Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have impairments in language acquisition, but the underlying mechanism of these deficits is poorly understood. Implicit learning appears potentially relevant to language development, particularly in speech segmentation, which relies on sensitivity to the transitional probabilities between speech sounds. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between implicit learning and current language abilities in school-aged children with autism (n = 17) and typical development (n = 24) using a well-studied artificial language learning task. Results suggest that the ASD and TD groups were equally able to implicitly learn transitional probabilities from a lengthy stimulus stream. Furthermore, task performance was not strongly associated with current language abilities. Implications for implicit learning research in ASD are discussed.
","abstract_html":"<p>Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have impairments in language acquisition, but the underlying mechanism of these deficits is poorly understood. Implicit learning appears potentially relevant to language development, particularly in speech segmentation, which relies on sensitivity to the transitional probabilities between speech sounds. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between implicit learning and current language abilities in school-aged children with autism (<em>n</em> = 17) and typical development (<em>n =</em> 24) using a well-studied artificial language learning task. Results suggest that the ASD and TD groups were equally able to implicitly learn transitional probabilities from a lengthy stimulus stream. Furthermore, task performance was not strongly associated with current language abilities. Implications for implicit learning research in ASD are discussed.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Mayo, Jessica"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Deborah Fein; James (Jim) Magnuson","Inge-Marie Eigsti"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-08-24T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2011-08-24T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:31:45Z","subjects":["autism","language","implicit learning","statistical learning","speech segmentation"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/181","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Deborah Fein; James (Jim) Magnuson","Inge-Marie Eigsti"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Mayo, Jessica"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2011-08-03T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["autism","language","implicit learning","statistical learning","speech segmentation"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/181"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have impairments in language acquisition, but the underlying mechanism of these deficits is poorly understood. Implicit learning appears potentially relevant to language development, particularly in speech segmentation, which relies on sensitivity to the transitional probabilities between speech sounds. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between implicit learning and current language abilities in school-aged children with autism (n = 17) and typical development (n = 24) using a well-studied artificial language learning task. Results suggest that the ASD and TD groups were equally able to implicitly learn transitional probabilities from a lengthy stimulus stream. Furthermore, task performance was not strongly associated with current language abilities. Implications for implicit learning research in ASD are discussed.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Intact Statistical Word Learning in Autism Spectrum Disorders"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Deborah Fein; James (Jim) Magnuson","Inge-Marie Eigsti"],"dc:creator":["Mayo, Jessica"],"dc:date.available":["2011-08-03T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have impairments in language acquisition, but the underlying mechanism of these deficits is poorly understood. Implicit learning appears potentially relevant to language development, particularly in speech segmentation, which relies on sensitivity to the transitional probabilities between speech sounds. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between implicit learning and current language abilities in school-aged children with autism (n = 17) and typical development (n = 24) using a well-studied artificial language learning task. Results suggest that the ASD and TD groups were equally able to implicitly learn transitional probabilities from a lengthy stimulus stream. Furthermore, task performance was not strongly associated with current language abilities. Implications for implicit learning research in ASD are discussed.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/181"],"dc:subject":["autism","language","implicit learning","statistical learning","speech segmentation"],"dc:title":["Intact Statistical Word Learning in Autism Spectrum Disorders"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:31:45Z"}