We examined the relationship between metaphor comprehension and verbal analogical reasoning in young adults who were either typically developing (TD) or diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The ASD sample was highly educated and high in verbal ability, and closely matched to a subset of TD participants on age, gender, educational background, and verbal ability. Additional TD participants with a broader range of abilities were also tested. Each participant solved sets of verbal analogies and metaphors in verification formats, allowing measurement of both accuracy and reaction times. Measures of individual differences in vocabulary, verbal working memory, and autistic traits were also obtained. Accuracy for both the verbal analogy and the metaphor task was very similar across the ASD and matched TD groups. However, reaction times on both tasks were longer for the ASD group. Additionally, stronger correlations between verbal analogical reasoning and working memory capacity in the ASD group indicated that processing verbal analogies was more effortful for them. In the case of both groups, accuracy on the metaphor and analogy tasks was correlated. A mediation analysis revealed that after controlling for working memory capacity, the inter-task correlation could be accounted for by the mediating variable of vocabulary knowledge, suggesting that the primary common mechanisms linking the two tasks involve language skills.

中文翻译：

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将隐喻理解与类比推理联系起来：来自典型发展和自闭症谱系障碍的证据

我们研究了典型发展（TD）或诊断为自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的年轻人的隐喻理解和口头类比推理之间的关系。ASD 样本受过高等教育，语言能力强，在年龄、性别、教育背景和语言能力方面与 TD 参与者的子集密切匹配。还测试了具有更广泛能力的其他 TD 参与者。每个参与者都以验证格式解决了一组口头类比和隐喻，从而可以测量准确性和反应时间。还获得了词汇、言语工作记忆和自闭症特征的个体差异测量值。语言类比和隐喻任务的准确性在 ASD 和匹配的 TD 组中非常相似。然而，ASD 组对这两项任务的反应时间更长。此外，ASD 组语言类比推理和工作记忆能力之间更强的相关性表明，处理语言类比对他们来说更加努力。在两组的情况下，隐喻和类比任务的准确性是相关的。中介分析表明，在控制工作记忆容量后，任务间的相关性可以通过词汇知识的中介变量来解释，这表明连接这两个任务的主要共同机制涉及语言技能。在两组的情况下，隐喻和类比任务的准确性是相关的。中介分析表明，在控制工作记忆容量后，任务间的相关性可以通过词汇知识的中介变量来解释，这表明连接这两个任务的主要共同机制涉及语言技能。在两组的情况下，隐喻和类比任务的准确性是相关的。中介分析表明，在控制工作记忆容量后，任务间的相关性可以通过词汇知识的中介变量来解释，这表明连接这两个任务的主要共同机制涉及语言技能。