Background: When confronting typographical errors in sentences, we guess what the writer intends to say. This process requires us to have the ability to understand the context of sentences. The aim of this study was to examine whether the ability of detecting typographical errors in sentences might be different among participants with or without autistic tendencies. Furthermore, we analyzed the accuracy rates of the task to reveal the characteristics of participants with autistic tendencies. Method: Thirty-two Japanese adolescents participated in this study (13 men and 19 women). By using a typographical error detection task (5 paragraphs containing Japanese sentences of 100–150 characters including mistyped words) and psychological questionnaires (the autism–spectrum quotient), we scored the degree of autistic tendencies and the ability of the subjects to detect typographical errors in paragraphs. Results: Our results showed that there was no relationship between autistic tendencies and the detection of typographical errors in paragraphs, suggesting that a person with autistic tendencies may not have any trouble in understanding the context in paragraphs. However, among 23 typographical errors used, 1 typographical error word, which could be read less uncomfortably from the viewpoint of a broad context, was significantly associated with autistic tendencies. Conclusions: These results showed for the first time that people with autistic tendencies can detect typographical errors without being affected by their context. This finding provides the possibility of creating a task that can predict accurately the autistic tendencies of a person.

ASD, mistyped word, homonym, developmental disorder