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250 Opinion TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences Vol.6 No.6 June 2002
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Opinion TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences Vol.6 No.6 June 2002 251
the surrounding context. If they are not influenced between each other than those of the women. The
by the tilt of the frame, they are said to be ‘field criteria that the Aguaruna men used to decide which
independent’. Most studies show that females are animals belonged together more closely resembled
more field dependent – that is, women are relatively the taxonomic criteria used by western (mostly male)
more distracted by contextual cues, rather than biologists [34]. Classification and organisation
considering each variable within the system involves systemising because categories are
separately. They are more likely than men to say predictive. The more fine-grained the categories, the
(erroneously) that the rod is upright if it is aligned better the system of prediction will be.
with its frame [28]. (12) The Systemising Quotient. This questionnaire
(7) Good attention to relevant detail. This is a has been tested among adults in the general
general feature of systemizing. It is not the only population. It has 40 items asking about the subject’s
factor, but it is a necessary part of it. Attention to level of interest in a range of different systems that
relevant detail is superior in males. A measure of this exist in the environment (including technical,
is the Embedded Figures Task: on average, males are abstract, and natural systems). Males score higher
quicker and more accurate in locating the target than females on this measure (S. Baron-Cohen and
embedded within the larger, complex pattern [29]. J. Reichler, unpublished data).
Males, on average, are also better at detecting a (13) Mechanics. The Physical Prediction
particular feature (static or moving) [30]. Questionnaire (PPQ) is based on an established
(8) The Mental Rotation test. Here again, males are method for selecting applicants for engineering. The
quicker and more accurate. This test involves task involves predicting which direction levers will
systemising because you have to treat each feature move when an internal mechanism (of cog wheels
in a display as a variable that can be transformed and pulleys) of one type or another is involved. Men
(e.g. rotated) and predict how it will appear (the score significantly higher on this test than women
‘output’) [31]. (J. Lawson et al., unpublished data).
(9) Map reading. Reading maps is another
everyday test of systemising, because it is necessary Autism: an extreme form of the male brain
to take features from 3-D input and predict how they Autism is diagnosed when a person shows
will appear when represented in 2-D. Boys perform abnormalities in social development,
at a higher level than girls. Men can also learn a communication, and displays unusually strong
route in fewer trials, just from looking at a map, obsessional interests, from an early age [35].
correctly recalling more details about direction and Asperger Syndrome (AS) has been proposed as a
distance. This suggests they are treating features in variant of autism, in children with normal or high IQ,
the map as variables that can be transformed into who develop speech on time. Today, approximately
3-D. If you ask school children to make a map of an 1 in 200 children have one of the ‘autistic spectrum
area that they have visited only once, boys’ maps conditions’, which include AS [36]. Autism spectrum
have a more accurate layout of the features in the conditions affect males far more often than females.
environment than girls’ maps. More of the girls’ maps In people with high-functioning autism or AS, the sex
make serious errors in the location of important ratio is at least 10 males to every female. These
landmarks. The boys tend to emphasise routes or conditions are also strongly heritable [37] and
roads, whereas the girls tend to emphasise specific neurodevelopmental. There is evidence of structural
landmarks (the corner shop, etc.). These two and functional differences in regions of the brain
strategies – using directional cues versus landmark (such as the amygdala being abnormal in size, and
cues – have been widely studied (for example, [32]). this structure not responding to cues of emotional
The directional strategy is an instance of taking expression) [38].
understanding space as a geometric system and the The extreme male brain theory of autism was
focus on roads or routes is an instance of considering first informally suggested by Hans Asperger in 1944.
space in terms of another system, in this case a He wrote: ‘The autistic personality is an extreme
transport system. variant of male intelligence. Even within the normal
(10) Motoric systems. If you ask people to throw or variation, we find typical sex differences in
catch moving objects (target directed tasks) such as intelligence… In the autistic individual, the male
playing darts or intercepting balls flung from a pattern is exaggerated to the extreme’ [39]
launcher, males tend to be better. Equally, if you ask (Uta Frith’s translation). In 1997 this controversial
men to judge which of two moving objects is travelling hypothesis was re-examined [40]. We can test the
faster, men are on average more accurate [33]. extreme male brain theory empirically, now that we
(11) Organisable systems. People in the Aguaruna have definitions of the brain types.
tribe (northern Peru) were asked to classify a
hundred or more examples of local specimens Evidence for the extreme male brain theory
together into related species [34]. Men’s classification Initial tests of this theory are proving positive [41,42].
systems had more sub-categories (i.e. they introduced Some of the convergent lines of evidence are
greater differentiation) and more consistency summarised here.
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252 Opinion TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences Vol.6 No.6 June 2002
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Opinion TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences Vol.6 No.6 June 2002 253
A key symptom explained not only of local elements (e.g. musical notes) but also
Phenomena that are unpredictable and less of relationships between those elements (such as
controllable (like people) leave individuals with intervals between notes). Studies of autistic ‘savants’
autism either anxious or disinterested. Phenomena show that there is often a good implicit understanding
that are more predictable are highly attractive to of the rules of the system (be it maths, music,
them. When they are confronted with the drawing, syntax, calendars) and of relational
unpredictable social world, they react by trying to patterns within the system [62].
impose predictability and ‘sameness’, trying to This is exactly what systemising theory predicts,
control people through tantrums and insistence on but is not predicted by weak central coherence
repetition. People with autism and AS have their theory. Among the topics of fascination or even
greatest difficulties in the playground, in friendship, obsession in people with Asperger Syndrome, for
in intimate relationships, and at work, where the example, are woodwork, where the design of the
situation is unstructured, unpredictable, and where product is understood both at a global level (as a
social sensitivity is needed. The more able ‘system’) and in terms of the mechanics of local
individuals report that they struggle to work out a details in the system. Weak central coherence would
huge set of rules of how to behave in each and every not predict such competence in understanding the
situation, attempting to develop a mental ‘manual’ system as a whole. Similarly, the fact that many
for social interaction of ‘if–then’ rules. It is as though people with AS become fascinated with code-
they are trying to systemise social behaviour when breaking is an example that would be predicted by
the natural approach to socialising should be via the systemising theory, but not necessarily by the
empathising [60]. weak central coherence theory.
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254 Opinion TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences Vol.6 No.6 June 2002
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