| Popis: |
Statistical learning is a process that allows individuals to extract regularities from the environment and plays an important role in language acquisition, speech segmentation, and aspects of social behaviour. Little is known about the contribution of statistical learning impairments on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) related traits. The current study examined whether impairments in auditory and visual statistical learning are related to ASD and ADHD traits, language, and social competency. Decreased auditory, but not visual statistical learning abilities was related to increased autism traits and visual statistical learning and social competency abilities were mediated by language comprehension. However, no evidence of impaired statistical learning was found in ADHD. Findings highlight the importance of investigating the cascading impact of statistical learning on language and social competency in developmental disorders as well as implementing a more dimensional approach to future studies to capture a broader range of symptoms. |
