Initial Evidence for Increased Weather Salience in Autism Spectrum Conditions

Abstract

Weather is important to all people, including vulnerable populations (those whose circumstances include cognitive processing, hearing, or vision differences; physical disability; homelessness; and other scenarios and factors). Autism spectrum conditions affect information processing and areas of neurological functioning that potentially inhibit the reception of hazardous weather information and are of particular concern for weather messengers. People on the autism spectrum tend to score highly in tests of systemizing, a psychological process that heavily entails attention to detail and revolves around the creation of logical rules to explain things that occur in the world. This article reports the results of three preliminary studies examining weather salience—psychological attention to weather—and its potential relationships with systemizing in autistic people. Initial findings suggest that enhanced weather salience exists among autistic individuals relative to those without the condition and that this may be related to systemizing. These findings reveal some possible strategies for communicating weather to autistic populations and motivate future work on a conceptual model that blends systemizing and chaos theory to better understand weather salience.

Analogue Weather in a Digital World: On the Value of Integrating Both the Physical and the Technological in Day-to-day Experiences of Weather

“…Importantly, people who have had a significant interaction with the weather-a severe storm that resulted in damages or memorable event like a holiday snow storm, for examplereported overall greater weather salience. Weather salience is associated with placing greater value on weather information and forecasts (Stewart et al, 2012) and may be related to cognitive attention processes that lend themselves to its increase or decrease (Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020;. Snow, because of its ability to dramatically alter the landscape and thus potentially disrupt the rhythm of everyday life, possesses a unique potential for engaging the mind and body (Hall & Endfield, 2016;Mergen, 1997).…”

Measuring Epistemic Weather Curiosity: Initial Development and Validation of an Individual Difference Questionnaire

“…Weather salience is driven by cognitive appraisal of, and physical sensitivity to, the natural environment (Evans & Cohen, 1987;Evans & Stecker, 2004;Stewart, 2009;Stokols, 1979Stokols, , 1995. Such attunement may predict weather knowledge and information use (Stewart et al, 2012;Williams et al, 2017) and may be enhanced in particular clinical populations and individuals with particular cognitive styles (those with autism spectrum conditions; Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020). Recent work suggests adult weather salience may stem in part from childhood weather-learning experiences .…”

“…We are interested in the detail-orientation aspects of systemizing and the manner in which it drives predictions of certainty. Ideal systemizing involves keeping variables constant and changing only one parameter at a time (Baron-Cohen, 2006;Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020) so that each change can be observed relative to the overall system. This allows for the verification of predictability through an understanding of system sensitivity (Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020;Tullett et al, 2015).…”

“…Ideal systemizing involves keeping variables constant and changing only one parameter at a time (Baron-Cohen, 2006;Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020) so that each change can be observed relative to the overall system. This allows for the verification of predictability through an understanding of system sensitivity (Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020;Tullett et al, 2015). It has been suggested (Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020;) that systemizing-weather relations are linked to perceptions of chaos and weatherrandomness.…”

“…This allows for the verification of predictability through an understanding of system sensitivity (Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020;Tullett et al, 2015). It has been suggested (Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020;) that systemizing-weather relations are linked to perceptions of chaos and weatherrandomness.…”