Dismantling the Visual Ease Assumption: Cross-Modal Examinations of Narrative Comprehension in Individuals with Autism
Abstract
Scientific Objective and Rationale: People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often report being visual thinkers and commonly show strengths in visual processing and weaknesses in language comprehension. As a result, many interventions for people with ASD attempt to use these visual strengths to improve language skills. However, this idea of a visual advantage in ASD has been extrapolated to a broader assumption that anything with pictures – including stories told through pictures, or visual narratives – has an advantage over language. This extrapolation, which we call the Visual Ease Assumption, forms the basis for many interventions and assessments that use visual narratives to test or improve various skills for individuals with ASD. The idea of a visual advantage in ASD rests on the premise that a modality difference exists in comprehension: pictures are easier to understand than language. However, although there may be an advantage for understanding single images in ASD, this advantage may not extend to visual narratives, which present images in a sequence. Just as understanding a verbal story is more complex than understanding a single word in the story, understanding visual narratives is more complex than understanding one picture. Yet many tests and interventions still use visual stories to assess and improve various skills in autism under the assumption that understanding a story will be easier simply because it is told in pictures. The problem is that there is no evidence for this assumption. Very few studies directly compare visual and linguistic narratives to prove that one is easier. Those that do have shown that people with autism struggle just as much with understanding stories told visually as understanding stories told through language. This reveals serious issues with using visual narratives to test and improve cognitive skills in autism. Furthermore, it suggests that the problem lies not with language, but with comprehension: If understanding a story is difficult regardless of what modality it is presented in, then there must be something about the processes involved in understanding the story that is causing issues. Understanding a story is a complicated task, regardless of whether it is told through language or through pictures. It requires many complex skills, such as predicting upcoming events, generating inferences between events and attending to important details. Difficulties with any of these skills would lead to difficulties in narrative comprehension, even if language were not involved at all. Yet the Visual Ease Assumption overlooks this complexity involved in understanding stories and instead proposes that visual narratives will be easier for individuals with ASD to understand simply because they use pictures. There is therefore a crucial need in the autism field for a better understanding of how people with ASD understand stories and whether difficulties stem from language or from a deeper impairment in general comprehension. Our project will provide a comprehensive examination of narrative comprehension in ASD by determining which underlying skills might be leading to comprehension impairments in ASD and whether there are differences in those skills across visual and linguistic modalities. The results will significantly alter how we conceptualize reading and narrative comprehension difficulties in individuals with ASD. It will lead to the development of more evidence-based practices in literacy interventions, which addresses a critical need in the ASD community as defined in the ARP Areas of Interest. Applicability: This project is directly relevant to the research field and to individuals living with autism. Reading comprehension is a major aspect of daily life and of academic excellence. Therefore, any knowledge that can lead to more evidence-based interventions and improvements in these skills will improve the quality of life for individuals with ASD.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 28, 2022
- Source ID
- W81XWH2210817
Entities
People
- Emily Coderre
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Vermont