Reality Monitoring and Metamemory in Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions.
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Publication Date
2016-06Journal Title
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
ISSN
0162-3257
Publisher
Springer Nature
Volume
46
Issue
6
Pages
2186-2198
Language
English
Type
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Cooper, R. A., Plaisted, K., Baron-Cohen, S., & Simons, J. (2016). Reality Monitoring and Metamemory in Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions.. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46 (6), 2186-2198. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2749-x
Abstract
Studies of reality monitoring (RM) often implicate medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in distinguishing internal and external information, a region linked to autism-related deficits in social and self-referential information processing, executive function, and memory. This study used two RM conditions (self-other; perceived-imagined) to investigate RM and metamemory in adults with autism. The autism group showed a deficit in RM, which did not differ across source conditions, and both groups exhibited a self-encoding benefit on recognition and source memory. Metamemory for perceived-imagined information, but not for self-other information, was significantly lower in the autism group. Therefore, reality monitoring and metamemory, sensitive to mPFC function, appear impaired in autism, highlighting a difficulty in remembering and monitoring internal and external details of past events.
Keywords
Autism, Episodic memory, Metacognition, Metamemory, Reality monitoring, Adult, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Executive Function, Female, Humans, Imagination, Male, Memory Disorders, Memory, Episodic, Mental Recall, Metacognition, Middle Aged, Photic Stimulation, Prefrontal Cortex
Sponsorship
This research was supported by a James S. McDonnell Scholar Award to J.S.S., and an Economic and Social Research Council Award to R.A.C.
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2749-x
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/253778