The Contribution of Grammar, Vocabulary and Theory of Mind in Pragmatic Language Competence in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Andrés‐Roqueta, Clara; Katsos, Napoleon

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00996

Cited by 85 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…in the 'Theory of Mind' cognitive component (e.g., Sperber and Wilson 2002). To be sure, such a through-and-through 'mentalistic' conception of pragmatics faces strong empirical challenges, and is viewed as theoretically inadequate by many (Recanati 2004;Breheny 2006;Perkins 2007;Kissine 2012Kissine , 2013Kissine , 2016Andrés-Roqueta and Katsos 2017). Nonetheless, it remains extremely popular, especially outside linguistics.…”

Section: A Uniform Pragmatic Impairment?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective Pragmatic Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Indirect Requests Versus Irony

Deliens

Papastamou

Ruytenbeek

et al. 2018

J Autism Dev Disord

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often described as being characterised by a uniform pragmatic impairment. However, recent evidence suggests that some areas of pragmatic functioning are preserved. This study seeks to determine to which extent context-based derivation of non-linguistically encoded meaning is functional in ASD. We compare the performance of 24 adults with ASD, and matched neuro-typical adults in two act-out pragmatic tasks. The first task examines generation of indirect request interpretations, and the second the comprehension of irony. Intact contextual comprehension of indirect requests contrasts with marked difficulties in understanding irony. These results suggest that preserved pragmatics in ASD is limited to egocentric processing of context, which does not rely on assumptions about the speaker's mental states.

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Section: A Uniform Pragmatic Impairment?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective Pragmatic Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Indirect Requests Versus Irony

Deliens

Papastamou

Ruytenbeek

et al. 2018

J Autism Dev Disord

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“…In line with this approach, both Pijnacker et al and Chevallier et al observed that the probability with which individuals with ASD derived scalar implicatures increased as a function of their language competence. Hence, the reason that previous studies failed to find a difference between individuals with and without ASD in the rates at which they derived scalar implicatures might be (a) that scalar implicatures are an aspect of lexical knowledge, which is unimpaired in individuals with ASD, or (b) that neurotypicals derive scalar implicatures by reasoning about the speaker’s intentions, and that individuals with ASD compensate for their difficulties with this type of reasoning by encoding these implicatures in the lexicon (see Andrés-Roqueta & Katsos, 2017).…”

Section: Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantity-based reasoning in the broader autism phenotype: A web-based study

Tiel

Kissine

2018

Applied Psycholinguistics

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We conducted a web-based study investigating whether the probability of deriving four types of pragmatic inferences depends on the degree to which one has traits associated with the autism spectrum, as measured by the autism spectrum quotient test (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Skinner, Martin, & Clubley, 2001). In line with previous research, we show that, independently of their autism spectrum quotient, participants are likely to derive those pragmatic inferences that can be derived by reasoning solely about alternatives that the speaker could have used. However, if the derivation of the pragmatic inference draws upon more complex counterfactual reasoning about what the speaker could have said, the probability that it is derived decreases significantly with one’s autism quotient. We discuss the consequences for theories of pragmatics in autism and for linguistic theorizing in general.

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“…Hence, most of the evidence seem to clash with the traditional view that pragmatic inference is affected in ASD ( Volden, 2017 ) and seems more in line with the idea that pragmatic deficit are not uniform and might depend on the specific kind of mechanisms at stake ( Andrés-Roqueta and Katsos, 2017 ). SIs could indeed be a spared domain in ASD’ communicative abilities or at least a domain where successful performance (assessed as rejection of underinformative statements) does not require a full mastery of pragmatic mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Pragmatic impairments in ASD are claimed to be universal ( Volden, 2017 ) and to be evident at all developmental stages, even in highly verbal adults with ASD ( Groen et al, 2008 ). However, recent literature evidenced that the deficit is not uniform, as there are different kinds of pragmatic inferences, which might be spared and might in turn be linked to individual differences in verbal and ToM skills ( Kissine, 2016 ; Andrés-Roqueta and Katsos, 2017 ). For instance, children with high functioning ASD are able to extract the speakers’ state (e.g., physical, emotional, and social) from their prosodic cues, although they might have subtle difficulties when cognitive loads are higher, i.e., in most challenging contexts such as real-life social situations where multiple cues need to be rapidly integrated ( Chevallier et al, 2011 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pragmatic impairments are traditionally claimed to be universal in people with ASD ( Volden, 2017 ), including difficulties in understanding idioms, metaphor, and irony ( Happé, 1993 ; Dennis et al, 2001 ; Martin and McDonald, 2004 ; Saban-Bezalel et al, 2017 ; Kalandadze et al, 2018 ), humor ( Emerich et al, 2003 ), ambiguous meanings ( López and Leekam, 2003 ), and in detecting pragmatic violations in communicative interactions as well as in providing appropriate information in conversation ( Capps et al, 1998 ; Angeleri et al, 2016 ). However, recent literature pointed to differences in findings, in that the extent of pragmatic disruptions in ASD seems to vary depending on the specific kind of inference at stake and on the possible mechanisms involved, either more linked to linguistic or to socio-cognitive aspects ( Kissine, 2016 ; Andrés-Roqueta and Katsos, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Understanding of Scalar Implicatures in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Dichotomized Responses to Violations of Informativeness

2018

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This study investigated the understanding of underinformative sentences like “Some elephants have trunks” by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The scalar term ‘some’ can be interpreted pragmatically, ‘Not all elephants have trunks,’ or logically, ‘Some and possibly all elephants have trunks.’ Literature indicates that adults with ASD show no real difficulty in interpreting scalar implicatures, i.e., they often interpret them pragmatically, as controls do. This contrasts with the traditional claim of difficulties of people with ASD in other pragmatic domains, and is more in line with the idea that pragmatic problems are not universal. The aim of this study was to: (a) gain insight in the ability of children with ASD to derive scalar implicatures, and (b) do this by assessing not only sensitivity to underinformativeness, but also different degrees of tolerance to violations of informativeness. We employed a classic statement-evaluation task, presenting optimal, logical false, and underinformative utterances. In Experiment 1, children had to express their judgment on a binary option ‘I agree’ vs. ‘I disagree.’ In Experiment 2, a ternary middle answer option ‘I agree a bit’ was also available. Sixty-six Flemish-speaking 10-year-old children were tested: 22 children with ASD, an IQ-matched group, and an age-matched group. In the binary judgment task, the ASD group gave more pragmatic answers than the other groups, which was significant in the mixed effects logistic regression analysis, although not in the non-parametric analysis. In the ternary judgment task, the children with ASD showed a dichotomized attitude toward the speaker’s meaning, by tending to either fully agree or fully disagree with underinformative statements, in contrast with TD children, who preferred the middle option. Remarkably, the IQ-matched group exhibited the same pattern of results as the ASD group. Thanks to a fine-grained measure such as the ternary judgment task, this study highlighted a neglected aspect of the pragmatic profile of ASD, whose struggle with social communication seems to affect also the domain of informativeness. We discuss the implications of the dichotomized reaction toward violations of informativeness in terms of the potential role of ASD and of cognitive and verbal abilities.

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The Contribution of Grammar, Vocabulary and Theory of Mind in Pragmatic Language Competence in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Cited by 85 publications

References 31 publications

Selective Pragmatic Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Indirect Requests Versus Irony

Selective Pragmatic Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Indirect Requests Versus Irony

Quantity-based reasoning in the broader autism phenotype: A web-based study

The Understanding of Scalar Implicatures in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Dichotomized Responses to Violations of Informativeness

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