A meta-analysis and critical review of metacognitive accuracy in autism

Abstract

Metacognition refers to cognitions about our own cognitions. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to examine metacognition among autistic people. The results from these studies have produced a mixed picture, with some concluding that autistic people are just as accurate as typically developing people in judging their own cognitions and others providing evidence of reduced accuracy. The aim of this meta-analysis is to amalgamate this research to obtain a clearer picture of the evidence to date. A total of 17 studies comparing 412 individuals diagnosed with autism and 453 typically developing individuals were included in the meta-analysis. The data revealed a moderate, but heterogeneous, reduction in metacognitive accuracy among autistic individuals in comparison with non-autistic individuals. A critical review of the results suggested that, despite the overall reduction in metacognitive accuracy, performance was not universally diminished among autistic participants across studies. Accuracy may be undiminished on certain types of metacognitive task. Moreover, across all tasks, there was moderate difference in metacognitive accuracy between autistic and non-autistic children, but only a small difference in metacognitive accuracy between autistic and non-autistic adults. Lay Abstract The ability to make accurate judgements about our own and others’ mental states has been widely researched; however, it is unclear how these two abilities relate to each other. This is important given that there is evidence that autistic individuals can have difficulty with accurately judging others’ mental states. Recent evidence suggests that some autistic individuals may also have difficulty accurately judging their own mental states. This may have an impact on various aspects of everyday life but particularly academic success, and therefore it is important that this skill is not overlooked when exploring areas of individual support. The aim of this article is to bring together the research examining autistic individual’s ability of making accurate judgements about their own mental states and to establish whether this is an area that warrants further investigation. The results from this article show that autistic individuals may have difficulty making accurate judgements about their own mental states, although this depends on the type of judgement being made. It also highlighted that while autistic children may have difficulties in some areas, these may improve by adulthood. Overall, this article shows that more research is needed to fully understand where specific difficulties lie and how they may be overcome.