Jiang Yuhan, Wang Ting
School of Foreign Studies, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China.
Center for Speech and Language Processing, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 Apr 12. doi: 10.1007/s10803-025-06827-7.
Previous research on prosodic focus comprehension in non-autistic children has yielded inconsistent results, often attributing their difficulties to the presence of the word "only". However, studies on autistic children's understanding of focus are limited and often methodologically rigid. This study builds on previous work by investigating how prosodic focus influences the covert "only" interpretation of scalar quantifiers among Mandarin-speaking children aged 3-8, both autistic and non-autistic, using engaging and dynamic tasks. The present study combined a computer-based Picture-Sentence Judgment and a computer-based Selection Task. Samples included 25 autistic (3 F, 22 M) and 29 non-autistic children (17 F, 12 M) for the judgment task, and 20 autistic (3 F, 17 M) and 25 non-autistic (13 F, 12 M) for the selection task. Results indicated that non-autistic children showed prosodic focus sensitivity, requiring ToM and EF skills but not fully eliciting covert "only" inferences. Prosody enhanced clarity, reducing reliance on advanced reasoning, though vocabulary mattered. Autistic children's comprehension was unaffected by prosody, even with basic ToM and EF skills. Individual traits' influences on their interpretation were minimally affected by focus, highlighting reduced sensitivity. These findings suggest that non-autistic challenges may stem from cognitive capacities, not mere inclusion of "only". Autistic children's diminished sensitivity reflects autism's intrinsic aspects, likely linked to information integration impairments or decreased social motivation.
先前针对非自闭症儿童韵律焦点理解的研究结果并不一致，往往将他们的困难归因于“only”这个词的存在。然而，关于自闭症儿童焦点理解的研究有限，且在方法上往往较为僵化。本研究在先前工作的基础上，通过使用引人入胜且动态的任务，调查韵律焦点如何影响3至8岁说普通话的自闭症和非自闭症儿童对标量量词的隐性“only”解释。本研究结合了基于计算机的图片 - 句子判断任务和基于计算机的选择任务。参与判断任务的样本包括25名自闭症儿童（3名女性，22名男性）和29名非自闭症儿童（17名女性，12名男性），参与选择任务的样本包括20名自闭症儿童（3名女性，17名男性）和25名非自闭症儿童（13名女性，12名男性）。结果表明，非自闭症儿童表现出韵律焦点敏感性，需要心理理论（ToM）和执行功能（EF）技能，但并未完全引发隐性“only”推理。韵律提高了清晰度，减少了对高级推理的依赖，尽管词汇也很重要。自闭症儿童的理解不受韵律影响，即使他们具备基本的心理理论和执行功能技能。个体特质对其解释的影响受焦点的影响最小，这突出了他们较低的敏感性。这些发现表明，非自闭症儿童的挑战可能源于认知能力，而不仅仅是因为包含“only”这个词。自闭症儿童敏感性降低反映了自闭症的内在方面，可能与信息整合障碍或社交动机下降有关。
