Psychometric Characteristics of Verbal Working Memory Scale among Savant Syndrome Children

Abstract

The study aimed to construct a test for the behavioral implications of verbal working memory among Savant syndrome and Verify the factor structure of the test using factor analysis. The study relied on the Geweke & Singleton (1980) approach to select the participants. The study sample consisted of a targeted sample with Savant syndrome. 32 Savant syndrome cases had selected. The verbal working memory test was applied electronically with the help of four colleagues in the field of special education. The applying procedure lasted nine months. The Exploratory Factor Analysis results reached a fitted general factor model. The confirmatory analysis results revealed the fitted construct of the first-order three-factor model structure. The results indicated the possibility of the three-factors loading on a second-order general factor structure.

Keywords: Autism; Savant syndrome; Verbal working memory.