Master of Arts (Applied Psychology)

Background: Preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are identified to have cognitive control deficits. Some studies suggest that such deficits may be reduced when motivation is increased through incentives. However, whether cognitive control processes, such as distractor interference control, can be specifically enhanced by social motivation has hardly been studied in preschoolers with ASD.

Method: To determine whether social motivation in the form of a competition is able to improve distractor interference control in preschoolers with ASD, an adapted Eriksen Flanker task was administered under a competitive context in which the preschoolers were told that they were competing with peers, and under a standard context in which standard instructions were given. All preschoolers with ASD were tested in both motivational contexts. In addition, the association between improvement in distractor interference control and social responsiveness was assessed in 32 preschoolers with ASD, ages 5:0 to 6:11 years.

Results: Preschoolers with ASD did not benefit from the social motivation manipulation, i.e., their performance accuracy and response speed were comparable between the standard and competitive contexts. Moreover, the extent of their improvement in performance from standard and competitive context was not associated to their level of social responsiveness. Nevertheless, preschoolers with ASD actually reported being more motivated when they thought they were competing with peers than when they were not. The higher the preschoolers’ with ASD social responsiveness, the larger was their positive change in self-reported motivation ratings from standard to competitive context.

Conclusion: These data suggest that preschoolers with ASD are not able to exert sufficient distractor interference control through competition, which is in line with the social motivation deficit models of ASD. However, different levels of social responsiveness may determine the extent to which a child profits from a competitive context. Clinical implications regarding probable responsiveness to competition in preschoolers with ASD are discussed.