Weak Central Coherence Flashcards
(32 cards)
Define the term Weak Central Coherence WCC.
A cognitive style where individuals focus on small details instead of the big picture.
Define the term central coherence.
It is a spectrum of cognitive processing styles, ranging from weak to strong, where weak central coherence reflects a focus on individual details (e.g., proofreading), and strong central coherence reflects the ability to integrate information into a meaningful whole (e.g., understanding the gist).
Who introduced the concept of Central Coherence?
Frith (1989)
What does ‘Weak Central Coherence’ mean according to Uta Frith?
It refers to a tendency to process information in a detail-focused way, often at the expense of integrating it into a broader context.
(1989, 2003)
How does Weak Central Coherence relate to autism, according to Frith?
Frith suggested that individuals with autism often show weak central coherence, which helps explain strengths in detail-focused tasks but difficulties with context-based tasks like understanding narratives.
What major shift did Happé make in 1999 regarding WCC?
Happé re-conceptualised WCC as a bias or preference for local processing, not a deficit in global processing.
According to Happé, can individuals with autism process global information?
Yes, they can process global information, but naturally prefer to focus on details.
What did empirical studies show about autistic individuals’ global processing abilities?
Studies showed that autistic individuals often have a strong local bias, but their global processing can be intact, especially when the task explicitly requires it.
What are the implications of Happé’s view of WCC?
It highlights the strengths of detail-focused thinking and suggests these can be used positively in educational and therapeutic settings.
How did Frith & Happé (2006) further develop the WCC theory?
They said that Weak Central Coherence (WCC) is a thinking style everyone has to some degree. People with autism are just more detail-focused than most. It’s not a problem—just a different way of thinking.
According to Frith & Happé (2006), how does WCC relate to other cognitive features of autism?
They suggested that WCC may coexist with, rather than directly cause, other features such as Theory of Mind deficits.
What is the Embedded Figures Task (EFT)?
The EFT is a test where people have to find a simple shape hidden inside a complex picture. It measures how well someone focuses on details (local processing) vs. the big picture (global processing).
What was the aim of Shah & Frith’s 1983 study?
To compare how autistic children perform on the Children’s Embedded Figures Test (EFT) compared to children matched by mental age (MA) and chronological age (CA).
What did Shah & Frith (1983, 1993) discover using the EFT?
They found that people with autism are often better at this task than neurotypical people. They can spot the hidden shapes faster and more accurately.
What kind of strategies did autistic children use in the EFT (1983)?
They used detail-focused strategies, showing a preference for local over global information processing.
How did Shah & Frith (1993) build on their earlier findings?
They expanded their research to include other perceptual tasks like block design and confirmed that autistic individuals have enhanced local processing and reduced global processing.
What theory did Shah & Frith’s findings help establish?
The Weak Central Coherence (WCC) theory, which suggests that autistic individuals are more focused on parts and details and less on context and wholes.
(1993)
How did Shah & Frith’s work influence our understanding of autism?
It shifted the focus from just deficits to recognizing unique cognitive strengths in autism, such as attention to detail, and promoted the study of cognitive styles.
What did Davies et al. (1994) study in relation to autism?
They studied how individuals with autism process faces.
What was the key finding from Davies et al. (1994)?
Autistic individuals focus more on individual facial features rather than the overall configuration of the face.
How does Davies et al. (1994) support the WCC theory?
It shows a preference for local detail (featural processing) over global integration, supporting WCC’s idea of a detail-focused cognitive style.
What task did Happé (1997) use to explore language processing in autism?
Participants were asked to read sentences aloud containing homographs (e.g., “tear”).
What difficulty did children with autism show in Happé (1997)?
They often mispronounced homographs due to trouble using sentence context to find the correct meaning.
What does this finding suggest about autistic cognition?
It supports WCC by showing difficulty in integrating contextual (global) information in language.
