A Quantitative Analysis of Pragmatic Language in Adults with High-Functioning Autism

2014 Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, Honorable Mention in PsychologyIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have impaired social communication, particularly pragmatic language (DSM-V; APA, 2013). We aimed to identify differences in pragmatic language in conversations between typically developed (TD) individuals and high-functioning adults with autism (HFA). HFA (n = 8) and TD (n = 8) individuals participated in guided discussions that were recorded, transcribed, and specifically analyzed for off-topic responses, disrupted turn-taking events, use of discourse markers, and frequency of mental state references. We also examined the social connectedness of the individuals; half of the participants had previous experiences with one another, and half of the participants were strangers. The TD group was less often off-topic than the HFA group. While there was no difference in the type of disrupted turn-taking events, the groups differed in how these events functioned, with socially connected individuals disrupting more often in non-supportive ways. Social connectedness was also significant for turn winner, suggesting that speakers who disrupt win the turn more often in socially connected groups than they do in conversations between socially unconnected people. Discourse markers, words that maintain grounding and listener understanding, were analyzed, specifically for the use of "like" and "you know". The TD group used "like" more than the HFA group, and there was no difference for "you know" between the groups. Lastly, the TD group used more mental state words than the HFA group. These results suggest that conversations between HFA individuals differ from TD individuals because of these subtle differences in pragmatic language usage. These patterns potentially have utility in developing diagnostic tests, especially in parsing strengths and weaknesses of individuals with HFA.The Ohio State University Arts & Sciences Research ScholarshipThe Ohio State University Undergraduate Research Office Summer Research FellowshipThe Ohio State University Psychology Department Alkire Research AwardNo embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog

Distinct profiles of social skill in adults with autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia

Overlapping social impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Schizophrenia (SCZ) contributed to decades of diagnostic confusion that continues to this day in some clinical settings. The current study provides the first direct and detailed comparison of social behavior in the two disorders by identifying profiles of social skill in adults with ASD (n = 54), SCZ (n = 54), and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 56) during a real‐world social interaction. ASD and SCZ groups exhibited poorer social skill, both overall and on most discrete abilities, relative to the TD group. Direct comparison of ASD to SCZ revealed distinct behavioral profiles, with ASD uniquely characterized by fewer interactive behaviors, and SCZ characterized by greater impaired gaze and flat/inappropriate affective responses. Additionally, IQ was associated with both overall social skill and many discrete social skills in SCZ, but was largely unrelated to social skill in ASD. These results indicate that overlapping social deficits in ASD and SCZ are comprised of both shared and distinct social skill impairments. The largest distinctions—reduced social reciprocity but better expressivity in ASD relative to SCZ, and a greater role of IQ in social skill for SCZ than ASD—highlight disorder‐specific features that can improve etiological understanding, diagnostic differentiation, and treatment strategies. Autism Res 2017, 10: 878–887. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Psychometric evaluation of social cognitive measures for adults with autism

Although social cognition is frequently identified as a target in clinical trials and psychosocial interventions for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), these efforts are hampered by a lack of consensus and validation of social cognitive measures. The current study provides psychometric evaluation of 11 frequently used measures encompassing different subdomains of social cognition. Adults with autism (N = 103) and typically developing controls (N = 95) completed 11 commonly used social cognitive tasks spanning the domains of emotion processing, social perception, and mentalizing/theory of mind. We examined each measure's internal reliability and sensitivity to group differences, how performance related to general intellectual ability, and alignment of measures with a proposed two-factor structure of social cognition in ASD. Controls outperformed the ASD group on 8 of the 11 social cognitive tasks, with the largest group differences occurring on two mentalizing measures, The awareness of social inference task (TASIT) and hinting task. In ASD, all tasks demonstrated strong internal consistency and avoided ceiling and floor effects. Social cognitive performance was also related to, but not redundant with, intellectual functioning. We also found support for a two-factor structure of social cognition, with basic social perception and emotional processing aligning into a lower-order social perception factor, while mentalizing tasks aligned into a higher-order social appraisal factor. In sum, eight tasks showed adequate to strong psychometric properties. The psychometric data, effect size estimates, and correlations between measures reported here can be used for study planning for social cognitive interventions in autism. Autism Research 2019, 12: 766–778. © 2019 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Comprehensive comparison of social cognitive performance in autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia

Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ) are separate neurodevelopmental disorders that are both characterized by difficulties in social cognition and social functioning. Due to methodological confounds, the degree of similarity in social cognitive impairments across these two disorders is currently unknown. This study therefore conducted a comprehensive comparison of social cognitive ability in ASD and SCZ to aid efforts to develop optimized treatment programs. Methods In total, 101 individuals with ASD, 92 individuals with SCZ or schizoaffective disorder, and 101 typically developing (TD) controls, all with measured intelligence in the normal range and a mean age of 25.47 years, completed a large battery of psychometrically validated social cognitive assessments spanning the domains of emotion recognition, social perception, mental state attribution, and attributional style. Results Both ASD and SCZ performed worse than TD controls, and very few differences were evident between the two clinical groups, with effect sizes (Cohen's d) ranging from 0.01 to 0.34. For those effects that did reach statistical significance, such as greater hostility in the SCZ group, controlling for symptom severity rendered them non-significant, suggesting that clinical distinctions may underlie these social cognitive differences. Additionally, the strength of the relationship between neurocognitive and social cognitive performance was of similar, moderate size for ASD and SCZ. Conclusions Findings largely suggest comparable levels of social cognitive impairment in ASD and SCZ, which may support the use of existing social cognitive interventions across disorders. However, future work is needed to determine whether the mechanisms underlying these shared impairments are also similar or if these common behavioral profiles may emerge via different pathways