Pretense Awareness Context and Autism: Insights from Conversation Analysis

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Autism Spectrum Disorder Research

Background:

• Tabletop roleplaying games (TRPGs) involve complex social interactions and shared pretense.
• Understanding the discourse of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in social contexts is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate linguistic resources in TRPG discourse, focusing on individuals with ASD.
• To analyze interactions across different frames within TRPGs: primary, metagaming, and character frames.

Main Methods:

• Employs Conversation Analysis and Interactional Sociolinguistics.
• Examines discourse patterns within three distinct interactional frames in TRPGs.
• Focuses on identifying deviations from stable pretense awareness contexts.

Main Results:

• Participants with ASD frequently violated the stable pretense awareness context.
• Discourse analysis revealed specific interactional patterns related to frame shifts in TRPGs.
• Differences in managing interactional frames were observed between participants with and without ASD.

Conclusions:

• Findings suggest unique challenges for individuals with ASD in maintaining shared pretense during TRPGs.
• Results offer insights into social communication differences in ASD.
• Implications for developing targeted social skills training and refining psychological models of ASD symptomatology.