Memory and metamemory performance in individuals with and without post-COVID-19 subjective cognitive symptoms.

Publication date: Sep 08, 2025

Metamemory is the awareness of and ability to evaluate one’s own cognitive abilities. This study examined impaired metamemory as a possible mechanism contributing to persistent cognitive symptoms after COVID-19. Individuals with previous COVID-19 illness were recruited. Participants completed questionnaires regarding physical health, mental health, and their COVID-19 illness. To assess memory and metamemory performance, participants were presented with 50 words and then completed a two-alternative forced choice recognition memory task with a confidence rating after each trial. This was repeated for 3 blocks of 50 trials each. A signal detection theory framework was applied to derive metrics of memory performance (d’), metamemory performance (meta-d’), and metamemory efficiency (M-ratio). We compared participants who self-reported persistent cognitive symptoms at the time of their metamemory assessment (n = 47) to participants who denied persistent cognitive symptoms (n = 87). We used a general linear model to compare groups, covarying for age and days between COVID-19 and metamemory assessment. Participants with and without self-reported persistent cognitive symptoms did not differ on memory performance (d’: p = . 24,  = 0. 22 95% CI [-0. 1, 0. 6]), metamemory performance (meta-d’: p = . 28,  = 0. 20 95% CI [-0. 2, 0. 6]), or metamemory efficiency (M-ratio: p = . 85,  = -0. 04 95% CI [-0. 4, 0. 3]). Those with persistent cognitive symptoms reported a higher degree of depression (p 

Semantics

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