Thinking in Pictures: A Fresh Look at Cognition in Autism

Thinking in Pictures: A Fresh Look at Cognition in Autism Maithilee Kunda (mkunda@cc.gatech.edu) Ashok K. Goel (goel@cc.gatech.edu) School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology 85 Fifth Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30308, USA While the specific causes of autism are not known, an etiological framework, shown in Figure 1, has been traced out that leads from genetic and possibly environmental factors, through neurobiological development and cognitive functioning, and finally to behavioral manifestations (adapted from Minshew & Goldstein, 1998). Many theories have attempted to give a cogent account of the changes in cognitive functioning that lead to the behavioral characteristics of autism. Some prominent theories include: Mindblindness, which hypothesizes that individuals with autism lack a “theory of mind,” i.e. they cannot ascribe mental beliefs to other people (Baron-Cohen, 1995); Weak Central Coherence, which posits a bias towards local instead of global information processing (Happe & Frith, 2006); and Executive Dysfunction, which suggests that individuals with autism have deficits in executive functions such as planning, mental flexibility, and inhibition (Russell, 1998). However, many individuals on the autism spectrum have given quite different introspective descriptions of their cognitive processes. One of the most famous is the account by Temple Grandin in her book Thinking in Pictures (2006). Grandin, a high-functioning adult with autism, states that her mental representations are predominantly visual, i.e. that she thinks in pictures, and that this representational bias affects how she performs a range of cognitive operations, from conceptual categorization to the interpretation of complex social cues. Numerous other individuals with autism have also informally reported becoming aware of similar biases in mental representation, suggesting that Grandin is not an isolated case. While Grandin’s account of visual thinking has been primarily an introspective study, we aim to show that the Thinking in Pictures hypothesis does, in fact, represent a very powerful way to look at cognition in autism. We begin by considering what it might mean to think in pictures and how this would differ from typical cognition. Second, we explore how Thinking in Pictures could account for many characteristic behaviors of autism. Third, we present relevant empirical data from a range of literature, including cognitive and neurobiological studies of individuals with autism. Fourth, we examine how Thinking in Pictures relates to other cognitive theories of autism. Abstract In this paper, we develop a cognitive account of autism centered around a reliance on pictorial representations. This Thinking in Pictures hypothesis, inspired by the book of the same name by Temple Grandin, shows significant potential for explaining many autistic behaviors. We support this hypothesis with empirical evidence from several independent cognitive and neuroimaging studies of individuals with autism, each of which shows strong bias towards visual representations and activity. We also examine three other cognitive theories of autism—Mindblindness, Weak Central Coherence, and Executive Dysfunction—and show how Thinking in Pictures provides a deeper explanation for several results typically cited in support of these theories. Keywords: Autism; cognitive theory; mental imagery; pictorial representation; visual reasoning. Introduction Ever since the discoveries of autism and Asperger’s syndrome in the 1940s by physicians Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have been defined by the atypical behaviors that they produce. In particular, ASDs (referred to as “autism” for simplicity) are developmental conditions characterized by atypical social interactions, communication skills, and patterns of behavior and interests, as described in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR, 2000). What Does It Mean to Think in Pictures? Developing a Thinking in Pictures account of autism raises many hard issues. Do individuals with autism actually think in pictures, or do they just think they do? If they actually do, does it mean they are incapable of representing verbal Figure 1: Outline of etiology of autism (adapted from Minshew & Goldstein, 1998).