43 pages • 1 hour read
Temple GrandinThinking in Pictures: My Life With Autism
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “A Cow’s Eye View: Connecting with Animals”
Grandin’s understanding of animal behavior influences the livestock systems she designs. By challenging the unfortunate use of force to change an animal’s behavior, she advocates for humane treatment, and applies this value in her work. Though small environmental details that create fear and hesitancy in cattle often go unnoticed by others, Grandin’s desire to take on their viewpoint creates a more effective and relaxing experience for the cattle. “I have to follow the cattle’s rules of behavior. I also have to imagine what experiencing the world through the cow’s sensory system is like” (168).
A commonality between animals and those with autism is the experience of fear. For animals, fear serves as a survival strategy in a prey-predator context. In those with autism, fear can result from a fear association, change in schedule, or sensitive sensory reaction. “Like cattle, a person with autism has hypervigilant senses” (169). Sound is one example of the heightened sensory experience; in particular, high-pitch sounds that can bother certain animals and children with autism.
Grandin continues to make connections between animals and those with autism. Attention to changes in their surroundings is another commonality, one that Grandin ponders in regard to an evolutionary purpose:
Autistic children will also notice minor discrepancies that normal people ignore. Could this be an old antipredator instinct that has surfaced? In the wild, a broken branch on a tree or disturbed earth is a possible sign of predator activity in the vicinity (171).
Another commonality between the behavior of animals and children with autism involves the root of behavior markers. Both can engage in aggressive behaviors, but determining the root as fear-based or not is important. “Observant teachers can tell the difference between a massive fear reaction and the calculated use of bad behavior to avoid tasks the person does not want to do” (175). Not all observable behaviors begin with the same motivation or starting point, and understanding this should be a goal of people working with animals, and children with autism. Grandin encourages people to first rule out a physiological issue, then any sensory issue, prior to exploring a behavioral cause. A behavioral cause includes attempts to communicate, gain attention, or avoid an undesirable task.
Mistreatment or abuse represents yet another cause of an animal’s fear, a cause that particularly motivates Grandin in her work. She emphasizes the need for livestock management and employees to view animals with care and understanding. “I love nothing more than to watch a plant I’ve designed run smoothly and efficiently, knowing that the animals are being treated with decency” (176).
Chapter 9 Summary: “Artists and Accountants: An Understanding of Animal Thought”
Grandin next turns to various forms of thinking, including visual and language-based thinking. Another category of people associated with autism—Savants—shows another way of thinking. “Savants memorize huge amounts of information but have difficulty manipulating the material in meaningful ways. Their memory skills far exceed those of normal people, but their cognitive deficits are great” (184). The discussion of thinking sparks attention to other concepts, which include instincts and generalization. Grandin refers to both human and animals in these of instincts, thinking, and generalization.
Grandin also questions those who believe animals lack thought, partly due to her belief that both she and animals likely engage in visual thought. “It seems silly to me to debate whether or not animals can think. To me it has always been obvious that they do” (187). Image associations and the ability to generalize both indicate the thinking ability of animals. She explains generalization through an example of cattle with horns turning their heads to enter a chute or ramp: They base their decision to perform this head-turning maneuver on previous experience of horns blocking entrance. They generalize the need to turn their heads from one chute to another. Cattle are not the only animals capable of thought; Grandin cites several examples of animal thought.
Grandin upholds a belief that animals think by paralleling it with her belief that animals also feel emotion. She documents several examples, from pigs positioning themselves for belly rubs, distress at a baby’s separation from a mother, and higher cortisol levels in response to fear (a physiological indicator of stress). The emotions of animals represent similarities to people, especially at the physiological level:
I would speculate that the most basic emotions in people and animals have similar neurological mechanisms and that the difference between human and animal emotion is the complexity of emotional expression (198).
In Grandin’s discussion about current research, she cites multiple similarities between people with autism, and animals. These similarities include savant tendencies, detailed thinking, and auditory tone sensitivity. “Briefly, the most important similarity is that both animals and people with autism can think without language” (201). With the previous statement, Grandin signifies that thinking occurs not only on the language level, but also visually, meaning that thought occurs in multiple forms.
Chapters 8-9 Analysis
Grandin’s livestock system designs reveal a number of important themes, including understanding and respecting animals. She taps into her knowledge of cattle and other animals to expand her empathy and create structures that reflect her care. Grandin’s experience with autism provides the perspective to view animals as capable of both thought and emotions.
A disconnect between language and visual thinkers can limit the capacity to identify and understand other forms of thought in people and animals. “Differences between language-based thought and picture-based thought may explain why artists and accountants fail to understand each other. They are like apples and oranges” (187). Grandin’s experience with autism, including her search for knowledge, gives her a special viewpoint with both people and animals. Her perspective allows her to recognize the diversity of thought that language-based thinkers may miss or exclude as a valid type of thinking. Moreover, application of her own innate visual thinking serves as a spotlight in recognizing visual thought in animals: “They are able to make an association between a visual image stored in their memory and what they are seeing in the present” (187).
Grandin recognizes thought and emotions in animals, and champions animals’ rights. “Fear is a universal emotion in the animal kingdom, because it provides an intense motivation to avoid predators. Fear is also a dominant emotion in autism” (169). She elaborates this belief about animals and emotions, including a story about a rhino:
When people walked up to their enclosure, one fellow would push his body up against the fence so that visitors could rub a soft spot where his rear leg joined his body. After he was petted and fed a few oranges, he would run along the fence and jump up and down like a calf on a spring day. To me, he appeared happy (194).
The topic of misconceptions highlighted throughout the book also extends to understanding the root of emotions in both animals, and people with autism. “If an animal balks and refuses to walk through an alley, one needs to find out why it is scared and refuses to move” (167). Grandin emphasizes the need to understand the reason for undesirable behaviors, and the unfortunate and common misidentification of the cause of behavior. “In animal behavior, fear and aggression are often mixed up. Punishing behavior caused by fear often makes it worse” (181).
