title: Lexical effects on children's speech processing: individual differences reflected in the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was undertaken to examine whether children exhibit the same relationship that adults show between lexical influence on phoneme identification and individual variation on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ).
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from 62 4- to 7-year-olds with no diagnosis of autism were analyzed. The main task involved identification of the initial sound in pairs of voice-onset time continua with a real word on one end and a nonword on the other (e.g., gift-kift, giss-kiss). Participants were also given the children's version of the AQ and a 2nd instrument related to autistic-like traits, the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The lexical shift was related to the AQ (particularly to its Attention Switching subscale) but not to the SRS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The size of lexical effects on children's speech perception can be predicted by AQ scores but not necessarily by other measures of autism-like traits. The results indicate that speech perception in children manifests individual differences along some general dimension of cognitive style reflected in the AQ, possibly in relation to local/global information processing.
authors: Mitsuhiko
authors: M
authors: Ota
authors: Mary E
authors: ME
authors: Stewart
authors: Alexandra M
authors: AM
authors: Petrou
authors: Catherine
authors: C
authors: Dickie
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013067:Speech Perception