Disentangling local versus global processing dispositions in autistic cognition using item response theory models: comparing multimodal comics versus text-based narratives in a randomized study

This study investigated cognitive processing biases (e.g. preferences for local vs. global coherence) in inferential reasoning among 130 adolescents (of which 18 were diagnosed as autistic) when spontaneously processing narrative stories. Students were randomly assigned to either the text-only condition or a multimodal comics condition (text + image), where narratives were word-for-word the same in both conditions. After students read each story in either modality, they responded to the same set of four open-ended questions that measured their dispositional inference, instantiated as Integrative-Inferential Reasoning. Specifically, interaction among the autistic diagnosis status, modality, and comics experience was explored. Analyses using the Item Response Theory models showed that among those assigned to the comics modality, greater self-reported comics experience was associated with higher levels of integration (i.e. Integrative-Inferential Reasoning), and this comic-experience effect was significantly larger for the autistic students, who tended to have less self-reported comics experience and a strong preference for local, text-based inference. In contrast, among those with the highest level of comics experience, there was no significant difference between them and their nonautistic peers. We illustrate how the three-way interactions can be effectively visualized on the common Item Response Theory scale and discuss implications for theories and practices regarding narrative discourse processing, particularly for understanding Autistic cognition.