PSYC443 - Autism Central Coherence Dr Jason Low School of Psychology Victoria University of Wellington

The triad: No single cognitive explanation Social impairments “Theory of mind” “Executive functions” Problems recognising thoughts and feelings? Problems generating, planning, monitoring? Communication impairments Restricted/ Repetitive Behaviours & Interests

Limitations to theory of mind & EFT deficit based accounts ToM and EF deficits may explain problems in autism But people with autism also show superior performance savant skills in music, maths, art... excellent memory for facts... jigsaw puzzle and other spatial skills... noticing tiny changes, perfect pitch... Current deficit accounts (ToM, EF) can’t explain these

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 processing

Puzzling jigsaws Frith & Hermelin (1969) Contrasted performances on two types of jigsaw (jigsaw by shape vs. jigsaw by picture) Autism > normal for jigsaw by shape.

Hidden Figures Shah & Frith (1983) Children’s embedded figures test Children with autism scored above average for their mental age.

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.

Sentence Completion task: example of a CC test   1. I was given a pen and ... * 2. The sea tastes of salt and ... 3. Hens lay eggs and ... 4. The woman took the cup and ... * 5. You can get burnt by the sun and ... 6. You can feed a child bread and ... * 7. Little boys grow up to be men and ... 8. In the sea there are fish and ... 9. In a cave lived a bat and ... 10. You can go hunting with a knife and… 11. You can swallow apple ... * 12. The old shoe-maker mended the shoes and ... 13. The fireman carried the bucket and ... 14. A vet cares for cats and … * 15. The night was black and ...

THE WHERE SEE PIONEER MIND DOG PEDANTIC EARLY COMMUNICATE LEAF SHIP THROW IS

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)

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

Elements and their context She took the shoe polish away with her. She took the Polish man away with her. There was a tear in his shirt. There was a tear in his eye. Words integrated into sentence – meaning clear. Snowling & Frith (1986): Autism – cannot so readily modify pronunciation according to context

Impossible Figures & Illusions

So islets of abilities … 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 meaning

The case of Nadia Executed highly naturalistic drawings Local drawing strategy Whilst realistic, no sense of imagination or communicative value of picture

Participant with autism: vma = 7 years (a local drawing strategy)

Typically developing: vma = 7 years (a global drawing strategy)

Central Coherence as Cognitive Style Area of autism risk? ‘weak’------------------Central Coherence-----------------‘strong’ e.g. good proof reading e.g. good gist recall A continuum of cognitive style from ‘weak’ to ‘strong’ coherence?

Central coherence & TOM 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. Two different cognitive characteristics in autism – mind-blindness and a cognitive style that favours weak central coherence

Relation between CC and EF? Executive Functions (EF) = ‘ability to maintain a context-appropriate set for attainment of future goals’ EF deficits found in ASD EF interpretations of CC findings are possible E.g. inhibitory failure in sentence completion task? Can EF and CC be disentangled? Test: ADHD group shows inhibitory problems … …do they show weak coherence?

Performance of ASD and ADHD groups, relative to TD Males’ performance N local completions Impulsive errors on a inhibition task do not correlate with local completions WCC findings not a function of EF problems in ASD

Weak central coherence = poor global processing per se? Mottron & Belleville (1993) (Navon Task) State the smaller letter (F): slower if global form incongruent (S) than if congruent (F) State larger letter, response time unaffected by incongruity of smaller letter Experienced interference from global to local and not the latter Can process global but it does not have precedence (deficit in hierarchical organisation) Heightened processing at a low level

Although a devastating disorder, autism is notable for strengths as well as weaknesses Part of autism may be a cognitive style, not deficit There may be distinct genetic contributions to this part of autism (vs. social impairment) Studying cognitive style in ASD should raise awareness of positive aspects of ASD increase appreciation of the potential of individuals with ASD inform educational approaches working to strengths not just weaknesses