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Predictive processing of written and visual narratives in adults across the autism spectrum

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 3:00 – 5:00 pm PST, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Emily Coderre¹ (emily.coderre@med.uvm.edu), Katie McCluskey¹, Emily Zane², Neil Cohn³; ¹University of Vermont, ²James Madison University, ³Tilburg University

The “Visual Ease Assumption” (VEA) refers to the idea that pictures are “easier” to understand than language. This idea underlies many educational and clinical interventions for individuals with autism. However, visual advantages in single image-processing in Autism may not extend to comprehension of image sequences, like visual narratives (stories told through pictures). Comprehension relies on using story context to predict upcoming events, however, predictive abilities are shown to be affected in linguistic and visual domains in Autism. Such differences may contribute to difficulties with narrative comprehension. Prediction can be examined through cloze probability, the expectancy of a given word or event in a story. In studies using event-related potentials (ERPs), highly predictable (“high-cloze”) words or panels elicit smaller N400 amplitudes compared to less predictable (“low-cloze”) ones. We used a cloze probability ERP paradigm to examine predictive processing in visual and linguistic narratives in 87 adults (ages 18-65, mean-age = 28, SD=14), with language and IQ scores within normal ranges. Autistic traits were measured as a continuous variable using the Autism Quotient (AQ; range = 4-44, mean = 24, SD=11). Participants with higher autistic traits showed larger differences between high- and low-cloze conditions, driven by enhanced negative amplitudes in the low-cloze condition, in both visual and linguistic conditions. These results suggest that, contrary to previous literature, predictive abilities are not impaired in Autism and they may be even more sensitive to cloze probability. Furthermore, the similar results across modalities contradict the VEA and suggest similar narrative processing mechanisms across modalities.

Topic Area: LANGUAGE: Other