1. Arnold JE, Bennetto L, Diehl JJ. {{Reference production in young speakers with and without autism: Effects of discourse status and processing constraints}}. {Cognition};2008 (Dec 24)
We examine the referential choices (pronouns/zeros vs. names/descriptions) made during a narrative by high-functioning children and adolescents with autism and a well-matched typically developing control group. The process of choosing appropriate referring expressions has been proposed to depend on two areas of cognitive functioning: (a) judging the attention and knowledge of one’s interlocutor, and (b) the use of memory and attention mechanisms to represent the discourse situation. We predicted possible group differences, since autism is often associated with deficits in (a) mentalizing and (b) memory and attention, as well as a more general tendency to have difficulty with the pragmatic aspects of language use. Results revealed that some of the participants with autism were significantly less likely to produce pronouns or zeros in some discourse contexts. However, the difference was only one of degree. Overall, all participants in our analysis exhibited fine-grained sensitivity to the discourse context. Furthermore, referential choices for all participants were modulated by factors related to the cognitive effort of language production.
2. Clark TF, Winkielman P, McIntosh DN. {{Autism and the extraction of emotion from briefly presented facial expressions: Stumbling at the first step of empathy}}. {Emotion};2008 (Dec);8(6):803-809.
Identification of other people’s emotion from quickly presented stimuli, including facial expressions, is fundamental to many social processes, including rapid mimicry and empathy. This study examined extraction of valence from brief emotional expressions in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a condition characterized by impairments in understanding and sharing of emotions. Control participants were individuals with reading disability and typical individuals. Participants were shown images for durations in the range of microexpressions (15 ms and 30 ms), thus reducing the reliance on higher level cognitive skills. Participants detected whether (a) emotional faces were happy or angry, (b) neutral faces were male or female, and (c) neutral images were animals or objects. Individuals with ASD performed selectively worse on emotion extraction, with no group differences for gender or animal?object tasks. The emotion extraction deficit remains even when controlling for gender, verbal ability, and age and is not accounted for by speed-accuracy tradeoffs. The deficit in rapid emotional processing may contribute to ASD difficulties in mimicry, empathy, and related processes. The results highlight the role of rapid early emotion processing in adaptive social?emotional functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).
3. Pottie CG, Ingram KM. {{Daily stress, coping, and well-being in parents of children with autism: A multilevel modeling approach}}. {J Fam Psychol};2008 (Dec);22(6):855-864.
This study used a repeated daily measurement design to examine the direct and moderating effects of coping on daily psychological distress and well-being in parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Twice weekly over a 12-week period, 93 parents provided reports of their daily stress, coping responses, and end-of-day mood. Multilevel modeling analyses identified 5 coping responses (e.g., seeking support, positive reframing) that predicted increased daily positive mood and 4 (e.g., escape, withdrawal) that were associated with decreased positive mood. Similarly, 2 coping responses were associated with decreased daily negative mood and 5 predicted increased negative mood. The moderating effects of gender and the 11 coping responses were also examined. Gender did not moderate the daily coping?mood relationship, however 3 coping responses (emotional regulation, social support, and worrying) were found to moderate the daily stress?mood relationship. Additionally, ASD symptomatology, and time since an ASD diagnosis were not found to predict daily parental mood. This study is perhaps the first to identify coping responses that enhance daily well-being and mitigate daily distress in parents of children with ASD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).
