Potential influences of autistic traits and perceptual acuity on lexically guided perceptual learning

Abstract

Listeners overcome rampant variability in speech input, at least in part, by adapting to talker-specific speech patterns. However, most work demonstrating this type of perceptual learning has focused on group-level effects in modal populations. This approach masks potentially meaningful differences in sensory perception, social functioning, and language processing among individual listeners and/or populations. These differences—present among all listeners but particularly associated with autism—may well be expected to influence adaptation, but their role remains unclear. Previous investigations have reported absent adaptation among diagnosed autistic listeners in addition to increased adaptation among listeners with more autistic traits. The present investigation aims to clarify these potentially contradictory findings and the relationships between autistic traits, perceptual acuity, and adaptation. Listeners will hear ambiguous spectral energy between /s/ and /ʃ/ in lexical contexts designed to elicit adaptation and then categorize tokens from an ashi–asi continuum to assess learning. Autistic traits and pitch perception will also be assessed. We predict a non-linear interaction between the autism quotient and adaptation which cannot be attributed to perceptual acuity alone. These results will help explain how differences in sensory perception and social functioning associated with autism interact with lexically guided perceptual learning.