Monotropism

The theory of monotropism was developed by Dinah Murray, Wenn Lawson and Mike Lesser starting in the 1990s, and first published in 2005.

[1] Lawson's further work on the theory formed the basis of his PhD, Single Attention and Associated Cognition in Autism, and book The Passionate Mind published in 2011.

In the monotropic mind, interests that are active at any given time tend to consume most of the available attention, causing difficulty with other tasks such as conventional social interaction.

For example, some students have trouble taking notes in class while listening to a teacher[3] and may find it difficult to read a person's face and comprehend what they are saying simultaneously.

[3] Monotropic individuals may suppress attention and focus on something else, or develop great depth in a given interest or skill.

The differences between polytropism and monotropism
The differences between polytropism and monotropism
Monotropic way of teaching can be greatly helpful for autistic students.
Monotropic way of teaching
Typical classroom activity requires lot of polytropic processing of stimuli
Typical classroom activity requires lot of polytropic processing of stimuli
a hypothetical radar plot of spikey cognitive profile. Similar details can be found in Doyle, Nancy. "Neurodiversity at work: a biopsychosocial model and the impact on working adults." British medical bulletin 135, no. 1 (2020): 108-125.
Different information filtering mechanism in autistic people may be due to difference in cognitive components. a hypothetical radar plot of spikey cognitive profile. Similar details can be found in Nancy Doyle's paper Neurodiversity at work: a biopsychosocial model and the impact on working adults. . [ 5 ]