How autism impacts children’s working memory for faces

This study investigates visual working memory (WM) performance in children aged 7-12 years with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared to typically developing (TD) peers, focusing on face stimuli to evaluate social-relevant memory processing. The research aims to identify differences in visual WM functioning and determine whether errors in recall stem from reduced precision or increased random guessing. Participants completed a visual WM task requiring them to memorize and reproduce the orientations of faces presented on a screen. Results demonstrated that children with ASD exhibited significantly poorer overall visual WM accuracy than TD children. A fine-grained analysis of error patterns revealed that the ASD group showed markedly lower precision in recalling spatial details of the stimuli, indicating less stable or detailed memory representations. However, rates of random guessing-a measure of attentional lapses or task disengagement-did not differ significantly between groups. These findings underscore that visual WM deficits in ASD are primarily driven by reduced precision rather than fluctuations in attention or motivation. The study highlights the importance of precision-based mechanisms in understanding atypical cognitive profiles in ASD, offering insights into potential interventions targeting memory consolidation or perceptual encoding strategies to enhance functional outcomes. By isolating precision as a key deficit, this work advances theoretical models of visual WM and informs tailored approaches to support memory-related challenges in ASD.