Top

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Gepubliceerd in:

01-04-2010 | Original Paper

Stimulus Characteristics Affect Humor Processing in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome

Auteurs: Andrea C. Samson, Michael Hegenloh

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | Uitgave 4/2010

Abstract

The present paper aims to investigate whether individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS) show global humor processing deficits or whether humor comprehension and appreciation depends on stimulus characteristics. Non-verbal visual puns, semantic and Theory of Mind cartoons were rated on comprehension, funniness and the punchlines were explained. AS individuals did not differ to the control group in humor appreciation of visual puns. However, they had difficulty understanding and appreciating Theory of Mind cartoons and provided mentalistic explanations less frequently than controls suggesting that humor processing is strongly related to the cognitive requirements that the stimuli pose on the perceiver. Furthermore, AS individuals referred in all conditions more frequently to non-joke relevant details. Therefore, humor processing is also influenced by their detail-oriented processing style.

vorige artikel Erratum to: Evaluation of Comprehensive Treatment Models for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

volgende artikel Performance of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders on the Dimension-Change Card Sort Task

If the incongruent element of a joke is presented in the end of a verbal joke, people have to trace back to the information given in the beginning of the joke in order to reinterpret the already heard/read information in a funny way.

Although Freitag et al. (2007) postulated that individuals with AS score on the AQ-k at least with 17, we included one individual with AS with an AQ-k score of 16 as she had a valid diagnosis.

Asperger, H. (1944). Die “Autistischen Psychopathen” im Kindesalter [Autistic psychopaths in childhood]. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 117, 76–136.CrossRef

Attardo, S., & Raskin, V. (1991). Script theory revis(it)ed: Joke similarity and joke representation model. Humor: The International Journal of Humor Research, 4(3–4), 293–347.CrossRef

Baron-Cohen, S. (1988). Social and pragmatic deficits in autism: Cognitive or affective? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 18, 379–402.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Baron-Cohen, S. (1997). Are children with autism superior at folk physics? In: H. Wellman & K. Inagaki (Eds.), The emergence of core domains of thought: Children’s reasoning about physical, psychological and biological phenomena. New Directions for Child Development Series, 75, 45–54.

Baron-Cohen, S. (2002). The extreme male brain theory of autism. Trends in Cognitive Science, 6, 248–254.CrossRef

Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The empathy quotient (EQ). An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 163–175.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a ‘theory of mind’? Cognition, 21, 37–46.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Cohen, D. J. (1993). Understanding other minds. Perspectives from autism. Oxford: University Press.

Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Skinner, R., Martin, J., & Clubley, E. (2001). The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31, 5–17.CrossRefPubMed

Baron-Cohen, S., Richler, J., Bisarya, D., Gurunathan, N., & Wheelwright, S. (2003). The systemizing quotient (SQ): An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism and normal sex differences. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 358, 361–374.CrossRef

Birnbaum, M. H. (Ed.). (2000). Psychological experiments on the internet. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Bölte, S., Holtmann, M., Poustka, F., Scheurich, A., & Schmidt, L. (2007). Gestalt perception and local-global processing in high-functioning autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 1493–1504.CrossRefPubMed

Bölte, S., Hubl, D., Dierks, T., Holtmann, M., & Poustka, F. (2008). An fMRI study of locally-oriented perception in autism: Altered early visual processing of the block design test. Journal of Neural Transmission, 115(3), 545–552.CrossRefPubMed

Dziobek, I., Rogers, K., Fleck, S., Bahnemann, M., Heekeren, H. R., Wolf, O. T., et al. (2008). Dissociation of cognitive and emotional empathy in adults with Asperger syndrome using the multifaceted empathy test (MET). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38(3), 464–473.CrossRefPubMed

Emerich, D. M., Creaghead, N. A., Grether, S. M., Murray, D., & Grasha, C. (2003). The comprehension of humorous materials by adolescents with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33(3), 253–257.CrossRefPubMed

Everard, M. P. (1976, July). Mildly autistic young people and their problems. Paper presented at the international symposium on autism, St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Forabosco, G. (1994). ‘Seriality’ and appreciation of jokes. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 7(4), 351–375.CrossRef

Freitag, C. M., Retz-Junginger, P., Retz, W., Seitz, C., Palmason, H., Meyer, J., et al. (2007). Evaluation der deutschen Version des Autismus-Spektrum-Quotienten (AQ)-die Kurversion AQ-k. Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, 36(4), 280–289.CrossRef

Frith, U. (1989). Autism. Explaining the enigma. Oxford: Blackwell.

Frith, U., & Happé, F. (1994). Autism: Beyond theory of mind. Cognition, 50, 115–132.CrossRefPubMed

Gosling, S. D., Vazire, S., Srivastava, S., & John, O. P. (2004). Should we trust web-based studies? A comparative analysis of six preconceptions about internet questionnaires. American Psychologist, 59, 93–104.CrossRefPubMed

Happé, F. (1993). Communicative competence and theory of mind in autism: A test of relevance theory. Cognition, 48, 101–119.CrossRefPubMed

Happé, F. (1996). Studying weak central coherence at low levels: Children with autism do not succumb to visual illusions. A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 873–877.CrossRefPubMed

Happé, F. (1999). Autism: Cognitive deficit or cognitive style. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3(6), 216–222.CrossRefPubMed

James, P., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (1994). An observational study of humor in children with autism and Down syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24(5), 603–617.CrossRef

Loizu, E. (2006). Young children’s explanation of pictorial humor. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(6), 425–430.CrossRef

Lyons, V., & Fitzgerald, M. (2004). Humour in autism and Asperger’s syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(5), 521–531.CrossRefPubMed

Martin, R. A. (2006). Social psychology of humor. In R. A. Matin (Ed.), The psychology of humor: An integrative approach (pp. 113–152). London: Academic Press.

McGhee, P. E., Ruch, W., & Hehl, F.-J. (1990). A personality-based model of humor development during adulthood. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 3, 119–146.CrossRef

Müller, C. M., & Nussbeck, S. (2008). Do children with autism spectrum disorders prefer to match pictures based on their physical details or their meaning? Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 1(3), 140–155.CrossRef

O`Riordan, M. (2004). Superior visual search in adults with autism. Autism, 8, 229–248.CrossRef

Ozonoff, S., & Miller, J. N. (1996). An exploration of right-hemisphere contributions to the pragmatic impairments of autism. Brain and Language, 52, 411–434.CrossRefPubMed

Plaisted, K., O’Riordan, M., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1998). Enhanced visual search for a conjunctive target in autism: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 777–783.CrossRefPubMed

Plaisted, K., Saksida, L., Alcántara, J., & Weisblatt, E. (2003). Towards an understanding of the mechanisms of weak central coherence effects: Experiments in visual configural learning and auditory perception. In U. Frith & E. L. Hill (Eds.), Autism: Mind and brain. New York: Oxford University Press.

Reddy, V., Williams, E., & Vaughan, A. (2002). Sharing humor and laughter in autism and Down’s syndrome. British Journal of Psychology, 93, 219–242.CrossRefPubMed

Ricks, D. M., & Wing, L. (1975). Language, communication and the use of symbols in normal and autistic children. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 5, 191–221.CrossRefPubMed

Samson, A. C. (2009). The influence of empathizing and systemizing on humor processing: Theory of mind and humor. Humor: The International Journal of Humor Research (in press).

Samson, A. C., & Huber, O. W. (2009). Short German versions of empathizing and systemizing self-assessment scales. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Samson, A. C., Zysset, S., & Huber, O. (2008). Cognitive humor processing: Different logical mechanisms in non-verbal cartoons: An fMRI study. Social Neuroscience, 3(2), 125–140.CrossRefPubMed

Shultz, T. R. (1976). A cognitive-developmental analysis of humour. In A. J. Chapman & H. C. Foot (Eds.), Humor and laughter: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 11–36). London: John Wiley & Sons.

Suls, J. M. (1972). A two-stage model for the appreciation of jokes and cartoons: An information processing analysis. In J. H. Goldstein & P. E. McGhee (Eds.), The psychology of humor: Theoretical perspectives and empirical issues (pp. 81–100). New York: Academic Press.

Tager-Flusberg, H. (1993). What language reveals about the understanding of minds in children with autism. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from autism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Van Bourgondien, M. E., & Mesibov, G. B. (1987). Humor in high-functioning autistic adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 17, 417–424.CrossRefPubMed

Wakabayashi, A., Baron-Cohen, S., Uchiyama, T., Yoshida, Y., Kuroda, M., & Wheelwright, S. (2007). Empathizing and systemizing in adults with and without autism spectrum conditions: Cross-cultural stability. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(10), 1823–1832.CrossRefPubMed

Werth, A., Perkins, M., & Boucher, J. (2001). Here’s the weavery looming up: Humour in a woman with high functioning autism. Autism, 5, 111–125.CrossRefPubMed

Titel: Stimulus Characteristics Affect Humor Processing in Individuals with Asperger Syndrome
Auteurs: Andrea C. Samson
Michael Hegenloh
Publicatiedatum: 01-04-2010
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders / Uitgave 4/2010
Print ISSN: 0162-3257
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-3432
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0885-2

Andere artikelen Uitgave 4/2010

A Report on the Journal

Editorial

Brief Report: Question-Asking and Collateral Language Acquisition in Children with Autism

Open Access
Brief Report

Erratum to: Evaluation of Comprehensive Treatment Models for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Erratum

Parents’ Views and Experiences About Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments for Their Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Original Paper

Brief Report: Driving Hazard Perception in Autism

Brief Report

Evaluation of Comprehensive Treatment Models for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Original Paper