Differences in Art Appreciation in Autism: A Measure of Reduced Intuitive Processing

Brosnan, Mark; Ashwin, Chris

doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05733-6

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Future research can explore whether individuals on the autism spectrum produce logically accurate responses more rapidly and effortlessly than non-autistic individuals. Combined with the present findings of a bias away from intuitive responses and towards deliberative responses in this study (see also Brosnan & Ashwin, 2022;Brosnan et al, 2016Brosnan et al, , 2017, future research can explore the possibility of autism being characterised by rapid, effortless 'non-social' processing and slow, deliberative 'social' processing (opposite to the neurotypical pattern).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

“…Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterised by differences in social communication and interaction as well as patterns of restricted and repetitive behaviours, interests and activities, and is diagnosed in around four times as many males as females ( American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013 ; World Health Organization [WHO], 2018 ). The Dual Process Theory of Autism ( Ashwin & Brosnan, 2019 ; Brosnan & Ashwin, 2022 ; Brosnan et al, 2016 , 2017 ; Lewton et al, 2019 ) proposes that autistic individuals and those high in autistic traits engage in deliberative processing to a greater degree and intuitive processing to a lesser degree than neurotypical peers. From this view, deliberation and reduced intuition in decision-making by autistic individuals can be characterised as a disruption to the default-interventionist position.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If the intuitive mechanisms are impaired, this would lead to pervasive deficits in any processing requiring rapid and unconscious processing across different domains and functioning, such that even if an autistic individual tried to utilise intuitive processing, they would have difficulties in doing so. An alternative possibility is that the mechanisms for intuitive processing are intact, but that autistic individuals do not typically or spontaneously utilise this specific style of reasoning, or that the information processing style in autism does not involve or require intuitive processing ( Ashwin & Brosnan, 2019 ; Brosnan & Ashwin, 2022 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thinking, fast and slow on the autism spectrum

Brosnan

Ashwin

2022

Autism

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The Dual Process Theory of Autism proposes that autistic individuals demonstrate greater deliberative (slower) processing alongside reduced (faster) intuitive processing. This study manipulated the reasoning time available to investigate the extent to which deliberative and intuitive processing are sensitive to time context in autism. A total of 74 young autistic people and 132 control participants completed the Cognitive Reflection Test to measure intuition and deliberation, with responses being either speeded (fast condition) or delayed (slow condition). The autistic group produced more deliberative and less intuitive responses than controls overall. Both groups showed more intuitive responses in the fast condition and more deliberative responses in the slow condition, demonstrating the reasoning style in autism is sensitive to context. Lay abstract What is already known about the topic Daniel Kahneman wrote a highly influential book titled ‘thinking, fast and slow’. He proposes that people usually think in a rapid, automatic, intuitive style. When people realise their intuitive thinking may be wrong, a slower, effortful, deliberative style of thinking takes over. It has recently been proposed that thinking in autistic individuals can be characterised as usually thinking in the deliberative style (rather than the intuitive style that non-autistic people usually think in). What this paper adds As intuitive thinking is fast and deliberative thinking is slow, this research manipulated the time available to complete a series of reasoning questions. These questions have been developed to have intuitive answers (which are incorrect) and deliberative answers (which are correct). For the first time, a fast time manipulation (you must answer quickly) and slow (you must think about your answer before responding) was undertaken with autistic individuals. Autistic participants did produce more deliberative answers than the non-autistic participants. However, both groups produced comparably more intuitive answers and less deliberative answers in the fast condition. This shows that while autistic people tend not to use their intuition, autistic people can be encouraged to use their intuition. Implications for practice, research or policy Using rapid intuition can be useful in fast-changing contexts, such as some social situations. Future research can explore how to support autistic individuals to use their intuition when the need arises. In addition, the propensity for deliberation resulting in unbiased, correct responses reflects a strengths-based account of autism. This requires more mental effort and is less susceptible to bias and errors. This is called ‘Dual Process Theory’.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thinking, fast and slow on the autism spectrum

Brosnan

Ashwin

2022

Autism

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“…The moderately sized (albeit non-significant) effect of autistic adults’ trend towards slower SLT lie speeds may reflect enhanced deliberative processing relative to intuitive processing. This would be consistent with the Dual Process Theory of Autism ( Ashwin & Brosnan, 2019 ; Brosnan & Ashwin, 2022 , 2023 ; Brosnan et al, 2017 , 2016 ); Such non-neurotypical strategies have been suggested to underpin deception inclination and ability in autistic children ( Ma et al, 2019 ) and adults ( van Tiel et al, 2021 ). The higher cognitive cost of deliberative strategies may mean that some autistic individuals are less inclined to engage in such strategies and therefore appear less socially motivated ( Livingston et al, 2019a ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Autistic adults’ inclination to lie in everyday situations

Bagnall,

Russell,

Brosnan

et al. 2023

Autism

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Autistic children and adolescents often have greater difficulty engaging in deception than their non-autistic peers. However, deception in autistic adulthood has received little attention to date. This study examined whether autistic and non-autistic adults differed in their inclination to lie in everyday situations and the factors that underpin this. Forty-one autistic and 41 non-autistic participants completed self-report measures relating to their inclination to lie, ability to lie and moral attitudes about the acceptability of lying. Participants also undertook a reaction-time test of lie-telling, as well as theory of mind and working memory measures. Autistic and non-autistic adults did not significantly differ in their inclination to lie in everyday situations. The degree to which lying was viewed as morally acceptable positively predicted both groups’ inclination to lie. The remaining factors underpinning the inclination to lie differed between groups. Lower self-rated lying ability and slower lie speed predicted a reduced inclination to lie in autistic participants, whereas higher theory of mind and working memory capacity predicted a reduced inclination to lie in the non-autistic group. Implications for our understanding of deception in autistic and non-autistic adults are discussed. Lay abstract Differences in social communication and understanding others’ mental states may mean that autistic adults are less likely to deceive others than non-autistic individuals. We investigated whether autistic and non-autistic adults differ in their inclination to lie and which psychological factors are involved in the inclination to lie. We found that autistic and non-autistic groups reported a similar inclination to lie, and the extent to which participants viewed lying as acceptable helped to explain their inclination to deceive others. However, the other underlying psychological factors associated with deception inclination differed between autistic and non-autistic groups. Autistic adults’ belief about their ability to lie and also how quickly they could lie helped to explain whether they were more or less inclined to lie. For non-autistic adults, their memory and ability to understand others’ mental states helped to explain their lie inclination. We discuss these findings and recommend areas for future research.

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“…A strength in rule-governed processing has been proposed to characterize autism. Theoretical accounts of deliberative analytical thinking strengths in autism, such as the Dual Process Theory of Autism ( Brosnan et al, 2016 , 2017 ; Lewton et al, 2019 ; Ashwin and Brosnan, 2020 ; Brosnan and Ashwin, 2022a , b ), may also be a potential framework for understanding the mechanisms underpinning social stories. The Dual Process Theory of Autism proposes an autistic preference for slower, explicit, deliberative, analytical processing (compared with a non-autistic preference for rapid, implicit, intuitive processing).…”

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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Differences in Art Appreciation in Autism: A Measure of Reduced Intuitive Processing

Cited by 5 publications

References 51 publications

Thinking, fast and slow on the autism spectrum

Thinking, fast and slow on the autism spectrum

Autistic adults’ inclination to lie in everyday situations

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

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