# The Influence of Visual Perceptual Salience on Word Processing and Word Learning in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

> **NIH NIH R21** · MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $155,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
In addition to their well-known deficits in language learning, young children with autism spectrum disorder
(ASD) show abnormal visual preferences for perceptually salient features of the environment (e.g., complex
geometric patterns). Recent studies have revealed an association between these two aspects of the ASD
phenotype, leading to the provocative hypothesis that abnormal visual preferences have cascading negative
effects on language development. However, we do not yet know how abnormal visual preferences impact
language in children with ASD, or which children are most vulnerable to these effects. In the absence of such
knowledge, we have an incomplete understanding of why these children struggle to learn language and how to
alleviate their difficulties. The long-term goal is to identify the developmental mechanisms that underlie
language-learning deficits in children with ASD. The overall objective of the proposed project is to determine
how abnormal visual preferences impact familiar word processing and novel word learning, and to identify the
children who are most severely affected. The central hypothesis is that abnormally strong visual preferences
for perceptual salience will disproportionately disrupt word processing and word learning in children with ASD,
and that the amount of disruption will correlate with key behavioral characteristics. The rationale is that
determining how abnormal visual preferences impact word processing and word learning will help us
understand why children with ASD have difficulty learning language, thereby yielding valuable theoretical and
clinical advances. Guided by strong preliminary data, the proposed project will investigate three specific aims:
1) To assess the impact of competing perceptual salience on familiar word processing in children with ASD
and age-matched, typically developing children; 2) To assess the impact of competing perceptual salience on
novel word learning in children with ASD and age-matched, typically developing children; and 3) To identify
behavioral characteristics that correlate with the amount of disruption in word processing and word learning
created by competing perceptual salience. These aims will be addressed using eye-gaze methodology, an
approach that the PI has used extensively and has shown to be feasible with the target populations. Novel
adaptations of two well-established eye-gaze tasks will assess the impact of competing perceptual salience on
familiar word processing (Aim 1) and novel word learning (Aim 2). Growth curve analyses will measure the
amount of disruption experienced by individual children, as well as the contributions of key behavioral
characteristics (e.g., receptive vocabulary; Aim 3). The proposed project is innovative because it adopts a
novel methodological approach and integrative theoretical framework that maximize its potential to exert a
substantial and lasting impact on the field. The proposed research is significant bec...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9843074
- **Project number:** 5R21DC016102-03
- **Recipient organization:** MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Courtney E Venker
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $155,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-01-08 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9843074

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9843074, The Influence of Visual Perceptual Salience on Word Processing and Word Learning in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (5R21DC016102-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9843074. Licensed CC0.

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