New Study Says That Autism is a Predictability Deficit

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The link to the article:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/10/12 ... 76031.html

It took experts that long to figure this out?

What is you opinion on this?

Except that I don't think many autistics have problems predicting "events" based on data sets.

The assumption of this theory is that NT behaviour is consistent. So yes, some of us have a problem with predictability, but it's not because we lack the ability to predict, it's because people are unpredictable.

Maybe in some cases, but that doesn't explain sensory issues, executive function deficits or even problems with eye contact.

It also doesn't explain why a lot of autistic people (especially women) have an eerie ability to seemingly predict the future at times. (It's really just pattern recognition, but there are people who insist I'm psychic...)

Like buses, there'll be another study along tomorrow...

I read this study with a cynical eye: academia works in that to get ahead you have to keep getting stuff published and noticed, keep your name out there. This is, sadly, more important (often) than the quality or validity of your research, especially in social science research.

For these kinds of researchers, ASD represents very easy career-boosting pickings, because no-one has definitively isolated and conclusively demonstrated the true cause (and I am sure it isn't what this study claims). So you can generate all sorts of theories and go looking for some evidence. The trick is to make them sound plausible.

It would be a lovely world if all social science and neurological research was motivated entirely by the spirit of inquiry and all test results were honestly analysed and reported. However this happens rather more rarely than people outside academia suppose.

If autism were just about predictability then why do so many NTs keep buying lottery tickets week after week yet NOT win anything?

?The need for sameness is one of the most uniform characteristics of autism,? said Sinha. ?It?s a short step away from that description to think that the need for sameness is another way of saying that the child with autism needs a very predictable setting.?

This quote from the article deserves to be satirised. I'll go first, though I am sure that Wrong Planeteers can provide more amusing examples. However I will kick it off?

"The adverse response to loud noises is one of the most uniform characteristics of autism", said B19. "It's a short step away from that to think that the need for silence is another way of saying that the child with autism needs a silent setting".

I have no problem predicting at all. It's just like imagination. NT's seem to think we lack that too.