Does Ongoing Task Load Influence Prospective Remembering in Autism Spectrum Disorders?

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the cognitive ability to remember to carry out intended actions in the future. The present study investigated PM performance in autistic and non-autistic adults as well as the impact of the cognitive load of the ongoing task on PM performance. A total of 50 autistic individuals and 51 age- and non-verbal ability-matched non-autistic individuals completed an event-based PM task, which was embedded into an ongoing n-back task. The cognitive load of the n-back task was varied (2- vs. 3-back for low versus high cognitive load). Results showed that autistic participants did not differ from non-autistic participants in their PM performance. The cognitive load of the ongoing task had no impact on event-based PM performance in both groups. This is the first study to investigate the impact of ongoing task load on event-based PM performance in autistic adults. The results support the neurodiversity perspective of ASD as a highly heterogeneous population which is not necessarily characterized by reduced PM performance.