Social enhancement of associative learning in neurotypical, speaking autistic, and minimally speaking autistic preschoolers.

BACKGROUND: Associative learning, defined as the ability to form connections between events based on temporal or spatial contiguity, is typically enhanced by social stimuli. Whether social stimuli similarly enhance associative learning in autism, particularly among minimally speaking children, is unknown. This study examined social enhancement of associative learning in neurotypical (NT), autistic preschoolers who use spoken language (ASD-S), and minimally speaking autistic (ASD-MS) preschoolers. METHODS: Seventy-two children aged 24-56 months (19 NT, 30 ASD-S, 23 ASD-MS) completed a novel eye-tracking task. During 4 learning trials, neutral cues were associated with the appearance of a social or a non-social stimulus in different areas of the screen. In subsequent test trials, only the neutral cue was shown, allowing assessment of (a) associative learning (i.e., preferential looking toward the previously paired area of the screen) and (b) enhancement of associative learning in the social condition. General linear models evaluated group differences across conditions. RESULTS: When the neutral cue was paired with the social stimulus, during the test trial NT and ASD-S preschoolers looked longer toward the area where the social stimuli had previously appeared, compared to the area associated with the non-social stimulus (NT: p < .001; ASD-S: p = .04). In contrast, ASD-MS preschoolers showed no significant difference in their attention to the areas previously associated with social or non-social stimuli. Analyses focused on differential scores (attention toward the social-paired location minus the non-social-paired location) significantly favored the social condition in NT (p = .005) and ASD-S children (p = .007), but not in ASD-MS children. Between-group comparisons showed greater social enhancement in NT compared with ASD-MS preschoolers (p = .03). LIMITATIONS: The social stimuli used in the experiment may not fully capture the complexity of everyday social interactions. CONCLUSIONS: Social stimuli enhanced associative learning in neurotypical and speaking autistic preschoolers, but not in their minimally speaking autistic peers. This pattern suggests meaningful heterogeneity in the mechanisms supporting social learning across the autism spectrum and underscores the need to consider spoken language abilities when characterizing learning profiles in autism.