Online action monitoring and memory for self-performed actions in autism spectrum disorder.

Grainger et al. (2014) watched adults with autism do simple computer tasks.

They checked if the adults noticed their own button presses and later remembered which moves they made.

A comparison group of typical adults did the same tasks.

Both groups caught their own actions equally well.

Later, both groups also remembered their own moves better than watched moves.

In short, action monitoring and self-action memory looked normal in autistic adults.

Saldaña et al. (2009) saw the same null result earlier, so the new study is a close replication.

Yamamoto et al. (2019) seems to disagree: they found autistic adults poor at tracking which answers they had already given.

The gap makes sense once you see the tasks: Kenta tested output monitoring (keeping tally of past choices), while Catherine tested action monitoring (feeling your own movement).

Farrant et al. (1998) also found no deficit in autistic kids on a simple reality-monitoring task, showing the null result holds across ages when the test stays concrete.

If a client repeats questions or activities, do not assume a deep self-monitoring problem. Check if the task requires keeping a mental tally instead. For motor or procedural drills, you can expect typical awareness of their own moves, so give feedback the same way you would to any adult learner.