Metacognition of agency and theory of mind in adults with high functioning autism

We investigated metacognition of agency in adults with high functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome (HFA/AS) using a computer task in which participants moved the mouse to get the cursor to touch the downward moving X’s and avoid the O’s. They were then asked to make judgments of performance and judgments of agency. Objective control was either undistorted, or distorted by adding turbulence (i.e., random noise) or a time Lag between the mouse and cursor movements. Participants with HFA/AS used sensorimotor cues available in the turbulence and lag conditions to a lesser extent than control participants in making their judgments of agency. Furthermore, the failure to use these internal diagnostic cues to their own agency was correlated with decrements in a theory of mind task. These findings suggest that a reduced sensitivity to veridical internal cues about the sense of agency is related to mentalizing impairments in autism.     

Aging and posture in the memory of manipulable objects

ABSTRACT

Thirty healthy elderly participants (mean age = 77.3) learned the names of manipulable and nonmanipulable objects while adopting a control posture (hands in front of them) or an interfering posture (holding their hands behind their back). Results on a recall task showed a postural interference (PI) effect, with the interfering posture reducing the memory of manipulable objects, but not of nonmanipulable ones. The effect was similar to the Postural Interference effect previously observed in young adults, although with a lower performance. These results call into question the embodied theory hypothesis that the deterioration of memory in aging is related to the decline of the sensorimotor system.     

Alterations in error-related brain activity and post-error behavior over time

This study examines the relation between the error-related negativity (ERN) and post-error behavior over time in healthy young adults (N=61). Event-related brain potentials were collected during two sessions of an identical flanker task. Results indicated changes in ERN and post-error accuracy were related across task sessions, with more negative ERN associated with greater improvements in post-error accuracy. This relationship was independent of any cross-sectional relationships between overall task performance, individual difference factors, including personality and self-efficacy, and indices of self-regulatory action monitoring. These results indicate that the relation between ERN and post-error accuracy remains intact and consistent regardless of variation in this set of individual difference factors previously associated with both of these indices of self-regulatory action monitoring, providing support for the strength, robustness, and persistence of this relationship in the process of adaptively controlling behavior to enhance task performance.     

The role of goals and goal barriers in predicting the outcomes of intentional actions in the contexts of narrative text

ABSTRACT

Predictions about human behaviour can be influenced by the presence and status of goals. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of an active goal and barriers to that goal on predictions about outcomes experienced by agents. Participants read stories describing characters with goals. The extent that there were barriers to those goals was varied. Participants predicted what happens next in the story, both prior to and after barrier removal. There was support for a goal barrier hypothesis, where the conditions for predicting goal completion involved removing conditions that prevent a goal being achieved (Experiments 1 and 2). At the same time, unachieved goals were more accessible to working memory than completed goals, regardless of a barrier (Experiment 3). These results suggest that participants deliberately decided when it was appropriate to use goal information to predict outcomes of intentional actions conducted by the agents in the stories.     

Reconceptualising parental monitoring within a model of goal-directed parental action

The concept and operationalisation of parental monitoring in adolescent behavioural research is idiosyncratic, and often conflates multiple concepts. This hinders study and understanding of its role in the distinct processes of adolescent development and behaviour. This paper introduces a model of Goal-Directed Parental Action, applied to adolescent crime, in order to situate and thus define the concept of parental monitoring. This model draws on Situational Action Theory to both prioritise motivation and specify a parental action process. This process distinguishes parental goals from the means by which to achieve them and from the knowledge gathering required to evaluate progress towards such goals. Within this framework, parental monitoring is defined as the employment of active information-gathering behaviours by parents to help them to gain knowledge about and evaluate their child's progress towards a range of parentally selected developmental and behavioural goals. In addition to facilitating this definition of parental monitoring, the model of Goal-Directed Parental Action has future potential to clarify other parenting concepts and processes.