PSYC443 - Autism Central Coherence

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PSYC443 - AutismCentral Coherence

• Dr Jason Low
• School of Psychology
• Victoria University of Wellington

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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
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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) cant explain
  these

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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

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Puzzling jigsaws

• Frith Hermelin (1969)
• Contrasted performances on two types of jigsaw
  (jigsaw by shape vs. jigsaw by picture)
• Autism gt normal for jigsaw by shape.

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Hidden Figures

• Shah Frith (1983)
• Childrens embedded figures test
• Children with autism scored above average for
  their mental age.

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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.

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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
...  
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THE
WHERE
SEE
PIONEER
MIND
DOG
PEDANTIC
EARLY
COMMUNICATE
LEAF
SHIP
THROW
IS
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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-th
  row
• Normal sentence part autistic
  early-communicate-leaf-throw (just as if random)

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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

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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

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Impossible Figures Illusions
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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

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The case of Nadia Executed highly naturalistic
drawings Local drawing strategy Whilst
realistic, no sense of imagination or
communicative value of picture
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Participant with autism vma 7 years (a local
drawing strategy)
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Typically developing vma 7 years (a global
drawing strategy)
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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?
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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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