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Online Action Monitoring and Memory for Self-Performed Actions in Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

This study explored whether individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties with action monitoring. Two experimental tasks examined whether adults with ASD are able to monitor their own actions online, and whether they also show a typical enactment effects in memory (enhanced memory for actions they have performed compared to actions they have observed being performed). Individuals with ASD and comparison participants showed a similar pattern of performance on both tasks. In a task which required individuals to distinguish person-caused from computer-caused changes in phenomenology both groups found it easier to monitor their own actions compared to those of an experimenter. Both groups also showed typical enactment effects. Despite recent suggestions to the contrary, these results support suggestions that action monitoring is unimpaired in ASD.

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Notes

  1. It should be highlighted that Zalla et al. (2010) used the nonparametric measures of A′ and B ″ D to assess participants recognition discrimination. However, when A′ scores were calculated for recognition performance in this study, one sample t tests indicated that scores did not significantly differ from ceiling level accuracy (100 % discrimination accuracy) for enacted actions in both in the TD group, t (16) = 1.97, p = .06, and ASD group, t (16) = 1.87, p = .08. As such, to maximise the rigour of our statistical analysis, corrected hit rates were used as an alternative measure of recognition performance on the task.

  2. The average VIQ for participants in the ASD group is not reported in Russell and Jarrold (1999). However, Russell and Jarrold (1999) reports the average VMA (7.13 years) and the average chronological age (CA; 13.23) for participants in the ASD group. These were used to estimate the average VIQ of the ASD group, using the formula VIQ = VMA/CA × 100.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to sincerely thank all of the participants who took part in this study. Without their support, this research would not have been possible. The authors would also like to thank the National Autistic Society and Durham University Service for Students with Disabilities for their assistance with participant recruitment. Many thanks also to Dr. Tiziana Zalla and Dr. Elena Daprati for providing us with additional information about their study. Finally, we would like to thank Anna Peel for her assistance with data collection. Catherine Grainger was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council doctoral studentship, and a University of Kent PhD scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Keynes College, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NP, UK

    Catherine Grainger & David M. Williams

  2. Autism Research Group, Psychology Department, Social Sciences Building, City University London, Whiskin Street, London, EC1R 0JD, UK

    Sophie E. Lind

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  1. Catherine Grainger
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Correspondence to Catherine Grainger.

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Grainger, C., Williams, D.M. & Lind, S.E. Online Action Monitoring and Memory for Self-Performed Actions in Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 1193–1206 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1987-4

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