Evaluating causal psychological models: A study of language theories of autism using a large sample

Abstract

We used a large convenience sample (n = 22,223) from the Simons Powering Autism Research (SPARK) dataset to evaluate causal, explanatory theories of core autism symptoms. In particular, the data-items collected supported the testing of theories that posited altered language abilities as cause of social withdrawal, as well as alternative theories that competed with these language theories. Our results using this large dataset converge with the evolution of the field in the decades since these theories were first proposed, namely supporting primary social withdrawal (in some cases of autism) as a cause of altered language development, rather than vice versa.To accomplish the above empiric goals, we used a highly theory-constrained approach, one which differs from current data-driven modeling trends but is coherent with a very recent resurgence in theory-driven psychology. In addition to careful explication and formalization of theoretical accounts, we propose three principles for future work of this type: specification, quantification, and integration. Specification refers to constraining models with pre-existing data, from both outside and within autism research, with more elaborate models and more veridical measures, and with longitudinal data collection. Quantification refers to using continuous measures of both psychological causes and effects, as well as weighted graphs. This approach avoids “universality and uniqueness” tests that hold that a single cognitive difference could be responsible for a heterogeneous and complex behavioral phenotype. Integration of multiple explanatory paths within a single model helps the field examine for multiple contributors to a single behavioral feature or to multiple behavioral features. It also allows integration of explanatory theories across multiple current-day diagnoses and as well as typical development.

Psychological Theories of Autism: Everything, All at Once, In One Place

“…Take the example of a theory linking the cognitive ability for symbolic processing, general intelligence, Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors and Interest (RRB), language and social withdrawal (Hermelin, 1978;Rutter, 1978). In this work, the theoreticians drew a potential relationship between general intelligence and RRB but not one between general intelligence and social withdrawal, because it was already well known that many children with Intellectual Disability (ID) have high levels of social engagement (Tang et al, 2023).…”

“…Another group of theories suggests that impaired function in sensory or motor function contributes to altered communication, which in turn causes language aspects of autism. The first invokes a link between auditory perception and subsequent alterations in language function (Anthony, 1958), which in turn result in an altered ability to use language to establish interpersonal relations (as captured by language theories, §5; (Rutter, 1966(Rutter, , 1968Tang et al, 2023)). This line of reasoning was consonant with biological accounts that stressed the role of the altered brainstem development in autism (Novick, Vaughan, Kurtzberg, & Simson, 1980 1964; Seif, Shea, Schmid, & Stevenson, 2021), and the proposed link among auditory function, language and other autism features has more recently re-emerged with the finding of a consistently altered early auditory-evoked response in autistic children (Gage et al, 2003;Roberts et al, 2010;Roberts et al, 2019), which has in turn been attributed to alterations of synaptic function.…”

“…Complex Information Processing and abstraction accounts have a relationship to arousal theories, viz., when systems are overloaded. And the contemporaneous and interacting "dialogue" between Hermelin and Rutter (Tang et al, 2023) lays out the relationship between abstraction and language accounts.…”

“…We have already seen this approach within the lower-level sensory accounts ( §1), which compared and contrasted autism with partial-blindness and partial-deafness. Similarly, investigators used DLD (known historically as developmental aphasia, developmental dysphasia and Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder) as a basis for comparison (Tang et al, 2023). Because, in this era, diagnostic approaches made language features nearly universal in individuals diagnosed with autism, the explanatory burden on DLDautism contrast was on determining how the non-language features of autism were generated.…”

“…These theories then shifted to specify a central cognitive difference-that of symbolism-that underlies not only language and non-verbal communication performance but also social withdrawal. Those in the "language camp" did not specify how RRB came about from altered symbolism, but Hermelin proposed that her abstraction abilities were causally upstream of language and also to explain RRB (Hermelin, 1978;Hermelin & O'Connor, 1970;Tang et al, 2023) (see also (Benda, 1960)).…”