‘A Storm of Post-It Notes’: Experiences of Perceptual Capacity in Autism and ADHD
Irvine, Elise, Brinkert, Poole, Farran, Milne, Scerif, Crane and Remington (2024).
Research in laboratory settings suggest that Autistic people process more information at any given time and have increased perceptual capacity. This article explores if this increase is seen in the day-to-day lives of Autistic people and when compared to ADHD or Neurotypical people if these commonalities or differences can shed light on differences between Neurotypes. 108 Autistic adults, 40 ADHD adults, 79 AuDHD (Autistic and ADHD) adult and 85 Neurotypical adults for the UK took part in the research. They completed an online survey on experiences of attention and distraction. The survey was analysed using thematic analysis. The authors found that all Neurotypes experienced periods of intense focus but that Neurodivergent participants experienced a barrage of information. Autistic participants described this as overwhelming whereas ADHD participants described it in terms of overload. These results could suggest that Autistic people have increased perceptual capacity and ADHD people have difficulties keeping attentional priorities. There were notable differences between Neurodivergent and Neurotypical people, but the differences in experiences between Neurodivergent peoples were subtler. This could suggest that increased perceptual capacity might extend beyond Autism. The authors conclude that perceptual capacity offers a useful framework for better understand of one’s own perceptual experiences and to inform methods for support challenges encountered.
