Norms of Conversation: Autistic and Neurotypical Judgments of Conversational Coherence

Challenges in conversational topic management have been widely reported in autistic individuals, sometimes leading to negative social judgments. Such challenges could stem from differences in conversational norms implicitly endorsed across neurotypes. This study investigated whether autistic and neurotypical adults differ in their judgments of conversational coherence, specifically regarding different types of topic shifts.

We collected data from 49 Spanish-speaking autistic adults aged 18-53 years (M = 31.2, SD = 8.7) without intellectual disability, and compared their judgments with those of 96 neurotypical adults from a previous study (age: M = 35.5, SD = 9.9). Participants read anonymized transcripts of child-adult conversations and were asked to rate the naturalness of the child's utterance (containing either a topic shift or a contingent response) using a seven-point Likert scale. The materials were identical to those used in a previous study with neurotypical adults.

Autistic and neurotypical adults shared a similar implicit understanding of conversational coherence. Both groups evaluated different types of topic shifts in broadly comparable ways, with those judged as less natural by neurotypical adults also receiving lower naturalness ratings from autistic adults. In addition, contingent responses which maintained the previous topic were consistently rated as more natural than topic shifts.

These findings suggest that autistic and neurotypical individuals do not differ in their implicit understanding of conversational coherence. Differences in conversational behavior are therefore unlikely to arise from different norms of conversation, at least insofar as topic management is concerned.