Cognitive styles in high-functioning adolescents with autistic disorder.
Weak central coherence and poor cognitive shifting are more common in high-functioning teens with autism but aren’t universal and don’t predict social skill levels.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hastings et al. (2001) looked at 33 high-functioning teens with autism.
They gave each teen two short tests. One measured how well the teen could shift from one rule to another. The other measured how well the teen could see the big picture instead of tiny details.
The team then compared the teens’ scores to normal age-mates.
What they found
About two-thirds of the teens had trouble shifting rules or seeing the big picture.
But one-third scored just like typical teens.
Neither style matched how severe the autism looked or how well the teen got along with others.
How this fits with other research
Happé et al. (2006) later tested adults with the same idea. They found the same weak big-picture style and built a quick screen that spots autism 81 % of the time.
Spriggs et al. (2016) moved the lens to older adults. These adults said they still struggled with shifting rules, yet their test scores were only a little slower. The gap between feeling and doing shows the style can linger but look milder on paper.
Baixauli et al. (2016) pooled 24 studies on story-telling. Across all of them, autistic kids and teens told weaker stories. This lines up with the weak big-picture style P et al. first flagged.
Why it matters
Do not assume every bright teen with autism will get stuck on details or rules. Test each one. If the teen does show these styles, teach flexible thinking and big-picture cues, but do not expect this work to directly boost social skills.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study addressed the operationalization, the identification, and the prevalence of weak central coherence and poor cognitive shifting in 35 high-functioning adolescents with autism. Central coherence and cognitive shifting were represented by two factors in a factor analysis, each reflecting a constituent aspect of the domain in question. With regard to central coherence, these aspects were the ability of piecemeal processing and the ability to process meaning. The aspects related to cognitive shifting concerned internally and externally controlled shifting. Weak central coherence and poor cognitive shifting did not appear to be related to measures of symptom severity, social understanding, and social competence. Both these cognitive styles did not appear to be universal to autism. In our sample, weak central coherence and poor cognitive shifting were found to be significantly more common than in normative control subjects.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2001 · doi:10.1023/a:1005613730126