Slower than average visual processing

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I was just reading a bit on Asperger's on the web site for the Asperger's Association
of New England at http://www.aane.org/ on the http://www.aane.org/about_asperger_syndrome/what_is_asperger_syndrome.html page and saw something I don't remember seeing mentioned before in anywhere else. (It may have been mentioned frequently and I just didn't notice it.) In particular, it listed "Slower than average auditory, visual, or intellectual processing, which can contribute to difficulties keeping up in a range of social settings—a class, a soccer game, a party." as something often experienced by people with Asperger's.

I know in my case that if something happens quickly, I usually don't even see it. For example, while watching football games, it is very rare for me to see a rule violation such as holding unless it is in slow motion. It just happens too fast.

The same goes for basketball and soccer -- the only way I see any but the most egregious of fouls is in slow motion. If, for example, I see someone fall on their face, I don't know if it was because they were fouled or if they just tripped on something.

I used to play volleyball quite regularly and often, but I was never very good at it. One of my worst was during serves because the ball came over so fast that I could never adjust properly to the serve.

On the subject of serves, that leads to a strange side story. I was once playing volleyball with a fairly competitive group and the server kept serving at me knowing I had immense trouble returning it. I was in the left corner of the back row. The guy to my right was hyper-competitive and told me that anything that came to my right was his and I only had to worry about anything to me or to my left.

The next serve came between us and we both went for it. He told me again that anything to my right was his. So the next serve was coming across the net straight at me and I did the only logical thing -- I stepped to my left so that it was coming to my right and said "Yours". I hate to say it, but I never saw that player again. I hope he didn't quit coming to our Sunday volleyball games because of that.

I never really thought about this as being related to Asperger's before. I figured it was just a normal variation and some people were better at seeing things happening quickly. I'm not sure that this is the kind of thing to which the web page is referring, but it seems likely now that I think about it. Has anyone else noticed problems like this in themselves? Or do they mean something different?

i have slow visual processing and am a slow reader on that account.

The mundies just love to point out perceived inferiorities in our way while conveniently glossing over all the ways in which we are undoubtedly superior to them. They just have to keep stroking their collective normality-ego.

What are "mundies"? Are the "mundies", whoever that is, behind the Asperger's Association of New England?

... Mundies. Mundanes. Neurotypicals, roughly speaking... though the two terms aren't used entirely synonymously.
"Normal" people... basically. The sort of pointless idiots enamoured of their own normality and complete lack of distinction. The pricks who think they're better than us because there are more of them.

There are some non-Auts who aren't mundies... but they are few and far between, and usually distinguish themselves in other ways.

I don't think this is anything new. You could probably search for "IQ" on WP and see a trend for low PSI scores. I don't know if it's always slow processing, I would guess that sometimes the processing speed is ok but too much information is getting in. It's no secret that people on the spectrum have a hard time filtering sensory and other information.

Ahh. I was rather bewildered by the term. I thought that it might be members of some kind of religion. Like the Moonies, for example.

I think I have a slow auditory processing in some cases, I understand words I read faster than when I hear them. But I do have very sharp hearing and can identify the source of random sounds fast so maybe it evens out.
I think it was very unfair and plain wrong of them to use social settings as an example of problems with intellectual processing...



Well, if the slow proccesing is because of an bigger uptake of information it isn't really an inferiority per se. I do agree it should be worded differently (because so many papers on aspies obviously is from the perspective that we are wrong) and more focus on the many things we do better instead.

I do not have a clue about american "football" but I do know actual football and you probably dont watch enough of it to spot fouls. Or never played it. I certainly could not ref a american sports game.

Your situation sound familiar only with me at tennis. My speed and athleticism get me around the court very fast but people do complain at me because I dont stand at the net. When there are conflicts of preferences, attitudes or game-relevant beliefs in a team game it can result in anxiety. Too high and performance declines markedly.

I have seen some studies that point to visual processing difference in ASD but not specifically in AS.

I believe practice and confidence are huge factors in the return of a tennis serve and same with volleyball. Also raising your brows for that extra light in the eyes has been my biggest help returning - but I do forget at times.

This is a video of a guy using a machine I would like a go on. Most people really suck badly at this but pro athletes, f1 drivers etc do better than the norm - as you would expect really. They are nowhere near this guy though


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyy4lqRERJM[/youtube]

Exactly.
They just perceive it that way because it suits their purposes and they have no interest in understanding the way things actually are.
We have the same amount of WetRAM that they have... but just don't filter the incoming data nearly so much to conveniently omit things we don't like. Lag is inevitable.

I don't really know what this "auditory, visual, or intellectual processing" means. I sucked at sports. Like the OP, I could never move fast enough to be at the right position to receive the serve. Could this be related to slow "visual processing"? I also cannot keep up with the speed at which people say how to spell a word. It's amazing how fast people say the spelling of a word and other people actually catch it. Is this to do with my slow "auditory processing"?

It seems that the more I get to know about AS, the more I understand myself. I was puzzled about my own "differences" and "weaknesses" until sometime last year. Now it's all starting to make sense.