Sound-symbol correspondence in autism: The Bouba-Kiki effect

Autistic and non-autistic adolescents and adults with cognitive and language skills in the average range completed a brief task assessing their susceptibility to the effects of image-sound associations, known as the Bouba-Kiki effect. Results indicated significant group differences such that the autism group was less likely to respond in accordance with the Bouba-Kiki effect. Further, nonverbal IQ and self-reported sensory-motor processing each influenced Bouba-Kiki responding. In contrast, language abilities (grammaticality judgment) did not. While findings based on a brief measure are not conclusive, results suggest that multisensory integration is less robust in autism and lend support to "embodied cognition" accounts of autism.