Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl
the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects,
then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and
observations.
Today's article deals with how neurotypical and autistic people react to sudden, unexpected changes. The researchers had about 50 individuals, half autistic, half neurotypical, follow patterns of audible tones and images. They made the patterns very predictable, right up until they didn't. Then they measured the surprise reactions of the individuals.
Apparently, the autistic people were less surprised in general when the patterns were broken, and the more heavily affected they were, the less surprised they were. After running the data through computer processes, the researchers decided this meant the autistic people were expecting a more unpredictable (volatile) environment. So when the environment was suddenly not following the previous patterns, they weren't as surprised. The head researcher commented that if autistic people are expecting an unpredictable environment, they'd tend to rely more on their senses and less on their prior understanding of patterns, and that might explain why sensory overload is so common.
I do kind of wonder if that researcher doesn't have it backwards. Or at the very least, a two-way street, or a self-reinforcing cycle. So, for example. I have sound-sensitivity. That means that sudden noises, something falling off a shelf, a child shrieking outside, unexpected fireworks, etc, tend to freak me out and hurt me. My poor spouse trips over himself to try not to cause noises like that, because he knows that. When I'm at home, I can usually assume things won't fall off shelves, and there won't be fireworks... but there do seem to be children at many hours of the day, and sometimes things do fall or fireworks go off. My environment, you see, is unpredictable, or volatile. These things wouldn't bother other people, but they do bother me.
In addition to that, my sensitivity isn't predictable. A child shrieking won't necessarily bother me a lot some days, but other days I have to restrain myself from going out onto my porch and screaming at them to shut up. Verbosely. And very impolitely. So not only is my environment volatile, it's unpredictably volatile. So it seems silly to me to say, "Oh, these autistic people aren't building their expectations properly, and that's why they're expecting a volatile environment." I'd be more inclined to say, "the environment, as the autistic person sees it, is volatile, therefore they are less surprised by sudden changes." I'm sure there's still some decent research that could branch off that idea.
I think the basic results, that autistic people are less surprised by the unexpected, are probably about right, though. I don't react normally to sudden emergencies in traffic, and once, I dropped my laptop while I was chatting with an acquaintance. He shouted in surprise at the sudden impending damage to the expensive machine. I, on the other hand, went stone-faced, picked up my laptop, and kept talking while I examined it for damage. He commented on how unusual that was, which is partly why I remember it.
Today's article deals with how neurotypical and autistic people react to sudden, unexpected changes. The researchers had about 50 individuals, half autistic, half neurotypical, follow patterns of audible tones and images. They made the patterns very predictable, right up until they didn't. Then they measured the surprise reactions of the individuals.
Apparently, the autistic people were less surprised in general when the patterns were broken, and the more heavily affected they were, the less surprised they were. After running the data through computer processes, the researchers decided this meant the autistic people were expecting a more unpredictable (volatile) environment. So when the environment was suddenly not following the previous patterns, they weren't as surprised. The head researcher commented that if autistic people are expecting an unpredictable environment, they'd tend to rely more on their senses and less on their prior understanding of patterns, and that might explain why sensory overload is so common.
I do kind of wonder if that researcher doesn't have it backwards. Or at the very least, a two-way street, or a self-reinforcing cycle. So, for example. I have sound-sensitivity. That means that sudden noises, something falling off a shelf, a child shrieking outside, unexpected fireworks, etc, tend to freak me out and hurt me. My poor spouse trips over himself to try not to cause noises like that, because he knows that. When I'm at home, I can usually assume things won't fall off shelves, and there won't be fireworks... but there do seem to be children at many hours of the day, and sometimes things do fall or fireworks go off. My environment, you see, is unpredictable, or volatile. These things wouldn't bother other people, but they do bother me.
In addition to that, my sensitivity isn't predictable. A child shrieking won't necessarily bother me a lot some days, but other days I have to restrain myself from going out onto my porch and screaming at them to shut up. Verbosely. And very impolitely. So not only is my environment volatile, it's unpredictably volatile. So it seems silly to me to say, "Oh, these autistic people aren't building their expectations properly, and that's why they're expecting a volatile environment." I'd be more inclined to say, "the environment, as the autistic person sees it, is volatile, therefore they are less surprised by sudden changes." I'm sure there's still some decent research that could branch off that idea.
I think the basic results, that autistic people are less surprised by the unexpected, are probably about right, though. I don't react normally to sudden emergencies in traffic, and once, I dropped my laptop while I was chatting with an acquaintance. He shouted in surprise at the sudden impending damage to the expensive machine. I, on the other hand, went stone-faced, picked up my laptop, and kept talking while I examined it for damage. He commented on how unusual that was, which is partly why I remember it.
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