Association of autistic traits with inference generation in visual narratives

Individuals with higher levels of autistic traits sometimes demonstrate differences with narrative comprehension compared to those with lower levels of autistic traits. One particular aspect of narrative processing that is thought to be affected by autistic traits is inferencing. Some studies using verbal narratives (i.e., written or spoken stories) have documented differences in inferencing skills among autistic participants. However, fewer studies have investigated how inferencing abilities using visual narratives (e.g., comics) are modulated by autistic traits, despite mounting evidence that narrative comprehension shares similar cognitive mechanisms across verbal and visual domains. Here, we report two studies examining inference generation during visual narrative comprehension in adults with a range of autistic traits. Experiment 1 used a deletion recognition paradigm to examine participants' accuracy (ACC) and reaction time (RT) to identify where a panel had been removed from a visual sequence. Experiment 2 used a self-paced viewing paradigm to examine viewing times on sequences that required an inference; ACC and RT on comprehension questions were also examined. In both experiments, individual differences in autistic traits and visual language fluency were examined. In Experiment 1 we did not see any effects of these predictors; however, for Experiment 2 we found that autistic traits and visual language fluency may be influential in narrative comprehension for measures of offline processing. Subsequent analyses identified differences in imaginative abilities as potentially underlying these modulations.