Weak cental coherence seems to characterise people with autism at all levels of TOM ability (Frith, 2003) So mentalising is a specific, modular ability that is damaged in autism. good gist recall A continuum of cognitive style from ‘weak’ to ‘strong’ coherence? Remember all the details of a train timetable Rote as opposed to meaningful Good rote memory should have even better memory for meaning In autism, good rote memory, poor memory for meaningġ5 The case of Nadia Executed highly naturalistic drawings Local drawing strategy Whilst realistic, no sense of imagination or communicative value of pictureġ6 Participant with autism: vma = 7 years (a local drawing strategy)ġ7 Typically developing: vma = 7 years (a global drawing strategy)Īrea of autism risk? ‘weak’ Central Coherence ‘strong’ e.g. Snowling & Frith (1986): Autism – cannot so readily modify pronunciation according to context
Words integrated into sentence – meaning clear.
ĩ THE WHERE SEE PIONEER MIND DOG PEDANTIC EARLY COMMUNICATE LEAF SHIP THROW ISġ0 Rote Memory Recall string of random words longer than usual digit span: both autistic and normal – remembered end of string (Frith, 1970) But what happens when part of string is a sentence? see-where-the-ship-is-….-early-communicate-leaf-throw Normal – sentence part autistic – early-communicate-leaf-throw (just as if random)ġ1 More on rote memory Even with super-long strings – normal children did well Sentence structure and meaning helps Autism: only slightly better at recalling sentences than jumbled words, and overall poorer than normals jigsaw by picture) Autism > normal for jigsaw by shape.Ħ Hidden Figures Shah & Frith (1983) Children’s embedded figures testĬhildren with autism scored above average for their mental age.ħ Block Design Block design test: the big shape has to be copied with the little building blocks So the first step is to separate the given design into appropriate segments Shah & Frith (1993): Autistic children obtain a score as good and often even better than normals.Ĩ Sentence Completion task: example of a CC testġ. Current deficit accounts (ToM, EF) can’t explain theseĤ Central Coherence In autism, specific imbalance in integration of information at different levels (Frith, 1989) In normal development, we have a tendency to process information in context This contextual processing is missing in autism, so they should be good in tasks that emphasise piece-meal processingĥ Puzzling jigsaws Frith & Hermelin (1969)Ĭontrasted performances on two types of jigsaw (jigsaw by shape vs. ToM and EF deficits may explain problems in autism But people with autism also show superior performance savant skills in music, maths, art. Social impairments “Theory of mind” “Executive functions” Problems recognising thoughts and feelings? Problems generating, planning, monitoring? Communication impairments Restricted/ Repetitive Behaviours & Interestsģ Limitations to theory of mind & EFT deficit based accounts Dr Jason Low School of Psychology Victoria University of WellingtonĢ The triad: No single cognitive explanation
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