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Investigating the Use of World Knowledge During On-line Comprehension in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

The on-line use of world knowledge during reading was examined in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both ASD and typically developed adults read sentences that included plausible, implausible and anomalous thematic relations, as their eye movements were monitored. No group differences in the speed of detection of the anomalous violations were found, but the ASD group showed a delay in detection of implausible thematic relations. These findings suggest that there are subtle differences in the speed of world knowledge processing during reading in ASD.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Mayflower scholarship, provided by the Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Southampton, and was completed as part of the first author’s doctoral thesis. We would like to thank all of the volunteers who participated, and Holly Joseph, for allowing us to use the stimuli that she created for Joseph et al. (2008).

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to the development of the study rationale, concept, and design. PLH collected the data and completed data analyses. All authors contributed to data interpretation. PLH drafted the manuscript and both VB and SPL have provided feedback and approved the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Shackleton Building (B44), Highfield Campus, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Philippa L. Howard, Simon P. Liversedge & Valerie Benson

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  1. Philippa L. Howard
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  2. Simon P. Liversedge
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  3. Valerie Benson
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Correspondence to Philippa L. Howard.

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Howard, P.L., Liversedge, S.P. & Benson, V. Investigating the Use of World Knowledge During On-line Comprehension in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 2039–2053 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3129-x

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