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Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic “Impairments” Using Relevance Theory

Gemma Williams Orcid Logo, Tim Wharton, Caroline Jagoe

Frontiers in Psychology, Volume: 12

Swansea University Author: Gemma Williams Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616664

Abstract

A central diagnostic and anecdotal feature of autism is difficulty with social communication. We take the position that communication is a two-way, intersubjective phenomenon—as described by the double empathy problem—and offer up relevance theory (a cognitive account of utterance interpretation) as...

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Published in: Frontiers in Psychology
ISSN: 1664-1078
Published: Frontiers Media SA 2021
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63305
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We take the position that communication is a two-way, intersubjective phenomenon—as described by the double empathy problem—and offer up relevance theory (a cognitive account of utterance interpretation) as a means of explaining such communication difficulties. Based on a set of proposed heuristics for successful and rapid interpretation of intended meaning, relevance theory positions communication as contingent on shared—and, importantly, mutually recognized—“relevance.” Given that autistic and non-autistic people may have sometimes markedly different embodied experiences of the world, we argue that what is most salient to each interlocutor may be mismatched. Relevance theory would predict that where this salient information is not (mutually) recognized or adjusted for, mutual understanding may be more effortful to achieve. This paper presents the findings from a small-scale, linguistic ethnographic study of autistic communication featuring eight core autistic participants. Each core autistic participant engaged in three naturalistic conversations around the topic of loneliness with: (1) a familiar, chosen conversation partner; (2) a non-autistic stranger and (3) an autistic stranger. Relevance theory is utilized as a frame for the linguistic analysis of the interactions. Mutual understanding was unexpectedly high across all types of conversation pairings. In conversations involving two autistic participants, flow, rapport and intersubjective attunement were significantly increased and in three instances, autistic interlocutors appeared to experience improvements in their individual communicative competence contrasted with their other conversations. 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.</documentNotes><copyrightCorrect>true</copyrightCorrect><language>eng</language><licence>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</licence></document></documents><OutputDurs/></rfc1807>
spelling v2 63305 2023-05-02 Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic “Impairments” Using Relevance Theory c457f01f621c5274656e591f782f52a8 0000-0002-5162-0440 Gemma Williams Gemma Williams true false 2023-05-02 PHAC A central diagnostic and anecdotal feature of autism is difficulty with social communication. We take the position that communication is a two-way, intersubjective phenomenon—as described by the double empathy problem—and offer up relevance theory (a cognitive account of utterance interpretation) as a means of explaining such communication difficulties. Based on a set of proposed heuristics for successful and rapid interpretation of intended meaning, relevance theory positions communication as contingent on shared—and, importantly, mutually recognized—“relevance.” Given that autistic and non-autistic people may have sometimes markedly different embodied experiences of the world, we argue that what is most salient to each interlocutor may be mismatched. Relevance theory would predict that where this salient information is not (mutually) recognized or adjusted for, mutual understanding may be more effortful to achieve. This paper presents the findings from a small-scale, linguistic ethnographic study of autistic communication featuring eight core autistic participants. Each core autistic participant engaged in three naturalistic conversations around the topic of loneliness with: (1) a familiar, chosen conversation partner; (2) a non-autistic stranger and (3) an autistic stranger. Relevance theory is utilized as a frame for the linguistic analysis of the interactions. Mutual understanding was unexpectedly high across all types of conversation pairings. In conversations involving two autistic participants, flow, rapport and intersubjective attunement were significantly increased and in three instances, autistic interlocutors appeared to experience improvements in their individual communicative competence contrasted with their other conversations. The findings have the potential to guide future thinking about how, in practical terms, communication between autistic and non-autistic people in both personal and public settings might be improved. Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology 12 Frontiers Media SA 1664-1078 autism, intersubjectivity, relevance theory, communication, double empathy problem 29 4 2021 2021-04-29 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616664 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616664 COLLEGE NANME Public Health COLLEGE CODE PHAC Swansea University 2023-06-09T15:17:04.1340987 2023-05-02T12:48:20.3453818 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Health and Social Care - Public Health Gemma Williams 0000-0002-5162-0440 1 Tim Wharton 2 Caroline Jagoe 3 63305__27796__e45e1804d54c48cc8197b3fa3330d5aa.pdf 63305.pdf 2023-06-09T15:16:28.3777583 Output 2090068 application/pdf Version of Record true Copyright © 2021 Williams, Wharton and Jagoe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic “Impairments” Using Relevance Theory
spellingShingle Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic “Impairments” Using Relevance Theory
Gemma Williams
title_short Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic “Impairments” Using Relevance Theory
title_full Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic “Impairments” Using Relevance Theory
title_fullStr Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic “Impairments” Using Relevance Theory
title_full_unstemmed Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic “Impairments” Using Relevance Theory
title_sort Mutual (Mis)understanding: Reframing Autistic Pragmatic “Impairments” Using Relevance Theory
author_id_str_mv c457f01f621c5274656e591f782f52a8
author_id_fullname_str_mv c457f01f621c5274656e591f782f52a8_***_Gemma Williams
author Gemma Williams
author2 Gemma Williams
Tim Wharton
Caroline Jagoe
format Journal article
container_title Frontiers in Psychology
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publishDate 2021
institution Swansea University
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doi_str_mv 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616664
publisher Frontiers Media SA
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hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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url http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616664
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description A central diagnostic and anecdotal feature of autism is difficulty with social communication. We take the position that communication is a two-way, intersubjective phenomenon—as described by the double empathy problem—and offer up relevance theory (a cognitive account of utterance interpretation) as a means of explaining such communication difficulties. Based on a set of proposed heuristics for successful and rapid interpretation of intended meaning, relevance theory positions communication as contingent on shared—and, importantly, mutually recognized—“relevance.” Given that autistic and non-autistic people may have sometimes markedly different embodied experiences of the world, we argue that what is most salient to each interlocutor may be mismatched. Relevance theory would predict that where this salient information is not (mutually) recognized or adjusted for, mutual understanding may be more effortful to achieve. This paper presents the findings from a small-scale, linguistic ethnographic study of autistic communication featuring eight core autistic participants. Each core autistic participant engaged in three naturalistic conversations around the topic of loneliness with: (1) a familiar, chosen conversation partner; (2) a non-autistic stranger and (3) an autistic stranger. Relevance theory is utilized as a frame for the linguistic analysis of the interactions. Mutual understanding was unexpectedly high across all types of conversation pairings. In conversations involving two autistic participants, flow, rapport and intersubjective attunement were significantly increased and in three instances, autistic interlocutors appeared to experience improvements in their individual communicative competence contrasted with their other conversations. The findings have the potential to guide future thinking about how, in practical terms, communication between autistic and non-autistic people in both personal and public settings might be improved.
published_date 2021-04-29T15:17:03Z
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