Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Associative learning of pictures and words by low-functioning children with autism.
AU - Preissler, Melissa Allen
PY - 2008/5
Y1 - 2008/5
N2 - This research investigates whether children with autism learn picture, word and object relations as associative pairs or whether they understand such relations as referential. In Experiment 1, children were taught a new word (e.g. `whisk') repeatedly paired with a novel picture. When given the picture and a previously unseen real whisk and asked to indicate a whisk, children with autism, unlike typically developing peers matched on receptive language, associated the word with the picture rather than the object. Subsequent experiments respectively confirmed that neither a bias for selecting pictures nor perseverative responding accounted for these results. Taken together, these results suggest that children with autism with cognitive difficulties are learning picture—word and picture—object relations via an associative mechanism and have difficulty understanding the symbolic nature of pictures.
AB - This research investigates whether children with autism learn picture, word and object relations as associative pairs or whether they understand such relations as referential. In Experiment 1, children were taught a new word (e.g. `whisk') repeatedly paired with a novel picture. When given the picture and a previously unseen real whisk and asked to indicate a whisk, children with autism, unlike typically developing peers matched on receptive language, associated the word with the picture rather than the object. Subsequent experiments respectively confirmed that neither a bias for selecting pictures nor perseverative responding accounted for these results. Taken together, these results suggest that children with autism with cognitive difficulties are learning picture—word and picture—object relations via an associative mechanism and have difficulty understanding the symbolic nature of pictures.
KW - associative learning • autism • symbolic development
U2 - 10.1177/1362361307088753
DO - 10.1177/1362361307088753
M3 - Journal article
VL - 12
SP - 231
EP - 248
JO - Autism
JF - Autism
SN - 1461-7005
IS - 3
ER -