Online Metaphor Comprehension in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Eye Tracking Study.
The aim of this study was to investigate novel metaphor comprehension in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous literature is conflicting about whether individuals with ASD have impairment in this particular type of figurative language. Participants in the study completed a visual worl...
| Published in: | Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders Vol. 56; no. 1; pp. 56 - 71 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
Jan2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191290309&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191290309 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 01623257 AUT jtl: Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders issn: 01623257 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jan2026 vid: 56 iid: 1 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature place: New York, New York artinfo: ui: 191290309 179733032 191290309 191290309 10.1007/s10803-024-06562-5 191290309 ppf: 56 ppct: 15 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Online Metaphor Comprehension in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Eye Tracking Study. aug: au: O'Shea, Aimee Cersosimo, Rita Engelhardt, Paul E. affil: https://ror.org/026k5mg93 School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK sug: subj: Internet Autism Spectrum Disorder In Adulthood Metaphor Language Development Human Eye Movement Measurements Photography Word Lists Reaction Time Eye Movements Communication Language Processing Social Behavior Students, Undergraduate Psychiatric Care Analysis of Variance T-Tests Quantitative Studies Cross Sectional Studies Psycholinguistics Adult Clinical Assessment Tools Adult: 19-44 years ab: The aim of this study was to investigate novel metaphor comprehension in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous literature is conflicting about whether individuals with ASD have impairment in this particular type of figurative language. Participants in the study completed a visual world paradigm eye-tracking task, which involved selecting an interpretation of an auditorily presented sentence (i.e. a picture-sentence matching task), where images corresponded to literal and metaphorical interpretations. Thus, the study also investigated online processing, via reaction times and eye movements. Forty adults participated in the study (18 with ASD and 22 typically-developing controls). Each participant completed the AQ questionnaire and had their vocabulary assessed. Results showed that participants with ASD comprehended metaphorical utterances with the same accuracy as controls. However, they had significantly slower reaction times, and specifically, were approximately 800 ms slower. Analysis of eye movements revealed that participants with ASD showed significantly longer fixation times on both the target and distractor image, the latter of which suggests difficulty overcoming the literal interpretation. Consistent with some prior studies, we showed that adults with ASD are not impaired in novel metaphor comprehension, but they were clearly less efficient. Verbal abilities did not significantly relate to performance. Finally, our online processing measure (eye tracking) provided us with insights into the nature of the ASD inefficiency (i.e. a literality bias). pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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