Does implicit mentalizing involve the representation of others' mental state content? Examining domain-specificity with an adapted Joint Simon task.

Implicit mentalizing involves the automatic awareness of others' perspectives, but its domain-specificity is debated. The Joint Simon task demonstrates implicit mentalizing as a Joint Simon effect (JSE), proposed to stem from spontaneous action co-representation of a social partner's frame of reference in the Joint (but not Individual) task. However, evidence also shows that any sufficiently salient entity (not necessarily social) can induce the JSE. Here, we investigated the content of co-representation through a novel Joint Simon task where participants viewed a set of distinct images assigned to either themselves or their partner. Critically, a surprise image recognition task allowed us to identify partner-driven effects exclusive to the Joint task-sharing condition, versus the Individual condition. We did not observe a significant JSE, preventing us from drawing confident conclusions about the effect's domain-specificity. However, the recognition task results revealed that participants in the Joint task did not recognize their partner's stimuli more accurately than participants in the Individual task. This implies that participants were no more likely to encode content from their partner's perspective during the Joint task. Overall, this study pushes methodological boundaries regarding the elicitation of co-representation in the Joint Simon task and demonstrates the potential utility of a surprise recognition task.

The Brunswik Lens Model: a theoretical framework for advancing understanding of deceptive communication in autism.

Due to differences in social communication and cognitive functioning, autistic adults may have greater difficulty engaging in and detecting deception compared to neurotypical adults. Consequently, autistic adults may experience strained social relationships or face increased risk of victimization. It is therefore crucial that research investigates the psychological mechanisms that are responsible for autistic adults' difficulties in the deception process in order to inform interventions required to reduce risk. However, weaknesses of extant research exploring deception in autism include a heavy focus on children and limited theoretical exploration of underlying psychological mechanisms. To address these weaknesses, this review aims to introduce a system-level theoretical framework to the study of deception in autistic adulthood: The Brunswik Lens Model of Deception. Here, we provide a comprehensive account of how autism may influence all processes involved in deception, including: Choosing to Lie (1), Producing Deception Cues (2), Perceiving Deception Cues (3), and Making the Veracity Decision (4). This review also offers evidence-based, theoretical predictions and testable hypotheses concerning how autistic and neurotypical adults' behavior may differ at each stage in the deception process. The call to organize future research in relation to a joint theoretical perspective will encourage the field to make substantive, theoretically motivated progress toward the development of a comprehensive model of deception in autistic adulthood. Moreover, the utilization of the Brunswik Lens Model of Deception in future autism research may assist in the development of interventions to help protect autistic adults against manipulation and victimization.

How do Autistic and Neurotypical Children's Interests Influence their Accuracy During Novel Word Learning?

Word learning depends on attention - children must focus on the right things at the right times. However, autistic children often display restricted interests, limiting their intake of stimuli during word learning. This study investigates how category interests influence word learning in autism and neurotypical development. Autistic and neurotypical children matched on receptive vocabulary used a touch-screen computer to learn novel words associated with animals (high-interest stimuli) and objects (neutral-interest stimuli) via fast mapping. Response accuracy and speed were examined at referent selection, 5-minute retention, and 24-hour retention. Both groups identified meanings of novel words associated with unfamiliar animals and objects via mutual exclusivity with comparable accuracy. After 5 minutes, autistic children retained animal names with greater accuracy than neurotypical children. Autistic children showed a greater increase in their accuracy between 5-minute and 24-hour retention and outperformed neurotypical children across conditions after a night's sleep. Across groups, 24-hour retention was predicted by number of target word repetitions heard at referent selection, indicating a relationship between fast mapping input and retention. However, autistic children were slower to respond correctly, particularly in the animal condition. For autistic children, superior word learning associated with high-interest stimuli was relatively short-term, as sleep appeared to consolidate their memory representations for neutral-interest stimuli. Although these results demonstrate that fundamental word learning mechanisms are not atypical in autism, slower response times may signal a speed-accuracy trade-off that could have implications for naturalistic language acquisition. Our findings also indicate favourable environmental conditions to scaffold word learning.

Exploring the Influence of Object Similarity and Desirability on Children's Ownership Identification and Preferences in Autism and Typical Development.

This study investigated how ownership identification accuracy and object preferences in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are influenced by visual distinctiveness and relative desirability. Unlike typically developing (TD) children matched on receptive language (M age equivalents: 58.8-59.9 months), children with ASD had difficulty identifying another person's property when object discriminability was low and identifying their own relatively undesirable objects. Children with ASD identified novel objects designated to them with no greater accuracy than objects designated to others, and associating objects with the self did not bias their preferences. We propose that, due to differences in development of the psychological self, ownership does not increase the attentional or preferential salience of objects for children with ASD.

Susceptibility to geometrical visual illusions in Parkinson's disorder.

Parkinson's disorder (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder affecting approximately 1-3% of the population aged 60 years and older. In addition to motor difficulties, PD is also marked by visual disturbances, including depth perception, abnormalities in basal ganglia functioning, and dopamine deficiency. Reduced ability to perceive depth has been linked to an increased risk of falling in this population. The purpose of this paper was to determine whether disturbances in PD patients' visual processing manifest through atypical performance on visual illusion (VI) tasks. This insight will advance understanding of high-level perception in PD, as well as indicate the role of dopamine deficiency and basal ganglia pathophysiology in VIs susceptibility. Groups of 28 PD patients (Mage = 63.46, SD = 7.55) and 28 neurotypical controls (Mage = 63.18, SD = 9.39) matched on age, general cognitive abilities (memory, numeracy, attention, language), and mood responded to Ebbinghaus, Ponzo, and Müller-Lyer illusions in a computer-based task. Our results revealed no reliable differences in VI susceptibility between PD and neurotypical groups. In the early- to mid-stage of PD, abnormalities of the basal ganglia and dopamine deficiency are unlikely to be involved in top-down processing or depth perception, which are both thought to be related to VI susceptibility. Furthermore, depth-related issues experienced by PD patients (e.g., increased risk for falling) may not be subserved by the same cognitive mechanisms as VIs. Further research is needed to investigate if more explicit presentations of illusory depth are affected in PD, which might help to understand the depth processing deficits in PD.

Multiple Mechanisms of Word Learning in Late-Talking Children: A Longitudinal Study.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to identify variability in word-learning mechanisms used by late-talking children using a longitudinal study design, which may explain variability in late-talking children's outcomes. METHOD: A cohort of typically developing children (n = 40) and children who were classified as late-talking children at age 2;0 (years;months; ≤ 10th percentile on expressive vocabulary, n = 21) were followed up at ages 3;0 and 3;6. We tested the cohort across tasks designed to isolate different mechanisms involved in word learning: encoding and producing spoken forms of words (using a nonword repetition task), identifying referents for words (using a fast mapping task), and learning associations between words and referents (using a cross-situational word-learning task). RESULTS: Late-talking children had lower accuracy on nonword repetition than typically developing children, despite most of the sample reaching typical ranges for expressive vocabulary at age 3;6. There were no between-groups differences in fast mapping and retention accuracy; however, both were predicted by concurrent expressive vocabulary. Late-talking children performed less accurately than typically developing children on cross-situational word-learning retention trials, despite showing no between-groups differences during training trials. Combining performance across all three tasks predicted approximately 45% of the variance in vocabulary outcomes at the last time point. CONCLUSIONS: Late-talking children continue to have deficits in phonological representation that impact their word-learning ability and expressive language abilities but do not show difficulties in fast mapping novel words. Late-talking children may also struggle to retain associative information about word-referent mappings. Late-talking children thus use some, but not all, word-learning mechanisms differently than typically developing children. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20405856.

Receptive and expressive language ability differentially support symbolic understanding over time: Picture comprehension in late talking and typically developing children.

Symbols are a hallmark of human communication, and a key question is how children's emerging language skills relate to their ability to comprehend symbols. In particular, receptive and expressive vocabulary may have related, but distinct, roles across early development. In a longitudinal study of late talking (LT) and typically developing (TD) children, we differentiated the extent to which expressive and receptive language skills predicted symbolic understanding as reflected in picture comprehension and how language skills inter-related with social skills. LT and TD children were tested on a picture comprehension task that manipulated the availability of verbal labels at 2.0-2.4 years and 3.5-3.9 years of age. Although all children improved in accuracy over time as expected, TD children exhibited an advantage over LT children, despite both groups using verbal labels to inform their mapping of picture-object relationships. Receptive and expressive vocabulary also differed in their contribution at different ages; receptive vocabulary predicted performance at ∼2.0 years of age, and expressive vocabulary predicted performance at ∼3.5 years of age. Task performance at 3.5 years was predicted by earlier receptive vocabulary, but this effect was largely mediated by concurrent expressive vocabulary. Social ability across the whole sample at ∼2.0 years also predicted and mediated the effect of receptive vocabulary on concurrent task performance. These findings suggest that LT children may have delays in developing picture comprehension over time and also that social ability and language skills may differentially relate to symbolic understanding at key moments across development.

Caregivers use gesture contingently to support word learning.

Children learn words in environments where there is considerable variability, both in terms of the number of possible referents for novel words, and the availability of cues to support word-referent mappings. How caregivers adapt their gestural cues to referential uncertainty has not yet been explored. We tested a computational model of cross-situational word learning that examined the value of a variable gesture cue during training across conditions of varying referential uncertainty. We found that gesture had a greater benefit for referential uncertainty, but unexpectedly also found that learning was best when there was variability in both the environment (number of referents) and gestural cue use. We demonstrated that these results are reflected behaviourally in an experimental word-learning study involving children aged 18-24-month-olds and their caregivers. Under similar conditions to the computational model, caregivers not only used gesture more when there were more potential referents for novel words, but children also learned best when there was some referential ambiguity for words. Thus, caregivers are sensitive to referential uncertainty in the environment and adapt their gestures accordingly, and children are able to respond to environmental variability to learn more robustly. These results imply that training under variable circumstances may actually benefit learning, rather than hinder it.

Does Autism Affect Children's Identification of Ownership and Defence of Ownership Rights?

This study investigated how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) impacts children's ability to identify ownership from linguistic cues (proper nouns vs. possessive pronouns) and their awareness of ownership rights. In comparison to typically developing (TD) children matched on receptive language (M age equivalents: 53-56 months), children with ASD were less accurate at tracking owner-object relationships based on possessive pronouns and were less accurate at identifying the property of third parties. We also found that children with ASD were less likely to defend their own and others' ownership rights. We hypothesise that these results may be attributed to differences in representing the self and propose that ASD may be characterised by reduced concern for ownership and associated concepts.

Are Children With Autism More Likely to Retain Object Names When Learning From Colour Photographs or Black-and-White Cartoons?

For the first time, this study investigated whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children matched on language comprehension (M age equivalent = ~ 44 months) are more likely to retain words when learning from colour photographs than black-and-white cartoons. Participants used mutual exclusivity to fast map novel word-picture relationships and retention was assessed following a 5-min delay. Children with ASD achieved significantly greater retention accuracy when learning from photographs rather than cartoons and, surprisingly, responded more accurately than TD children when learning from photographs. Our results demonstrate that children with ASD benefit from greater iconicity when learning words from pictures, providing a data-grounded rationale for using colour photographs when administering picture-based interventions.

Comparing cross-situational word learning, retention, and generalisation in children with autism and typical development.

Word learning is complicated by referential ambiguity - there are often multiple potential targets for a newly-heard word. While typically developing (TD) children can accurately infer word meanings from cross-situational statistics, specific difficulties tracking word-object co-occurrences may contribute to language impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we investigate cross-situational word learning as an integrated system including mapping, retention, and generalisation in both typical development and autism. In Study 1, children with ASD were as accurate at disambiguating the meanings of novel words from statistical correspondences as TD controls matched on receptive vocabulary. In Study 2, both populations spontaneously utilised social and non-social attentional cues to facilitate and accelerate their mapping of word-referent relationships. Across Studies 1 and 2, both groups retrieved and generalised word-referent representations with impressive and comparable accuracy. Although children with ASD performed very similarly to TD children on measures of learning accuracy, they were significantly slower to identify correct referents under both cued and non-cued learning conditions. These findings indicate that mechanisms supporting cross-situational word learning, and the relationships between them, are not qualitatively atypical in language-delayed children with ASD. However, the increased time required to generate correct responses suggests that these mechanisms may be less efficient, potentially impacting learning in natural environments where visual and auditory stimuli are presented rapidly. Our data support claims that word learning in the longer term is driven by the gradual accumulation of word-object associations over multiple learning instances and could potentially inform the development of interventions designed to scaffold word learning.

Exploring the influence of ownership history on object valuation in typical development and autism.

Items with special histories (e.g. celebrity owners) or qualities (e.g. limited editions) are more valuable than similar "inauthentic" items. Typically developing (TD) children privilege authenticity and are particularly influenced by who objects belong to. Here, we explore why children and adults over-value items with special ownership histories and examine how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects object valuation. In Studies 1 and 2, TD children perceived items belonging to famous owners (with "good" or "bad" reputations) to be more valuable than similar items belonging to non-famous owners. However, they ascribed significantly higher values to items belonging to famous heroes than infamous villains when compared. Children with ASD did not over-value objects with special ownership histories, but their valuations were moderated by qualities unrelated to ownership (e.g. rarity). In Study 3, adults with ASD assigned high values to authentic items with special ownership histories but were more likely to keep inauthentic objects than neurotypical adults. Our findings show that association with a famous owner is sufficient to increase an item's value for TD children and adults (with and without ASD). The degree of added value may be determined by the famous owner's character for TD children, but not adults. By contrast, children with ASD value objects via a different strategy that prioritizes material qualities over ownership history. However, the awareness of authenticity displayed by adults with ASD suggests that the emergence of ownership history as an important influence on object evaluation may be developmentally delayed in ASD, rather than completely absent.

Investigating the relationship between fast mapping, retention, and generalisation of words in children with autism spectrum disorder and typical development.

While many studies have investigated how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) impacts how children identify the meanings of new words, this task alone does not constitute learning. Here we investigate fast (referent selection) and slow (retention, generalisation) word learning processes as an integrated system and explore relationships between these mechanisms in ASD and typical development. In Study 1, children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children matched on receptive vocabulary utilised mutual exclusivity to identify referents of unfamiliar words, but showed substantially reduced accuracy on delayed retention and generalisation trials. Thus, Study 2 investigated whether re-directing children's attention to target objects following referent selection would enhance delayed retention. Participants received either social feedback (target objects were labelled and highlighted via social cues) or non-social feedback (target objects were labelled and highlighted via a flashing light). In both conditions, children with ASD were less accurate in their use of mutual exclusivity to fast-map novel words than TD children. However, children with ASD who received social feedback responded more accurately on delayed retention and generalisation trials than TD controls, and children with ASD who received non-social feedback or no feedback (in Study 1). Our findings imply that fundamental word learning mechanisms, and the relationships between them, are not qualitatively different in ASD. We argue that ASD may affect the efficiency of these mechanisms by disrupting children's intake of linguistic input in natural environments, but difficulties may be mitigated by presenting visual and auditory stimuli in a way that appeals to the population's strengths.

Investigating the relationship between language and picture understanding in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Previous studies report that minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder show impaired picture comprehension when matched to typically developing controls on language comprehension. Here, we compare both picture comprehension and picture production abilities in linguistically delayed children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing controls matched on language comprehension and language production. Participants were 20 children with autism spectrum disorder (M age: 11.2 years) and 20 typically developing children (M age: 4.4 years) matched on age equivalents for receptive language (autism spectrum disorder, M: 4.6 years; typically developing, M: 4.5 years) and expressive language (autism spectrum disorder, M: 4.4 years; typically developing, M: 4.5 years). Picture comprehension was assessed by asking children to identify the three-dimensional referents of line drawings. Picture production was assessed by asking children to create representational drawings of unfamiliar objects and having raters identify their referents. The results of both picture tasks revealed statistically equivalent performance for typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder, and identical patterns of performance across trial types. These findings suggest that early deficits in pictorial understanding displayed by minimally verbal individuals may diminish as their expressive language skills develop. Theoretically, our study indicates that development in linguistic and pictorial domains may be inter-related for children with autism spectrum disorder (as is the case for typical development).

Do Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Share Fairly and Reciprocally?

This study investigated whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing children matched on receptive language share resources fairly and reciprocally. Children completed age-appropriate versions of the Ultimatum and Dictator Games with real stickers and an interactive partner. Both groups offered similar numbers of stickers (preferring equality over self-interest), offered more stickers in the Ultimatum Game, and verbally referenced 'fairness' at similar rates. However, children with ASD were significantly more likely to accept unfair offers and were significantly less likely to reciprocate the puppet's offers. Failure to reciprocate fair sharing may significantly impact on social cohesion and children's ability to build relationships. These important differences may be linked to broader deficits in social-cognitive development and potentially self-other understanding.

Mine is better than yours: Investigating the ownership effect in children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children.

Ownership has a unique and privileged influence on human psychology. Typically developing (TD) children judge their objects to be more desirable and valuable than similar objects belonging to others. This 'ownership effect' is due to processing one's property in relation to 'the self'. Here we explore whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) - a population with impaired self-understanding - prefer and over-value property due to ownership. In Experiment 1, we discovered that children with ASD did not favour a randomly endowed toy and frequently traded for a different object. By contrast, TD children showed a clear preference for their randomly endowed toy and traded infrequently. Both populations also demonstrated highly-accurate tracking of owner-object relationships. Experiment 2 showed that both TD children and children with ASD over-value their toys if they are self-selected and different from other-owned toys. Unlike TD children, children with ASD did not over-value their toys in comparison to non-owned identical copies. This finding was replicated in Experiment 3, which also established that mere ownership elicited over-valuation of randomly endowed property in TD children. However, children with ASD did not consistently regard their randomly endowed toys as the most valuable, and evaluated property irrespective of ownership. Our findings show that mere ownership increases preferences and valuations for self-owned property in TD children, but not children with ASD. We propose that deficits in self-understanding may diminish ownership effects in ASD, eliciting a more economically-rational strategy that prioritises material qualities (e.g. what a toy is) rather than whom it belongs to.

iPads and the Use of "Apps" by Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Do They Promote Learning?

The advent of electronic tablets, such as Apple's iPad, has opened up the field of learning via technology, and the use of electronic applications ("apps") on these devices continues to dramatically rise. Children with communication and social impairment, specifically those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), often use educational and recreational apps within the context of their home and school settings. Here we examine in which contexts learning via this medium may be beneficial, and outline recommendations for the use of electronic tablets and the design features for apps to promote learning in this population that is characterized by a unique profile of needs and heterogeneous ability levels.

Do iPads promote symbolic understanding and word learning in children with autism?

The use of the Apple iPad has skyrocketed in educational settings, along with largely unsubstantiated claims of its efficacy for learning and communication in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we examine whether children with ASD are better able to learn new word-referent relations using an iPad or a traditional picture book. We also examine the hypothesis that presenting multiple, differently colored, exemplars of a target referent will promote adaptive label generalization compared to the use of a single exemplar. Sixteen minimally verbal children with ASD were taught a new word in four within-subjects conditions, which varied by media (iPad vs. book) and content (single vs. multiple exemplar presentation). Children were then tested on the ability to symbolically relate the word to a 3-D referent (real-life depicted object) and generalize it to a differently colored category member (another similarly shaped object). The extent of symbolic understanding did not differ between the two media, and levels of generalization did not differ across conditions. However, presentation of multiple exemplars increased the rate that children with ASD extended labels from pictures to depicted objects. Our findings are discussed in terms of the importance of content to picture-based learning and the potential benefits and challenges of using the Apple iPad as an educational resource for children with ASD.

Symbolic understanding of pictures in low-functioning children with autism: the effects of iconicity and naming.

This research investigated whether symbolic understanding of pictures in low-functioning children with autism is mediated by iconicity and language. In Experiment 1, participants were taught novel words paired with unfamiliar pictures that varied in iconicity (black-and-white line drawings, greyscale photographs, colour line drawings, colour photographs). Unlike mental-age matched typically developing peers, children with autism generally mapped words onto pictures rather than depicted referents, however, they generalised labels more frequently in colour picture conditions. In Experiment 2, children with autism categorised a line drawing with its referent, rather than another picture, regardless of whether it was named. Typically developing children only viewed pictures as symbols when they were labelled. Overall, symbolic understanding of pictures in children with autism is facilitated by iconicity (particularly colour), but not language.

Iconicity influences how effectively minimally verbal children with autism and ability-matched typically developing children use pictures as symbols in a search task.

Previous word learning studies suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder may have difficulty understanding pictorial symbols. Here we investigate the ability of children with autism spectrum disorder and language-matched typically developing children to contextualize symbolic information communicated by pictures in a search task that did not involve word learning. Out of the participant's view, a small toy was concealed underneath one of four unique occluders that were individuated by familiar nameable objects or unfamiliar unnamable objects. Children were shown a picture of the hiding location and then searched for the toy. Over three sessions, children completed trials with color photographs, black-and-white line drawings, and abstract color pictures. The results reveal zero group differences; neither children with autism spectrum disorder nor typically developing children were influenced by occluder familiarity, and both groups' errorless retrieval rates were above-chance with all three picture types. However, both groups made significantly more errorless retrievals in the most-iconic photograph trials, and performance was universally predicted by receptive language. Therefore, our findings indicate that children with autism spectrum disorder and young typically developing children can contextualize pictures and use them to adaptively guide their behavior in real time and space. However, this ability is significantly influenced by receptive language development and pictorial iconicity.