Autism is generally defined as affecting three main areas; social communication, social interaction and social imagination (Autism, 2011). People with autism often have issues with sensory processing. They can either be over or under-sensitive to any of their senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste, balance and self-awareness) (Autism, 2011). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5) people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to have communication deficits, such as responding inappropriately in conversations, misunderstanding nonverbal interactions, or having difficulty building friendships. People with ASD may also be overly dependent on routines, highly sensitive to changes in their environment,…show more content… Thanks to Alan Baddeley’s model of working memory one can see that information is constantly being handled, combined, and transformed (Matlin 2008). There are four important components to Baddeley’s model. First there is the phonological loop, Maltin (2008) defines phonological loop as “processing a limited number of sounds for a short period of time.” The phonological loop is important because it helps track numbers and other information like instructions, when performing calculations and problem solving tasks. Then there is the visuo-spatial sketchpad which helps store visual and spatial information, like objects and landmarks. There is also the episodic buffer which gathers and combines information from the other components to interpret past experiences, solve current problems, and plans for the future. The central executive helps organize information to keep attention focus, transforming information, and coordinating behaviors. Baddeley’s model helps illustrate working memory as a workbench which holds both new and old information that has been gathered from long term memory (Maltin…show more content… 2012). Also known as George Miller’s “Magical Number Seven,” people can roughly remember about five to nine items at a time (Maltin, 2008). Difficulties arise for non-autistic individual who have a well-functioning frontal lobe to remember five objects. How much harder can it be for someone with ASD? Margot Prior and Wendy Hoffman (1990), measured ASD children’s frontal lobe function specifically looking at their ability to plan, receive feedback, categorizing and organizing. Twenty four participants volunteered their time equally divided in two groups, ASD children and average children (ages ranging from 8 through 17 years old). Participants had to take a series of test. The first test was the Milner Maze, participants had to discover and remember the correct path. Participants started from the lower left hand corner moving towards the upper right hand corner. The rules were simple, participants could not move back to previous portions they had used, moving diagonally was not allowed, and when an error occurred participants had to move back to the previous correct response. Participants only had fifteen tries and when three tries were completed with no errors participants were able to move to the next test. Prior and Hoffman (1990) expected ASD participants to make more mistakes than those in the control groups
