Evaluation of WCC

• Evaluation

  • + A positive explanation of ASD
  • + Supporting evidence
  • -A comprehensive explanation of ASD
  • -Lack of Validity
• + A positive explanation of ASD

  Offers a optimistic view of ASD in two ways:

  1. It doesn't label ASD as having a damaging cognitive deficit. It acknowledges that people with ASD are really good at local processing
  2. WCC is seen as a preference for local processing rather than a fixed deficit, it can be improved with specific instructions. For example, people with ASD can be better understand conversations if they make an effort to remember the main point
• + A positive explanation of ASD 2

  • The positive perspective is a nice change to the typical negative focus on what people with ASD can't do
  • Help reduce stigma around the disorder + highlights their unique strength
• + Supporting evidence

  • Shah + Frith (1993) - found people with ASD did better on the task compared to other groups of participants - Local processing is an advantage when the task is all about details
  • The advantage disappeared for people with ASD when the patterns were already broken up into four parts - task didn't need local processing, so people with ASD didn't perform better than others
  • Makes WCC more believable as it supports the theory's key idea that people with ASD will struggle with understanding the bigger picture but excel in tasks that need attention to detail
• -A comprehensive explanation of ASD

  • Offers better explanation for two important aspects of ASD that other theories struggle with
  • Good at explaining the social difficulties people with ASD have like problems with non-verbal communication + understanding social interactions
  • It also explains the non social side like obsessions + repetitive behaviours
  • Having a theory that can explain such a wide range of behaviours, both strengths and challenges, makes it a more valid explanation for ASD
• -Lack of validity

  • Explains why people with ASD tend to focus on small details. BUT it doesn't really tell us why they have this preference
  • The theory doesn't have a clear explanation for how WCC works in the brain
  • Some researchers have suggested that abnormalities in the right hemisphere might be involved in global processing, which is what people with ASD struggle with (Gallace et al 2008). Research is still ongoing + we don't have solid answers yet
  • Happe and Frith believe this is a key problem with the theory + it weakens it's validity