Dual Cognition—How autistic brains really think

There’s a really unfortunate misconception that being detail oriented means not being able to see the big picture. That they are mutually exclusive.

You’re either good at zooming in and seeing the details or zooming out and seeing the big picture... but you can’t be good at both. 

This is something that’s been a big problem for me in my career. 

People would see how incredibly good I am with details and assume I can’t see the big picture too. 

I’ve been underestimated, overlooked, and dismissed for opportunities and promotions because people assumed this about me.

And I want to talk more about this. Because I think this misconception disproportionately hurts autistic people.

Because a statistically significant percentage of autistic people are “bottom up processors” (according to research)... and being detail oriented is a byproduct of that. 

If we’re presented with information that our brains see as incomplete, we will seek out additional information before our brains know what to do with it.

So, on the surface, it looks like we’re “too focused” on the details to see the bigger picture.

But what’s actually happening is that we’re seeing both at the same time.

We’re tracking millions of pieces of information IN THE CONTEXT OF the bigger picture... as we attempt to map the details to the bigger picture and the bigger picture to the details.

This explains why the research has ALSO found that a statistically significant percentage of autistic people are systems thinkers.

Which is just a fancy way of saying, we see the big picture, how everything fits within it, and how the individual pieces interact with one another. 

That’s why many of us are so good at optimizing processes. Because we’re able to see what’s broken and how to fix it.

Unfortunately, bottom up processing is much easier to see than systems thinking. 

Because when details are missing, it causes a bottom up processor to “get stuck.” 

And this shows up as...

- Indecisiveness 

- Not taking action 

- “Analysis paralysis”

- Asking a lot of questions (which is incorrectly seen as incompetence a lot of the time)

- Spending “too much time” collecting information

- Perfectionism 

- Being a “slow” problem solver

And so much more.

But being a systems thinker isn’t nearly as visible. It does show up, just in less visible ways. Like...

- Increased efficiency once enough information is known

- Better problem-solving skills. In other words, the ability to find more creative and better solutions to problems 

(Research shows a direct correlation between creative problem-solving and this highly detailed analytical problem-solving approach that autistic people tend to use. I’ll link to a study on this below)

- Stronger pattern recognition 

- Better analytical capabilities 

And so much more.

The problem is, most people can’t actually see these things. 

Especially if they are not also systems thinkers (ironically).

A person can’t see that something is solving a systems level problem and that it’s doing it better than anything else if they can’t see the system in the first place.

This is not to suggest that people whose brains don’t work this way are somehow less than, or that people whose brains do work this way are superior...

Just that these are extremely useful skills that not everyone has. Skills that have historically advanced human development and evolution in significant ways. 

(Some people suspect Einstein was autistic, and if he was, his contributions to human evolution would be a very good example of what I’m talking about.)

Yet autistic people who have these skills are often not recognized for having them because most people can only see the slower decision making, task initiation challenges, asking a million questions manifestations of their brain wiring.

And though this is clearly a big problem... one that I hope we can all agree is likely contributing to autistic people experiencing unfair discrimination in the workplace... I think there’s a workable solution for it.

Which is...

Recognizing that in brains like these, detail orientation and big picture thinking are inherently interconnected.

To be clear, I am not suggesting that all detail oriented people are also systems thinkers.

But what I am saying is that this is the case for a LOT of autistic people.

(Which is, again, supported by research... and also by my lived experience as an autistic person.)

And I think the quickest way to recognize that these things can be interconnected is to call it something (aka give it a name).

Because right now, we only have terms that are used to describe these things as opposites.

Bottom up processing vs top down processing.

Local processing vs global integration. (Detail oriented processing vs big picture thinking.) 

Which is why so many people see them as mutually exclusive when they aren’t. 

I propose the term “dual cognition.”

When thinking about my own brain, I see it as a “dual cognition” operating system.

It doesn’t just do one or the other.

It does both.

And if I am ever in one mode more than the other, I’m still very much in the other mode too.

My brain literally cannot see the details without simultaneously looking for what those details mean in the context of a bigger picture. Not even if I try to force it to work that way.

And from all the research I have read about how autistic brains tend to think, process, and learn... 

I suspect a significant percentage of autistic people also have “dual cognition” brains.

Maybe someone in the field of psychological research can do a study on my hypothesis.

In the meantime, if you’re autistic and this resonated with you, I’d love to know! 😊