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This study is part of a programmatic line of research into the use of basic positive reinforcement procedures for improving working memory in children with autism spectrum disorders. The authors evaluated the effects of multiple exemplar training, utilizing positive reinforcement, on performance of a "digit span backwards" task-a test of working memory that entails sequential relational responding. All three participants showed improved performance on directly trained stimuli as well as maintenance and generalization to untrained stimuli. The results provide further support for the general hypothesis that performance on working memory tasks is amenable to improvement via behavioral intervention and has implications for treating such tasks as relational operants. Implications for future research and the development of clinical interventions are discussed.
Key words: autism, working memory, executive function, positive reinforcement, relational frame theory, relational responding
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) demonstrate deficits in language and socialization as well as display restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994). A variety of other deficits have also been documented in the ASD population, including executive function (EF), in general, and working memory (WM), in particular (Geurts, Vertè, Oosterlaan, Roeyers, & Sergeant, 2004; Ozonoff, 1997; Ozonoff et al., 1991; Prior & Hoffman, 1990; Rumsey & Hamburger, 1988; Vertè, Geurts, Roeyers, Oosterlaan, & Sergeant, 2006; see Hill, 2004, for a more recent review). This body of literature has documented deficits in WM across a variety of tests that measure it and across a wide range of participant ages.
The term working memory generally refers to "the ability to retain information during a delay and then to make a response based on that internal representation" (Klingberg et al., 2005). An example of a task that reportedly involves working memory is hearing a sentence and then answering an unexpected question about it (e.g., What was the first letter of the third word in the sentence?) after an interval of time has elapsed, during which the individual was responding in some other way (e.g., engaging in a distractor task of some kind). The behavior-environment relations that are present in such interactions appear to be quite complex. At a minimum, these phenomena appear to involve an initial stimulus of some kind, a response to that stimulus (overt or covert),...