Actions Speak Louder Than Words: The Role of Action in Self‐Referential Advantage in Children With Autism

Impaired self‐processing in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is believed to be closely associated with social‐communicative deficits, a core symptom of ASD. In three experiments, we aimed to investigate (a) whether children with ASD exhibited deficient in self‐processing, as reflected by their superior memory for self‐related items as compared to other‐related items, and (b) the role that action played in promoting self‐processing in ASD. In Experiment 1, children with ASD, children with intellectual disability (ID), and typically developing children were asked to memorize items on the cards assigned to them or to the experimenter. The results indicated that the TD and ID groups had a self‐referential memory advantage, but the ASD group did not. Experiments 2 and 3 examined whether the deficit in self‐processing among children with ASDs was ameliorated when participants performed or observed an action to indicate the ownership of the items. We found that when children with ASD performed self‐generated actions or observed virtual actions, they displayed a similar self‐referential memory advantage as the other two groups. Our findings reveal that action plays an important role in the self‐processing in children with ASD, and thereby contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of self‐processing deficits in this population. Autism Res 2020, 13: 810–820 . © 2020 International Society for Autism Research,Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary We aimed to study whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibited deficient in self‐processing and the role of action in promoting self‐processing in ASD. We found that the typically developing and intellectual disability groups had a self‐referential memory advantage, but the ASD group did not. However, children with ASD showed a significant self‐referential advantage when they performed or observed an action to indicate the ownership of items. These findings highlight the vital role that action plays in cognitively enhancing their self‐processing.