Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and accurate feeling-of-knowing judgments

• Published in: Journal of clinical psychology Vol. 53; no. 7; pp. 635 - 645
• Main Authors: Lakein, Debora A., Fantie, Bryan D., Grafman, Jordan, Ross, Sharon, O'Fallon, Ann, Dale, Janet, Straus, Stephen E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brandon Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.11.1997; Wiley; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Affect; Biological and medical sciences; Chronic fatigue syndrome; Chronic illnesses; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Fatigue; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic - complications; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic - psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Medical research; Medical sciences; Memory; Miscellaneous. Osteoarticular involvement in other diseases; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Human; Memory disorder; Striated muscle disease; Cognitive disorder; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Metamemory; Memory complaint; Chronic fatigue syndrome
• ISSN: 0021-9762; 1097-4679
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4679(199711)53:7<635::AID-JCLP1>3.0.CO;2-H

Many Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) patients complain of memory impairments which have been difficult to document empirically. Subjective complaints of memory impairment may be due to a deficit in metamemory judgment. CFS patients and matched controls were tested with a computerized Trivia Information Quiz that required them to rate their confidence about correctly recognizing an answer in a multiple choice format that they had been unable to remember in a fact‐recall format. Even though CFS patients reported significantly greater amounts of fatigue, cognitive, and physical symptoms, the accuracy of their confidence levels and recognition responses were similar to controls. This finding suggests that a metamemory deficit is not the cause of the memory problems reported by CFS patients. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol 53: 635–645, 1997.