title: Reality Monitoring and Metamemory in Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.
authors.forename: Rose A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.
authors.forename: Kate C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Plaisted-Grant
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.|Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baron-Cohen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK. jss30@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jon S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7508-9084
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Simons
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D000067489:Metacognition / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Autism; Episodic memory; Metacognition; Metamemory; Reality monitoring