A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on metaphor comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: Do task properties matter?

Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience difficulty in comprehending metaphors compared to individuals with typical development (TD). However, there is a large variation in the results across studies, possibly related to the properties of the metaphor tasks. This preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis (a) explored the properties of the metaphor tasks used in ASD research, and (b) investigated the group difference between individuals with ASD and TD on metaphor comprehension, as well as the relationship between the task properties and any between-study variation. A systematic search was undertaken in seven relevant databases. Fourteen studies fulfilled our predetermined inclusion criteria. Across tasks, we detected four types of response format and a great variety of metaphors in terms of familiarity, syntactic structure, and linguistic context. Individuals with TD outperformed individuals with ASD on metaphor comprehension (Hedges’ g = −0.63). Verbal explanation response format was utilized in the study showing the largest effect size in the group comparison. However, due to the sparse experimental manipulations, the role of task properties could not be established. Future studies should consider and report task properties to determine their role in metaphor comprehension, and to inform experimental paradigms as well as educational assessment.

Verbal and Figural Creativity in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development

“…Another argument explaining the poorer metaphorical comprehension in ASD is related to the task properties. A recent meta-analysis (Kalandadze et al, 2019) noted that individuals with ASD may demonstrate more difficulties in tasks requiring integration of multiple modalities (although this observation was based on the results of only two studies). In particular, while tasks requiring verbal explanations appeared to be the most demanding task for participants with ASD, decisions about meaningfulness appeared to be the easiest.…”

Embodied Imagination and Metaphor Use in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Moreover, several researchers have shown that people with autism have difficulties with metaphor comprehension [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Metaphor is “but one of many techniques, named and unnamed, for likening one thing to another by means of words” [ 18 ].…”

Metaphor Comprehension in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Core Language Skills Matter

“…Because there was no Norwegian validated or standardized metaphor comprehension task, we created a multiple-choice task to assess metaphor comprehension. This multiple-choice format reduced the potential confounding impact of verbal communication demands such as metalinguistic and expressive language skills (Kalandadze et al, 2019 for a comprehensive review of metaphor task properties; Pouscoulous, 2011). The task included 24 metaphorical items and 24 literal items.…”