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Pragmatics and social motivation in autism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2019

Mikhail Kissine*
Affiliation:
ACTE at LaDisco and ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. mkissine@ulb.ac.be

Abstract

Pragmatic deficits constitute a central feature of autism, which is highly relevant to Jaswal & Akhtar's criticisms of the social motivation theory of autism. Recent research reveals that while certain context-based interpretations are accessible, more complex pragmatic phenomena remain challenging for people on the spectrum. Such a selective pragmatic impairment is difficult to account for in motivational terms.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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