Conventional metaphor processing in autistic adults
A semantic priming experiment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22413330 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Isabel Martín-González (0000-0003-4467-7120, University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, corresponding author), Marina Ortega-Andrés (0000-0003-3472-3824, University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea), Agustín Vicente (0000-0002-5331-5546, University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Applied Psycholinguistics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0142-7164 • E-ISSN: 1469-1817 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0142716426100496 |
| OpenAlex | W7154129240 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 64 |
In typical development, conventional metaphors are supposed to be stored as related senses within a single lexical entry, unlike homonyms, whose meanings are represented in separate entries. Autistic individuals often face challenges in understanding metaphors, raising the possibility that they process conventional metaphors more like homonyms—as unrelated meanings. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by comparing autistic and non-autistic adults on a lexical decision task involving both homonyms and conventional metaphors. We predicted that autistic participants would show inhibition effects (slower access) for both subordinate homonym meanings and metaphorical senses, while non-autistic participants would show inhibition only for homonyms. Our results partially confirmed these predictions. Non-autistic participants exhibited inhibition for both homonyms and conventional metaphors, suggesting that accessing metaphorical senses is more effortful than previously assumed. In autistic participants, metaphorical senses were even more difficult to access than subordinate homonym meanings and more difficult than for non-autistic participants. These findings indicate that autistic individuals experience particularly strong inhibition from the literal meaning when processing conventional metaphors, suggesting that these metaphorical senses may not be fully integrated as related senses in their mental lexicon.
Autism · Homonym (biology) · Lexical decision task · Literal (mathematical logic) · Meaning (existential) · Mental lexicon · Metaphor · Priming (agriculture) · Semantics (computer science) · Autism Spectrum Disorder Research · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
Electrophysiology reveals semantic memory use in language comprehension
The Weak Coherence Account
The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ)
Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing
A Puzzle About Mental Lexicons and Semantic Relatedness
Accounting for the preference for literal meanings in autism spectrum conditions
Pupillometric and behavioural evidence shows no differences between polyseme and homonym processing
Salience and Context
Who's Missing the Point? A Commentary on Claims that Autistic Persons Have a Specific Deficit in Figurative Language Comprehension
Metaphor processing in autism
Idiom and proverb processing in autism
Linguistic Skills and Socioeconomic Status
On the ontological status of autism
Semantic integration during metaphor comprehension in Asperger syndrome
Semantic Underspecification in Language Processing
| Highly cited | No |
|---|