Logical thinking & infirmation processing

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Logicical thinking & information processing

Many people with an auti / aspie orientation talk of their autism as a 'difference' and often an information processing 'difference'

This makes sound sense to me as I struggle to process most information and often feel overwhelmed at how most people around me are so much quicker.

This is my point though, how come most people with AS are supposed to be good at reading instructions?

I rarely read instructions on anything because I get overwhelmed so easily. In fact, I rarely read any post here at WP if it is more than 40 lines long (unless it really grabs me)

So, I would be curious to learn why some with AS like myself have a great deal of difficulty processing all information written & sensory and others don't. My hunch is that it has something to do with working memory and executive function.

Many thanks

Q

Um, I remembered doing some tests before I was diagnosed with PDD NOS. Those tests confirmed that I processed verbal cues much better than non-verbal cues. If you type out a list of instructions for me to follow, I dare say that I can follow such a list quite well, but if you draw a series of diagrams (e.g. origami instructions), I often have difficulties understanding what each diagram signifies. My own theory is that you might have an easier time understanding diagrams than words.

Thank you icy, you are on to something here, my right brain orientation makes diagrams and visual input easy to follow and understand in contrast to words.

I understand philosophical discourse and theories, but then the phlusophical dimension of logical thinking is again very right brained, 'bigger picture' orientated as opposed to left brained analytical 'detailed orientated'

Although I have an obsession with details I only really make sence of the world and come home to myself through the visual dimension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI1Naz9THmo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIZU_ZLjTIQ

Ghost in the shell.


there are different areas of strength for people on the autistic spectrum, and couple this with the typical deficits, then one can get a large variety of differences

C:\brain\mind\logic.exe isn't necessarily the way an autistic brain works

sometimes autistics can recognize lots of patterns, without being able to formulate into pure language, how those similarities line up (language difficulties combined with complex ways of understanding things)

I had trouble with long division but when it came to geometry in general I kept going ahead of everyone else and making my own mathematical concepts as I went to keep going, but invariably ran into dead ends and wasn't quite sure how to deal with them

it turns out that I had the preliminary idea that calculus must exist, before I knew it did exist, when I was in grade 8

and had the notion of vectors flash into my mind when I was spinning around in circles with some weighted object attached to a string (planetary gravity vectors or whatever) when I was about 6-8 years old

I couldn't explain these things to other people at the time

cyclical historical recurrence was in my head too, and I knew there was a phrase that ought to incorporate "the more things change the more they stay the same" alongside progress, the word evolution was in my mind relegated to biology, so eventually I came up with a variety of phrases that amounted to "stuff repeats but changes a bit each cycle"


what precisely are areas you find strengths in, musical patterns and so on for instance, do not require formal logic processing powers of the mathematical equation variety, but are still patterns that can require a high degree of precision and discrimination

remembering things with a photographic memory is the same way except visual instead of audio

I am TERRIBLE at reading instructions... specifically stuff with step-by-step information like recipes or science labs. Once I do understand the steps or have practiced them, I all of a sudden turn super intelligent. I'm guessing that no matter how we process information, our brain is built for mastery learning...it's either know everything you can about it or nothing at all. At least that's how I see it. I hate reading so much because I loose focus or get overwhelmed by the amount of words and charts on the page... but that's probably due to my ADHD as well. This one I'm not sure about haha

I think what you are describing definately relates to AS.

Following instructions requires 2 skills.
1) Remembering the instruction and working out how to follow it.
2) Working out why you are following the instruction and how it relates to the other instructions. (This greater level of comprehension also assists memorizing the instruction)

Aspies are notoriously bad at 2) - the ability of tying details to the big picture. (Although as I think NutcrackerPrincess was saying this could simply be because we have a tendency to build much more complex and detailed big pictures than NTs)