Parallel Age-Related Cognitive Effects in Autism: A Cross-Sectional Replication Study

• DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/47tyc
• Publication Date: 2021-07-02T08:52:44Z
• Authors: Carolien Torenvliet; Annabeth Groenman; Tulsi Radhoe; Joost Agelink van...; Wikke van der Putten; Hilde Geurts
• Keywords: Verbal fluency test; Neurocognitive; Replication

Findings on age-related cognitive effects in autism adulthood are inconsistent across studies. As these studies substantially differ their methodology, replication needed. In this study frequentist (i.e., null-hypothesis significance testing), and Bayesian statistics were used to investigate the hypothesis that autistic adults compared non-autistic mostly parallel, but also protective can be observed. Participants 88 adults, matched comparisons (age range: 30-89 years, mean age: 55 years). Cognitive measures administered following six domains: verbal memory, visual working Theory of Mind (ToM), fluency, processing speed, self-reported failures. Non-autistic outperformed ToM, only first two confirmed with analyses. Also, more failures reported by adults. No interactions between group age observed, suggesting a parallel effect all domains. sum, previously observed difficulties ToM fluency replicated which seem persist at older age. Previously patterns replicated, yet no evidence for was found.