Pragmatic Inferences in High-Functioning Adults with Autism and Asperger Syndrome

• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-008-0661-8
• Publication Date: 2008-12-03T15:46:08Z
• Authors: Judith Pijnacker; Peter Hagoort; Jan Buitelaar; Jan-Pieter Teunisse; Bart Geurts
• Keywords: Asperger syndrome; High-functioning autism; Pervasive developmental disorder

Although people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have severe problems pragmatic aspects of language, little is known about their reasoning. We carried out a behavioral study on high-functioning adults autistic disorder (n = 11) and Asperger syndrome 17) matched controls 28) to investigate whether they are capable deriving scalar implicatures, which generally considered be inferences. Participants were presented underinformative sentences like "Some sparrows birds". This sentence logically true, but pragmatically inappropriate if the implicature "Not all birds" derived. The present findings indicate that combined ASD group was just as likely derive yet there difference between participants syndrome, suggesting potential differentiation these in Moreover, our results suggest verbal intelligence constraint for task performance not syndrome.