Exploring the phenomenology of autistic attention

Background: Existing research has identified areas of strength and challenge in relation to autistic attention. However, this existing work has tended to rely on comparisons to neurotypical benchmarks meaning that how attention is lived and embodied by autistic people has been under-explored. This study addresses this critical gap via the first phenomenological account of how autistic adults experience their attention within everyday contexts.

Methods: Thirteen autistic adults took part in semi-structured interviews. To help participants express their complex and potentially hard to verbalise experiences, we integrated photo elicitation using researcher-selected photographs as prompts for participants to discuss their attention experiences. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis which was inductively driven but informed by a Merleau-Pontian framework.

Results: Three Group Experiential Themes (GETs) were developed. GET1, Interruption is Devastating: Participants described their attention as a sequential, deeply engrossed process. Interruptions, especially from other people, were profoundly challenging, often leading to a collapse of their focus and an exhausting state of vigilance. GET2, Interest Engagement as a Sanctuary: Time spent deeply focused on interests was described as a sanctuary, providing both joy and replenishment of cognitive resources depleting through navigating inaccessible environments. GET3, Attentional Normativity, exposed the friction between participants' attentional style and entrenched normative expectations about how attention ‘should’ function, which particularly impacted their experiences in the workplace.

Conclusion: This work provides novel insights into the phenomenology of autistic attention. We highlight elements across themes which support the monotropism theory of attention, within a lived and embodied subjectivity. We discuss the importance of challenging normative expectations of attention for creating neuroinclusive environments, particularly in the workplace.