The role of context in verbal humor processing in autism

Humor in autism spectrum disorders: A systematic review

OBJECTIVES

Humor is essential to social relationships. Its use and understanding appear to be impaired in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The main objective was to review the existing literature on the detection, understanding and use of humor in persons with ASD. The secondary objective involved exploring assessment scales and specific intervention tools.

METHODS

A systematic review of the literature was carried out on all available French and English scientific papers about humor - including irony - in persons with ASD up to November 2021. We extracted 552 references and included 43 articles from six databases.

RESULTS

Studies suggest that those with ASD can detect audiovisual and written humor. Understanding humor was impaired in writing and when using pure auditory stimuli and non-verbal cartoons. For irony, the results indicated a lower detection of quality and less understanding in speaking but not in writing. Regarding its use, in terms of expression, people with ASD use benevolent humor less often and do not consider humor as a key source of satisfaction with life, as opposed to the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

It appears that it would be worthwhile to develop standardized humor detection and assessment tools specific to persons with ASD. Practical strategies that focus on humor ability could be worth developing, either individually or in groups.

The Relationship between Semantic Joke and Idiom Comprehension in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Semantic jokes involve resolving an incongruity emerging from wordplay or from a violation of world knowledge. The research has shown individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate a lower performance on humor tasks involving social situations; however, less is known about their semantic joke comprehension. This study examines semantic joke comprehension among adolescents with ASD and its possible relationship to vocabulary size, theory of mind (ToM), and idiom comprehension. Thirty-two adolescents with ASD and 32 typically developed (TD) peers participated. Semantic joke comprehension was assessed via a multiple-choice questionnaire and time-limited computer program. Vocabulary, ToM abilities, and idiom comprehension were also tested. The results reveal that adolescents with ASD are as fast in processing semantic jokes as their age- and vocabulary-matched TD peers, but less accurate. Age and idiom comprehension significantly contributed to semantic joke comprehension among both groups. As semantic joke comprehension is based on incongruity resolution, the greater difficulties in comprehension among the adolescents with ASD may have been due to deficits in simultaneously retaining two alternative interpretations and selecting the relevant one (and not due reduced ToM abilities). Similar to the TD group, semantic joke comprehension among the ASD group appeared to be more developed with age.