Self-awareness in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate aspects of self-awareness in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Given widely accepted assumptions that “the self” is not a unitary construct, but is instead multifaceted, this thesis explored the extent to which impairments in self-awareness may be “domain-specific”. The nine experimental tasks reported in this thesis explored several aspects of self-awareness in children and adults with ASD, including awareness of the physical self, conceptual self, and mental self. Overall, the results of these studies suggest that individuals with ASD demonstrate selective impairments in only some aspects of self-awareness. It is suggested that the pattern of results reported in this thesis best support the suggestion that physical self-awareness is intact in individuals with ASD, whilst psychological self- awareness is impaired. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for our current understanding of self-awareness in autism spectrum disorder, and self- awareness in typical development, are discussed

Evaluating Metacognitive Self-reports: Systematic Reviews of the value of self-report in metacognitive research

Metacognitive skills have been shown to be strongly associated with academic achievement and serve as the basis of many therapeutic treatments for mental health conditions. Thus, it is likely that training metacognitive skills can lead to improved academic skills and health and well-being. Because metacognition is an awareness of one’s own thoughts, and as such is not directly observable, it is often measured by self-report. This study reviews and critiques the use of self-report in evaluating metacognition by conducting systematic reviews and a meta-analysis of studies assessing metacognitive skills. Keyword searches were performed in EbscoHost, ERIC, PsycINFO, PsycArticles, Scopus, Web of Science, and WorldWideScience.org to locate all articles evaluating metacognition through self-report. 24,396 articles from 1982 through 2018 were screened for inclusion in the study. Firstly, a systematic review of twenty-two articles was conducted to review the ability of self-report measures to evaluate a proposed taxonomy of metacognition. Secondly, a systematic review and meta-analyses of 37 studies summarizes the ability of self-report to relate to metacognitive behavior and the possible effects of differences in research methods. Results suggest that self-reports provide a useful overview of two factors – metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation. However, metacognitive processes as measured by self-report subscales are unclear. Conversely, the two factors of metacognition do not adequately relate to metacognitive behavior, but subscales strongly correlate across self-reports and metacognitive tasks. Future research should carefully consider the role of self-reports when designing research evaluating metacognition

The Pressing Need to Raise the Status of the Teaching Profession: The Launch Story of the Teachers of Australia Social Media Campaign

This paper presents the start-up methodology for a project that leverages the opportunities that social media affords to give teachers voice and agency. In response to negative press about teachers in mainstream media, coupled with research that shows that teachers are working hard to meet student academic and wellbeing needs, the researchers employed the assertive technologies of social media and started a campaign to promote the work of pre-service and in-service teachers. The paper presents the theorising behind the start-up methodology for the social media campaign and outlines a response to an identified opportunity. It argues that social media provides new opportunities for professional connectedness, story sharing and collegial support

A systematic review of the clinician related barriers and facilitators to the use of evidence-informed interventions for post traumatic stress

Background: A number of evidence-informed interventions for PTSD have been developed and recommended by clinical guidelines. Despite efforts to disseminate these approaches, there remains a gap between evidence and practice, and research has started to identify a number of barriers to the implementation of evidence-informed interventions. Methods: This systematic review aimed to synthesise the relevant literature, both quantitative and qualitative, relating to clinicians’ perceived barriers and facilitators. Literature searches were conducted to identify relevant studies. Data were analysed using content analysis to categorise key barriers and facilitators. Results: A literature search identified 34 relevant studies. Four levels of barriers and facilitators were identified, covering intervention, client, clinician and system factors. The most commonly cited barriers identified include inflexibility of manualised approaches, fear of increasing client distress, working with comorbidities and a lack of training and support. Quality appraisal rated the majority of studies as strong, with five studies receiving an adequate rating. Limitations: The review was limited to studies published in the English language, therefore introducing a risk of bias as perceived barriers and facilitators may be culturally influenced. Additionally the heterogeneity of studies may impact upon comparability, only allowing for a broad analysis and not exploring barriers and facilitators in more detail. Conclusions: Lack of training, confidence and knowledge relating to the implementation of evidence-informed interventions for PTSD were commonly reported. A better-informed understanding into the challenges and facilitators experienced by clinicians can help inform implementation needs and should be considered in the development and implementation of training initiatives

The Developmental Research Team at the University of Stirling explain why they love their psychology kindergarten

First paragraph: In the Division of Psychology at the University of Stirling, we regard our onsite kindergarten as one of our greatest assets. However, when we say this to others, we are used to encountering reactions that range from incredulity or uneasiness to plain bewilderment. Some assume that we maintain the kindergarten to provide a childcare facility for staff. Others, who understand that the primary function of the kindergarten is to facilitate our research and research-led teaching, seem to think that the childcare experience itself might be somehow compromised by this goal. Readers may be relieved to hear that we don’t keep the children under strictly controlled conditions, austere and isolated, like bacteria in a petri dish. But we decided that it was time that we put the record straight more broadly

Limited evidence for executive function load impairing selective copying in a win-stay lose-shift task

The use of ‘explicitly metacognitive’ learning strategies has been proposed as an explanation for uniquely human capacities for cumulative culture. Such strategies are proposed to rely on explicit, system-2 cognitive processes, to enable advantageous selective copying. To investigate the plausibility of this theory, we investigated participants’ ability to make flexible learning decisions, and their metacognitive monitoring efficiency, under executive function (EF) load. Adult participants completed a simple win-stay lose-shift (WSLS) paradigm task, intended to model a situation where presented information can be used to inform response choice, by copying rewarded responses and avoiding those that are unrewarded. This was completed alongside a concurrent switching task. Participants were split into three conditions: those that needed to use a selective copying, WSLS strategy, those that should always copy observed information, and those that should always do the opposite (Expt 1). Participants also completed a metacognitive monitoring task alongside the concurrent switching task (Expt 2). Conditions demanding selective strategies were more challenging than those requiring the use of one rule consistently. In addition, consistently copying was less challenging than consistently avoiding observed stimuli. Differences between selectively copying and always copying were hypothesised to stem from working memory requirements rather than the concurrent EF load. No impact of EF load was found on participants’ metacognitive monitoring ability. These results suggest that copying decisions are underpinned by the use of executive functions even at a very basic level, and that selective copying strategies are more challenging than a combination of their component parts. We found minimal evidence that selective copying strategies relied on executive functions any more than consistent copying or deviation. However, task experience effects suggested that ceiling effects could have been masking differences between conditions which might be apparent in other contexts, such as when observed information must be retained in memory

Metacognitive monitoring and the hypercorrection effect in autism and the general population: Relation to autism(-like) traits and mindreading

Among neurotypical adults, errors made with high confidence (i.e., errors a person strongly believed they would not make) are corrected more reliably than errors made with low confidence. This “hypercorrection effect” is thought to result from enhanced attention to information that reflects a “metacognitive mismatch” between one’s beliefs and reality. In Experiment 1, we employed a standard measure of this effect. Participants answered general knowledge questions and provided confidence judgements about how likely each answer was to be correct, after which feedback was given. Finally, participants were retested on all questions answered incorrectly during the initial phase. Mindreading ability and ASD-like traits were measured. We found that a representative sample of (n = 83) neurotypical participants made accurate confidence judgements (reflecting good metacognition) and showed the hypercorrection effect. Mindreading ability was associated with ASD-like traits and metacognition. However, the hypercorrection effect was non-significantly associated with mindreading or ASD-like traits. In Experiment 2, 11 children with ASD and 11 matched comparison participants completed the hypercorrection task. Although ASD children showed significantly diminished metacognitive ability, they showed an undiminished hypercorrection effect. The evidence in favour of an undiminished hypercorrection effect (null result) was moderate, according to Bayesian analysis (Bayes factor = 0.21)

The prevention of glucocorticoid‐induced osteoporosis in patients with immune thrombocytopenia receiving steroids:a British Society for Haematology Good Practice Paper

Methodology This Good Practice Paper was compiled according to the British Society for Haematology (BSH) process at http://www.b-s-h.org.uk/guidelines/proposing-and-writing-a-new-bsh-guideline/. The BSH produces Good Practice Papers to recommend good practice in areas where there is a limited evidence base but for which a degree of consensus or uniformity is likely to be beneficial to patient care. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) nomenclature was used to evaluate levels of evidence and to assess the strength of recommendations. The GRADE criteria can be found at http://www.gradeworkinggroup.org

Recognition memory and source memory in autism spectrum disorder: A study of the intention superiority and enactments effects

It is well established that neurotypical individuals generally show better memory for actions they have performed than actions they have observed others perform or merely read about, a so-called “enactment effect”. Strikingly, research has also shown that neurotypical individuals demonstrate superior memory for actions they intend to perform in the future (but have not yet performed), an effect commonly known as the “intention superiority effect”. Although the enactment effect has been studied among people with ASD, the current study is the first to investigate the intention superiority effect in this disorder. This is surprising given the potential importance this issue has for general theory development, as well as for clinical practice. As such, this study aimed to assess the intention superiority and enactment effects in twenty-two children with ASD, and 20 IQ/age-matched neurotypical children. The results showed that children with ASD demonstrated not only undiminished enactment effects in recognition and source memory, but also (surprisingly for some theories) typical intention superiority effects. The implications of these results for theory, as well as clinical practice, are discussed