Our research
Our research focusses on behaviour and cognition of individuals with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Individuals with ASC have difficulties in social interaction and communication, and show repetitive behaviour and restricted interests.
Cognitive Theories
There are three important cognitive theories regarding ASC; Executive Functioning, Theory of Mind and Weak Central Coherence.
Executive Functions (EF) are cognitive functions that are needed to adapt behaviour to environmental circumstances, such as working memory (the ability to keep information in mind, process the information, and use it to adapt behaviour), cognitive flexibility (the ability to switch rapidly between different behaviours), inhibition (the ability to stop behaviour if needed), and planning (the ability to plan behaviour). The EF theory postulates that individuals with ASC have deficits in these functions. However, it appears that there is not one specific EF profile in ASC, and there are many individual differences.
Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand one’s own and other people’s mind, and to understand that others have their own thoughts, feelings, and goals. The ToM theory postulates that individuals with ASC have a less well-developed ToM as compared to non-autistic individuals.
The Weak Central Coherence (WCC) theory postulates that individuals with ASC focus more on details and focus less on, or are less well able to perceive, the bigger picture.
Although all these theories have their merits, none of them appears to explain ASC completely. Although the main focus of our research is the EF theory, we also focus on the other two cognitive theories.
Autism and Culture
Most autism research has been done in Western countries. An important question is whether Western scientific findings can be generalized to other countries and cultures such as Malaysia. Moreover, it is important to explore whether Western screening questionnaires and their norms are applicable in other countries and cultures. There might be important cultural differences in interpretation of, and expression of autism characteristics. For example, how do people think/feel about autism characteristics? How is autism diagnosed in different cultures? Are there any differences in the expression of autism characteristics in Malaysia as compared to Western countries? Is there more or less stigma in certain countries and cultures than others?
The main methods we use are questionnaires and (cognitive) tasks. For example, we use questionnaires to measure autism characteristics and executive functioning in daily life, and we use cognitive tasks to measure executive functioning on a behavioural level (e.g., a Switch task to measure cognitive flexibility, a Stop task to measure inhibition).
Current projects focus on possible cultural difference on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), parenting autistic children, music sophistication and the link to autism traits, and on gender and camouflaging.