Wilkinson, Desiree
(2009)
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEMORY AWARENESS AND THEORY OF MIND IN INDIVIDUALS WITH AUTISM.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by behavioral, communicative and social impairments. With regard to social deficits, research burgeoned when children with autism were found to have impaired theory of mind (ToM) abilities and difficulty attributing mental states to others. Although ToM has been extensively studied in individuals with autism, little is known regarding this population's understanding of their own mental processes. While researchers have argued that metacognition and ToM are related, few empirical studies have examined these two constructs together. The current study examined memory awareness, a component of metacognition, and its relationship to ToM in individuals with autism. Furthermore, memory awareness was examined within the context of both incidental and explicit facial recognition tasks. Participants consisted of high-functioning children and adults with autism and control children and adults, matched on age, FSIQ, VIQ & PIQ. Memory awareness accuracy was assessed based on the accuracy of certainty judgments for each recognition trial. Overall, individuals with autism had less accurate memory awareness compared to controls. In particular, children with autism appear to have a less accurate understanding of their memory awareness. Furthermore, overall memory awareness was associated with measures of ToM. These results indicate that deficits in memory awareness for faces may contribute to more general social deficits and suggest that further research is needed to better understand metacognitive processes in individuals with autism.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
5 June 2009 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
9 December 2008 |
| Approval Date: |
5 June 2009 |
| Submission Date: |
9 April 2009 |
| Access Restriction: |
5 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 5 years. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Psychology |
| Degree: |
MS - Master of Science |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Autism; Metamemory; Theory of Mind |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04092009-155747/, etd-04092009-155747 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 19:35 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:39 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/6928 |
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