Can't process more than one thing at a time?

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http://www.thestar.com/News/article/288858

this says we can't. it is confusing. we can't?!

Last edited by ShadesOfMe on 14 Jan 2008, 7:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It's The Star, the most dumbed-down newspaper in Britain, along with The Sun and The Mirror. Don't trust any of them.

Oh. well, that explains it.

Unless that's a different one.

I'm sorry, I missed what you said. I was focussed on something else.
j/k

"He's happier because he knows it's not his fault now, that parts of his brain don't connect. They're all there; they just don't connect. Now we just have to learn the skills to get along with this," says his mother Nancy, a retired teacher.

This is just another article that makes assumptions that there is something wrong with our brains. I don't think NT's can grasp the notion that there isn't something physically wrong with us that needs fixing.

That's the Toronto Star. A legit newspaper.

Yes. I saw the banner, and thought that it didn't look too much like The Daily Star which doesn't actually have any real "news". Seriously, why do people read that filthy rag?

MOST of it is nuetral, or even NICE! The one thing that is bad is:

The idea of processing only one thing at a time is not a new thing. Personally, I think it is WRONG! They say the SAME about males in general!! !! I think THAT is wrong TOO. I'm male, and I have met LOTS of females that are FAR worse than I am!

Look at my being in a store! I will sometimes for NO apparent reason step to the right, left, forward, or backward! Wait a second..... OH, THAT might be the reason! Someone just passed behind me, etc... That is the story of my life.

People ALL OVER don't seem to be able to do more than one thing AT ALL! I DOUBT they are all autistic. I go out of MY way to compensate for THEIR clumbsiness or whatever you want to call it. They also can't DRIVE right!

Now I HAVE had about 6-7 times in the past month where I forgot what I was talking about because of a related tangent, but everyone has problems with that, I DID know I forgot, etc...

Still, I drive and watch ALL FOUR SIDES, and plan the shortest path among several destinations!! ! Just yesterday, I went around a new store once, and seemed almost to almost scan it quickly a second time. WHY??? TWO reasons:

1. I was walking back ANYWAY, so why not look again.
2. Pick up perishable items I located on the first pass and saved for a time where I didn't have to worry about time, etc...

Today, I could tell you what you might find there, and where it might be, EVEN if I wasn't looking for it. It's a pity that all the gluten free mixes I looked at required eggs, etc... and that I couldn't find the nutralicious donuts. 8-(

ALSO, we don't generally overload THAT easily.

It is true for me. I can hardly do it now, but only with the highest concentration possible.
I think it is related to the fact that we go in depth, not in width.
I read same thing in the general Asperger's book as well.

Is the Star the one with the 'page 3 girls'?..

I do something called 'time share multiplexing' where I can do several things at once, just not at exactly the same time...

And it depends on the person...it's a spectrum, not just a wavelength...

EVEN COMPUTERS work that way! It isn't REALLY multitasking, but rather interleaving. Of course, if they are REALLY different tasks, you can maybe do them at the same time, because they use different resources.

1. Journalistic writing can be sloppy.

Richard Dawkins' favourite example of the falibility of eyewitness evidence: A journalist interviewed him for over an hour at a seven-foot-square two-tonne limestone table, which he later reported as wrought-iron.
I also heard a physicist say that more often than not newspapers got it wrong (he meant reports on discoveries and stuff- pity I can't remember the examples he gave. They were numerous).

2. Because even cognitive psychologists' thinking is restricted by their cognition, they are susceptible to human error. I've been told that, while some papers report that AS ppl are not good at multitasking, later research also shows that, when their intelligence is held constant, they did not do worse than NT controls; if I remember this correctly at all (take a pinch of salt here everyone), they did even slightly better (can't even remember whether 'significantly' so).

Hope the above points are relevant to your question, ShaedsOfMe, and here is my habitual rambling:

3. Of course the above does not say that the report was not written with good intention, or with an open mind etc. I can't say as I didn't have the patience to read it all, but according to 2ukenkerl it probably was.

4. Also let me chorus with 2ukenkerl, though I'm (probably over-)generalising his statement here, that the much-publicised Mars/Venus myth is plain ridiculous in my opinion.

5. I've always wanted to say that I liked your bear, ShadesOfMe.

Last edited by whitedragon on 16 Jan 2008, 11:20 am, edited 3 times in total.

wouldn't this be more of an executive function thing,than AS entirely being the cause?
Am not aspie,but am only able to process one thing at a time,am have to do things in very small steps otherwise am in information overload instantly.


And about 'the star',am thought it was the daily star to,then realised it was a .com,the uk daily star would be .co.uk wouldn't it?
At least it wasn't an article from the daily mail anyway.

I can only really focus/fixate on one thing, all or nothing so to speak. This isn't in relation to my special interest either.

I kinda like the closet and 2,000 people talking at once thingy; I was speaking to a psycho today, and she said my discomfort of crowds/people is due to my sensory sensitivity (which I knew, but it's nice when a professional says it).

A single process topic?

I share Shadesofme's opinion of the rather confusing information about People on the Autism Spectrum and their mind processes. I am not sure why the author of this piece highlighted this alleged "trait of Asperger's" and grouped it with the wearing of a piece of clothing and a special interest of a particular child. I do not see the connection.

I have an insight, based on the information available, that the writer wanted to grab the attention of readers. I do not agree with this approach, as it is based on ignorance of Asperger's and Autism differences. It would have been far more accurate for the teacher of the special school, mentioned at the end of the article, who reportedly lives on the Autism Spectrum, to have had input into the article.

Our differences exist along the Spectrum, and some find it easier to process more than one "thing" at a time.

Agreed. Together with StrangeGirl's depth not width explanation, which in in line with the 2000 people in the cupboard analogy (this far in the article I read) that Danielismyname mentions, it makes more sense than casually tagging it all to AS, because it actually (attempts to) offers explanation which seems reasonable. I've read the exact same depth analogy on a Japanese web page written by a person with AS, though he used the analogy to explain his 'my rules' phenomenon.