The Strange Stories Test: a replication with high-functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome.
Even fluent autistic adults often miss nonliteral meaning, so probe social cognition directly and watch for family-linked factors.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave the Strange Stories Test to adults with autism or Asperger syndrome. All spoke well and had normal IQ.
They read short vignettes that contain sarcasm, white lies, or double meanings. Then they explained what each character really meant.
Answers were scored against a set of typical explanations.
What they found
The autistic group scored lower than matched controls. They often gave literal or odd explanations.
The result repeats earlier child data, showing the gap still exists in highly verbal adults.
How this fits with other research
Jellema et al. (2009) saw the same thing with a picture illusion. Autistic adults missed the hidden social cue, backing up the verbal deficit.
Colle et al. (2007) moved the test down to mute children. A non-verbal false-belief task still singled out autism, so the problem is not just slow language.
Isaksson et al. (2019) looks like a clash. When they compared twins, the autism–mind-reading link vanished. The twist: they controlled family genes and home life. Strange Stories did not. So both can be true: autistic people score lower, yet part of that gap may come from shared family traits, not autism itself.
Why it matters
Your high-functioning adult clients may talk well yet still misread jokes, sarcasm, or white lies. Do not trust fluent speech as proof of solid social understanding. Add tests like Strange Stories or short real-life role-plays. If scores are low, teach context clues and ask for the speaker’s intent, not just the literal words. Also note family history; social-cognitive delays can run in families, so adjust goals and praise effort accordingly.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Two groups of individuals, one with high-functioning autism and the other with Asperger syndrome were tested using Happé's Strange Stories Test of a more advanced theory of mind (Happé, 1994). This assesses the ability to interpret a nonliteral statement. Relative to normal controls who were IQ and age-matched, individuals with autism or Asperger syndrome performed less well on the task, while performing normally on a non-mentalistic control task. Individuals with autism or Asperger syndrome could provide mental state answers, but had difficulty in providing contextually appropriate mental state answers. Rather, their answers tended to concentrate on the utterance in isolation. This replicates Happé's result. Although the majority of both clinical groups provided context-inappropriate interpretations, the autism group had the greater difficulty. Results are discussed in relation to both weak central coherence and theory of mind.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1999 · doi:10.1023/a:1023082928366