Research led by Anna Remington at CRAE has found that autistic people can take in more information at any given moment, e.g. are better at detecting a target sound hidden among other sounds, compared to non-autistic people. This could be useful in some situations, but problematic in others. CRAE researchers want to understand differences in autistic attention, how it can change the way we understand autism, and how we might intervene to help those who struggle. In 2019, we are continuing to study attention and perception, to raise awareness of a more positive side of autism, without downplaying the challenges associated it.
CRAE Lead: Anna Remington with Jana Brinkert
Key publications:
- Remington, A., Brinket,J. (2020) Making sense of the perceptual capacities in autistic and non-autistic adults. Autism. Online.
- Remington, A. M., Hanley, M., O’Brien, S., Riby, D., & Swettenham, J. (2019). Implications of capacity in the classroom: simplifying tasks for autistic children may not be the answer. Research in Developmental Disabilities.
- Wilson, C. (2018) Autism can bring extra abilities and now we’re finding out why. New Scientist. Online.
- Remington, A. (2017) Autistic people can hear more than most – which can be a strength and a challenge. The Conversation. Online.
- Parsons, O. E., Bayliss, A. P., & Remington, A. (2017). A few of my favourite things: circumscribed interests in autism are not accompanied by increased attentional salience on a personalized selective attention task. Molecular autism, 8, 20. doi:10.1186/s13229-017-0132-1
- Remington, A. M., & Fairnie, J. (2017). A sound advantage: increased auditory capacity in autism. Cognition. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.04.002