Memory strategies in autistic and older adults

Memory strategies in autistic adults seem to mimic strategies at older age, as both younger autistic and older non-autistic individuals use fewer semantic features in visual memory tasks. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate whether early differences in memory strategies lead to altered age-related effects in autism, particularly whether initial difficulties in strategy use become advantageous at older age (i.e., "protective aging"). A total of 147 participants across four groups (autistic younger/older, non-autistic younger/older) completed an online assessment. This assessment included a recognition version of the Visual Patterns Test (VPT) to evaluate semantic strategy use in visual memory, the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) size task for assessing visual processing, and the Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire to evaluate subjective memory functioning and strategy use (MMQ). Unexpectedly, all groups benefited from semantic features on the VPT, although the older groups performed less accurately and slower than the younger groups. The JND Size task showed no group differences. Autistic adults rated their MMQ memory as worse than non-autistic adults, despite reporting greater strategy use. These results indicate that cognitive strategies might be more similar between younger/older and autistic/non-autistic people than previously expected, although notable discrepancies between objective and subjective measures were present. They also substantiate previously reported parallel (i.e., similar) age-related effects between autistic and non-autistic people. In their way of remembering things, autistic people seem to show similarities to those of older age. We wanted to find out if these differences in memory strategies that autistic people use at younger age, might become an advantage as they get older. We studied 147 participants divided into four groups: younger and older adults with autism, and younger and older adults without autism. Participants completed a memory test where they had to remember patterns, a visual processing task where they had to judge the size of various objects, and a memory questionnaire where they judged their own memory and the use of memory strategies in daily life. Surprisingly, in the memory pattern test, using memory strategies helped all groups, although the older participants in both groups (autistic and non-autistic) were slower and less accurate. On both the memory task and visual processing task no differences between autistic and non-autistic people were observed. However, autistic people rated their own memory as worse compared to non-autistic people and they reported using more memory strategies in daily life on the questionnaire. These results suggest that the ways people remember things might be more similar than previously expected, even between younger and older people and between those with and without autism. Our study contributes to understanding how memory works in autism and illustrates that memory tasks and memory questionnaires can show different results.