Thinking, fast and slow on the autism spectrum.

This research looked at how autistic people think and make decisions. It found that autistic people usually take time to think things through carefully (deliberative thinking) rather than going with their first instinct (intuitive thinking). However, when asked to answer questions quickly, autistic people could use their intuition too. This shows autistic people have a thinking strength - they're more careful and accurate - but they can also learn to use quick thinking when needed, like in fast social situations.

This study examined dual process theory in autism, investigating whether autistic individuals typically use deliberative (slow) thinking rather than intuitive (fast) thinking compared to non-autistic people. Researchers used time manipulation during reasoning tasks with questions designed to have intuitive (incorrect) and deliberative (correct) answers. Results confirmed that autistic participants produced more deliberative answers overall than non-autistic participants. However, when forced to respond quickly, both groups showed increased intuitive responses, demonstrating that autistic individuals can use intuitive thinking when encouraged.

The findings support a strengths-based view of autism, highlighting deliberative thinking as less biased and more accurate, while suggesting potential for teaching intuitive thinking skills when situationally appropriate.

Findings suggest interventions could focus on teaching autistic individuals when and how to use intuitive thinking in appropriate contexts, particularly fast-changing social situations. Clinical approaches should recognize and build upon the strengths of deliberative thinking while supporting flexibility in cognitive processing when beneficial.

Sample size and detailed methodology are not reported in the abstract. This appears to be the first study using fast/slow time manipulation with autistic individuals, limiting comparison with previous research. The specific measures of accuracy and bias are not clearly described.

Daniel Kahneman wrote a highly influential book titled 'thinking, fast and slow'. He proposes that people usually think in a rapid, automatic, intuitive style. When people realise their intuitive thinking may be wrong, a slower, effortful, deliberative style of thinking takes over. It has recently been proposed that thinking in autistic individuals can be characterised as usually thinking in the deliberative style (rather than the intuitive style that non-autistic people usually think in).As intuitive thinking is fast and deliberative thinking is slow, this research manipulated the time available to complete a series of reasoning questions.

These questions have been developed to have intuitive answers (which are incorrect) and deliberative answers (which are correct). For the first time, a fast time manipulation (you must answer quickly) and slow (you must think about your answer before responding) was undertaken with autistic individuals. Autistic participants did produce more deliberative answers than the non-autistic participants. However, both groups produced comparably more intuitive answers and less deliberative answers in the fast condition.

This shows that while autistic people tend not to use their intuition, autistic people can be encouraged to use their intuition.Using rapid intuition can be useful in fast-changing contexts, such as some social situations. Future research can explore how to support autistic individuals to use their intuition when the need arises. In addition, the propensity for deliberation resulting in unbiased, correct responses reflects a strengths-based account of autism. This requires more mental effort and is less susceptible to bias and errors.

This is called 'Dual Process Theory'.