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Using a modified version of the Gernsbacher, Varner, and Faust (1990) paradigm, children’s ability to resolve lexical ambiguities was explored. Children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) may find ambiguity resolution problematic because of (a) difficulties with coherence, or (b) difficulties with inhibition. To explore these possibilities, three clinical groups were compared: children with language impairment (LI, n=20), children with ASD and additional language impairments (ASD-LI, n=28), children with ASD and verbal abilities within the normal range (ASD-O, n=20) and typically developing controls (TD, n=28). All groups responded faster and more accurately when the ambiguous word followed a biased context. However, children with LI did not use context as efficiently as their TD peers. All groups showed interference of multiple meanings. These findings are considered in relation to cognitive theories of autism and highlight the need to track changes in contextual processing over time. |
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