Teoría de la coherencia central: una revisión de los supuestos teóricos = Central coherence theory: a review of theoretical assumptions

Weak central coherence theory (Frith, 1989) has had a great impact in the study of autism. Although this theory has been successful at explaining aspects of autism that other theories, such as the 'theory of mind' account or executive function theory cannot explain, central coherence theory suffers from a major theoretical drawback, namely the over-extension and vagueness of the definition of central coherence. The aim of this paper will be to reflect on different aspects of the concept of central coherence. A first issue addressed concerns the assumption that superior processing for parts is the result of an impairment in the ability to integrate information (i.e., global processing). Second, this paper questions the notion of central coherence as a central mechanism responsible for providing both perceptual and conceptual coherence in both visual and verbal domains.