Metacognitive processes in emotion recognition: are they different in adults with Asperger's disorder?

Sawyer et al. (2014) asked adults with Asperger's to judge emotions in faces. They also asked, "How sure are you?" and let them change answers.

The team compared these adults to typical adults. They wanted to know if people with Asperger's can monitor their own thinking about emotions.

Adults with Asperger's knew when they were right or wrong. Their confidence matched their accuracy.

But they could not use that knowledge to fix mistakes. They kept wrong answers even when unsure.

Laties (2008) already showed that adults with Asperger's miss envy and gloating in faces. The new study adds that even when they sense doubt, they still can't switch answers.

Black et al. (2019) seemed to disagree. Their eye-tracking showed adults with ASD read counterfactual emotions fine. The difference is Jo used hidden eye moves; P used open questions about confidence.

Peñuelas-Calvo et al. (2019) pooled 18 studies on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. They found steady deficits across adults with ASD. P's work explains part of why: knowing you might be wrong doesn't help you act.

Older memory work by Mueller et al. (2000) and Eugenia Gras et al. (2003) found similar gaps in remembering versus knowing. The pattern now shows up in emotion tasks too.

You can stop drilling simple emotion naming. Instead, teach adults to pause and swap answers when unsure. Build check-and-switch routines into social skills groups. Practice with flashcards where they first pick an emotion, rate confidence, then get a cue to rethink. Reward changing the answer, not just being right. This targets control, not accuracy, and may boost real-life social moves.