Dr Vikki Janke in from the Department of English Language & Linguistics is undertaking a British Academy-funded project into ‘Grammar and Pragmatics in High-Functioning Children with Autism’. In order to understand better the points at which communication can become problematic for children with autism, she also requires data from typically developing children and adults. This call is for adult native speakers with no neurological impairments. Data collected from this group would form part of the adult control data.
What it entails: participants would be sent three online questionnaires over a period of three weeks, each of which takes no more than 10 minutes to complete. Participants would have a break of a week between each one. The questionnaire consists of a list of quite similar sentences for which participants will be asked to choose an interpretation from two choices offered. It is a self-paced task, which means that participants control the speed with which they progress. Participants will not be timed.
Anyone willing to volunteer should please contact her at V.Janke@kent.ac.uk, and she can answer any questions before sending the link to the first questionnaire.