Do Aspies have longer attention spans than NTs?

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A lot of Aspies, myself included, have trouble making friends and having conversations with NTs, and I think this might be the reason. I've noticed that NTs often have shorter attention spans than we do. They usually talk about the same subject for 1-2, sometimes 3 sentences before pausing while we tend to talk for 4-5, sometimes 6-7 sentences before pausing. Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes, I've noticed this. Also, even when they talk longer on a subject, it is usually on a topic of no interest to me, and the topics of interest to me are all too often, of no interest to them. NTs are members of a different culture, and there isn't really enough of an overlap for us to get along all that comfortably.

I drift sometimes. I might look at a movie, someone would start talking, then I'd realize I have to rewind the film to when they started talking because I didn't catch a word. Why? t the moment they started talking I started thinking about something else. Arrgghh! It's a little aggravating really, but it's something that can't be helped. Unfortunately, it happens in real life to, though not as much.

It's the opposite way for me. I start thinking of something that's slightly related to what they were talking about & then it makes me think of something else that is unrelated & I lose track of what they were talking about because I'm daydreaming

I've noticed that I drift when certain people talk to me as well but I talk using more sentences than NTs too.

I think we have a longer attention span that NTs when talking about something that we're interested in, maybe an obssession or a passion.

But I've also noticed that when my friends are talking about something that doesn't interest me I zone out and start daydreaming or thinking over things that I have on my mind.

So I really think it depends what the topic of conversation is, but everyone is different.

I tend to drift a lot while reading, watching TV and so on. Often have to rewind a lot, or realize I've been staring into the same page for ages. In conversations, it's the opposite. I hate the phenomenon where topics warp every three or four sentences, before completing them. Ironically, people think I'm the one who warp conversations, but all I do is bring the topic back to where it was fifteen minutes ago (which is how long it takes me to get back into the conversation). Sometimes I'll follow my own line of thought, leading to what seems like a different topic that came out of nowhere.

So I've taught myself to reintroduce the original topic ("speaking of..."), so people can understand where I'm coming from (if they're able to remember what we were speaking about fifteen minutes ago). That still makes me come across as odd, but at least they don't think what I'm saying is coming out of nowhere. Learning to leave topics that interest me in a conversation would be too frustrating, so that's one of my social traits I refuse to change. If people really wouldn't like me for insisting to finish topics that interest me, they're free to avoid me. At least I have other friends that are able to hold an interesting conversation, instead of just treating dozens of topics superficially, none of them at an interesting level. This is also why I dislike bigger groups (more than three people), normally I wind up speaking with one or two people who also are able to keep a conversation on track.

When thinking of it, this common inability to keep conversations on track should be seen as a disability, even though the majority of people have it. The world would get nowhere if everyone adopted it. I fully realize I'm disabled in other areas like nonverbal communication, sensory issues, executive function and so on, but my ability to keep conversations on track is exactly that, an ability. Probably annoying for the crowd who hates discussing anything on a deeper (that superficial, at least) level, but it's still an ability.

I happen to be one of the common cases of a nice combination auf AS and ADD. My attention span fades really quickly, unless my super AS-powers kick in and it is something that is covered by my special interests. Then, I can go for hours and miles. Although, since I increased my physical fitness by quite alot, I have to admit my ability to fight through fading attention has become really good. The past few months, I spent somewhere between 5 and 8 hours in the college library almost every day, and I could really push myself to go on and on where my fellow students would be exhausted. However, NOW I am a little burned out, and I had to take it easier the last few days. I guess I am acase of "A candle that burns twice as hot only lasts half as long".

Yes, and no.

Aspies have a longer attention span for topics that interest them. And we tend to have little or no attention span for other topics. This leaves a sort of hole in the "short duration" topics.

In contrast, NT's tend to be much more reluctant to dive into any topic so they spend a lot of time in the "short duration" topics where I'd prefer to talk about something meatier, or even to continue with some of the topics.

But a lot is also context dependent. I suck at small talk, but I'm ok talking one on one, even presenting to groups, about topics that I enjoy. So I look for forums and contexts where talking more in depth is what everyone else it doing also.