Nonverbal Measurement of Metamemory and its Relation to Autism-Like Traits

Metamemory develops early in childhood with language, but may be impaired in disorders like autism spectrum disorders. Because of its strong links to language, most attempts to measure metamemory have relied strongly on communicative ability. This study reports on a task that nonverbally assesses metamemory. This novel task modified the delayed-match-to-sample paradigm where the participant chooses a matching response to an initial stimulus. The modification lets the participant review the original stimulus if they are unsure of their answer, allowing for a nonverbal assessment of metamemory. The task is correlated with a current measure of verbal metamemory. Also given strong face validity, the task is an appropriate alternative for the measurement of metamemory. The task was not correlated with a measure of autism-like traits, while a more verbal measure of verbal metamemory was negatively correlated with autism-like traits, suggesting those with these traits may show deficits on verbal measures only.