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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

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

7. 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.

8. 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 ...

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

10. 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)

11. 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

12. 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

13. Impossible Figures & Illusions

14. 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

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

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

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

18. 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?

19. 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

20. 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?

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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