I was shown a picture of lots of different activities at a seaside. I was asked describe what was happening in the picture. So I described the individual activities. The fact that I did that instead of describing the larger picture as ‘vacation’ is evidence that im autistic. But those people could have lived at the coast, it might just be a saturday for them … right?
So the mark of not being autistic, is to draw assumptions based on partial evidence? I joke, but also I dont really joke.
I was at a training course for work and they were talking about the difference between big picture thinking and evidence based thinking - as though those two have no crossover. They show us a picture of stone henge and tell us to say what we notice about it. I get picked first: “it looks like the grass has recently been cut”. Everyone laughs, its probably an odd thing to point out. Next person: “its summer solstice”, very good, well done. But is it?? Why? “The sky is red”. Yeah okay, I saw stonehenge and thought summer too, but nothing in the picture shows that. So I looked for evidence of summer - the grass is yellowed, parched? No its only a patch, the rest is quite dark and the stones appear to be damp, the yellow is probably some dead grass from having been cut - yes, the grass is short around the bottom of the stones and there seems to be some grass blades powdered to them, the grass has been cut, there is no evidence of it being solstice. Red sky and damp, its probably dawn.
Back to the test, the theory is that someone with autism cant assess the outer context, or the big picture, in the first instance of thought (<200ms). But actually maybe that is what is happening to me if im dismissing the context as not proven, its coming later in my processing of what I am looking at 🤔 either way, whether the test works or not, those people could just live at the coast 😤
I mean it’s important to distinguish between actual scientific tests and random managerial bullshit and wasting a day on “training”.
The scientific test, assuming this is real science, and not more random crap found on a website, will just be based on observation. People with autism tend describe individual pictures while neurotypicals tend to impose a narrative on the whole collection.
There’s no good or bad here, they’re different ways of describing the world. You don’t win if you’re more autistic or neurotypical or whatever.
On the other hand training days like you’re describing are always a complete waste of time. The aim is to turn up, do the minimal amount of engagement to make it look like you’re a team player, and then just try to fit in with everyone else. There’s is no point in wasting time thinking about course materials. The guy who wrote them was just bullshiting.
If it makes you feel better, if it was actually sunrise on summer solstice at Stonehenge, there would have probably been people in the pictures. I’ve heard it gets busy.
they were talking about the difference between big picture thinking and evidence based thinking
This annoyed me so much that I had to stop reading for a few moments.
I’ve been in similar situations. One recent example was in music therapy. We listened to a song and were asked our impressions. My brain was breaking down instrumentation and phrasing, appreciating the lack of autotune, etc. But what they were shooting for with the question, and what probably about half the participants responded, was “that was pretty relaxing.” While true (if subjective), it’s the details that jumped out at me.
Autism or not, without any establishing priors, you can’t confidently say what is happening in a single picture. You can make guesses with varying levels of confidence. That’s just logic? So really, the test seems to sort people based on whether they make poor inferences quickly? Sounds like it isn’t identifying autism, but people that are shitty at logic.
But perhaps the intent of the test isn’t actually to accurately describe what is happening in the picture, but instead to give “vibes.” The people at the beach picture gives the “vibes” of vacation because the likelihood of the viewer of the picture to live near is a beach is actually pretty low. Same thing with Stonehenge. Essentially, the (biased) collective unconscious association of Stonehenge with celestial events.
In other words, due to the ambiguity in the test between vibes check vs. a literal, accurate description of the events transpiring in the picture, the people unable see the trees in a forest default to vibes and expect everyone else is like them. It is very “othering” by assuming the vibes check is the default position because a complete lack of thinking rigor being applied.
Anyhow, corporate trainings are a shitty scam given by very unqualified people in a lot of cases.
I dont think thats what the test is sorting on. I think its sorting on how people initially understand the question. I’m not autistic and I would have assumed that they were asking about vibes, at least for the beach photo (fuck that corporate training stuff). It would have taken additional clarification from the tester for me to assume they were asking about the literal people in the specific picture. I understood the question as “what idea do you assume I’m trying to convey with this photo” and not “what in literal reality is happening in this photo”.
The assumption that they wanted to know about the specific people pictured would not have immediately occurred to me but seems to be the first assumption of people who are autistic. So there may be a different way of thinking between allistic and autistic happening which I assume is what the test is measuring.
That said I don’t think either way of looking at the picture is wrong. I do think though that if you’re going to take an autism test you shouldn’t be upset if the test tells you that your answers indicate that you are autistic or that you are allistic. Youre literally asking for that feedback when engaging with the test…
For what it’s worth I think your comment about the “grass having been cut” was very interesting and insightful. I’m not sure what the purpose of the training was but I’ll take a misinformed guess that they were trying to train people to all see and respond in the same way. And if so that’s bullshit. To truly grow, learn and work together it takes all kinds of perspective. The most interesting room is one full of people with different perspectives.
If there were people in the photo conducting a celebration, that would let you know that it was the solstice, because people aren’t allowed near the stones at other times.
I doubt, though, that that is common knowledge to anyone from outside of the UK, so whoever designed that test has an unconscious bias.
I would have no idea being from the US. I’d like to think that any test given to me wouldn’t be about a culture I’m not familiar with in a country I don’t live, but I’ve been fooled before.
Exactly, and this is assuming that that detail was even in the photograph; I am only guessing - OP didn’t say so.
I don’t even know how widely it would be known to Brits, although Stonehenge has been in the news recently, on account of people throwing paint on it and bothering the lichen, so it might have been mentioned in those news reports.
I wrongly said that the Stonehenge photo was a test - OP said it was a training course.
