The Summer of Adventure

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-52
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fein
Keyword(s):  
Role Playing ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Weak Central Coherence ◽  
Central Coherence ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Interpersonal Coordination ◽  
Cognitive Characteristics ◽  
Clinical Ethnography ◽  
Alternative Culture ◽  
Live Action

This chapter chronicles a summer of clinical ethnography at a camp for youth with Asperger’s syndrome and related autism spectrum conditions, run by a close-knit community of live-action role-playing (LARP) gamers aiming to be inclusive of neurodiversity. Within this alternative culture with its alternative norms, the neurodevelopmental differences associated with Asperger’s took on new and valued meanings and manifestations. The chapter reviews predominant theories about cognition in autism (theory of mind, executive function, and weak central coherence), depicting these attributes not as individual deficits but as collaborative engagements with the physical, cultural, and symbolic materials of the surrounding world. Autism, the chapter proposes, is characterized by a heightened reliance on external systems of organization to create a sense of experiential coherence and to fend off existential threats of meaninglessness and chaos. LARP games offer one such system of organization through their framework of stable, shared narratives, and genre conventions. These resources support interpersonal coordination, bringing together people who share relevant cognitive characteristics into a tenuous but deeply valued community.

Central coherence and the shaping of expertise in design: evidence from designers with autism spectrum conditions

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-330
Author(s):  
Andy Dong ◽  
Ann Heylighen
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Weak Central Coherence ◽  
Central Coherence ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Coherence Theory ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Cognitive Behaviors ◽  
Personal Experiences

AbstractThis paper proposes to contribute to our understanding of the fundamental cognitive processes essential to designing by exploring the experiences of people who have different information processing behaviors to those found in most people. In particular, we focus on people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) because they are known to have information processing behaviors that are both maladaptive and exceptional. Central to our study is the question: what can we learn from people with ASC about cognitive processes essential to designing? The scholarship on cognitive behaviors associated with the autism spectrum and narratives on the experiences with design practice by individuals with ASC are discussed in relation to cognitive processes associated with designing. In turn, the individuals commented upon the analysis of cognitive processes associated with designing in light of their personal experiences with design practice. We conclude that the weak central coherence theory of autism provides a useful prediction of the cognitive processes necessary for expertise in design, and that both the framework for expertise in design and the way it is studied may require updating.

Using Technology to Support Social Competence

2015 ◽  
pp. 336-355
Author(s):  
Brenda Smith Myles ◽  
Jan Rogers ◽  
Amy Bixler Coffin ◽  
Wendy Szakacs ◽  
Theresa Earles-Vollrath
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
High Technology ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Home School ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Weak Central Coherence ◽  
Central Coherence ◽  
Evidence Based

Social competence includes a complex set of skills that impacts quality of life across all environments: home, school, employment, and the community. Elements that impact social competence, such as theory of mind, weak central coherence, regulation and relationship building, must be taught to individuals with disabilities, including those with autism spectrum disorder. Evidence-based interventions that incorporate low, medium and high technology have the potential to support skill development in social competence in a meaningful manner. This chapter reviews the concept known as social competence and offers a variety of practices to support its development.

scholarly journals No association between autistic traits and contextual influences on eye-movements during reading

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Caruana ◽  
Jon Brock
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Autistic Traits ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Weak Central Coherence ◽  
Central Coherence ◽  
Autism Spectrum Quotient ◽  
Contextual Influences ◽  
Tentative Evidence ◽  
Preceding Sentence

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders are claimed to show a local cognitive bias, termed “weak central coherence”, which manifests in a reduced influence of contextual information on linguistic processing. Here, we investigated whether this bias might also be demonstrated by individuals who exhibit sub-clinical levels of autistic traits, as has been found for other aspects of autistic cognition. The eye-movements of 71 university students were monitored as they completed a reading comprehension task. Consistent with previous studies, participants made shorter fixations on words that were highly predicted on the basis of preceding sentence context. However, contrary to the weak central coherence account, this effect was not reduced amongst individuals with high levels of autistic traits, as measured by the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Further exploratory analyses revealed that participants with high AQ scores fixated longer on words that resolved the meaning of an earlier homograph. However, this was only the case for sentences where the two potential meanings of the homograph result in different pronunciations. The results provide tentative evidence for differences in reading style that are associated with autistic traits, but fail to support the notion of weak central coherence extending into the non-autistic population.

Hardwired

2020 ◽  
pp. 108-132
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fein
Keyword(s):  
Support Groups ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
The Self ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Clinical Ethnography ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Molecular Modulation

Sociologist Nikolas Rose has posited the emergence of a “neurochemical self” organized around the assumption that our personal characteristics, moods and desires arise from our brain chemicals, and are amenable to molecular modulation through psychiatric drugs. Drawing on clinical ethnography of a series of support groups run by and for individuals diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and other autism spectrum conditions, this chapter charts the emergence of a contrasting model of the “neurostructural” self, oriented around the concept of developmental disability and its presumption of fixed innateness and lifelong course. In rejecting the demands for flexibility and adaptation entailed in neurochemical selfhood, this counterdiscourse of hardwired genetic and synaptic brain structure functions as a form of resistance against the demand for constant fluidity and change that characterizes late modernity. However, its core assumptions of a self that is fixed and inalterable are increasingly threatened by the ascendance of neural plasticity as a new mode of both conceptualizing and intervening on the self.

The Sword in the Soul

2020 ◽  
pp. 214-238
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fein
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Speculative Fiction ◽  
The Self ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Neutral Form ◽  
Clinical Ethnography ◽  
A Value

This chapter focuses on how youth diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and related autism spectrum conditions make sense of their own condition and its contradictions. Drawing on clinical ethnography in spaces where youth on the spectrum engage in shared creative practices, the chapter argues that medicalized discourses of autism as either a pathogen-like disease or a value-neutral form of neurogenetic hardwiring are insufficient to conceptualize the experiences of these youth. Autism, as they describe it, feels both intimate and alien, brings both cherished strength and terrifying vulnerability, and constitutes their sense of identity while also profoundly disrupting it. But the dominant ways of talking about autism, grounded in medical understandings of the self as sharply bounded and continuous, separate these aspects of lived experience from each other, casting them as radically incompatible. Instead, these youth playfully reinvent their autobiographies through an alternative shared mythology of mutant antiheroes with permeable selves, drawn from fantasy media, video games, comic books and other speculative fiction. In doing so, they generate new ways of coming to terms with the complexities of their condition.

Understanding the Mind of a Student with Autism in Music Class

2017 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Ryan M. Hourigan ◽  
Alice M. Hammel
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Weak Central Coherence ◽  
Central Coherence ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Support Tools ◽  
Students With Autism ◽  
Music Class ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Music Classrooms

This article offers a unique look into the cognitive processes of students with autism spectrum disorder in music classrooms. Concepts include theory of mind, weak central coherence, executive function, joint attention, and social attention. Behavior implications are also examined. Specific examples of support tools for the music classroom are provided.

scholarly journals Talent in autism: hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1522) ◽  
pp. 1377-1383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Baron-Cohen ◽  
Emma Ashwin ◽  
Chris Ashwin ◽  
Teresa Tavassoli ◽  
Bhismadev Chakrabarti
Keyword(s):  
Executive Dysfunction ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Central Coherence ◽  
Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽  
Sensory Level ◽  
Detection Thresholds ◽  
Sensory Hypersensitivity ◽  
Pattern Recognition Systems ◽  
Recognition Systems ◽  
Attention To Detail

We argue that hyper-systemizing predisposes individuals to show talent, and review evidence that hyper-systemizing is part of the cognitive style of people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). We then clarify the hyper-systemizing theory, contrasting it to the weak central coherence (WCC) and executive dysfunction (ED) theories. The ED theory has difficulty explaining the existence of talent in ASC. While both hyper-systemizing and WCC theories postulate excellent attention to detail , by itself excellent attention to detail will not produce talent. By contrast, the hyper-systemizing theory argues that the excellent attention to detail is directed towards detecting ‘if p, then q’ rules (or [input–operation–output] reasoning). Such law-based pattern recognition systems can produce talent in systemizable domains. Finally, we argue that the excellent attention to detail in ASC is itself a consequence of sensory hypersensitivity . We review an experiment from our laboratory demonstrating sensory hypersensitivity detection thresholds in vision. We conclude that the origins of the association between autism and talent begin at the sensory level, include excellent attention to detail and end with hyper-systemizing.

scholarly journals Challenging Weak Central Coherence: A Brief Exploration of Neurological Evidence from Visual Processing and Linguistic Studies in Autism Spectrum Disorder

2019 ◽  
pp. 136-143
Author(s):  
Jessica Scher Lisa ◽  
Eric Shyman
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Weak Central Coherence ◽  
Central Coherence ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Visuospatial Processing ◽  
Neuro Imaging

Previous theories have attempted to locate the root cause of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in terms of a typical central cognitive processes. However, the field of neuroscience is increasingly finding structural and functional differences between autistic and neuro-typical individuals using neuro-imaging technology which either support or challenge earlier cognitive theories. One main area upon which this research has focused is in visuospatial processing, with specific attention to the notion of “weak central coherence” (WCC), which refers to the tendency of individuals with ASD to be unable to interpret “global” information while hyper-focusing on local information. The current paper offers a brief review of findings from selected studies in order to explore available research that challenges the “deficit” characterization of a WCC theory as opposed to a “superiority” characterization of a strong local coherence.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document