Prediction and Integration in Listening Comprehension: A Pilot Study of Autism

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Abigail Driggers

Abstract or Description

Difficulties in reading comprehension, of which listening comprehension plays a vital role, has been implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Theory of mind ability is also correlated with reading comprehension. Some evidence suggests that difficulty in integrating information may impact listening comprehension, but a relatively new theory suggests that struggles to make predictions could contribute to language difficulties in autism. Integration and prediction have not been compared in listening comprehension in ASD. The present study aims to explore how integration versus prediction related to social information contributes to listening comprehension in autistic children and their non-autistic peers. Seven- to eight-year-old participants (n=9 non-autistic, n=2 autistic) were given a test of listening comprehension through the Understanding Spoken Paragraphs subtest of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals 5th Ed. (CELF-5). Their comprehension performance (measured by proportion of correct responses) was assessed on questions that placed demands on theory of mind skill, as well as either integration or prediction ability. A Wilcoxon’s signed-ranks test indicated no significant difference between integration (M=0.55) and prediction questions (M=0.7) for non-autistic participants (W=11, p=.41, r_B=0.47). While there were too few ASD participants to conduct analyses, both participants performed better on integration (M=0.67) than prediction (M=0.33) questions, the opposite trend of what was observed for non-autistic participants. These preliminary results suggest that a continuation of this study, examining group differences in performance across integration and prediction question types is warranted.

Mentor

Meghan Davidson