We examined processing of verbal irony in three groups of children: (1) 18 children with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD), (2) 18 typically- developing children, matched to the first group for verbal ability, and (3) 18 typically-developing children matched to the first group for chronological age. We utilized an irony comprehension task that minimized verbal and pragmatic demands for participants. Results showed that children with HFASD were as accurate as typicallydeveloping children in judging speaker intent for ironic criticisms, but group differences in judgment latencies, eye gaze, and humor evaluations suggested that children with HFASD applied a different processing strategy for irony comprehension; one that resulted in less accurate appreciation of the social functions of irony.
The current experiment examined the development of children's ability to comprehend concurrent conflicting desires (i.e., both wanting and not wanting something at the same time). Participants were 4- to 7-year-old children and a group of undergraduate students (N = 20 in each age group). Results showed that the 6- and 7-year-old children understood concurrent conflicting desires at levels that were well above chance. There was evidence that even some of the 5-year-olds exhibited an emerging comprehension of conflicting desires. However, the 4-year-old children showed little ability to appreciate conflicting desire states. As such, children showed appreciation for conflicting desires at younger ages than suggested by previous research. In addition, significant relationships were observed between children's concurrent conflicting desire understanding and their theory of mind (ToM) and executive functioning (EF) skills, even after controlling for chronological and verbal age.
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