Irony Comprehension in High-Function Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Meta-Analysis

Objectives: Irony is a type of figurative language that conveys the opposite meaning of what is said, and it is known to cause difficulty for those with autism spectrum disorder because the expression of spoken language and the non-verbal context are inconsistent. However, there is no difference in the understanding of irony between the those with typical development and those with high-functional autism spectrum disorders (HF-ASD) with normal language and intelligence, so there is no consensus on irony understanding. Through meta-analysis, this study analyzed the difficulty of understanding irony between a HF-ASD group and compared the results with a typical group. Methods: 17 studies that met the research selection criteria were selected by searching international databases for papers published from 2000 to April 2022, and meta-analysis was performed with R studio version 4.1.3 program. Results: The irony understanding of the HF-ASD group showed a small effect size when compared with the typical group, and analysis revealed that the results were statistically significant. A moderation effect analysis showed that there was a significant difference in task type, but no significant difference in age and question type. Conclusion: There was no significant difference in the understanding of irony between the HF-ASD group and the typical group, and this suggests that the HF-ASD group could understand irony through continuous training. Therefore, training to understand other people's emotions and thoughts and to interpret non-verbal characteristics should be provided to the HF-ASD group to improve their ability to understand irony.