Poster #29 - Facial Memory and Metamemory Development in Three Groups of Youth: Typically-Developing, ASD, and ADHD

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Deficits in self-awareness may contribute to social impairments in youth with neurodevelopmental disorders. Metamemory, introspective knowledge of one’s memory (i.e., knowing you know or don’t know), is a component of self-awareness that can be assessed with facial recognition paradigms. In typically-developing (TD) youth, confidence ratings are often higher and response latencies faster on correct compared to incorrect trials (Ghetti et al., 2013; Roebers, 2002), and by adolescence, response latency serves as a mnemonic cue for subjective certainty (Koriat & Ackerman, 2010). Although some studies have suggested that youth with ASD and ADHD are overconfident in their memories (Wilkinson et al., 2010; Antshel & Nastasi, 2008), response latency monitoring and the relation between metamemory and social functioning in youth with neurodevelopmental disorders has not been thoroughly investigated. Method: Three groups of youth (see bottom of Table 1) completed a facial memory task. In the encoding phase, 16 b/w images of faces were sequentially shown. During recall, participants saw 32 faces (16 new) and indicated whether each face was new or old. Subsequently, participants indicated how confident they were in their response using a 5-point scale. Social skills were assessed with the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2). A Principal Components Analysis revealed a 5-component solution, one of which corresponded to perspective-taking (10 items). Paired-samples Wilcoxon tests were conducted to assess whether average recall time and confidence significantly differ as a function of accuracy across groups. Subsequently, correlations between age, recall time, and confidence on correct and incorrect trials were examined by diagnostic group. Finally, latent change score models were conducted to assess whether the differences in recall time and confidence for correct and incorrect trials are associated with one another and perspective-taking abilities across groups. Results: First, age is significantly positively correlated with accuracy when certain for TD youth but not youth with ASD and ADHD (see Table 1). Across groups, confidence is significantly greater on correct than incorrect trials, but only TD youth respond significantly faster on correct compared to incorrect trials on average (see Figures 1a and 1b). For TD teenagers (13-15 years), responding faster on correct than incorrect trials is associated with being more confident on correct than incorrect trials (R2 = .26) and with better perspective-taking abilities (R2 = .09). When youth with ASD responded faster on correct than incorrect trials they tended to be more confident on correct than incorrect trials (R2 = .12), but neither the difference in recall time or confidence as a function of accuracy is associated with variance in perspective-taking. Among youth with ADHD, the difference in recall time as a function of accuracy is not significantly associated with the difference in confidence between correct and incorrect trials, but when response latencies are faster for correct than incorrect trials, perspective-taking abilities are higher (R2 = .30). Conclusion: The tendency to respond faster on correct than incorrect trials in recognition memory paradigms may represent a nonverbal component of self-awareness that supports adaptive social functioning in youth with ADHD.

Authors

• Margaret Whedon, Rutgers University - New Brunswick
  Presenting Author

• Michael Lewis, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School