以琳自闭症论坛

标题: 别忽视了中央联系理论,执行功能缺陷 [打印本页]

作者: niuniuma    时间: 2010-1-25 08:21
标题: 别忽视了中央联系理论,执行功能缺陷
最近看了一段书,Michelle Garcia Winner,对这中央联系理论和执行功能缺陷,外加ToM的解释。举例生动。我家孩子做作业慢,洗漱慢,丢三落四,没有计划性,学校生活一团乱麻,都是因为中央联系弱,和执行功能差。

这两样,一定要好好练习啊。RDI PCI可帮不上这方面。
作者: 方静    时间: 2010-1-25 09:23
标题: re:牛妈:  我很感兴趣,可以多提供信息...
牛妈:
  我很感兴趣,可以多提供信息吗?
作者: 忘了我是谁    时间: 2010-1-25 10:58
标题: re:[QUOTE][b]下面引用由[u]方静...
下面引用由方静发表的内容:

牛妈:
  我很感兴趣,可以多提供信息吗?


Michelle Garcia Winner's website:

http://www.socialthinking.com/
作者: niuniuma    时间: 2010-1-25 12:22
标题: re:书中介绍了三个理论:1. Cen...
书中介绍了三个理论:

1. Central Coherence Theory (Frith, 1989)
2. Executive Dysfunction Theory (McEvoy, Rogers,and Pennington, 1993)
3. Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, and Frith,1985)

这三个理论网上应该能找到。

1. Central Coherence Theory (Frith, 1989)
Michelle举例说:课堂上老师说“拼写考试”。所有的学生立刻拿出一张纸,折一半,在左边从上往下写下123。。,右上角写下日期和名字,并把纸标上“拼写考试”。一个高功能的自闭孩子什么也没做:他不知道“拼写考试”意味着除了写下老师念的字以外,还包括了写字前期后期的一系列相关的动作,(才能完成整个任务)。

我也举例:
孩子吃饭很慢,不是咀嚼慢,是不吃的时间太长。我以前说“快点吃”。她很疑惑,说怎样才能快吃?我改说“吃”。有效。
孩子洗漱每个步骤都会,但是不能独自完成整个洗漱,必须在边上提醒:刷完牙了,可以洗脸了。。。

2. Executive Dysfunction Theory (McEvoy, Rogers,and Pennington, 1993)
Michelle举例: 学生上大学,作业课程太多,不会计划。只能交下堂课的作业,但是需要较长时间完成的project,却落后很多。学生不会把project分割成小部分;不会计划时间,不会在高层上理解各种信息,和老师答疑时不会计划组织问题从而得到帮助。如果某次真的做完project,是很棒的,问题是,极少能完成。

我举例:孩子课桌里各种书,本,笔,乱的不行了。这才2年纪。还不用换教室。。。
写作难以下笔也是典型。每天的写作都空着。

3. Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, and Frith,1985)
这个比较著名。Michelle从自己的学生看,前两项缺陷,和ToM缺陷,相关性很强。
作者: lys    时间: 2010-1-25 12:22
标题: re:‘忘了我是谁’给的是英文网,惭愧看不懂,...
‘忘了我是谁’给的是英文网,惭愧看不懂,各位大侠们写写你们了解到的信息吧。
作者: overgame    时间: 2010-1-25 13:27
标题: re:在实际中我发现主要是听觉注意力严重落后,...
在实际中我发现主要是听觉注意力严重落后,也就是从听到执行有一定障碍,最近的研究表明,自闭儿童的听力平均比正常慢0.01秒。相反视觉反应就比较好,甚至比一般人快,这个国外也做过实验。所以国外的特教班一般是增加视觉辅助来教育。
至于PROJECT拖拖拉拉无法按时完成,主要是PROJECT注重创造力和灵活性,而这些正是其弱点,他们会觉得很难而退缩最后越托越后无法按时完成。
作者: niuniuma    时间: 2010-1-26 03:15
标题: re:http://www.ied.edu.h...
http://www.ied.edu.hk/autism/Weak%20Central%20Coherence.htm
整體和重點思考能力的缺失 (Weak Central Coherence)

它是什麼?

最簡單來說,它指偏好細節部分多於全盤思考;它也指長於分拆的技巧,對細節有很強的觀察力,這從解開層疊畫謎 (指從一堆線條中找出隱藏物件),或拼砌積木圖案 (指把多個立體積木的其中一面圖畫合併組成一個圖案) 的優異能力可見;它也指自閉症人士不能將物件的零星部分整合,或將句子重組成段落。

自閉症人士的世界是一個零碎分裂的世界,有一位自閉症人士說:「我把自閉症人士的視覺比作昆蟲的小眼面視覺 - 同時看到眾多零碎且細微、不同的資料。」

整體重點思考和建立相關概念的能力有關,它不是天生有便有,沒有便沒有。它是循認知能力發展而來的,有些人學到多一些,有些人少一些。說自閉症人士完全沒有整體重點思考能力是錯的,它只是發展得不夠好。令到問題更複雜的是:這個障礙在自閉症人士身上會顯現出不同的程度。

在一般的認知方式裡,可以見到人類有一個天生的傾向,就是喜歡盡量為外界刺激找出聯繫,也喜歡盡量類化所知到其他情景。整體和重點思考的正常運作驅使人類最注重事物的意義,由此方可分辨有意義和無意義的材料。自閉症兒童就是這方面的能力薄弱,結果就是無論處理資料的機制或是他們的社交群處能力,同樣予人突兀之感。

學者Frith, U. (1989) 的理論

人類的思考模式可分為中央資料處理過程和邊緣資料處理過程,邊緣資料處理過程包括種種個別的領域,如說話,它們最後匯聚在中央經過處理成為進一步的資料。但局部的凝聚力是很強的,它要抵抗高層次的中央凝聚力來處理邊緣的資料,如中央凝聚力比局部凝聚力弱,它就造成局部領域的獨立運作,這正好解釋了自閉症人士分拆畫謎的高超能力。


自閉症人士缺乏「整體和重點思考能力」的行為表現

1.特強的硬記能力

對比一般兒童,自閉症兒童在記一些無意義的單字、句子、或資料時,不會感到更為困難。相對來說,一般兒童傾向於去記憶一個信息的意義或它的規律和結構。

2.處理空間的能力

在解開層疊畫謎測試方面,自閉症兒童的表現是他們智力歲數的中位以上。

3.能夠分辨微細的視覺和聽覺資料

4.類化的困難

自閉症人士可能不感到有類化不同東西的需要,而並不是不能為事物分類或找到事物的相同點。一成不變的行為可能因為他只是對處境裡某項資料作出反應,當該項資料在另一個場合沒出現的話,就不會有同樣的反應。

5.注意力問題

一般人留意的東西,自閉症兒童可能不會留意。他們所留意環境中的某些小節,一般人也未必會留意。對某些偏狹的題目,他們也許會長時間保持興趣,而其他兒童只會對整體的模式更感興趣,因為一般人覺得他們在整體方面更能找到共同意義。

6.堅持一成不變

它源自局部的凝聚力,範圍可以很偏狹和具有獨立運作性。它可以正式被稱為刻板的思維,或一些高度重複性預設的意念。

7.呆超人的能力

它其實包含了幾個因素:對一個題目的持久注意力、專門性資料處理系統的順利運作、和最重要的是重複的運作。

8.重複性行為

重複是輸入和輸出系統的自然屬性,當它們的產生受到高層次的中央監察系統認取後,這兩個系統正常情況下應會停止,通知輸入系統處理新的資料和輸出系統轉向別個活動。但患有自閉症的腦袋卻擁有兩個分隔的中央和邊緣資料處理系統,這是因為中央的監控系統太弱了,不能關閉輸入和輸出系統。

9.僵化的行為

較高層次的機制在適應場合時特別需要運用彈性,但對較低層次的處理機制來說,可靠性更為重要。從人類的進化過程中,明顯可見的是:原始的神經系統的表現是極為刻板的。

10. 不明白一些說話的用意

自閉症人士覺得溝通最困難的地方是不知道說話背後的意義。意義通常隱藏在背景內,而自閉症人士由於對背景資料未能完全掌握,很多時只會對其中部分資料作出反應。

11. 鸚鵡式學舌

語言方面似乎繞過了中央的思維。就算語音、聲律、語法準確,它們綜合的語言卻欠缺整體的意義。整體和重點思考能力的缺失,令自閉症人士不了解溝通的基本目的。

12.「你」、「我」;「這」、「那」;「來」、「去」等詞語的倒轉運用

這些詞語的運用須視乎誰是說話者、誰是聆聽者,所以掌握背景時較為困難。

13.異常的聲調、說話速度、流利程度、語氣的強調

這是由於不能做到真正的雙向性溝通。

14.缺乏想法解讀能力

從各方面看到、記得、聽取的不同資料綜合在一起,如果不把它們串連為一個有意義的整體,它們只是一堆零碎的資料,任何人也會感到難以理解。理解社交行為和推斷較高層次的意念,是尋找相關性和摘要的最高境界。自閉症人士不能在較高層面找出意義,所以造成社交方面的障礙。如果知道人有知道某些事的能力,也許就是為某些事找到意義的關鍵。

15.難以作出決定

一般人作出決定時,會將整體沒有意義的選擇刪除,但自閉症人士卻沒有把它們刪除,所以他們面對一大堆的選擇不知如何決定。

16.不能同時處理多件事物

他們的智力不平衡,使到他們要逐項地處理資料,也需要更多的時間來理解,反應也因而會較慢。

17.缺乏常識

這是由於他們賦予事物意義的方式與一般人不一樣。

18.長於記憶細節

由於他們找不到事物的相關性,所以只好倚賴細節的記憶。


「想法解讀」理論所不能解釋與社交無關的自閉症表現

l          偏狹的嗜好

l          強烈的意願去保持原狀

l          刻板性

l          呆超人能力

l          不能類化

l          特強的硬記能力

l          對物件部分的專注性

l          感官接收的零碎性



「想法解讀」理論不能解釋的測試結果

能力強項                                              能力弱項

記不相關的字串                                 記整句句子

記不相關的事物                                 記相關的事物

砌造圖案                                             找出圖案

利用形狀拼圖                                     拼砌成圖畫

循飾物配件把面孔分類                     循人把面孔分類


「整體和重點思考能力的缺失」與「想法解讀」的關係

Happ, F (1994) 認為「想法解讀」有兩層意思:

1.          為事物套上想法的能力;

2.          對社交行為的理解也是基於上述的能力才能猜測別人的想法,但也是許多其它原因如性格、動機、代入感、智商、環境、經驗的作用達致的結果。

學者Frith, U. and Happ, F. (1994) 認為「整體和重點思考能力」和上述第一項能力是不同的東西,但卻不能脫離第二項。第一項能力不是「整體和重點思考能力的缺失」的結果,但就第二項來說,如要理解別人的想法和感受,就必須考慮整個情景和組合各方面的資料,所以循自然或對情景敏感角度來量度理解社交行為能力,會很容易找到「整體和重點思考能力」所產生的作用。

另一個可能就是兩者存在著因果的關係,把環境因素組合方能令「想法解讀」機制成熟,也可推想的是:我們抽取較高層面意義的傾向是和人類的群體性有關的。



「想法解讀」的最新理論如何評價「整體和重點思考能力」的缺失

Simon Baron-Cohen 的「想法解讀」理論加進了一個新的部分 - 「系統化處理機制」。它也涵蓋了自閉症人士對細節的特強觀察力。但在理解整個系統方面,「想法解讀」和「整體和重點思考能力」的缺失有不同的結論,根據「整體和重點思考能力」缺失的理論,自閉症人士應不能理解整個系統,與及它各個部分之間的關係。但「想法解讀」則說,只要這系統有規則可尋,自閉症人士很容易知道改變一個參數會為整個系統帶來什麼間接的後果。自閉症人士的重複性行為,源自他們對任何有規律的系統的強烈興趣,他們喜歡事物保持原狀,也許是在探究系統的規律或辨認物理因果關係。

「系統化處理機制」需要準確性,所以自閉症人士的說話常是學究味很重,充斥了不必要的細節,他們也常顯示出擁有詳盡的記憶。有時準確性機制太強時,自閉症人士發覺不能有一個準確的答案,就會不知道如何回答,同時也需要較長時間來選擇答案,它因此也影響了他們代入他人感受的能力,因為這方面的答案永遠不可能準確的。





Weak Central Coherence

Tracing back::

Kanner(1943) described, as a universal feature of autism, the ‘inability to experience wholes without full attention to the constituent parts’.



Present reference :

The term “central coherence” is not mentioned. Only its meaning or definition is indirectly given as follows :

教署2001年資料光碟「融合教育」之「自閉篇」第一章1.4學習特徵:

1.4.1 不明白事物的相關性

自閉症學生一般都不明白生活經驗背後的意義。由於他們的世界是由許多獨立的小節組成,他們未必能將這些小節連結成有意義的概念,以致不能明白小節之間的相互關係。經過適當訓練後,部分學生能夠依次序處理信思。不過,由於他們不容易明白較複雜的關係,因此認知上往往會出現困難。

1.4.2 過分執著事物的枝節

自閉症學生往往過分執著事物的枝節,而忽略了重要的部分

1.4.4 較難掌握抽象的概念

自閉症學生在處理語言符號及意思的統合可能有困難。他們一般比較留意影象而忽略語言,在處理信息時通常會著眼於片面的資料,而未能全面了解事件。



Sources of materials

Contents of the materials in the following section are either quoted or summarized from :

1.          Vermeulen,P.(2001). Autistic Thinking – This is the title. London: Jessica Kingsley

2.          Frith, U.(1989).Autism:explaining the enigma. Oxford:Blackwell

3.          Happ, F. (2000). Parts and wholes, meaning and minds: central coherence and its relation to theory of mind Understanding Other Minds Second Edition Oxford : Oxford University Press

4.          Baron-Cohen, S. (draft 4th May 2001). The exact mind: Empathising and systemizing in autism spectrum conditions? To appear in Goswami, U, (ed) Handbook of Cognitive Development. Blackwell:Oxford (in press)



What is ‘weak central coherence’?

In simplest terms, it refers to the individual’s preference for local detail over global processing. It means good segmentation skills and superior attention to details, as evidenced by Embedded Figures Task and Block Design Subtest. It also means an autistic deficit in integrating fragments of objects and integrating sentences within a paragraph, of which tests have also been made. (Simon Baron-Cohen, 2001)



Autistic people’s world is a fragmented world. In the word of a person with autism : ‘I compare autistic sight with the faceted vision of an insect: a host of different subtle details but all of it non-integrated.’

Central coherence, the ability to establish cohesion, is not something you are either born with or not. It is an ability that is developed, something people can acquire to a greater or lesser degree. It is wrong to think that people with autism entirely lack central coherence. It’s just that with them the ability is weakly developed: To further complicate things the degree of weakness of central coherence is not identical in all individuals with autism.

The misunderstanding about the talent of people with autism is the result of a mistaken understanding of intelligence. . Clearly, there are different kinds of intelligence. In what way is the structure of autistic people’s intelligence different from that of people without autism? .(Vermeulen, P. 2001).



In the normal cognitive system there is a built-in propensity to form coherence over as wide a range of stimuli as possible, and to generalize over as wide a range of contexts as possible. It is this capacity for coherence that is diminished in autistic children. As a result, their information-processing systems, like their very beings, are characterized by detachment. The normal operation of central coherence compels us human beings to give priority to understanding meaning. Hence, we can easily single out meaningful from meaningless material. .(Frith, U.,1989)



Frith explains further the concept of central coherence in the following:

We can draw on a simple model of the mind. The model is based on information-processing concepts. At its most basic this model of mind distinguishes central thought processes and more peripheral input and output processes. The peripheral processes are specialized for various domains, for instance speech. input devices transform sensations into perceptions going through many stages of processing. They can be thought of a custom-built, highly specialized modules. Their end-product is usable information, already interpreted. This information can be further interpreted by central thought processes. The central system too can provide many stages of processing in many specialized subsystems.

There might be a force which pulls together large amounts of information. The smaller amounts of information that eventually contribute to the larger picture too must be pulled together from even smaller amounts by some locally acting cohesive force. Local cohesive effects are very strong. Perhaps they are impossible to resist when they occur at a relatively peripheral level. Why should there be a centrally acting high-level cohesive force? Why is there a need to pull together information that is already processed and already interpreted? The answer might be: without this type of high-level cohesion, pieces of information would just remain pieces, be they small pieces or large pieces.

High-level central cohesive forces must be resistible to some extent. This is necessary in order to explain the achievement of disembedding.

A weak central cohesive force, weak relative to lower level cohesive forces, would simulate ‘field independence’ and all that it entails for performance on embedded figures.



Manifestations and explanations of autistic people’s abilities and behaviors in the ‘central coherence ‘context:



1. Good rote memory skills

In Word string tests – The meaning of a message to be repeated, or the structure of the pattern, the single most important feature for normal children, is not as significant for autistic children. They may remember unconnected words almost as well as meaningful sentences, and unconnected bits of information as well as those that are part of a meaningful context. It is this lack of preference for coherent over incoherent stimuli that must be regarded as abnormal.

The key word in rote memory is ‘rote’ as opposed to ‘meaningful’. Hence, it is appropriate to consider astounding isolated feats of rote memory of autistic children as a sign of dysfunction, rather than islets of intact ability.



2. Good spatial abilities

On the Embedded Figures test, autistic children scored above average for their mental age.(Shah and Frith,1983)



3.      An ability to discriminate fine visual and auditory detail.



4.      Problem of generalization – it is not the inability to categorize or inability to see similarities despite differences that prevents the application of learning. But perhaps it is an inability to see the need for generalization across differences. Not pulling information together in spite of perceived similarities might be traced to a weakness in a drive for central coherence.

Veumeulen : in your behavior you are oriented towards one particular detail and you fail to react when that detail happens to be absent from the situation – thus resulting in rigidity.



5.      Attention control – incidental features of the environment can become an autistic person’s main focus of attention. That which is perceptually salient to most people may not be salient to an autistic child, and vice versa. An autistic individual can focus for a long time on a narrow topic for its own appeal, whereas a normal child would attend to it briefly, finding it interesting only as part of a greater pattern. It is probably only in the greater pattern that people share something of what they consider to have significant meaning.



6.      Insistence on sameness – it is a type of local coherence. It is extremely limited in scope and quite self-contained. It can properly be called a thought stereotypy, a preoccupation of a highly repetitive nature.



7.      Idiot savant – the ability depends on several factors; a capacity for sustained attention to one topic; the smooth running of specialized processing systems; and above all, repetitive activity.



8.      Repetitive behavior – Repetition is the natural ‘setting’ for input and output systems, and that they are normally stopped from repeating when their products are acknowledged by a high-level central monitor. Such acknowledgement could be the signal for an input device to start processing new information and for output device to change to new action. The impaired brain, in the case of autism, would show a disengagement between central and peripheral devices, because the central control processes are too weak to control them and to switch them off appropriately.



9.      Rigidity - flexibility is a quality particularly appropriate for a higher-level context using mechanism, but not for lower-level processing devices where reliability would be more important. From an evolutionary perspective it is obvious that the behavior of neurologically primitive organisms is rigidly programmed.



10.  Pragmatics, idiosyncratic speech – picking up wrong meaning in a situation

Veumeulen : People with autism experience their greatest communication problem with what is not being said. Meaning is hidden within the context, which contains the information that is necessary to fully understand what is actually expressed. Because people with autism are slower in grasping context, they lack the information that is necessary to comprehend the whole. Often they react only to part of the whole.



11.  Echolalia – the processing of speech seems to bypass involvement of central thought. Though they are perfect phonological, prosodic and syntactic units, these products do not become part of global meaning. Weak central coherence precludes the capacity to appreciate the deeper intentional aspects of communication.



12.  Reversal use of ‘ I’ and’ you’, tenses, ‘this’ and ‘that’, ‘here’ and ‘there’, ‘come’ and ‘go’ – their use is relative to who is speaker and who is listener, therefore grasping of context is more difficult



13.  Odd intonation, pitch, speech rate, fluency, word stress in speech – true intentional communication is impaired



14.  Lack of a theory of mind – information from different sources, the results of seeing, remembering and telling, are all pulled together in a coherent interpretation of what happened. If it were not a coherent whole, perhaps because of a weak drive for coherence, but remained a complex set of separate pieces of information, then anybody would find it difficult. Improbable behavior is improbable because it does not belong to a coherent system of thought.

Implication : deficits in ToM were conceptualized as just one consequence of weak central coherence. Understanding social interaction and extracting the higher-level representation of thoughts underlying behavior, was seen as the pinnacle of coherent processing and gist extraction. Thus, people with autism were socially impaired because they were unable to derive higher-level meaning..

Mentalizing ability can be seen as a cohesive interpretative device par excellence: it forces together complex information from totally disparate sources into a pattern which has meaning. The ability which allows us to know that we know may be the key to the ability to make sense. (metarepresentation)



Veumeulen’s other interpretations of weak central coherence manifestations:

15.  Difficulty in decision making. When autistic people are required to make choices, they see themselves confronted with a host of possible alternatives, as well as those alternatives that coherent thinkers have eliminated beforehand because they do not fit into the context of the whole.



16.  Difficulty in dealing with various things at the same time. Information is processed ‘piece by piece’; their intelligence is characterized by ‘piecemeal processing’. In this, they need time to gain an understanding. They always have a delayed reaction time.



17.  Lack of common sense – they assign meanings in an ‘idiosyncratic’ way (in contrast to ‘communal’).



18.  Good memory of details – autistic people detect much less cohesion. They are dependent on their memory of details.



The Relationship between Weak central Coherence and ToM
Happ, F. (2000).
Non-social features of autism that ToM has limitations in explaining (as pointed out by Happ) :

1.      restricted repertoire of interests

2.      obsessive desire for sameness

3.      stereotypies

4.      savant abilities

5.      lack of generalization

6.      excellent rote memory

7.      preoccupation with parts of objects

8.      fragmented sensory perception



Experimental findings not accounted for by mind-blindness

assets                                                                     deficits

Memory for word strings                                  Memory for sentences

Memory for unrelated items                            Memory for related items

Echoing nonsense                                            Echoing with repair

Pattern imposition                                            Pattern detection

Jigsaw by shape                                              Jigsaw by picture

Sorting faces by accessories                         Sorting faces by person




The central coherence account of autism, then, predicts skills as well as failures, and as such can best be characterized not as a deficit account, but in terms of cognitive style. As such it is better able than most accounts to explain the many things that people with autism are good at .

Weak central coherence characterizes the spontaneous approach or processing preference of people with autism, and for this reason is best captured in open-ended tasks, i.e. autistic people fail to use preceding sentence context to determine the pronunciation of homographs. When instructed in reading for meaning, group differences on the homograph disappear.



Later developments in explaining the relationship between Central Coherence and ToM

Frith and Happ (1994) modified their previous view and proposed as a working hypothesis that that the two aspects of autism, weak central coherence and impaired ToM, were independent (though interacting) facets of the disorder..

There is evidence, too, that the non-social features of autism persist even in the minority of people with autism who do develop some theory of mind ability (albeit with a significant delay). They still have self-injurious behavior and peculiar mannerism, tics, twitches, preoccupations, and equally high levels of insistence on sameness, circumscribed interests, and repetitive movement and language.

It suggests weak central coherence and ToM are distinct. Frith and Happ have not devised measures of them sensitive enough to degree of abnormality to reveal a true relation between the two.

It seems that there is indirect evidence which says that tasks that weak central coherence will excel such as Embedded Figures test correlate negatively with ToM tasks.



The relationship between ToM and weak central coherence depends on what is meant by ToM.

Happ proposed that ToM has 2 meanings, namely :

1.      a basic ability to form representations capable of capturing prepositional attitudes (M-representations) – an ability which is necessary for passing false-belief tests.

2.      there is the individual’s emergent social understanding, which is based on the ability to form m-representations in order to attribute mental states, but which is clearly also a function of many other characteristics including personality, motivation, empathy, intelligence, and environmental and experiental factors (e.g. Dunn et al. 1991)

In Frith and Happ’s current conceptualization, central coherence is independent from ToM in its former, but not its latter, meaning. The autistic impairment in forming m-representations is not the cause or result of weak central coherence. However, when we consider ToM in its second (and broader) sense, then social understanding cannot be considered independent of coherence – because in order to appreciate people’s thoughts and feelings in real life, one needs to take into account context and to integrate diverse information. So when we measure social understanding in a more naturalistic or context-sensitive way, we are likely to find a contribution from central coherence – and that individuals with weak central coherence and detail-focused processing are less successful in putting together the information necessary for sensitive social inference.

Another alternative in determining the relationship between central coherence and ToM is that they are casually connected. It is conceivable that integrative processing of environment provides the inputs necessary for the maturation of the ToM mechanism. It is also conceivable that our tendency for extraction of higher-level meaning is socially-mediated.



What does Simon Baron-Cohen say about weak central coherence in his new paper ‘The exact mind: Empathising and systemizing in autism spectrum conditions (in press draft 4th May 2001)?

Simon Baron-Cohen’s new ToM theory consists of 2 theories :

1.      Empathising – it encompasses ToM, mind-reading, intentional stance and some affective reaction.

2.      Systemising – it explains the repetitive behavior and obsessions and a superior ability in an initial analysis of the system (be it a technical system, a natural system, an abstract system, a social systems, SBC says systems are all around us in our environment and fall into the above 4 kinds) down to its lowest level of detail in order to identify potentially relevant parameters that may play a causal role in the behavior of the system.



SBC claims that systemizing in his new ToM theory embraces aspects of the central coherence theory, say excellent attention to detail. However they make opposite predictions when it comes to an individual with autism being able to understand a whole system, so long as there are underlying rules and regularities that can be discovered and he will readily grasp that a change of one parameter in one part of the system may have distant effects on another part of the system. This kind of reasoning clearly involves good central coherence of the system. In contrast, the central coherence theory should predict that he should fail to understand whole (global) systems or the relationships between parts of a system.

In explaining repetitive behavior, SBC says much of it involves the child’s obsessional or strong interests with mechanical systems or other systems that can be understood in terms of rules and regularities. This and what is often described as their “need for sameness” in attempting to hold the environment constant, might be signs of the child as a superior systemiser. The child might be conducting mini-experiments in his or her surroundings, in an attempt to identify physical-causal or other systematic principles underlying events.

Superior systemizing depends on exactness in information processing. This exactness is seen in autistic people’s pedantic speech ,the inclusion of more details than necessary in their answers, and their very detailed memory., However if the exactness mechanism is too highly tuned, it is not possible to answer questions to which an exact answer is unavailable. It also takes longer to select an answer from many possible ones. It therefore affects one’s empathizing skills, as in this domain, answers are never exact.
作者: niuniuma    时间: 2010-1-26 03:20
标题: re:http://www.ied.edu.h...
http://www.ied.edu.hk/autism/Executive%20Functioning.htm
執行困難理論 (Executive Dysfunction)


什麼是「執行困難」?(Hughes, Russell, & Robins, 1994)

最簡單來說,是不能從目前的處境中抽離,也不能跟隨個人的思考模式來行動。在想法解讀 (Theory of Mind) 的錯誤想法 (false belief) 測試中,它指知覺上不能擺脫物件在當眼位置的影響,因而選擇了一個最明顯但也是錯的答案。



什麼和執行職能 (executive functioning) 有關?

目前對執行職能所包括的能力並無定論,一般認為應有下列:

1.          組成抽象概念;

2.          訂立具彈性的行動方案;

3.          維持集中的注意力和思考力;

4.          快速地抽取有關資料;

5.          進行某項工作當中的自我監控和修正;

6.          抑制衝動的反應。



參考Hughes & Russell (1993) 的測試內容,可有更好的了解:

小窗測試

在這項測試中,小孩可從一個小窗觀看兩個箱子的內部,他需要指向他挑選的那個箱子。假如他指向那個沒有放糖的箱子,就可贏得一粒糖。如他指向有糖的箱子,就不會有糖的獎賞。另一種測試是加進一位對手,對手會打開小孩曾經指向的箱子,如果裡面有糖,就歸對手所有。這項測試的關鍵是要小孩騙倒對手,他方可得到獎賞。測試結果顯示自閉症兒童不管有沒有對手,他的成績都很差。

(以上見於Happ F. (1994). Autism. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press P.54)



威斯康辛卡片分類測試 - 「執行困難」理論的最有力測試

這項測試目的是量度接受測試人士隨口頭指示改變分類基準的靈活性。先讓接受測試人士看4張分為不同顏色、外形、或號碼的卡片,然後請他開始為128張卡片分類。測試員不會告訴他怎樣分,只在他每疊好一張卡片後告訴他做得正確不正確。他對10張卡片後,測試員會告訴他改用另一種分類基準,如此類推,直至疊完128張卡片為止。這個測試統計三項分數:

1.          完成分類的數目;

2.          正確的分類卡數;

3.          因為用上一個分類基準而錯誤的卡片數目。

自閉症人士的第三項分數比一般人都低。

(Heaton, Chelune, Talley, Kay, & Curtis, 1993)



學者 (Fein, D. et.al. Executive Functioning in High-functioning Children with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry Vol.42, Bo.2, pp.261-270, 2001) 對「執行困難」理論的研究結果:

1.          自閉症人士只有某些執行職能受損,最明顯的是重覆地犯同樣的錯誤,在一些困難的作業尤其常見。自閉症人士特別傾向於知道錯還是繼續錯下去,遇到困難的作業,很難改變思考模式。

2.          計劃能力有問題。「執行困難」與重覆犯錯不清楚是否存在因果關係,也許重覆犯錯反映了自閉症的基本問題。



「執行困難」與前額葉受損的關係

(以下見於Ozonoff, S. (1995) Executive Functions in Autism. Learning and Cognition in Autism. New York: Plenum Press)



腦前額葉受傷病人的表現:

1.          重複、無意義的行為或說話;

2.          難以抑制某些熟習或易有的反應;

3.          不適當地重複某些舊的想法或行動;

4.          編訂計劃能力不足;

5.          在處理資料方面,只注意資料的某個單一部分、或難以合零星資料、或不能同時兼顧來自不同渠道的資料、或不能適當地運用已知的資料。



自閉症人士相似的行為:

1.          僵化、欠缺彈性的行為;

2.          因環境的輕微改變而感到不安;

3.          堅持完全遵循慣例的每個細節;

4.          只對某偏狹嗜好有興趣或不停重複某個刻板的行為;

5.          行為衝動、難以抑制即時的反應;

6.          難以運用大量儲存的資料;

7.          只能針對細節而不顧及整體。



腦前額葉包括的能力:

1.          構思一個想法 (如計劃、大綱、反應模式),並用之來完成某項工作。在一個策略不適用時,可以轉換其他反應模式;

2.          調校社交行為、情緒反應和社交談話。

由於後者,腦前額葉受損因而可解釋自閉症社交方面的障礙。



以腦前額葉受損解釋自閉症的局限:

1.          為什麼前額葉早期受損的兒童沒有自閉症?前額葉功能不足只是一個必須條件,而不是造成自閉症的充分條件,加入了其他認知的障礙或神經的功能不足才會引發自閉症的徵狀。

2.          有些由想法指導行動的能力,見於譬如‘物件恆在’ (object permanence: Morgan, Cutrer, Coplin, & Rodrigue, 1989)‘錯的照片’(false photographs tasks: Leslie & Thaiss, 1992) 等等測試,測試員以為它們會因前額葉受損而受到影響 可是並不如此。

3.          因前額葉引致的認知能力受損,也見於過度活躍症,行為失調問題等。執行困難障礙和自閉症究竟有什麼特別的關連?



「執行困難」理論的內容有很多爭議性的地方,如

l          有自閉症人士並無抑制能力方面的問題;

l          有自閉症人士並無短期記憶 (working memory) 的問題;

l          有自閉症人士並非不明白曾經存在的事物 (比對目前的現實較不明顯);

l          「執行困難」理論作為失調症的界準不夠明顯,因其他如過度活躍症、精神分裂、妄想強迫症也有這問題;

l          它始終不足以解釋社交障礙不存在其他有執行困難問題的失調症而只存在於自閉症。



學者Simon Baron-Cohen 對「執行困難」理論的意見

Baron-Cohen, S. (draft 4th May 2001). The exact mind: Empathising and systemizing in autism spectrum conditions? To appear in Goswami, U, (ed) Handbook of Cognitive Development. Blackwell:Oxford (in press)



直至目前為止,從認知角度去解釋自閉症的重複性行為、喜歡遵循慣例與堅持一成不變等習性,只有「執行困難」理論。(Ozonoff, Rogers, Farnham & Pennington, 1994; Pennington et al., 1997: Russell, 1997b)

雖然「執行困難」理論有可能導致刻板行為,但也有亞士保加症 (Asperger Syndrome)人士並無執行困難徵狀,他們對系統有良好的概念,卻在感情代入方面能力不足。由此可見,「執行困難」不可能是自閉症的主要徵狀。

「執行困難」理論亦向來忽略了重複性行為的內容。相對來說,感情代入(empathizing)/系統建立(systemizing)理論卻指出自閉症兒童對機械或其他系統的沉迷,是基於它們擁有一些可知的規律,它可能顯示自閉症兒童完整甚或發展良好的普通物理常識。



Executive Functioning

以下採自Fein, D. et.al.(2001) Executive Functioning in High-functioning Children with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry Vol.42, Bo.2, pp.261-270, 2001

Autistic disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders are generally associated with weaknesses on tasks involving cognitive flexibility, verbal reasoning, complex or verbal memory, and complex language. It has been proposed, accordingly, that cognitive deficits, specifically executive functioning deficits, are a primary cause of autistic behavior (Ozonoff, Pennington, & Rogers, 1991; Pennington et al., 1997: Russell, 1997)



What is Executive Functioning (EF) or Executive Dysfunction?

Although there is no consensus about the components of executive functioning, it is thought to include such processes as

-         forming abstract concepts,

-         having a flexible sequenced plan of action,

-         focusing and sustaining attention and mental effort,

-         rapidly retrieving relevant information

-         being able to self-monitor and self-correct as a task is performed

-         being able to inhibit impulsive responses

Executive functioning can also be described as the ability to disengage from the current situation and guide behavior by referring to mental models (Hughes, Russell, & Robins, 1994)

最簡單來說,是不能將自己從某些物件脫離,在ToM的錯誤想法(false belief)測試中,它指知覺上不能擺脫物件在實際位置的明顯性,因而選擇了一個最明顯但也是錯的答案。

參考Hughes & Russell (1993) 的測試內容,可有更好的了解:

“windows task”

In this task the child simply had to point to one of two boxes, into which he/she alone could see via a small window. On each trial a sweet was placed in one of the boxes, and if the child indicated the empty box(versus the second, baited box), he won the sweet. In the competitor version, an ignorant second player searched in the indicated box, and kept any sweets thus found – so that the child was effectively rewarded for “deceiving” the competitor.

It was found that autistic subjects did badly at the “windows task’ with or without a competitor.

(以上見於Happ F. (1994). Autism. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press P.54)



The most Robust Test in EF – Wisconsin card Sorting Test (WCST) and what is it?

This test involves the ability to change sorting categories flexibly in response to verbal feedback. Subjects are shown 4 cards that vary on three dimensions (color, form, and number). They are then told that they must sort a stack of 128 cards but are not told how to sort them. They must respond to examiner feedback (they are told correct or incorrect after each trial). After a subject sorts 10 cards correctly, the sorting principle changes (from color to form to number). Several scores are calculated during this test. Total categories indicates the total number of complete sorting categories achieved (the maximum is 6). Total number correct indicates how many correct cards were sorted. Number of perseverative errors indicates how many times the subject sorted to a previously reinforced category, thus ignoring the negative feedback.

(Heaton, Chelune, Talley, Kay, & Curtis, 1993)



Temple Grandin’s explanation of ‘Perseveration’ (1995):

People with autism may be using a different selective attention mechanism than normal people (Ciesielski, Courchesne, & Elmasian, 1990) Their research has shown that people with autism take much longer to shift between visual and auditory stimuli. Attention shifting may explain some socially inappropriate behavior. Donna Williams explained that it is difficult to look for social rules in her memory at the moment an event is occurring. In some cases, perseveration may be an extreme dysfunction of attention shifting.



Findings of Fein’s paper:

1.      Only certain executive functions are affected in autism, most notably perseveration (知道錯但繼續錯下去). Perseveration occurs most often on tasks of greater difficulty. Individuals with autism tend to make perseverative errors and have difficulty changing cognitive set on challenging tasks.

2.      There are deficits on planning tasks.

It is unclear whether the relationship between EF and perseverative behavior is causal or whether perserveration is a reflection of how autism was defined in the first place.



Relationship between Executive Dysfunction and Frontal Lesion

(以下見於Ozonoff, S. (1995) Executive Functions in Autism. Learning and Cognition in Autism. New York: Plenum Press)

腦前額葉受傷病人的表現:

The deficits incurred have been richly described by Luria (1966) and more recently, by Duncan (1986) and Stuss and Benson (1986); they include

l          Repetitive, aimless movements or speech

l          Difficulty inhibiting familiar or obvious responses

l          Inappropriate repetition of previous thoughts or actions

l          Diminished capacity for planning

Stuss (1987,cited in Mateer 7 Williams, 1991) described several additional information-processing deficits :

l          A tendency to focus on one aspect of information

l          Difficulty relating or integrating isolated details

l          Problems managing simultaneous or multiple sources of information

l          Impaired ability to act on or apply knowledge in a meaningful manner



自閉症人士相似的行為:

l          rigid and inflexible behavior

l          becoming distressed over trivial changes in the environment

l          insistence on following routines in precise detail

l          focusing on one narrow interest or repetitively engaging in one stereotyped behavior

l          impulsiveness, having trouble delaying or inhibiting responses

l          having trouble applying or using their large store of knowledge

l          focusing on details and having difficulty in seeing the big picture



腦前額葉包括的能力:

l          the ability to form a mental representation (e.g. a plan, schema or response set) that must be held on-line to successfully complete the task and flexibility in shifting response set when a strategy is no longer correct

l          regulation of social behavior, emotional reactions (Stuss & Benson, 1986) and social discourse (Dennis, 1991)

由於後者,腦前額葉受傷因而可解釋自閉症社交方面的障礙。



以腦前額葉受傷解釋自閉症的局限:

1.Why do children with early frontal lesions not appear autistic?

Prefrontal dysfunction may be a necessary, but not a sufficient, criterion for the development of autism; perhaps other cognitive deficits, or neurological dysfunction, must also be present to produce the full-blown syndrome.



2. There are some abilities that a deficit in using mental representations to guide behaviors would predict to be impaired are in actual circumstances not impaired, e.g. object permanence (Morgan, Cutrer, Coplin, & Rodrigue, 1989); false photograph tasks (Leslie & thaiss, 1992) Is it because they rely on external clues or these tasks are not highly abstract or novel? Thus, a number of factors may be important in determining whether individuals with autism can use internal models, rather than external context, to guide behavior.



3. frontal lobe cognitive dysfunction is not specific to autism, also seen in ADHD, conduct disorder etc. The question is : how executive function deficits might be related to autism in a way that differentiates it from other disorders.



EF的理論內容有很多爭議性的地方,如

-         有自閉症人士並無inhibition 的問題

-         有自閉症人士並無working memory 的問題

-         有自閉症人士並非不明白曾經存在的事物 (比對目前的現實較不明顯)

-         EF作為失調症的界定性不夠明顯,因其他如ADHD, 精神分裂, obsessive-compulsive disorder 也有這問題

-         Bishop (1993) : It is insufficient to account for documented deficits in social cognition, because such deficits are not shown by other clinical groups with impaired executive system functions, and because autistic children fail to show comparable difficulty when second-order representations do not involve social material.



What does Simon Baron-Cohen say about EF?

Baron-Cohen, S. (draft 4th May 2001). The exact mind: Empathising and systemizing in autism spectrum conditions? To appear in Goswami, U, (ed) Handbook of Cognitive Development. Blackwell:Oxford (in press)



To date, the only cognitive account to attempt to explain “repetitive behavior”, a strong desire for routines, and a “need for sameness” is the executive dysfunction theory (Ozonoff, Rogers, Farnham & Pennington, 1994; Pennington et al., 1997: Russell, 1997b)

While ‘stereotypies’ are likely to be due to executive deficits, the fact that it is possible for people with Asperger Syndrome to exist who have no demonstrable executive dysfunction whilst still have deficits in empathizing and talents in systemizing suggests that executive dysfunction cannot be a core feature of autism spectrum conditions.

The executive account has also traditionally ignored the content of “repetitive behavior”. The empathizing-systemising theory in contrast draws attention to the fact that much repetitive behavior involves the child’s ‘obsessional’ or strong interests with mechanical systems or other systems that can be understood in terms of rules and regularities. This may reflect the child’s intact or even superior development of their folk physics.
作者: niuniuma    时间: 2010-1-29 12:59
标题: re:“8.重複性行為重複是輸入和輸出...
“8.重複性行為

重複是輸入和輸出系統的自然屬性,當它們的產生受到高層次的中央監察系統認取後,這兩個系統正常情況下應會停止,通知輸入系統處理新的資料和輸出系統轉向別個活動。但患有自閉症的腦袋卻擁有兩個分隔的中央和邊緣資料處理系統,這是因為中央的監控系統太弱了,不能關閉輸入和輸出系統。”

简体字:
重复性行为:
重复是输入和输出系统的自然属性,当它们的产生受到高层次的中央监察系统认取后,这两个系统正常情况下会停止,通知输入系统处理新的资料和输出系统转向别个活动。但患有自闭症的脑袋却拥有分隔的中央和边缘资料处理系统,这是因为中央的监控系统太弱了,不能关闭输入和输出系统。

冯版大半年前就说过让我去看看central coherence和executive dysfunction。说这个能解释孩子沉迷动物。所以看到上面的话,很触动。
根据central coherence解释重复性行为,很在理。这也为我帮助孩子找到了方向,多给孩子讲对他来讲复杂事物的联系,帮助她把琐碎的东西,找出规律。边缘资料的中心统合。
作者: 方静    时间: 2010-1-29 13:28
标题: re:谢牛妈。
谢牛妈。
作者: niuniuma    时间: 2010-1-30 06:43
标题: re:"自閉症人士特別傾向於知道錯還是繼續錯下...
"自閉症人士特別傾向於知道錯還是繼續錯下去,遇到困難的作業,很難改變思考模式。"

这句话看到也很触动。女儿不知多少次和我说“(虽然这是错的)可是我改不了的”。

作者: niuniuma    时间: 2010-1-30 06:53
标题: re:[QUOTE][b]下面引用由[u]方静...
下面引用由方静发表的内容:

谢牛妈。


方老师,谢谢你的关注和鼓励。我对这两个理论了解很少,也就会转转文章,抄抄书。还望有兴趣的人阅读原文为准。

另外,澄清一下michelle garcia winner不是提出这俩个理论的。她创立了一个方法叫social thinking, 也就是旺旺老师的链接上的。可惜,她的书(thinking about you, thinking about me),我才看了一页,就被这两个理论先打了岔。本来想贴一段英文书的段落,怕侵权,又没多少人喜欢看洋文。

所以social thinking到底是啥,还没搞明白。估计是建立在这三个理论上的一种认知训练。如果真有时间看了再来汇报一下。

作者: niuniuma    时间: 2010-1-30 07:37
标题: re:记录回忆一下女儿的迷恋的动物:三...
记录回忆一下女儿的迷恋的动物:

三岁时,学校里做了鱼的纸手工,后来又看了nemo,然后就喜欢上了鱼。(注:她的喜欢都是狂热,狂热的玩这种动物的玩具,并一刻不停的画,想复印机复印下的上百个copy)。

约半年后,又喜欢上了马。全班闻名。

一年后,四岁半,因为看小鹿斑比,喜欢上了鹿。并自创了一个叫lathi的鹿。开始编lathi的故事,模仿小鹿斑比的故事,画简单的情节,并装订成书。

一年后,5岁半,因为看了狮子王,就喜欢上了simba。与此同时,不仅玩狮子玩具,画simba,装订成书,还反复的看狮子王电影DVD,并和弟弟一起玩狮子,一个人当simba,一个人当nori。直到弟弟一次生气,把DVD用笔划坏了。

6岁,户外昆虫很多,一度喜欢昆虫。玩真的昆虫,如lizard,Junebug,等。

6岁半开始,因为看猫和老鼠,喜欢上了猫和老鼠,反复画猫老鼠,都是动画片上的,惟妙惟肖。象连环画,并装订成书。

7岁,因为看了Balto,就喜欢上了狗。和弟弟玩玩具狗,一人一只。画,但是画的少些,因为学会了读书,并喜欢读书,花不少时间读书,但是自由玩的时候都是玩狗。7岁半,又看了lady and tramp,call of the wild更是狗上加狗。

现在快八岁了。

4年了,学了很多东西,知识上的,可是玩耍的兴趣点如此单一,仿佛只有在玩动物时,才是她的极乐时光,语言之丰富,声调之即昂,这种狂热和痴迷的程度,持续的时间之长(都是动物),还是让我不忍回顾。要说有什么有帮助,不是我的干预,而是读书认字,有帮助,疯狂画画的现象完全消失。但是对动物的痴迷仍是进行时。
作者: ky    时间: 2010-2-2 22:27
标题: re:可以上google bookes 直接搜...
可以上google bookes 直接搜索“A guide to asperger syndrome‎”直接拉到第79页,有10页左右讲这个内容。





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