9- Neurodiversity Flashcards
What is neurodiversity?
Differences/variation in brain function. Part of a normal continuum rather than reflecting deficits
Attacks the pathologisation/medicalisation of neurodivergent conditions e.g. ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, tourettes
What is ableism?
An ideology whereby those who are disabled are marginalised and “othered”
Unethical treatments for neurodiversity
Vitamin treatments, common in US. Evidence for deficiencies amongst autistic individuals and parents but no obvious causal relationship.
The “refrigerator mother” theory of autism (Bettelheim) is still very prevalent in France- that autism was caused by emotionally cold, distant, or unresponsive mothers
Recent scandals in UK regarding the use of padded cells
Negative reinforcement as part of Applied Behaviour Analysis
Use of electric shock therapy in 50s and 60s
What is the Spectrum 10K study and why was it suspended?
Aimed to study genetic and environmental factors contributing to autism.
Boycotted by autistic community.
Fear of a eugenicist agenda (major concern was that genetic findings from the study could be used to develop prenatal tests for autism and irradicate autism)
Lack of consultation with the autistic community. felt that the goals and methods of the study were not communicated clearly particularly data use
Controversial claims of leader Simon Baron Cohen= mistrust, e.g. theory of mind and extreme male brain theories of autism
What is the double empathy problem?
no fundamental empathy deficit in autism
Empathy is difficult between autistic and non-autistic individuals due to mutual misunderstandings
Autism + infrequent declarative pointing
Declarative pointing seen as a key precursor to language. It signals desire to share cognition. Presumed to be absent/delayed in autism.
But where an autistic child does not point declaratively, they also do not point imperatively.
“Furthermore, it is possible that autistic children are similarly motivated to share experiences, but that there are differences in the kinds of things they find interesting or worth sharing”.
The Diffusion Chain Study (2020)
Explored whether communication breakdowns between autistic and non-autistic individuals (a) poor communication by individuals with autism, (b) a communication breakdown due to differences between autistic and non-autistic individuals.
Findings:
Autistic participants were just as effective as non-autistic participants in transmitting information when interacting exclusively with other autistic individuals. This highlights that autistic people can communicate effectively within their own neurotype.
Breakdowns in communication were more likely to occur in mixed groups, where autistic and non-autistic individuals interacted. This suggests that communication challenges are more about a mismatch in communication styles than inherent deficits in autistic individuals.
MUTUAL MISUNDERSTANDING not autistic peoples poor social communication
What is social motivation in autism/ Desire for aloneness (Jaswal & Akhtar, 2019)
There is a belief that autistic people…
Less likely to (a) orient towards, (b) seek out and enjoy, (c) attempt to maintain relationships with other people (Chevalier et al. 2012b)
Jaswal and Akhtar argue against assumption that autistic individuals lack social motivation or prefer to be alone. These stereotypes misrepresent the social experiences and desires of autistic people.
e.g. Testimony: Autistic adults and adolescents express a desire for friends (Gillespie-Lynch et al.2017b;Marks et al.2000)
Behavioural data, e.g. autistic children are as likely as non-autistic children to choose to play with someone else rather than alone (Cage et al. 2016)
Alternative explanations for findings, e.g. desire for aloneness may be triggered by the stress and uncertainty of interacting with neurotypical individuals.
Does not recognise relationship between social motivation and dynamic interaction, i.e. lack of social motivation in autism may be a response to behaviours of neurotypical individuals
Some behaviours that may appear as “social disinterest” (e.g., avoiding eye contact, not engaging in small talk) are often misunderstood. These behaviors may reflect differences in how autistic individuals express or experience social engagement, rather than a lack of interest.
For many neurotypical individuals lack of eye contact signifies lack of social engagement. How is this opposed?
Role of eye contact in early dyadic interaction varies across cultures, e.g. caregivers may avert gaze when infants are upset in order to calm them
Autistic individuals can find gaze overwhelming. May, as an alternative, direct gaze towards the mouth.
Backed up by anecdotal evidence: autistic people say that they avoid looking at a speaker’s face altogether to concentrate on what they are saying.
But even non-autistic adults avert gaze when solving difficult problems (Glenberg et al.1998)
Klin et al. (2002) “Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolf”
No relation between the amount of time they spent looking at the actors’ eyes and measures of social competence
However, time they spent looking at the actors’ mouths
⇒social competence
Social information conveyed through speech may be easier for some autistic individuals to interpret than social information conveyed through the eyes
How many autistic children have echolalia?
75%
Autistic sociality
Autistic individuals not necessarily less sociable or lack awareness of social cues. INSTEAD different way of being social e.g. less influenced by desire to please others.
Neurodiversity and ADHD, questioning standard account of an “attention deficit”
Attention may not be ‘lacking’. Data suggests that some individuals with ADHD may hyperfocus, i.e. intense focus on a single task to the exclusion of all else.
Not a deficit of attention per se, but a difficulty with attention regulation
ADHD relationship between motivation and attention
Individuals with ADHD have very poor attention when not engaged, but potentially excellent attention when they are.
What is the evidence for irrational decision-making in humans? What role do “heuristics” play in this process?
Tversky and Kahneman:
Heuristics= cognitive shortcuts to ease cognitive load when making judgments or decisions. Heuristics allow people to reach decisions rapidly based on a rule of thumb, an educated guess, or an intuitive judgment, without fully processing every bit of available information algorithmically.
Heuristics sensitive to context, motivations, emotions can lead to more biased-prone reasoning.
The attraction effect: Changing ones decision between two options based on the introduction of a third irrelevant decoy. The choice most similar to the decoy will then be considered more attractive.
The sunk cost bias: People often factor in past, unrecoverable costs when making decisions about future investments, even though those sunk costs should be irrelevant and only future potential for gains and losses should be considered.
The framing effect: Individuals tend to favour options framed positively, even if those options are mathematically equivalent to negatively framed options. For instance, choosing an option described as “80% fat-free” over “20% fat” exemplifies this bias
Conjunction fallacy: Neurotypical individuals may favour improbable explanations over more probable ones due to presence of highly representative information.
Overreliance on intuition
Growing evidence autistic individuals show “enhanced rationality”. What does this mean?
They demonstrate more objective judgments and less biased decision-making compared to neurotypical individuals.
Evidence for enhanced rationality in ASD
Reduced reliance on intuition- less intuitive and more deliberative reasoning
Less influence of irrelevant information- not affected by attraction effect, conjunction fallacy or sunk cost bias
Reduced framing effect- do not favour mathematically equivalent positively framed options over negatively framed options.
More objective processing of reward and negative information- the ultimatum game reveals ASD individuals less driven by immediate rewards and more likely to learn long-term reward contingences
Reduced Optimistic bias- no differences in learning from desirable vs undesirable information.
What is conjunction fallacy?
When people assume that the probability of two events happening together is greater than the probability of one of those events occurring alone, due to the salience of representative information. This is illogical because the occurrence of two events simultaneously is always less likely than the occurrence of either event individually.
What is meant by a “fallacy” when discussing decision-making? What are some examples?
Fallacy refers to a flawed reasoning pattern or a mistake that leads to inaccurate conclusion, not based on sound judgement.
Conjunction fallacy - when people assume that the probability of two events happening together is greater than the probability of one of those events occurring alone. This is illogical because the occurrence of two events simultaneously is always less likely than the occurrence of either event individually.
Sunk cost fallacy- continuing to invest in a decision based on the resources already committed, even when the current evidence suggests that it’s no longer a beneficial choice. The sunk cost fallacy stems from an irrational attachment to past investments, ignoring the potential for future losses.
Framing Effect: This fallacy demonstrates how the way information is presented or “framed” can influence choices, even if the options are objectively the same.
why is autistic decision-making is less influenced by emotion?
Reduced Amygdala Activation and structural differences- amygdala= a brain region crucial for processing emotions. Suggests that emotional responses may be less intense or differently processed in autistic individuals, potentially leading to a reduced impact of emotions on decision-making.
Atypical Reward Processing: Individuals with ASD frequently exhibit atypical brain responses to rewards, including monetary and social rewards. This altered reward processing might explain their reduced susceptibility to biases driven by the immediate appeal of rewards, as observed in probabilistic learning tasks and the ultimatum game
How might Weak Central Coherence be related to hyper-rational decision-making?
Reduced reliance on context and prior knowledge
Enhanced attention to detail- Weak Central Coherence might allow individuals with ASD to better discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information. This could contribute to their resistance to biases like the sunk cost fallacy and the attraction effect, where irrelevant information or options can influence choices.
Less influence of heuristics
Are there any implications of hyper-rational decision-making for social interaction?
Reduced influence on social stereotypes.. potentially leading to more equitable treatment of others
