Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and individuals with schizophrenia (SZ)have in common to be impaired in their social and communication abilities. Their inability to infer intentions and beliefs of others has been supposed to result from their inability to use contextual information. However, recent findings have shown that individuals with ASD are sensitive to stereotypes on gender, race and age. It was also suggested that several factors such as level of incongruity between context and speaker's utterance, prosody, or character's features set in the stimulus situation cue the comprehension of the ironic intent among healthy subjects (Ivanko and Pexman, 2003). The goal of this study was to determine whether individuals with ASD and individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) exhibit the same patterns of performance on a task assessing if stereotypes (type of speaker's occupation) cue comprehension of ironic intent. Thirty SZ individuals, sixteen adults with ASD and fifty matched healthy participants were recruited. Participants were asked to read 48 stories in which the speaker's occupation had been manipulated according to 3 conditions of occupation: occupation that cues ironic intent, occupation that does not cue ironic intent and no occupation. Participants were asked to judge on a 7-point scale (1=not at all, 7=extremely) if the speaker was ironic, if he was mocking someone and if he was polite. The first two questions were used to assess attribution of mental states to the speaker while the last question was used to assess social perception. Main results seem to show that both SZ participants and ASD articipants were not sensitive to stereotypes (type of speaker's occupation) by contrast to healthy participants. However, while ASD participants performed like healthy participants judging irony and mockery, SZ participants gave answer at random (cf. Figure 1). There was no difference between the three groups for social perception.
Do stereotypes cue comprehension of speaker's ironic intent in autism and schizophrenia?
ERVAS, FRANCESCA;
2011-01-01
Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and individuals with schizophrenia (SZ)have in common to be impaired in their social and communication abilities. Their inability to infer intentions and beliefs of others has been supposed to result from their inability to use contextual information. However, recent findings have shown that individuals with ASD are sensitive to stereotypes on gender, race and age. It was also suggested that several factors such as level of incongruity between context and speaker's utterance, prosody, or character's features set in the stimulus situation cue the comprehension of the ironic intent among healthy subjects (Ivanko and Pexman, 2003). The goal of this study was to determine whether individuals with ASD and individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) exhibit the same patterns of performance on a task assessing if stereotypes (type of speaker's occupation) cue comprehension of ironic intent. Thirty SZ individuals, sixteen adults with ASD and fifty matched healthy participants were recruited. Participants were asked to read 48 stories in which the speaker's occupation had been manipulated according to 3 conditions of occupation: occupation that cues ironic intent, occupation that does not cue ironic intent and no occupation. Participants were asked to judge on a 7-point scale (1=not at all, 7=extremely) if the speaker was ironic, if he was mocking someone and if he was polite. The first two questions were used to assess attribution of mental states to the speaker while the last question was used to assess social perception. Main results seem to show that both SZ participants and ASD articipants were not sensitive to stereotypes (type of speaker's occupation) by contrast to healthy participants. However, while ASD participants performed like healthy participants judging irony and mockery, SZ participants gave answer at random (cf. Figure 1). There was no difference between the three groups for social perception.
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