Weak central coherence theory

Assessment | Biopsychology | Comparative | Cognitive | Developmental | Language | Individual differences | Personality | Philosophy | Social |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |

Cognitive Psychology: Attention · Decision making · Learning · Judgement · Memory · Motivation · Perception · Reasoning · Thinking  - Cognitive processes Cognition - Outline Index

---

The weak central coherence theory (WCC), also called the Central coherence theory (CC), suggests that a specific perceptual-cognitive style, loosely described as a keen recognition for detail combined with a limited ability to understand context or to "see the big picture", is a key part of autism. Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition involving social differences, repetitive behavior, narrow interests, and sensory processing issues.

The weak central coherence theory attempts to explain how some autistic people show remarkable ability in subjects like math and engineering, while struggling with language and being socially isolated.

Uta Frith, of University College London, first advanced the weak central coherence theory in the late 1980s. Frith suggested that autistic people typically think about things in the smallest possible parts. She believed autistic people actually perceive details better than non-autistic people, but that "they cannot see the wood for the trees."

The validity of weak central coherence has been called into question. While autistic people show superior ability to recognize details, research suggests their ability to "see the big picture" is not necessarily impaired.

Evidence

Some research has suggested that autistic people may tend towards fragmented perception and find less benefit from receiving context in sentences, narratives, and memory tests.

Evidence for improved local processing

Autistic people have shown superior performance on tasks that require attention to visual detail. These include:

• Block design task: recognizing the constituent blocks in an unsegment condition
• Embedded figures task: finding hidden shapes in drawings

Lack of evidence for deficits in global processing

Research has called weak central coherence theory into question.

Multiple studies have found that while autistic people are better at certain detailed tasks, their holistic processing abilities are similar to those of controls.

In 2003, Beatriz López, Susan R. Leekam conclude their study:

"Conclusions: [Our] findings demonstrate that children with autism do not have a general difficulty in connecting context information and item information as predicted by weak central coherence theory. Instead the results suggest that there is specific difficulty with complex verbal stimuli and in particular with using sentence context to disambiguate meaning."

Natasja van Lang suggests that autistic people may have a preference for local processing while being able to process globally when asked:

"Results in which central coherence skills are measured with perceptual or verbal-semantic tasks revealed that autistic individuals have a tendency for fragmented perception (Jarrold & Russell, 1997; Happé, 1996), and that they benefit less from the context of meaning in sentences, narratives and memory tests (Happé, 1994b; Jolliffe & Baron-Cohen, 1999). However, some studies failed to replicate these findings (Brian & Bryson, 1996; Ozonoff et al., 1991; Ropar & Mitchell, 1999). This inconsistency may be explained on the basis of how weak central coherence was measured in terms of an inability to process globally versus the preference for processing locally. Recent studies suggest that people with autism are able to process globally when they are instructed to do so, however they process information locally when no such instructions are offered (Mottron et al., 1999; Plaisted et al., 1999; Rinehart et al., 2000)."

Insights from autistic people

Autistic people have questioned the theory of WCC. One of the criticisms is that the 'context' deemed universal by the researchers might not at all be so universal from a rational point of view. In her blog, autistic writer Alyric devotes an article to central coherence:

"There are differences in the kinds of ‘big picture’ here obviously. One refers to systems and the others, of the kind that Frith and Happe automatically assumed to be universal, have an essential social element."

Naja Melan claims that neurotypical people are often biased to overemphasize one context and neglecting all other contexts. This he states is an expression of WCC, as compared to autistic people who have the possibility of consciously focusing on multiple contexts if deemed appropriate by them or requested.

See also

• Autism
• Autism : Theory of mind
• Asperger syndrome
• Field dependence
• Intense world theory of autism
• Sensory Integration Dysfunction
• Uta Frith

External links

• in-cities.com - 'An interview with: Professor Uta Frith' (March, 2005)
• UCDavis.edu - 'Uta Frith, Ph.D. M.I.N.D. Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series' (February 8, 2006)
• Hypnosisschool.org - Summary of Global and Local processes