Do you NOT have problems with mono-processing?

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My friend definitely has AS, she is diagnosed, but she says she does not have problems with mono-processing and can multitask easily.

Surely that's rare for an Aspergian?

Anyone else?

Whats mono processing?


I can multitask but it depends.

When you can only keep one thing in your focus at one time...

When things are in order, I can *sometimes* easily break away from one thing (such as a long-running project) in order to do something else I can likely finish before returning to whatever I was doing.

I dont have too many issues with one or the other, but of course about as NT as you can possibly get while still having been diagnosed with AS.

I was listening to a radio program today where someone said multi-tasking is just an illusion. When we think we are multi-tasking we are really just switching quickly back and forth between tasks and no one is wired to literally be able to do two things at once. Unless of course one of the tasks is completely mindless and rote.

I believe the same is true of computers. Fast task-switching can *seem* like multi-tasking, but even dual-cores merely single-task concurrently.

Well, if a computer can't do it, I sure as hell can't.

so that's what it's called. I have problems with it (multi-tasking), so other people have told me. Per usual, I think I am fine how I am. It is other people that point it out.

i don't know. i think i'm pretty one-tracked. (i have difficulty driving, even, if there is someone else in the car. keeping track of conversations difficult if more than one person is talking, or even if there's a lot of background noise.) but my attention span can be pretty short for one thing or another, unless it's a current interest.

i think people develop different skills over time, though. and it doesn't seem like you'll ever find two "alternately wired" people with exactly the same quirks.

I can't multi-task. Worst is on the rare occasions I'm driving and the passenger wants to talk to me at the same time.

I can't do that either. I usually drive alone or with my son and he prefers to be alone with his thoughts. So if I do have someone driving with me and they are talking I keep making wrong turns.

I can only multitask on certain thing but I'm good (productive) at going back and forth between two different thing. That doesn't mean necessarily that i'm good at multitasking though.

Not as much now as when I was younger but I often hyper-focused on a task so intensely that I was impervious to my environment. My wife would say that I concentrated so hard it gave her headaches. Multi-tasking is not so easy, my job involves a fair amount of interruptions an getting back on track is taxing at times. I often have to stop everything and consciously think about what I was doing before I was interrupted. People who say they multi-task well are usually delusional.

I cannot switch easily between tasks. I get very upset when i have to extricate myself from one task and do something else.
Interruption is very difficult.

From what I can gather, it is not so much about "multi-tasking" as it is about processing incoming stimuli.
The autistic brain tends to be more static and less dynamic than the NT brain, or so I have read. Gutstein talks about this, as do others.
However, some people have both AS and ADHD, which means they may result in a kind of atypical AS presentation. (There may be more interrupted hyper-focus, for example, which can give the impression of more flexibility when in fact it is more implusiveness.)

We take a little longer to process things.
I haven't really heard of someone being able to process a lot at once and also be ASD. I have seen some ASD people who appear more impulsive and often they have ADHD as a co-morbid, as is my presentation. But then again the weight of traits in each individual is so variable that I suppose it is possible.

It is not in me.

My mind (or specifically, the high-level part of it) is basically split into separate "external" and "internal" sections or "domains" (however, this is actually somewhat of an oversimplification) that are capable of functioning semi-independently, although one usually tends to be dominant (which one depends on the situation). The "external" domain is generally responsible for interacting with the outside world, and the "internal" domain is generally responsible for "internal monologue", visualization, and planning (although it is possible for them to "switch roles" in certain situations). Each of these domains basically mono-processes within itself. It is sometimes possible for me to focus on two things at once, but the functional specialization of my domains limits this to certain situations, and I more or less prefer to do one thing at a time.