Stuck in uncertainty: A predictive processing/ active inference account of procrastination- like behaviour in autism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62876/lr.vi45.6481Keywords:
autism, procrastination, weak central coherence (WCC), high inflexible priors of prediction errors in autism (HIPPEA)Abstract
A phenomenon often associated with autism is an atypical mode of executive function, manifestations of which include difficulty in initiating tasks. In some cases, this is accompanied by feelings of inertia and sensations that can be described as simultaneous restlessness and paralysis. Consequently, difficulty in getting started on tasks can result in procrastination, either by simply postponing working on the target task or by performing other unrelated tasks before engaging in the target task. Interestingly, however, it is also documented that once a task has been started, autistic persons may focus on it intensely and for prolonged periods of time, especially when it is interesting to them.
This paper uses predictive processing and active inference to model the relationship between executive function, procrastination, and hyperfocus in autism. This model integrates the known and proposed causes of deficits in executive function and the role played by interest in attention regulation and motivation. The model proposes that procrastination is the outcome of differential prediction-error minimizing processes, such as weighting of sensory stimuli. Links to previously proposed models such as weak central coherence (WCC), and the theory of high, inflexible priors of prediction errors in autism (HIPPEA) are discussed.
Downloads
References
Adams, Rick A., Stewart Shipp, and Karl J. Friston. “Predictions Not Commands: Active Inference in the Motor System.” Brain Structure and Function 218 (3): (2013): 611–43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-012-0475-5
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed. (Washington, DC. 2013). https://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/doi/book/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.
Andreae, Helen, Abigail Durrant, and Steven Kyffin. “Recommendations When Designing to Address Procrastination: A Psychological Perspective.” DeSForM (2019, November). https://doi.org/10.21428/5395bc37.06a2ebf3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21428/5395bc37.06a2ebf3
Baron-Cohen, Simon, Sally Wheelwright, Richard Skinner, Joanne Martin, and Emma Clubley. “The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger Syndrome/High- Functioning Autism, Males and Females, Scientists and Mathematicians.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 31 (1): (2001): 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005653411471. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005653411471
Belcher, Christina, and Kimberly Maich. “Autism Spectrum Disorder in Popular Media: Storied Reflections of Societal Views.” Brock Education 23 (2): (2014): 97–115. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26522/brocked.v23i2.311
Botha, Monique. “Academic, Activist, or Advocate? Angry, Entangled, and Emerging: A Critical Reflection on Autism Knowledge Production.” Frontiers in Psychology 12. (2021) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.727542. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.727542
Casanova, Emily L., Carolina Baeza-Velasco, Caroline B. Buchanan, and Manuel F. Casanova. “The Relationship between Autism and Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes/Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders.” Journal of Personalized Medicine 10 (4): (2020): 260. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm10040260. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm10040260
Cisek, Paul.. “Cortical Mechanisms of Action Selection: The Affordance Competition Hypothesis.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 362 (1485): (2007): 1585–99. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2054. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2054
Clark, Andy. “Whatever next? Predictive Brains, Situated Agents, and the Future of Cognitive Science.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36 (3): (2013): 181–253. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X12000477
———.. Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind. Book, Whole. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2016).
Constant, Axel, Jo Bervoets, Kristien Hens, and Sander Van de Cruys. “Precise Worlds for Certain Minds: An Ecological Perspective on the Relational Self in Autism.” Topoi 39 (3): (2020): 611–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-018-9546-4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-018-9546-4
Demetriou, Eleni A., Marilena M. DeMayo, and Adam J. Guastella.. “Executive Function in Autism Spectrum Disorder: History, Theoretical Models, Empirical Findings, and Potential as an Endophenotype.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 10. (2019). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00753. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00753
Doyle, Nancy.. “Neurodiversity at Work: A Biopsychosocial Model and the Impact on Working Adults.” British Medical Bulletin 135 (1): (2020): 108–25. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldaa021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldaa021
Dupuis, Annie, Piyumi Mudiyanselage, Christie L. Burton, Paul D. Arnold, Jennifer Crosbie, and Russell J. Schachar.. “Hyperfocus or Flow? Attentional Strengths in Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 13. (2022). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.886692. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.886692
Fietz, Julia, Noel Valencia, and Giorgia Silani.. “Alexithymia and Autistic Traits as Possible Predictors for Traits Related to Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: A Multivariate Statistical Approach.” Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 24 (4): (2018): 901–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.12961. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.12961
Friston, Karl. “Life as We Know It.” Journal of the Royal Society, Interface 10 (20130475): (2013): 1–12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2013.0475
———. “Affordance and Active Inference.” In Affordances in Everyday Life: A Multidisciplinary Collection of Essays, edited by Zakaria Djebbara, (2022): 211–19. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08629-8_20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08629-8_20
Friston, Karl, James Kilner, and Lee Harrison. “A Free Energy Principle for the Brain.” Journal of Physiology-Paris 100 (Journal Article): (2006): 70–87. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphysparis.2006.10.001
Friston, Karl, Francesco Rigoli, Dimitri Ognibene, Christoph Mathys, Thomas Fitzgerald, and Giovanni Pezzulo. “Active Inference and Epistemic Value.” Cognitive Neuroscience 6 (4): (2015): 187–224. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17588928.2015.1020053
Friston, Karl, Philipp Schwartenbeck, Thomas FitzGerald, Michael Moutoussis, Timothy Behrens, and Raymond J. Dolan.. “The Anatomy of Choice: Dopamine and Decision-Making.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 369 (1655): (2014): 1–12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0481
Friston, Karl, Christopher Thornton, and Andy Clark. “Free-Energy Minimization and the Dark-Room Problem.” Frontiers in Psychology 3 (130): (2012): 1–7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00130
Gibson, James J. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Book, Whole. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1979).
Gibson, James Jerome. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. (London: Psychology Press. 1986).
Grandin, Temple, and Richard Panek. The Autistic Brain: Thinking across the Spectrum. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2013).
Hens, Kristien, Ingrid Robeyns, and Katrien Schaubroeck. “The Ethics of Autism.” Philosophy Compass 14 (1): (2019) e12559. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12559. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12559
Hesp, Casper, Axel Constant, Maxwell J. D. Ramstead, and Paul Badcock. 2019. “A Multi-Scale View of the Emergent Complexity of Life: A Free-Energy Proposal.” In Evolution, Development and Complexity, edited by Georgi Yordanov Georgiev, John M. Smart, Claudio L. Flores Martinez, and Michael E. Price, (2019): 195–227. Springer , Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00075-2_7
Hohwy, Jakob. The Predictive Mind. Book, Whole. (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2013) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682737.001.0001
———. “Quick’n’Lean or Slow and Rich?: Andy Clark on Predictive Processing and Embodied Cognition” In Andy Clark and His Critics, (2019): 191–205. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190662813.003.0015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190662813.003.0015
Johnston, Kate, Kim Murray, Debbie Spain, Ian Walker, and Ailsa Russell. “Executive Function: Cognition and Behaviour in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 49 (10): (2019): 4181–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04133-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04133-7
Klingsieck, Katrin B. “Procrastination.” European Psychologist 18 (1): (2013) : 24–34. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000138. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000138
Lawson, Rebecca P., Christoph Mathys, and Geraint Rees.. “Adults with Autism Overestimate the Volatility of the Sensory Environment.” Nature Neuroscience 20 (9): (2017): 1293–99. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4615. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4615
Leedham, Alexandra, Andrew R Thompson, Richard Smith, and Megan Freeth.. “‘I Was Exhausted Trying to Figure It out’: The Experiences of Females Receiving an Autism Diagnosis in Middle to Late Adulthood.” Autism 24 (1): (2020): 135–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361319853442. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361319853442
Lewis, Laura Foran.. “Exploring the Experience of Self-Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adults.” Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 30 (5): (2016): 575–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2016.03.009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2016.03.009
Lyall, Kristen, Lisa Croen, Julie Daniels, M. Daniele Fallin, Christine Ladd-Acosta, Brian K. Lee, Bo Y. Park, et al.. “The Changing Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders.” Annual Review of Public Health 38 (March): (2017): 81–102. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044318. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044318
McClelland, Tom. “The Mental Affordance Hypothesis.” Mind 129 (514): (2020): 401–27. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzz036. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzz036
Murray, Dinah.. “Monotropism – An Interest Based Account of Autism.” In Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders, edited by Fred R. Volkmar, 1–3. (New York, NY: Springer. 2018) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102269-1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102269-1
Murray, Fergus. “Me and Monotropism: A Unified Theory of Autism.” The Psychologist Vol.32: (2019): 44–49.
Nuño, Laura, Juana Gómez-Benito, Viviana R. Carmona, and Oscar Pino.. “A Systematic Review of Executive Function and Information Processing Speed in Major Depression Disorder.” Brain Sciences 11 (2): (2021): 147. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11020147. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11020147
O’Donoghue, Ted, and Matthew Rabin.. “Choice and Procrastination*.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 116 (1): (2001): 121–60. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355301556365. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/003355301556365
Palmer, Colin J., Rebecca P. Lawson, and Jakob Hohwy. “Bayesian Approaches to Autism: Towards Volatility, Action, and Behavior.” Psychological Bulletin 143 (5): (2017): 521–42. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000097. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000097
Pellicano, Elizabeth, and David Burr.. “When the World Becomes ‘Too Real’: A Bayesian Explanation of Autistic Perception.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 16 (10): (2012): 504–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.08.009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.08.009
Ramstead, Maxwell J. D., Axel Constant, Paul B. Badcock, and Karl J. Friston. “Variational Ecology and the Physics of Sentient Systems.” Physics of Life Reviews 31 (Journal Article): (2019): 188–205. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2018.12.002
Rozental, Alexander, and Per Carlbring. “Understanding and Treating Procrastination: A Review of a Common Self-Regulatory Failure.” Psychology 5 (13): (2014): 1488–1502. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2014.513160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2014.513160
Russell, Ginny, Steven K. Kapp, Daisy Elliott, Chris Elphick, Ruth Gwernan-Jones, and Christabel Owens. “Mapping the Autistic Advantage from the Accounts of Adults Diagnosed with Autism: A Qualitative Study.” Autism in Adulthood: Challenges and Management 1 (2): (2019): 124–33. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2018.0035. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2018.0035
Scher, Lisa J., and Eric Shyman.. “Challenging Weak Central Coherence: A Brief Exploration of Neurological Evidence from Visual Processing and Linguistic Studies in Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Annals of Behavioral Neuroscience 2 (1): (2019): 136–43. https://doi.org/10.18314/abne.v2i1.1606. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18314/abne.v2i1.1606
Scholz, Fedor, Christian Gumbsch, Sebastian Otte, and Martin V. Butz. “Inference of Affordances and Active Motor Control in Simulated Agents.” Frontiers in Neurorobotics 16. (2022). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbot.2022.881673. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2022.881673
Silverstein, Michael J., Stephen V. Faraone, Terry L. Leon, Joseph Biederman, Thomas J. Spencer, and Lenard A. Adler. “The Relationship Between Executive Function Deficits and DSM-5-Defined ADHD Symptoms.” Journal of Attention Disorders 24 (1): (2020): 41–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054718804347. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054718804347
Spee, Blanca T. M., Ronald Sladky, Joerg Fingerhut, Alice Laciny, Christoph Kraus, Sidney Carls-Diamante, Christof Brücke, Matthew Pelowski, and Marco Treven. “Repeating Patterns: Predictive Processing Suggests an Aesthetic Learning Role of the Basal Ganglia in Repetitive Stereotyped Behaviors.” Frontiers in Psychology 13 (September): (2022.): 930293. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.930293. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.930293
Taboas, Amanda, Karla Doepke, and Corinne Zimmerman.. “Preferences for Identity-First versus Person-First Language in a US Sample of Autism Stakeholders.” Autism 27 (2): (2023): 565–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613221130845. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613221130845
Vance, Jona. “Action Prevents Error-Predictive Processing without Active Inference.” In Philosophy and Predictive Processing, edited by T. Metzinger and W. Wiese, 1–14. (Frankfurt am Main: MIND Group. 2017).
White, Rhianna, Lucy A. Livingston, Emily C. Taylor, Scarlett A. D. Close, Punit Shah, and Mitchell J. Callan.. “Understanding the Contributions of Trait Autism and Anxiety to Extreme Demand Avoidance in the Adult General Population.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 53 (7): (2023): 2680–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05469-3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05469-3
Zampella, Casey J., Leah A. L. Wang, Margaret Haley, Anne G. Hutchinson, and Ashley de Marchena.. “Motor Skill Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Clinically Focused Review.” Current Psychiatry Reports 23 (10): (2021): 64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-021-01280-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-021-01280-6
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Copyright 2024 SIDNEY CARLS-DIAMANTE; ALICE LACINY
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
.png)
