Implicit Meaning Comprehension in Autism Spectrum Disorders

The book is based upon a PhD thesis focusing on implicit meaning comprehension in people along the spectrum of autistic disorders (ASD). The point of departure of the study was that, though existing research studies agree on a generalized pragmatic impairment in this clinical population even in cases in which all other levels of linguistic competence are spared, the cause of this impairment of pragmatic skills in toto is still unknown. The hypothesis underlying this book is that an explanation for this may be found in the fact that researchers appear to be conducting their work in order to demonstrate that the theory upon which their research is based is the definitive explanation for this phenomenon. Taking a critical stand towards this type of approach, the research presented in this book is grounded upon a solid theoretical basis, but does not seek to demonstrate the superiority of one theoretical hypothesis over another. The first two chapters are theoretical in scope, and serve as a foundation for understanding previous research and, hence, the rationale of the investigation carried out here. From chapter three onwards, the main body of research of this particular study is presented and the results are discussed.In order to verify the degree of implicit meaning understanding, the participants in this research study were administered a test that included both written items and videos of conversational exchanges containing a specific kind of implicit meaning about which they were asked questions. The videos allowed for the inclusion of all the contextual clues necessary for utterance interpretation and, also, for the analysis of the extent to which the inability to interpret implicit meaning depends on testing modality. The test elaborated for this research differs from those of previous studies mainly because of this feature, which pays due attention to context, thereby allowing for interactions that are as realistic as possible. Moreover, participants were asked to motivate their answers, and this proved fundamental in the data interpretation phase. The results of the study contradict previous research findings insofar as regards the severity of the impairment, in that ASD patients demonstrate an ability, albeit at different levels, to disambiguate sentences and assign a non-literal meaning to utterances. See more