Children with autism spectrum disorder have an exceptional explanatory drive

Rutherford,; Subiaul, Francys

doi:10.1177/1362361315605973

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Pattern seeking involves cognitive drive to find and confirm patterns in the external environment. This phenomenon is closely allied to systemizing, though it also involves higher explanatory drive in non-social problem-solving in autism (37), and higher, albeit imbalanced, intelligence (7), given that systemizing is not positively associated with intelligence [e.g., (38)]. Enhanced pattern seeking in autism is also manifest in, for example: (a) pursuits in highly-organized collecting and related aspects of systemizing and (b) the associations of the autism spectrum with interests and skills in STEM disciplines [e.g., (10,39)].…”

Section: Pattern Seekingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pattern Unifies Autism

Crespi

2021

Front. Psychiatry

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Autism is a highly heterogeneous condition, genetically and phenotypically. This diversity of causation and presentation has impeded its definition, recognition, assessment, and treatment. Current diagnostic criteria for autism involve two domains, restricted interests and repetitive behavior (RRBs) and social deficits, whose relationship remains unclear. I suggest that the large suite of traits associated with autism can be usefully conceptualized under the single rubric of “pattern,” a term that connects autism with basic brain and cognitive functions and structures its phenotypes within a single theoretical framework. Autism thus involves increases and enhancements to pattern perception, pattern recognition, pattern maintenance, pattern generation, pattern processing, and pattern seeking. RRBs result from increased and imbalanced pattern-related perception and cognition, and social alterations result in part from the usual lack of clear pattern in social interactions, combined with the interference of RRBs with social development. This framework has strong implications for assessment of social and non-social autism-related traits, personalized therapy, and priorities for research.

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Section: Pattern Seekingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pattern Unifies Autism

Crespi

2021

Front. Psychiatry

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“…Given that susceptibilities to cognitive biases are negatively associated with measures of intelligence, weakly though significantly (e.g., Teovanović et al, 2015 ), these findings suggest that this component of intelligence is enhanced in autism, at least in some contexts. More-deliberative decision making in autism may be associated, and underpinned, by enhanced explanatory drive to seek information in ambiguous circumstances, with regard to physical (rather than social) problems (Rutherford and Subiaul, 2015 ).…”

Section: Autism and The Correlates Of Intelligencementioning

confidence: 99%

Autism As a Disorder of High Intelligence

Crespi

2016

Front. Neurosci.

125

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A suite of recent studies has reported positive genetic correlations between autism risk and measures of mental ability. These findings indicate that alleles for autism overlap broadly with alleles for high intelligence, which appears paradoxical given that autism is characterized, overall, by below-average IQ. This paradox can be resolved under the hypothesis that autism etiology commonly involves enhanced, but imbalanced, components of intelligence. This hypothesis is supported by convergent evidence showing that autism and high IQ share a diverse set of convergent correlates, including large brain size, fast brain growth, increased sensory and visual-spatial abilities, enhanced synaptic functions, increased attentional focus, high socioeconomic status, more deliberative decision-making, profession and occupational interests in engineering and physical sciences, and high levels of positive assortative mating. These findings help to provide an evolutionary basis to understanding autism risk as underlain in part by dysregulation of intelligence, a core human-specific adaptation. In turn, integration of studies on intelligence with studies of autism should provide novel insights into the neurological and genetic causes of high mental abilities, with important implications for cognitive enhancement, artificial intelligence, the relationship of autism with schizophrenia, and the treatment of both autism and intellectual disability.

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“…The hyper-systemizing process can be informed by greater attention to detail ( Baron-Cohen et al, 2009 ; Brosnan et al, 2012 ). Rutherford and Subiaul’s (2016) study, which focuses on the motivational urge for systemizing, indicated that autistic children showed a stronger explanatory drive than non-autistic children. The authors use the term “explanatory drive” to explain an individual’s desire to explain ambiguity and to explain how systems work.…”

Section: Social Stories™mentioning

confidence: 99%

A rule-based theoretical account of social stories to address the double empathy problem

2023

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Social Stories™ (SS) is one of the most popular and researched interventions for autistic children. To date, research that focuses on outcomes has been prioritized over the investigation of the psychological mechanisms that inform the intervention. In this article we consider theoretical accounts proposed thus far which could underpin SS. We argue that mechanisms that are based on social deficit theories lack validity, and propose a rule-based theoretical account to inform a strengths-based approach toward conceptualizing the mechanisms that underpin SS. We apply this account to the ‘double-empathy problem’ to propose that SS can be adapted to involve all parties in the development and delivery of SS support by adopting a rule-based perspective. We use the example of systemizing (the drive to analyze and explore systems in terms of ‘if-and-then’ rules), which is proposed to be a relative autistic strength, as a form of rule-based thinking that can provide a theoretical account of SS and a framework to address the double-empathy problem.

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Children with autism spectrum disorder have an exceptional explanatory drive

Cited by 10 publications

References 38 publications

Pattern Unifies Autism

Pattern Unifies Autism

Autism As a Disorder of High Intelligence

A rule-based theoretical account of social stories to address the double empathy problem

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