is impaired.PM performance of children with autism is influenced by three factors:difference of PM tasks(PM types and cue characteristics),ongoing tasks(cognitive load and task types),and individual characteristics(age,severity of autism symptoms,and motivation).Therefore,we suggest strategies related to improving PM in children with autism spectrum disorder,including external reminders,encoding strategy,and Say-Do training.Future research needs to enhance the understanding of PM in children with autism spectrum disorder.First,research methods need to be improved to increase the comprehensive analysis of multiple PM types in the same sample.The selection of task paradigms needs to be closer to daily life and combined with a one-sample design or multiple baseline design based on between-group analysis to explore PM in children with autism spectrum disorder comprehensively.Moreover,there is a need to focus on sample matching,especially regarding gender,age,intelligence,severity of autism symptoms,and motivation.Second,the various processing stages of PM can be separated by techniques,such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and functional near-infrared spectroscopy,to understand which stages of executive function play a role in PM;thus,revealing the cognitive mechanisms underlying impaired PM in children with autism spectrum disorder.Finally,strategies to improve the PM of children with autism can be further developed.