Quote Originally Posted by cbarry View Post
whats the context, asshole
Autism as Context Blindness
Research into the role of context in human information processing has revealed that contextual sensitivity is crucial in exactly those areas known to be affected in autism: social interaction, communication, and flexibility in thoughts and behavior. This has led to the hypothesis of context blindness as the common pathway in the cognitive deficits in autism. Interestingly, lack of contextual sensitivity can account for many of the cognitive assets in autism such as the ability to think logically without being disturbed by contextual elements (e.g., emotions).

Context blindness refers to a reduced spontaneous use of context when giving meaning to a stimulus. To put it more simply: the autistic brain thinks in an absolute way, rather than a relative, contextually defined way. Remember the scene in the movie, Rain Man, where Raymond is trying to cross a street? In Raymond’s mind when the sign displays “Don’t walk,” it means only one thing: “Don’t walk.” We laugh when the sign changes from “Walk” to “Don’t walk” and Raymond stops in the middle of the intersection. Raymond does not understand that “Don’t walk” means many different things, depending on the situation or context. When you’re halfway through the crossing, it means “hurry up” instead!

Here is another example of context blindness: When the doorbell rang, the mother of a seven-year-old boy with autism asked him to open the door. He opened the back door instead of the front. His reaction was logical, but his choice of door was out of context.