Elephants in Pyjamas: Testing the Weak Central Coherence Account of Autism Spectrum Disorders Using a Syntactic Disambiguation Task

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Nick G RichesEmily Simonoff

Abstract

According to the weak central coherence (CC) account individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit enhanced local processing and weak part-whole integration. CC was investigated in the verbal domain. Adolescents, recruited using a 2 (ASD status) by 2 (language impairment status) design, completed an aural forced choice comprehension task involving syntactically ambiguous sentences. Half the picture targets depicted the least plausible interpretation, resulting in longer RTs across groups. These were assumed to reflect local processing. There was no ASD by plausibility interaction and consequently little evidence for weak CC in the verbal domain when conceptualised as enhanced local processing. Furthermore, there was little evidence that the processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences differed as a function of ASD or language-impairment status.

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Citations

Oct 4, 2016·Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders·Susan Ellis WeismerCourtney E Venker
May 18, 2019·Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders·Ron PomperJan Edwards
Dec 24, 2018·Autism Research : Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research·Kristen Bottema-BeutelShannon Crowley

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