New research from the University of East Anglia reveals that people with a high level of autism can generate creative ideas
People with a high level of autistic characteristics are more likely to generate unconventional creative ideas. This is according to a new study conducted by psychologists at the University of East Anglia. While the researchers found that people with a high level of autism symptoms responded less when they created an alternative solution to the problem, these few responses were more original and creative, as they call it - 'divergent thinking'. This is the first study that examined the relationship between autism symptoms and the creative thinking process.
The study published in the journal Autism and Developmental Disorders looked at people who may not have been diagnosed as autistic but have a level of behavior and discover a thought process often associated with autism. The study expands the knowledge from previous research according to which there is an advantage for those who have some of the traits identified with autism, without necessarily meeting the criteria for diagnosis.
The researchers analyzed data from 312 participants who filled out an anonymous questionnaire designed to measure autistic symptoms, after which they were asked to perform several creative tasks. The participants were selected through the social network and websites intended for people on the autistic spectrum and their families. 75 of the participants said they had been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum.
One of the researchers, Dr. Martin Doherty from the School of Psychology at the University of East Anglia says: "People with high-level autism symptoms come up with fewer ideas than other people, but these are high-quality and creative ideas. They are considered rigid thinkers, so the fact that the ideas they develop are creative is surprising. This difference may have great consequences for the creative solution of problems".
Previous studies using the same tasks have found that most people use an abstraction strategy, such as word associations, to generate the obvious answers first. They then move on to more demanding tasks and their answers become more creative. The new study concludes that people with high-level autism symptoms go straight to these complex strategies.
"People with autistic traits may approach problem solving in a different way," says Dr. Doherty. "They may not go the way of people without the symptoms who bring up routine ideas but go straight to less common solutions. In other words. The associative memory or the memory-based path to think differently is damaged while their ability to give unconventional answers exceeds that of "normal" people.
Dr. Doherty says that the findings answer a paradox according to which a person expresses a limited range of behaviors and is interested in fewer areas than diagnosed as autistic, such as the British architect Stephen Whitshire and the American author and social activist Temple Grandin, appear to have creative thinking.
The research findings may help researchers better understand the relationships between autistic characteristics and how the brain adapts itself to problem solving in the general population.
to the notice of the researchers
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