Flexible behavior is critical for everyday decision-making and has been implicated in restricted, repetitive behaviors (RRB) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, how flexible behavior changes developmentally in ASD remains largely unknown. Here, we used a developmental approach and examined flexible behavior on a probabilistic reversal learning task in 572 children, adolescents, and adults (ASD N = 321; typical development [TD] N = 251). Using computational modeling, we quantified latent variables that index mechanisms underlying perseveration and feedback sensitivity. We then assessed these variables in relation to diagnosis, developmental stage, core autism symptomatology, and associated psychiatric symptoms. Autistic individuals showed on average more perseveration and less feedback sensitivity than TD individuals, and, across cases and controls, older age groups showed more feedback sensitivity than younger age groups. Computational modeling revealed that dominant learning mechanisms underpinning flexible behavior differed across developmental stages and reduced flexible behavior in ASD was driven by less optimal learning on average within each age group. In autistic children, perseverative errors were positively related to anxiety symptoms, and in autistic adults, perseveration (indexed by both task errors and model parameter estimates) was positively related to RRB. These findings provide novel insights into reduced flexible behavior in relation to clinical symptoms in ASD.

灵活的行为对于日常决策至关重要，并且已经牵涉到自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的限制性重复行为（RRB）。然而，在ASD中灵活的行为如何发展变化仍然是未知的。在这里，我们采用了一种发展性方法，并研究了在572名儿童，青少年和成人中的概率逆向学习任务中的灵活行为（ASD N = 321；典型发展[TD] N= 251）。使用计算模型，我们量化了潜在变量，这些潜在变量为坚持和反馈敏感性的潜在机制建立了索引。然后，我们评估了这些变量与诊断，发育阶段，核心自闭症症状以及相关的精神症状有关。自闭症患者平均表现出比TD个人更高的毅力和更低的反馈敏感性，并且在病例和对照中，年龄较大的人群显示的反馈敏感性高于年轻年龄组。计算模型表明，支持灵活行为的主导学习机制在各个发展阶段均不同，而ASD中灵活行为的减少是由每个年龄组内平均水平的最佳学习不足所致。在自闭症儿童中，顽固性错误与焦虑症状呈正相关，在自闭症成年人中，毅力（由任务错误和模型参数估计两者索引）与RRB正相关。这些发现为减少与ASD临床症状相关的灵活行为提供了新颖的见解。