For autistic people, deliberation is nearly constant and serious deliberation is very frequent.

...at least in settings other than where there is utter predictability, structure, comprehension, etc.

It is when there is any deviation that the deliberation is apt to begin: “What is happening? Have I done something to cause this? Did I not understand the situation? Is this an aberration, an exception, or the basis for a new rule? Should I say something? Should I do anything?” And so forth...

If thinking is represented by the question, “What’s the next thing I’m supposed to do in this situation?” then deliberation might be, “What’s the next thing I want to do in this situation?” and serious deliberation, “Do I even want to be in this situation?”

Perhaps it’s cynical of me to consider the constant “thinking” as maintaining not a stream of consciousness but a stream of conformity. Yet that is often what I see.

Last revised: June 22, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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