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Metacognitive Processes in Emotion Recognition: Are They Different in Adults with Asperger’s Disorder?

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Abstract

Deficits in emotion recognition and social interaction characterize individuals with Asperger’s Disorder (AS). Moreover they also appear to be less able to accurately use confidence to gauge their emotion recognition accuracy (i.e., metacognitive monitoring). The aim of this study was to extend this finding by considering both monitoring and control processes in emotion recognition among adults with AS. Those with AS were found to have difficulties acting on the basis of their metacognitive monitoring despite showing no deficits in their ability to discriminate accurate from inaccurate decisions. It is suggested that adults with AS have difficulties interacting socially because they are less able to assess when they are making accurate emotion recognition decisions despite having the capability to do so.

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Notes

  1. Given the data was collected prior to the release of the DSM-5, all participants were diagnosed using the DSM-lV criteria and met criteria for Asperger's Disorder. Consistent with the DSM-5 manual, however, all persons with a well-established DSM-IV diagnosis of Autistic Disorder, Asperger's or Pervasive Developmental Disorder not otherwise specified will be considered to meet criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder.

  2. Removal of this case did not change the pattern of results. In fact, it strengthened those where differences were found. However, since it did not affect the pattern of results and given that the other scores from this individual were not outliers, the decision was made to not omit the data from the analyses so that all analyses involved the same participants.

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Acknowledgment

Dr Sawyer is supported by funds from an Australia Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (570120) awarded to Professor John Lynch, The University of Adelaide.

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Author notes

  1. Alyssa C. P. Sawyer

    Present address: Discipline of Public Health, School of Population Health, University of Adelaide, 178 North Terrace, MDP DX 650 550, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

    Alyssa C. P. Sawyer, Paul Williamson & Robyn Young

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  1. Alyssa C. P. Sawyer
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  2. Paul Williamson
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Correspondence to Alyssa C. P. Sawyer.

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Sawyer, A.C.P., Williamson, P. & Young, R. Metacognitive Processes in Emotion Recognition: Are They Different in Adults with Asperger’s Disorder?. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 1373–1382 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1999-0

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