Two recent studies illustrated that cues present during encoding can enhance recall if re-presented during sleep. This suggests an academic strategy. Such effects have only been demonstrated with spatial learning and cue presentation was isolated to slow wave sleep (SWS). The goal of this study was to examine whether sounds enhance sleep-dependent consolidation of a semantic task if the sounds are re-presented continuously during sleep. Participants encoded a list of word pairs in the evening and recall was probed following an interval with overnight sleep. Participants encoded the pairs with the sound of "the ocean" from a sound machine. The first group slept with this sound; the second group slept with a different sound ("rain"); and the third group slept with no sound. Sleeping with sound had no impact on subsequent recall. Although a null result, this work provides an important test of the implications of context effects on sleep-dependent memory consolidation.

Interoceptive awareness is linked to emotional and social cognition, which are impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is unknown how this ability is associated with age in either typical or atypical development. We used a standard test of interoceptive accuracy (IA) to investigate these questions in children and adults with and without ASD. Perceived number of heartbeats over 4 time intervals was compared with actual heart rate to determine IA. Effects of group, age, IQ, heart rate, and mental counting ability on accuracy were assessed using multiple regression. Post hoc correlations were performed to clarify significant interactions. Age was unrelated to IA in both groups when IQ ≥115. When IQ <115, this relationship was positive in typical development and negative in ASD. These results suggest that cognitive ability moderates the effect of age on IA differently in autism and typical development.