Uncovering the Role of Executive Functioning in Children's Cognitive Biases

Background: Due to the rising prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), it is important to understand how children with ASD learn and apply this information to educational strategies.  Presently, three cognitive theories of autism propose distinct interpretations of how children with autism learn and function in their daily surroundings.  The Weak Central Coherence (WCC) theory suggests that children with ASD focus on the details or local information and exhibit difficulties in deriving meaning and processing global information (Happé & Frith, 2006).  In contrast, Systemizing theory proposes that children with ASD not only excel with details but also learn in a more systematic fashion, evaluating predictable relationships or rule-based systems (Baron-Cohen, 2002).  Executive Dysfunction theory may present as the link between cognitive biases as proposed by WCC and Systemizing theory.  Although these theories propose distinct interpretations of cognitive styles in children with ASD, it is imperative to understand how these theories can be reconciled with children’s behaviors as well as their relation to other cognitive functions.

Objectives: The purpose of this research project is to evaluate whether children with autism are biased towards local, global, or rule-based information more so than typically developing (TD) children, and the role executive function may play in children’s cognitive biases.

Methods: Children with ASD (i.e., High-functioning Autism, Asperger Syndrome, PDD-NOS), and TD children between 7 and 11 years of age were included in the present study.  Weak Central Coherence was assessed using the Children’s Embedded Figures Test (Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, & Karp, 1971) and the Sentence Completion Test (Booth & Happé, 2010).  Systemizing abilities were assessed using the Picture Sequencing Test (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1986) and the Systemizing Quotient - Child Version (Auyeung et al., 2009).  Children’s executive functioning was assessed using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (Gioia et al., 2000) and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (Kongs, Thompson, Iverson, & Heaton, 2000); core language abilities were evaluated with the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2003).  Autism traits were also evaluated using the Autism Spectrum Quotient – Child Version (Auyeung et al., 2008) to assess the role of autism traits on cognitive biases.

Results:   Preliminary results showed that children with ASD do not differ from TD children on local, global and rule-based processing.  However, there were significant differences in parent-reported executive dysfunction, t(23)=4.739, p< .01 and parent-reported autism traits, t(23)= 6.874, p< .01 between children with ASD and TD children.  Importantly, further analyses showed that executive dysfunction and autism traits predicted systemizing behaviors and preferences, but only in children with ASD, R²=.415, F(2, 12)=4.256, p<.05.  No differences were observed between different ASD diagnoses (i.e., High-Functioning Autism, Asperger Syndrome, and PDD-NOS). 

Conclusions: The preliminary results indicate that children with ASD may not differ from TD children in their cognitive biases, although the underlying processes may be distinct, as evidenced by differences in executive functioning.  This suggests that children with ASD engage in distinct cognitive strategies to process new information.