{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T04:19:58Z","timestamp":1788754798239,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"PeerJ","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,11]],"date-time":"2022-03-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1646956800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Research Council","award":["694189"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["694189"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>Social communication difficulties are a diagnostic feature in autism. These difficulties are sometimes attributed, at least in part, to impaired ability in making inferences about what other people mean. In this registered report, we tested a competing hypothesis that the communication profile of adults on the autism spectrum can be more strongly characterised by reduced confidence in making inferences in the face of uncertain information. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the performance of 102 autistic and 109 non-autistic adults on a test of implied meaning, using a test of grammaticality judgements as a control task. We hypothesised that autistic adults would report substantially lower confidence, allowing for differences in accuracy, than non-autistic adults on the test of implied meaning compared to the grammaticality test. However, our results did not suggest this. Instead, we found that accuracy and confidence were both reduced to a similar extent on the test of implied meaning in the autistic group compared to the control group, although these were only subtle differences. This pattern of results was specific to inference-making, as the autistic and non-autistic groups did not differ on the grammar test. This supports the idea that specific differences in pragmatic language processing can exist in autism in the absence of core language problems. Importantly, this pattern of results (differences on the test of implied meaning and no differences on the grammar test) was reversed in a group with self-reported reading difficulties, indicating that the differences in inference-making were specific to the autistic group. Lastly, we found relationships between Intolerance of Uncertainty, performance on the test of implied meaning, and self-reported social communication challenges. This supports the idea that discomfort with uncertainty plays a role in the pragmatic language and communication challenges in autism.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.13110","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,11]],"date-time":"2022-03-11T04:05:37Z","timestamp":1646971537000},"page":"e13110","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Stage 2 registered report: investigating a preference for certainty in conversation among autistic adults"],"prefix":"10.7717","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Alexander C.","family":"Wilson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dorothy V.M.","family":"Bishop","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"4443","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,11]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"10.7717\/peerj.13110\/ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"202","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jaac.2011.11.003","article-title":"Toward brief Red Flags for autism screening: the short autism spectrum quotient and the short quantitative checklist for autism in toddlers in 1,000 cases and 3,000 controls [corrected]","volume":"51","author":"Allison","year":"2012","journal-title":"Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.13110\/ref-2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1176\/appi.books.9780890425596","volume-title":"Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders","author":"American Psychiatric Association","year":"2013","edition":"5"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.13110\/ref-3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"996","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2017.00996","article-title":"The contribution of grammar, vocabulary and theory of mind in pragmatic language competence in children with autistic spectrum disorders","volume":"8","author":"Andr\u00e9s-Roqueta","year":"2017","journal-title":"Frontiers in Psychology"},{"issue":"8","key":"10.7717\/peerj.13110\/ref-4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"745","DOI":"10.1136\/archdischild-2014-306944","article-title":"Social (pragmatic) communication disorders and autism spectrum disorder","volume":"101","author":"Baird","year":"2016","journal-title":"Archives of Disease in Childhood"},{"issue":"3","key":"10.7717\/peerj.13110\/ref-5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"379","DOI":"10.1007\/BF02212194","article-title":"Social and pragmatic deficits in autism: cognitive or affective?","volume":"18","author":"Baron-Cohen","year":"1988","journal-title":"Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders"},{"issue":"1","key":"10.7717\/peerj.13110\/ref-6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.18637\/jss.v067.i01","article-title":"Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4","volume":"67","author":"Bates","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of Statistical Software"},{"issue":"3","key":"10.7717\/peerj.13110\/ref-7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.3233\/BEN-1994-73-401","article-title":"Measuring dysgraphia: a graded-difficulty spelling test","volume":"7","author":"Baxter","year":"1994","journal-title":"Behavioral Neurology"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.13110\/ref-8","article-title":"Communication Checklist\u2014Self Report (CC-SR). 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