RE: autism. we might also add sensory issues/only able to concentrate on one sense at a time, and the really strange one: having fluent knowledge of the literal meanings of words, but difficulty with metaphors.
a) Are these part of the same symptom cluster as the “theory of mind” aspects of autism?
b) If so, why? Why on Earth would we expect metaphorical use of language to (i) be somehow processed by different metal modules from literal usage (ii) be somehow related to reasoning about other minds?
I actually personally know a couple of people who have the metaphors one. They tell me the issuer is that the literal meaning is just way more salient than the literal one.
RE: autism. we might also add sensory issues/only able to concentrate on one sense at a time, and the really strange one: having fluent knowledge of the literal meanings of words, but difficulty with metaphors.
a) Are these part of the same symptom cluster as the “theory of mind” aspects of autism?
b) If so, why? Why on Earth would we expect metaphorical use of language to (i) be somehow processed by different metal modules from literal usage (ii) be somehow related to reasoning about other minds?
I actually personally know a couple of people who have the metaphors one. They tell me the issuer is that the literal meaning is just way more salient than the literal one.
Difficulty with metaphors is absolutely a great example according to my theory.