2. Systemizing
Talent in autism comes in many forms, but a common characteristic is that the individual becomes an expert in
recognizing repeating patterns in stimuli. We call this systemizing, defined as the drive to analyse or construct systems. These might be any kind of system. What defines a system is that it follows
rules, and when we systemize we are trying to identify the rules that govern the system, in order to predict how that system will behave (
Baron-Cohen 2006). These are some of the major kinds of system:
- collectible systems (e.g. distinguishing between types of stones or wood);
- mechanical systems (e.g. a video recorder or a window lock);
- numerical systems (e.g. a train timetable or a calendar);
- abstract systems (e.g. the syntax of a language or musical notation);
- natural systems (e.g. the weather patterns or tidal wave patterns);
- social systems (e.g. a management hierarchy or a dance routine with a dance partner); and
- motoric systems (e.g. throwing a Frisbee or bouncing on a trampoline).
In all these cases, one systemizes by noting regularities (or structure) and rules. The rules tend to be derived by noting if p and q are
associated in a systematic way. The general formulation of what happens during systemizing is one looks for laws of the form ‘if p, then q’. If it is Friday, then we eat fish. If we multiply 3 by itself, then we get 9. If we turn the switch to the down position, then the light comes on. When we think about the kinds of domains in which savants typically excel, it is those domains that are highly systemizable.
Examples might be from numbers (e.g. spotting if a number is a prime number), calendrical calculation (e.g. telling which day of the week a given date will fall), drawing (e.g. analysing space into geometric shapes and the laws of perspective, and perfecting an artistic technique), music (e.g. analysing the sequence of notes in a melody, or the lawful regularities or structure in a piece), memory (e.g. recalling long sequences of digits or lists of information) or even learning foreign languages (e.g. learning vocabulary or the laws of grammar). In each of these domains, there is the opportunity to repeat behaviour in order to check if one gets the very same outcome every time. Multiplying 3 by itself
always delivers 9, the key change in this specific musical piece
always occurs in the 13th bar, throwing the ball at this particular angle and with this particular force
always results in it landing in the hoop.
