Saturday, June 02, 2012

Enhanced perceptual capacity in autism

"These findings confirm our hypothesis and offer a promising solution to the previous discrepancies by suggesting that increased distractor processing in ASD results not from a filtering deficit but from enhanced perceptual capacity."


Lightening the load: Perceptual load impairs visual detection in typical adults but not in autism.
Remington, Anna M.; Swettenham, John G.; Lavie, Nilli
Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Vol 121(2), May 2012, 544-551. 

doi: 10.1037/a0027670
http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2012-06742-001/

"“People with autism have higher perceptual capacity compared to the typical population,” said Nilli Lavie, a professor of psychology and brain sciences at University College London who worked on the study."


Autism Offers Clear Advantage, Study Finds.

4 comments:

Justthisguy said...

Well, yeah. It's obvious to anyone who has the least bit of autitude. My eyeballs, with correction, are 20-15. (They wouldn't have needed correction had it not been for the scarlet fever.) I have been told by an audiologist that I have unusually good hearing. Mostly, this just makes it easier to hear the tinnitus caused by stupid things like attending rock-and-roll performances and shooting my revolver without ear protection.

In defense of my doing the latter, I figured the .45 Colt is a low-pressure cartridge and won't hurt yer ears much. I was wrong. At least I got to find out that a plain lead bullet from that cartridge, doing only 800 ft/sec or so, will go through about 18'' of soggy newspapers and about an inch deep into the ground beneath.

Lili Marlene said...

Sounds quite dangerous. Ever considered a less dangerous pastime? Gardening? Handcrafts? A good book?

Justthisguy said...

Gardening? Hell no. Handicrafts? Yup, I can't count the number of model airplanes I've lost in thermals. A good book? Guilty. I am an hopeless bookworm.

No, it was not the least bit dangerous, except to my ears. Remember, the piece was pointed _away_ from me, into a safe backstop. It was at New Year's at midnight, so the sound was lost among the firecrackers, preserving me from arrest. Only Mexicans and Arabs fire joy shots up into the air, where the bullets can come down and hurt somebody.

You really need to get over your gun phobia and go shooting sometime. It is an excellent mental discipline which calms the mind and inculcates a useful survival skill.

Lili Marlene said...

I'm reassured that you aren't striking terror into the hearts of your neighbours with your firearms testing. That's good to know. Take care my friend.