Memory for Rules and Output Monitoring in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Yamamoto et al. (2019) asked adults with autism and typical adults to sort objects by secret rules.

After each item the computer told them if they were right or wrong. Later they had to remember the rules and also remember which items they had already placed.

The team wanted to know if rule memory or output monitoring—tracking your own past choices—separates the groups.

Adults with autism remembered the rules just as well as typical adults.

They were much worse at remembering which objects they had already sorted.

The gap shows the trouble is not forgetting rules; it is keeping track of their own past responses.

Grainger et al. (2014) saw no monitoring gap in autism using an online action task. The jobs were different: their task watched hand moves in real time; Kenta’s task asked for memory of past picks. Same adults, different lens—tasks explain the clash.

Bromley et al. (1998) already showed autistic kids repeat visible errors. Kenta repeats the point in adults and pins the blame on output monitoring, not rule memory.

Godfrey et al. (2023) later found autistic adults also forget story details over weeks. Together the papers trace a line: monitoring your own moves and organizing longer memories both need extra support in autism.

For clinicians the picture is clear: clients may know the rule yet still repeat errors because they lose track of what they already did. Build external logs, visual counters, or verbal self-review into sessions so the learner does not have to rely on shaky output memory.