Mental set can be defined as the tendency to avoid straying from solution methods that have worked in the past for new problems that you are being tasked with solving. This can clearly hold an individual back from the full potential that they may have in solving said problem at hand, but I would like to imagine and discuss this from a perspective that I believe experiences this on an entirely different level than neurotypical people.
Individuals with autism, or other neurodivergent brain disorders, live their daily lives by recognizing patterns and working with the information that they’ve taken in from them. One example of this can refer to when they learn by example and subsequently continue to cling to that behavioral example when masking because they’ve established this pattern as “normal.” However, I feel like this experience is just simply more extreme than a neurotypical mental set, as individuals with autism are often praised for their pattern recognition abilities.
While this does shed some light on the mental processes of a neurodivergent person, and how that process can be more time consuming or frustrating at times when they’re being compared to the achievement level of a neurotypical person, this isn’t to say that individuals with autism are less capable of problem solving, because they have some of the brightest minds we’ve ever encountered.
Due to the fact that autism brings incredible pattern recognition to the table, problems that do work with pattern recognition or mathematical equations can be extremely easy for neurodivergent brains to solve. Researchers say this could be due to the fact that neurodivergent brains can easily become blind to information that they deem unimportant at the time, allowing them to truly focus on recognizing the pattern or solution in a problem. This could mean ignoring emotions during a crisis and only following fact, while everyone else may be “wasting” time panicking or scrambling for a solution that might work. There has been intense discussion in the world of psychology on how superior neurodivergent brains may be for problem solving, in ways that we’ve never given them credit for before.
Autistic Brains Have Distinct Advantages – The Atlantic
Mental Set: Examples, Causes, How to Address It (healthline.com)
I really enjoyed this post, especially since I have someone very close to me that is on the spectrum. I know how important pattern recognition is and can see the frustration when a situation is not turning out the way that they thought it would based on their previous experience. I have tried to explain that there are not always patterns when it comes to people and emotions and children especially can be very erratic. There is not always a pattern you can point to when deciding on how to handle a situation. He is one of the smartest people I know and because he is so good at pattern recognition, he even tries to get ahead of an issue and avoid negative consequences all together. I love how you connected autism to the idea of mental set, as those that are on the spectrum have very strong preconceived notions and it is hard to talk them out of it, I have witnessed this firsthand.
Hey Deborah, I really enjoyed reading your post. I think you did a good job explaining how problem-solving is different in neurodivergent people, like people with ASD, than neurotypical people. While people in general are good at pattern recognition, people with ASD tend to excel in this area as they use pattern recognition to mask behaviors. Although you explained some of the differences, I was hoping to see more of what exact functions are different between neurotypical and neurodivergent people that account for their problem-solving, pattern recognition, and mental set abilities. Although that is just my personal opinion, overall I was interested in your post and wanted more information.