Abstract
We tested whether autistic adults would show selective difficulties across several tests of inferencing and social understanding in the context of average-range core language ability. One-hundred and ninety-one participants completed an online battery, and data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis. Results showed that vocabulary knowledge was separate from other measures, which collectively formed a ‘receptive communication' factor. Autistic people underperformed on the ‘receptive communication' factor but showed more advanced vocabulary knowledge than non-autistic participants. Lower performance among autistic adults on the test battery predicted face-to-face communication difficulties measured by self-report and researcher ratings, with moderate effect sizes. Follow-up analysis indicated three further findings. We hypothesized that differences would arise from an isolated ‘theory of mind' difficulty in autistic people, but instead the data suggested more general information-processing differences when making judgements about communicative stimuli. Second, substantial group differences on a test of implied meaning were only partly explained at the factor level, suggesting that multiple cognitive influences underpinned these differences. Finally, autistic women tended to perform better than autistic men. Our results support the idea of a subtle domain-level difference in pragmatics in autistic people, while questioning the basis of this difference and highlighting substantial variability in skills across groups.
Highlights
Difficulties with back-and-forth conversation are a diagnostic feature of autism [1]
Both aspects are likely to be a challenge for autistic people in day-to-day communication, but for the purpose of this work, we focus on pragmatic understanding—that is, inferring the full extent of a speaker’s meaning in the communication context
We reported on a factor analysis including this and several other novel tests administered to a non-autistic sample and found that the Implicature Comprehension Test clustered with other tests requiring social understanding, in a two-factor model with ‘core language’ and ‘social understanding’ as the two factors
Summary
Difficulties with back-and-forth conversation are a diagnostic feature of autism [1]. Communicative use of language, such as the selection and maintenance of conversation topics, as well as (ii) a 2 person’s understanding of language in context, for instance reading between the lines of what someone is saying Both aspects are likely to be a challenge for autistic people in day-to-day communication, but for the purpose of this work, we focus on pragmatic understanding—that is, inferring the full extent of a speaker’s meaning in the communication context. Pragmatics is a language domain that has traditionally been challenging to assess, especially because existing tests do not convincingly separate pragmatics from other aspects of language function Responding to this limitation, we developed a novel Implicature Comprehension Test, which requires the test-taker to process implied meanings in conversations that are closely controlled to reduce other linguistic demands. We reported on a factor analysis including this and several other novel tests administered to a non-autistic sample and found that the Implicature Comprehension Test clustered with other tests requiring social understanding, in a two-factor model with ‘core language’ and ‘social understanding’ as the two factors
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.