Abstract

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit difficulties in comprehending irony. Proficient comprehension of irony in daily life necessitates both the recognition and retention of ironic cues. However, prior research on ASD has primarily focused on recognition patterns of figurative language, with limited exploration of memory components. In a previous study by Cho & Kim (2022), children with ASD displayed deficits in memory for both language and facial expression information. However, the significance of these findings remained unclear due to the absence of verification regarding the understanding of intentions. Therefore, this study replicated the experimental procedures of previous research to reassess memory aspects of language and facial expression information in ironic contexts. Additionally, tasks assessing intention comprehension were included to explore the relationship between memory for ironic information and intention comprehension. The results revealed that children with ASD, without intellectual disabilities, exhibited lower accuracy in remembering facial expressions compared to typically developing children. Furthermore, verbal memory accuracy was diminished specifically in ironic situations. Moreover, the ability to comprehend irony in children with ASD was found to be correlated with their verbal memory accuracy. In sum, our results indicate memory deficits in children with ASD concerning both facial expressions and verbal information, particularly in ironic contexts, underscoring the importance of verbal memory in irony comprehension.