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Do Individuals with Autism Change Their Reading Behavior to Adapt to Errors in the Text?

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Abstract

Reading monitoring is poorly explored, but it may have an impact on well-documented reading comprehension difficulties in autism. This study explores reading monitoring through the impact of instructions and different error types on reading behavior. Individuals with autism and matched controls read correct sentences and sentences containing orthographic and semantic errors. Prior to the task, participants were given instructions either to focus on semantic or orthographic errors. Analysis of eye-movements showed that the group with autism, differently from controls, were less influenced by the error’s type in the regression-out to-error measure, showing less change in eye-movements behavior between error types. Individuals with autism might find it more difficult to adapt their reading strategies to various reading materials and task demands.

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Acknowledgments

This research has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n° 316748. We thank the participants, families, Dr Sam Hutton from SR Research, Sobh Chahboun and the Asociación Malagueña Síndrome de Asperger.

Funding

This study was funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement n° 316748.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Universidad de Sevilla, Calle Camilo José Cela s/n, 41018, Seville, Spain

    Martina Micai & David Saldaña

  2. Department of Language and Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Dragvoll, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Martina Micai & Mila Vulchanova

  3. Research Coordination and Support Service, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, Rome, 00161, Italy

    Martina Micai

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  1. Martina Micai
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All authors conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, participated in the interpretation of the data and drafted the manuscript. MM collected the data and performed the statistical analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to David Saldaña.

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Micai, M., Vulchanova, M. & Saldaña, D. Do Individuals with Autism Change Their Reading Behavior to Adapt to Errors in the Text?. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 4232–4243 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04108-8

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