From encoding to remembering: pragmatic inferences reveal distinct routes of word learning in autistic children
Mentalizing skills—the capacity to attribute mental states—play critical roles in word learning during typical language development. In autism, mentalizing difficulties may constrain word-learning pathways, limiting language-acquisition opportunities. We ask how autistic children encode and retrieve...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2025.1633013/full |
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| author | Katherine Marie Trice Zhenghan Qi Zhenghan Qi |
| author_facet | Katherine Marie Trice Zhenghan Qi Zhenghan Qi |
| author_sort | Katherine Marie Trice |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Mentalizing skills—the capacity to attribute mental states—play critical roles in word learning during typical language development. In autism, mentalizing difficulties may constrain word-learning pathways, limiting language-acquisition opportunities. We ask how autistic children encode and retrieve novel words and what drives individual differences. We test whether autistic children’s word learning benefits from pragmatic inferences, as in non-autistic. Forty-nine 6-to-9-year-old verbal autistic children participated. During learning, four novel words in the direct-mapping condition (DM) could be uniquely mapped to one novel object and four in the pragmatic-inference condition (PI) required children to assume speaker intent. Immediate recall and retention (15-min delay) were tested via four-alternative-forced-choice-task. Autistic children showed above-chance PI mapping, no immediate recall differences, and PI retention advantage. However, individual difference analyses suggest a bimodal PI-retention pattern: 55% showed above-chance PI word recognition (PI-Retained) and 45% at-or-below-chance (PI-Limited). Retention profiles do not reflect general memory—most PI-Limited children remembered DM words well. Instead, profile was associated directly with learning success. For PI-Limited specifically, learning performance was at-chance. Eye-movement during learning showed converging evidence: only PI-Retained consistently diverged between looks-to-target and competitor. Only nonverbal IQ in conjunction with initial mapping reliably differentiated groups, not mentalizing or language measures. This suggests distinct pathways of word-meaning acquisition in autistic children with otherwise similar profiles. While PI resolution may facilitate word-meaning acquisition for some, DM better serves others. This underscores the importance of characterizing learning processes as a pathway to understanding the heterogeneity of language in autism. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9e82e47bca9b4cfdbb3caa824c35633e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj-art-9e82e47bca9b4cfdbb3caa824c35633e2025-08-21T14:13:51ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612025-08-011910.3389/fnhum.2025.16330131633013From encoding to remembering: pragmatic inferences reveal distinct routes of word learning in autistic childrenKatherine Marie Trice0Zhenghan Qi1Zhenghan Qi2Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United StatesDepartment of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United StatesDepartment of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United StatesMentalizing skills—the capacity to attribute mental states—play critical roles in word learning during typical language development. In autism, mentalizing difficulties may constrain word-learning pathways, limiting language-acquisition opportunities. We ask how autistic children encode and retrieve novel words and what drives individual differences. We test whether autistic children’s word learning benefits from pragmatic inferences, as in non-autistic. Forty-nine 6-to-9-year-old verbal autistic children participated. During learning, four novel words in the direct-mapping condition (DM) could be uniquely mapped to one novel object and four in the pragmatic-inference condition (PI) required children to assume speaker intent. Immediate recall and retention (15-min delay) were tested via four-alternative-forced-choice-task. Autistic children showed above-chance PI mapping, no immediate recall differences, and PI retention advantage. However, individual difference analyses suggest a bimodal PI-retention pattern: 55% showed above-chance PI word recognition (PI-Retained) and 45% at-or-below-chance (PI-Limited). Retention profiles do not reflect general memory—most PI-Limited children remembered DM words well. Instead, profile was associated directly with learning success. For PI-Limited specifically, learning performance was at-chance. Eye-movement during learning showed converging evidence: only PI-Retained consistently diverged between looks-to-target and competitor. Only nonverbal IQ in conjunction with initial mapping reliably differentiated groups, not mentalizing or language measures. This suggests distinct pathways of word-meaning acquisition in autistic children with otherwise similar profiles. While PI resolution may facilitate word-meaning acquisition for some, DM better serves others. This underscores the importance of characterizing learning processes as a pathway to understanding the heterogeneity of language in autism.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2025.1633013/fullautismmentalizingpragmaticsword learningindividual differenceseye-tracking |
| spellingShingle | Katherine Marie Trice Zhenghan Qi Zhenghan Qi From encoding to remembering: pragmatic inferences reveal distinct routes of word learning in autistic children Frontiers in Human Neuroscience autism mentalizing pragmatics word learning individual differences eye-tracking |
| title | From encoding to remembering: pragmatic inferences reveal distinct routes of word learning in autistic children |
| title_full | From encoding to remembering: pragmatic inferences reveal distinct routes of word learning in autistic children |
| title_fullStr | From encoding to remembering: pragmatic inferences reveal distinct routes of word learning in autistic children |
| title_full_unstemmed | From encoding to remembering: pragmatic inferences reveal distinct routes of word learning in autistic children |
| title_short | From encoding to remembering: pragmatic inferences reveal distinct routes of word learning in autistic children |
| title_sort | from encoding to remembering pragmatic inferences reveal distinct routes of word learning in autistic children |
| topic | autism mentalizing pragmatics word learning individual differences eye-tracking |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2025.1633013/full |
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