Watching TV- autism vs cognitive deficit?

[daniegirl6224]

Does anyone else like super struggle to follow/take in things on TV/movies? I am trying to figure out if it’s due to autism or some sort of cognitive deficit. I don’t think it’s ADHD because it doesn’t improve like other symptoms do when I take my ADHD med. I think it could be related to auditory processing disorder but I am not sure.

 

[Outdated]

Yes, auditory processing is a big part of that. Youtube training videos are useless to me because I have to keep going back and replaying bits over and over to understand them properly. It can take me 45 minutes to watch a 10 minute video.

Another issue became obvious to me when I got my diagnosis, and that is that I have a very narrow field of focus and that when I watch videos I tend to only focus on small areas of the video at a time. I have superb peripheral vision but the region that is in focus for me is very narrow. What started me noticing this was when the diagnostic team got me to watch a short video and then asked me questions about people in the video, I had only been watching one of the people in the video and was unable to answer questions about the others.

 

[daniegirl6224]

Thank you! Curious if I also have the narrow field of focus. Getting my testing done soon so hope to learn more!

 

[thejuice]

Yes, auditory processing is a big part of that. Youtube training videos are useless to me because I have to keep going back and replaying bits over and over to understand them properly. It can take me 45 minutes to watch a 10 minute video.

Another issue became obvious to me when I got my diagnosis, and that is that I have a very narrow field of focus and that when I watch videos I tend to only focus on small areas of the video at a time. I have superb peripheral vision but the region that is in focus for me is very narrow. What started me noticing this was when the diagnostic team got me to watch a short video and then asked me questions about people in the video, I had only been watching one of the people in the video and was unable to answer questions about the others.

You probably know but men have narrow, laser like focus because of our hunting ancestors* and women have better peripheral vision, probably for gathering and survival. Also I think women see more colours than men, to identify berries and such

* You might have an extreme version of that

 

[thejuice]

But you also have good peripheral vision, I have no explanation for that

 

[thejuice]

There was an interesting experiment where they got people to focus on a basketball game and then a man in a gorilla suit walked openly in the background and no one noticed. Which is a good indicator of how we ignore stuff were not focused on. A lot of our bias' work on the same principle of selective attention.

 

[Outdated]

You probably know but men have laser like focus because of our hunting ancestors* and women have better peripheral vision, probably for gathering and survival. Also I think women see more colours than men, to identify berries and such

* You might have an extreme version of that

I didn't know that, it matches common complaints woman have had about me though. Around the home I struggle to find things that are right in front of me, yet out in public my eyes are instantly attracted to a quarter inch of exposed knicker elastic 300 metres away.

Women call it Husband's Disease.

There was an interesting experiment where they got people to focus on a basketball game and then a man in a gorilla suit walked openly in the background and no one noticed

I saw a much more interesting one where they got people in a grandstand to wear glasses that monitored their eye movements and what they were focusing on while watching an Aussie Rules football match. It proved that women perve every bit as much as men do.

 

[Misty Avich]

My attention span is short so my issue comes from that.

 

[thejuice]

women perve every bit as much as men do.

knew it!

 

[thejuice]

Does anyone else like super struggle to follow/take in things on TV/movies? I am trying to figure out if it’s due to autism or some sort of cognitive deficit. I don’t think it’s ADHD because it doesn’t improve like other symptoms do when I take my ADHD med. I think it could be related to auditory processing disorder but I am not sure.

I have anxiety or ADHD, or my brain is trained to want short, junk food entertainment so sitting watching a film is painful, unless I've seen it before so it's not so bad.

I have information processing disorder too, I'm very sloooow. Luckily not a problem on forums.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Ever watch a movie for the second or third time and catch new things every time you watch it?

My wife sees a program or movie once, she doesn't want to watch it again. Whereas, I can totally enjoy watching a movie 2-4 times and discover new things each time.

 

[thejuice]

Ever watch a movie for the second or third time and catch new things every time you watch it?

My wife sees a program or movie once, she doesn't want to watch it again. Whereas, I can totally enjoy watching a movie 2-4 times and discover new things each time.

I have a compulsion to watch the same movies over and over. Wanting to notice every small detail, trying to improve my understanding.

Games often exploit that obsessive autistic drive.

 

[daniegirl6224]

Ever watch a movie for the second or third time and catch new things every time you watch it?

My wife sees a program or movie once, she doesn't want to watch it again. Whereas, I can totally enjoy watching a movie 2-4 times and discover new things each time.

For me it’s basically like I’m watching it for the first time every single time

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Ever watch a movie for the second or third time and catch new things every time you watch it?

My wife sees a program or movie once, she doesn't want to watch it again. Whereas, I can totally enjoy watching a movie 2-4 times and discover new things each time.

I vert seldom watch movies more than once or read a book twice.

 

[Mono]

Depends on my mood. At times when a lot is going in my life, I am imagining the things that are said, fall behind and have to constantly rewind. That's when I know the time isn't right to watch whatever I"m watching. And I switch to cartoon shorts without dialogue instead How I love those.

Edit: I do replay and rewatch my favorite games/movies over and over again...

 

[Boogs]

I have a big downer on video in general, but commercial TV/streaming/etc is especially unpleasant. It seems to be a number of different factors, not just sensory issues, but those do play a part depending on the style and content.
Audio is a major issue, and dependent on general quality, but also depends on a persons intonation and clarity so in a two way conversation on-screen I may hear one character fine and yet only pick up less than half the words the other is saying. If the speaker doesn't separate their words crisply I struggle to separate the noises out into actual words. Most movies are almost meaningless without subtitles. I rarely can clearly make out the lyrics of a song. I know PA systems in stations are notoriously bad, but I never understand them at all, a word in ten is probably about normal for me.

The worst of the video tends to be the hyper real imagery so beloved by adverts. Not a state of gross disturbance, more that of confusion and distaste. Then the content itself is also often undesirable, meaningless, and/or unappetising at best.

On top of all that is the problem with a forced pace of narrative. I need to be able to stop and digest what I'm hearing or reading. I'm usually a pretty slow reader as I can't hold much text in my memory and need to convert it to meaning as I go, chunk at a time bit by bit, and if I have to put any thought into it I miss the continuing narrative.

Video forces me to accept too much of what's being presented without being able to break it down and understand and decide on it's validity before accepting it, and on both an intuitive level (style) and a rational level (content) I find this very off-putting. Being force fed at someone else's selected pace.

 

[Outdated]

I know PA systems in stations are notoriously bad, but I never understand them at all, a word in ten is probably about normal for me.

Me too. I used to fly back and forth between Melbourne and Darwin often and if I couldn't get a direct flight (4 hours) I'd always go for a stopover at Alice Springs. Alice Springs is my favourite airport in Australia because you get off the plane and walk across the tarmac straight in to a bar, no need to go through security.

You get a drink and go sit outside in the smoker's area. No need to try and listen to the PA, you can see your plane sitting there and when you see the fuel trucks move away you know it's time to get back on board.

 

[Boogs]

I just learned to watch the crowd. There'd be the usual mumbling whining grumbling excuse for human speech on the PA, and like a flock of birds they all start to turn towards whichever platform the trains been redirected to (or whatever).

It's only after I follow them onto the train and it pulls out that I realise it was for a different destination <sigh! >.