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Atypical context-dependent speech processing in autism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2020

Alan Chi Lun Yu Open the ORCID record for Alan Chi Lun Yu [Opens in a new window]  and
Carol Kit Sum To Open the ORCID record for Carol Kit Sum To [Opens in a new window]
Alan Chi Lun Yu*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Carol Kit Sum To
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The ability to take contextual information into account is essential for successful speech processing. This study examines individuals with high-functioning autism and those without in terms of how they adjust their perceptual expectation while discriminating speech sounds in different phonological contexts. Listeners were asked to discriminate pairs of sibilant-vowel monosyllables. Typically, discriminability of sibilants increases when the sibilants are embedded in perceptually enhancing contexts (if the appropriate context-specific perceptual adjustment were performed) and decreases in perceptually diminishing contexts. This study found a reduction in the differences in perceptual response across enhancing and diminishing contexts among high-functioning autistic individuals relative to the neurotypical controls. The reduction in perceptual expectation adjustment is consistent with an increase in autonomy in low-level perceptual processing in autism and a reduction in the influence of top-down information from surrounding information.

Keywords

context-dependent speech perceptionhigh-functioning autismsound discriminationsibilant perception
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 41 , Issue 5 , September 2020 , pp. 1045 - 1059
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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