We investigated whether there is an association between autistic traits in the broader phenotype and the ability to compute scalar implicatures. Previous studies found that the frequency of autistic traits is higher in students of science than of humanities. Here we recorded the frequency of rejection of underinformative scalar items in students enrolled either in a science or in a humanities curriculum and assessed their autistic traits using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient questionnaire. We found that rejections were less frequent in science curricula students than in humanities curricula students. Moreover, rejections were associated negatively with autistic traits and positively with performance on Theory-of-Mind tasks. These findings suggest that autism cognitive phenotype is negatively associated with a propensity to spontaneously derive scalar implicatures.

中文翻译：

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自定义特征与计算标量隐含性的倾向降低有关

我们调查了在更广泛的表型中的自闭特征与计算标量隐含性的能力之间是否存在关联。先前的研究发现，理科学生的自闭症特征频率比人文科学高。在这里，我们记录了参加科学或人文课程的学生中，信息不足的标量项目被拒绝的频率，并使用自闭症频谱商问卷评估了他们的自闭特征。我们发现，与人文课程学生相比，理科课程学生的拒绝频率更低。此外，拒绝与自闭症特征呈负相关，与心智理论任务的表现呈正相关。