Participants wanted: An examination of autobiographical memory retrieval in individuals on the autistic spectrum

This study is being conducted as part of my Barbara Dritschel’s research program at the School of Psychology and Neuroscience University of St Andrews We invite you to participate in a research project examining how being on the autism spectrum affects how individuals remember personal experiences and how they deal with such memories. This study will be conducted online due to COVID-19. If you are interested in participating in the study an information sheet will be emailed to you and then you will be asked to provide your address so that a physical diary can be mailed to you before the first session. Your address will be deleted immediately after the diary is posted. You will be emailed instructions about how to access the online session once you confirm receipt of your diary. During the online session you will first be asked to complete several measures of individual differences assessing your mood, your tendency to engage in systematising behaviours, executive functioning that reflects the style of manipulating, inhibiting and generating information such as numbers and letters. You will also complete a short test of verbal ability as verbal ability can influence autobiographical memory retrieval. You will be given instructions on how to complete the memory diary during the online session. For the memory diary, you will be asked to record a total of 10 voluntary memories and 10 automatically arising memories, maximum 2 memories per day. For each memory, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire about the characteristics of the retrieved memory, and how you relate to and cope with it. All collected data will be confidential. Participation will be rewarded with £15 Amazon vouchers. Contact details: Barbara Dritschel [email protected]