Abstract

The current study sought to examine the contribution of auditory and visual statistical learning on language and social competency abilities as well as whether decreased statistical learning abilities are related to increased autistic traits. To answer these questions, participants’ (N = 95) auditory and visual statistical learning abilities, language, social competency, and level of autistic traits were assessed. Although the relationships observed were relatively small in magnitude, our results demonstrated that visual statistical learning related to language and social competency abilities and that auditory learning was more related to autism symptomatology than visual statistical learning. Furthermore, the relationship between visual statistical learning and social competency was mediated by language comprehension abilities, suggesting that impairments in statistical learning may cascade into impairments in language and social abilities.

Details

Title
Statistical Learning and Social Competency: The Mediating Role of Language
Author
Parks Kaitlyn M A 1 ; Griffith, Laura A 1 ; Armstrong, Nicolette B 1 ; Stevenson, Ryan A 2 

 Western University, Department of Psychology, London, Canada (GRID:grid.39381.30) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8884); Western University, Brain and Mind Institute, London, Canada (GRID:grid.39381.30) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8884) 
 Western University, Department of Psychology, London, Canada (GRID:grid.39381.30) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8884); Western University, Brain and Mind Institute, London, Canada (GRID:grid.39381.30) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8884); Western University, Program in Neuroscience, London, Canada (GRID:grid.39381.30) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8884); Western University, Department of Psychiatry, London, Canada (GRID:grid.39381.30) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8884); York University, Centre for Vision Research, Toronto, Canada (GRID:grid.21100.32) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9430) 
Publication year
2020
Publication date
2020
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2371516788
Copyright
This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.