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The characteristics of memory function in autism has been studied for decades. Individuals with autism both have specific difficulties with memory and memory strengths. Memory difficulty is not part of the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but it is a common difficulty experienced by many individuals with this diagnosis.〔Crane, L., Pring, L., Jukes, K., & Goddard, L. (2012). Patterns of autobiographical memory in adults with autism spectrum disorder. ''Journal Of Autism And Developmental Disorders'', 2100–2112. 〕 This article emphasizes declarative and non-declarative memory functions and their connection with autism, but not the relation between autism and working memory. Among areas of strength are certain types of visual memory〔 and intact rote memory, with some individuals showing very good rote memory. == Overview == Autism is a spectrum disorder which presents many challenges to the study of autism and memory function. It is important for researchers to be able to collect data across the spectrum and develop experimental designs to study both individuals with high functioning autism (HFA) and those with moderate-low functioning autism (M-LFA).〔 Methods to classify individuals into one of these groups include intelligence testing, which enables researchers to make methodical comparisons and analyses between HFA and M-LFA individuals.〔 Alternatively, in recent years, “mixed” studies of both HFA and M-LFA participants are done as well.〔 Some of the earliest references to the topic of autism and memory date back to the 1960s and 70s when several studies appeared proposing that autism should be classified as an amnesic disorder.〔 What is now diagnosed as autism, was formerly diagnosed as developmental amnesia. Subsequent studies had mixed results; some found support for impaired memory, others found evidence of relatively intact memory function.〔 Even though the view of autism as an amnesic disorder of memory has now been rejected, there are still many studies done on the deficits in memory function that are associated with autism.〔 Furthermore, in the memory studies there were observations of memory dysfunctions in autism that were consistent with a deficit in executive functions.〔 Theories have been developed stating that the memory deficits are a reflection of primary deficits in executive function, or of a primary deficit in the processing of complex information.〔 It has been difficult to get consistent results in autism research. One of the reasons for this is that the autistic population is very diverse, with differences in development and cognitive levels.〔 However, there are a couple of findings that have been replicated in several studies: *Children with autism do not use organizational strategies or context to support memory. For example, when remembering words, children with autism demonstrate the same level when they are in a random group and when they are semantically or syntactically organized.〔 *Compared to other children, those with autism use fewer strategies spontaneously in order to retrieve information.〔 *Children with autism have much more difficulties with memory for complex material - for instance, for young children, recall of digits was easiest, of sentences more difficult, and of stories the most difficult.〔 *Visual memory for some types of material is an area of strength, but also here children with autism show certain difficulties with complex material.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Autism and memory」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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