Research Interests

I am broadly interested in communication and social-cognition in autistic children and adults. Much of my research focuses on three aspects of psychological development in autism:

(1) Word learning. Delayed language development is a very common characteristic of autism, but research has yet to identify specific mechanisms that are responsible for these difficulties. My research systematically investigates how autistic children identify, retain, and generalise the meanings of new words and seeks to identify optimal environmental conditions that can facilitate their learning. Our research shows that autistic children can learn new words as accurately as neurotypical peers with similar language skills under the right conditions, and that relationships between word learning processes are not atypical. However, autistic children’s identification and retrieval of correct word meanings may be slower, which could have important implications for their learning under noisy naturalistic conditions.

(2) Symbolic understanding of pictures. Many autistic children with delayed language development are taught to communicate using pictures, and pictures are frequently used to assess cognitive skills. Yet, how autistic children comprehend pictorial symbols is poorly understood. Our research has shown that minimally-speaking autistic children’s understanding of pictures can be influenced by various picture qualities (e.g. colour, detail, referential intent) and iconicity (the extent to which a picture resembles its referent). These findings can inform practitioners’ decisions concerning the types of symbols used when delivering picture-based interventions, such as the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS).

(3) Understanding of ownership. Ownership is a cornerstone of human culture and has a significant influence on human psychology. My research has identified differences between autistic and neurotypical development across a range of ownership effects in children and adults, including the absence of a mere ownership effect, reduced sensitivity to authentic ownership history, less accurate identification of ownership via possessive pronouns, reduced motivation to defend ownership rights, and differences in resource sharing behaviours. These findings suggest that differences in ownership understanding may contribute to the social difficulties faced by some autistic individuals.