How much do individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) think they know about their inner states? To find out, we asked 24 participants with ASD and 24 non-clinical participants to rate how well they knew about six topics of self knowledge; they also rated how well a comparison individual knew these things about them. Participants with ASD differed from the non-clinical participants in assigning about the same amount of knowledge to the comparison individual as to themselves. Non-clinical participants, in contrast, assigned relatively more knowledge to themselves. The findings are consistent with the possibility that individuals with ASD do not appreciate the value of having first-person privileged access to their own inner states.
