Can you tell it by the prime? A study of metaphorical priming in high‐functioning autism in comparison with matched controls

Abstract

These results may suggest that metaphor processing requires more than adequate language competences. The findings are also suggestive of a delay in developing sensitivity to figurative language, rather than sheer inability. This suggests that a timely training programme can be implemented to improve figurative language abilities in ASD.

Gaze and Motor Traces of Language Processing: Evidence from Autism Spectrum Disorders in Comparison to Typical Controls

“…The latter category has received various interpretations in research, and there is no consensus on their degree of transparency, mostly from the point of view of processing (Giora, 1997(Giora, , 2003. However, our current research with individuals with autism in comparison to controls has consistently provided evidence of the relative ease of processing novel metaphors, specifically in comparison to other types of figurative language (Chahboun et al, 2016(Chahboun et al, , 2017Vulchanova & Vulchanov, 2018).…”

“…In addition, based on theoretical accounts of the observed difficulties in understanding figurative language in autism in terms of inability to suppress irrelevant non-target information (Ozonoff, Pennington, & Rogers, 1991;Murphy, Foxe, Peters, & Molholm, 2014;Vulchanova et al, 2015), we expected that participants with ASD would exhibit greater competition between alternatives and would hesitate more between target non-literal and non-target literal meaning before making a decision on the response (measured by mouse visits to target image, mouse distance travelled, and mouse peak velocity). Such data would directly address the question of what strategies and steps participants are taking when processing figurative expressions and potentially inform about the source of the well-attested difficulty in processing figurative language in autism (Chahboun et al, 2016(Chahboun et al, , 2017Vulchanova et al, 2015). Finally, we expected that degree of decomposability of the expression would impact differentially on their processing in both groups of participants, with more decomposable expressions (e.g., novel metaphors and biological idioms) eliciting fewer and shorter gaze fixations and mouse visits.…”

“…"Lies have short legs": "If you lie, you will be easily detected"). This final category was included for comparison and on evidence from earlier findings (Chahboun, Vulchanov, Saldaña, Eshuis, & Vulchanova, 2017) as cases where more contextual information is included in the expression itself. For a discussion of proverbs and approaches to their nature see Chahboun et al (2016).…”

“…We also included novel metaphors as an additional type of non-literal expression. Novel metaphors are considered fairly transparent expressions and are more accessible to interpretation (Chahboun et al, 2017;Kasirer & Mashal, 2016;Mashal & Kasirer, 2014). For this category, those metaphors that earned a rating below .20 on the familiarity and frequency scale in the pilot study were selected for inclusion (e.g., "Estás flotando en el aire": You are floating on air).…”

“…Among these, there were 20 biological idioms, 20 cultural idioms, 16 instructive expressions, and 20 metaphors. The reason for including an auditory and a written modality of presentation was to investigate the effect of modality, since this has been found to affect processing in earlier research (Chahboun et al, 2016(Chahboun et al, , 2017. Both expression type, presentation modality, and position on screen for visual stimuli were randomized and counterbalanced between groups and participants.…”