[9] Gernsbacher's research focuses on the cognitive processes and mechanisms that underlie language comprehension.
She has challenged the view that language processing depends upon language-specific mechanisms, proposing instead that it draws on general cognitive processes such as working memory and pattern recognition.
Motivated by the diagnosis of her son in 1998, much of Gernsbacher's research has focused on the cognitive and neurological processes of autistic people.
[10] As a result of investigating the language development of autistic children, Gernsbacher has posited that the speech difficulties associated with autism stem from motor planning challenges, not from intellectual limitations or social impairment.
The implications of this perspective include a shift in focus from deficits in interpersonal communication to early sensory-motor challenges of autistic children, as well as recognition of previously unidentified competence in nonverbal autistic children.