Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represents a group of developmental disabilities associated with impairments in social, communicative, and imaginative abilities. Speech impairments associated with ASD can be explained by differences in cognitive processing styles relative to neurotypicals. Previous studies found that individual differences in cognitive processing influence one’s production and perception of prosody. For example, Stewart et al. (2018) found that higher levels of autistic character traits indicated by one’s Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) score (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) correlated significantly with one’s ability to discriminate pitch and time, but no significant correlation between auditory discrimination thresholds for intensity. Additionally, Turnbull (2015; 2019) observed shorter overall word and vowel durations during a task which required participants with varying AQ scores to speak for the benefit of a listener with a hearing impairment. The present study examined whether prosodic cue-trading in production and perception differs when comparing populations with varying levels of autistic traits, as indicated by their AQ score differences. Furthermore, the study investigated whether these differences exist on a continuum, or rather are categorical, with respect to participants’ level of autistic character traits. To achieve this, we analyzed individual variability patterns in 18 participants’ speech production and perception. Results from the perception task showed that participants displayed a significant enhanced perception of pitch and intensity, but not duration, when completing a task where participants listened to sentences manipulating the prosodic parameters f0, intensity, duration. Results from the production task where participants read sentences designed to elicit background, broad, and narrow focus found no significant effect of AQ across any of the acoustic parameters measured, although the results for f0 are near the 5% significance level for the f0 condition, suggesting that participants with higher AQ scores may produce lower f0 ranges, and thus, less prosodic variability compared to low AQ participants. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represents a group of developmental disabilities associated with impairments in communicative abilities, among others. Theories suggest that individuals with higher levels of autistic traits notice small details in the physical properties of sounds, but have trouble distinguishing the more abstract, intended meaning of the same sound patterns. Previous studies found that individual differences in the degree of autistic traits influence one’s production and perception of prosody (i.e., the relative highness or lowness of a tone),; individuals with higher levels of autistic are better able to detect fine-grained differences in pitch and time, but not loudness. The present study examined the extent to which speakers with varying levels of autistic traits use prosody during speech production and perception. This study observed that (1) individuals with higher levels of autistic traits displayed an enhanced perception of pitch and loudness, but not time, and (2) that these same participants may exhibit less variability in their production of pitch.

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