EVALUATE WEAK CENTRAL COHERENCE

Question 1

FOR

Answer 1

• Amita Shah and Uta frith found people with ASD performed better on a task involving replicating patterns than other groups of participants digesting local processing can be an advantage
• confirmed by when patterns shown already broken the task no longer required local processing so others did better
• evidence increases the validity of theory
• has a positive outlook on ASD as focuses on skills they do have and doesn’t state they have an impairment and cognitive deficits

Question 2

AGAINST

Answer 2

• can explain research findings and that ASD prefer local processing doesn’t explain how this preference is determined
• lacks mechanism explaining how theory operates eg unclear what parts of the Brain are involved
• gallace et al suggests abnormalities in right hemisphere involved in global processing
• happe and frith state this is a major limitation and it reduces its construct validity therefore other explanations have been developed to fill gaps

Question 3

APPLICATION

Answer 3

• has been used to explain two key features of ASD others struggle to account for
• 1: most theories offer thorough explanations for social deficits (give example) this theory also explains non social aspects such as obsessive interests and repetitive behaviours
• 2: also explain superior performance on tasks that benefit from attention to detail which is ignored by other theories
• this is more valid and it looks at both strengths and impairments

Question 4

ALTERNATIVE

Answer 4

• assuming ASD is caused by this theory is reductionist and ignores equally plausiable explanations