Language Comprehension in Autism – Explicable by a Detail-focused Style of Information-processing?

Compared to language production little attention has been directed to the processes of language comprehension of people with autism. Often, empirical results on this topic are interpreted solely within a framework of social cognition. However, results could also be explained by a detail-oriented processing-style proposed by the theory of weak central coherence (Happé & Frith, 2006). In order to examine this, pivotal results on speech and language comprehension in autism are arranged along a linguistic model and compared with the assumptions of theory of weak central coherence. The results show that a detail-focused processing style can provide significant explanations for the specific language comprehension abilities in autism. Implications for a better understanding of persons with autism are discussed.