Temple Grandin wows ACE attendees

Temple Grandin signs books after her talk on June 11.

By Nancy Tarnai

I had years of previous work experience alongside people with autism but I didn't have an inkling about how their minds work until I heard Temple Grandin speak at the Association for Communication Excellence conference in Denver June 11.

Dr. Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, has always had a certain acclaim for her groundbreaking work with livestock and the books she has written, but her fame spread further with the 2010 release of a movie about her. Simply titled Temple Grandin, the film stars Claire Danes. What little bit of the Emmy awards show I saw last fall featured Dr. Grandin in many scenes, so to meet her in Denver was quite a treat.

She told the audience of writers, editors, and IT folks who work for land grant universities across the nation that she wanted to explain different kinds of minds. She demonstrated by asking her listeners to picture a church steeple in their heads and projected a still photo of a typical steeple. Then she said that when "steeple" enters her mind there is a fast moving collage of specific steeples. There is no generic steeple for her. "I'm into details," she said in her plainspoken way. "And I want you to think about different ways of thinking."

Born with autism and unable to speak for years, Grandin defied the odds and earned a B.A. in psychology at Franklin Pierce College, a master's of science from Arizona State University and a PhD in animal science from the University of Illinois. Because she can think in a manner somewhat similar to animals she has designed humane methods for treating livestock and her inventions are used around the world. "Animals and people with autism are bottom up thinkers," she said. "Way too many things get abstract."

She developed an objective scoring system for assessing handling of cattle and pigs at meat plants. This scoring system is being used by many large corporations to improve animal welfare. Other areas of her research are: cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, reducing dark cutters and bruises, bull fertility, training procedures, and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs at meat plants.

Openness and honesty are the keywords Grandin wants the agriculture industry to live by. She even tells ranchers to put videos on YouTube to demonstrate how they treat their animals or how they prevent soil erosion. "People want to see normal things," she said.

In comparing animals' minds to those of people with autisum, Grandin explained that the animal world is sensory based. For her, math comes much more naturally than words. "Verbal thinking tends to get vague," she said. Projecting images of a "regular" brain and her brain onto the screen, Grandin showed how "normal" people ignore the details while she is practically consumed by them. "Animals notice details too," she said. Little things that people might not notice, such as a flag waving in the breeze, a shadow or a funny noise, may frighten an animal to the extreme.

When designing new systems of cattle chutes, in order to comprehend what animals see and think Grandin traveled through the chute herself. "I can't see generic; I can only see specifics," she said.

She compared the way she thinks to assembling a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle without the box and the picture of how it should look. "I would maybe get 20 percent of it put together," she said.

Breaking down the way people think into categories, Grandin said there are four general types: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and auditory thinkers. "We should appreciate these different ways of thinking," she said. "Different kinds of minds can work together."

Further reading:
Person of the Week: Autistic Scientist Temple Grandin Inspires Children, Champions Animals, ABC World News, Sept. 3, 2010

Books by Temple Grandin:
Animals Make Us Human
Animals in Translation
Humane Livestock Handling
Improving Animal Welfare: A Practical Approach
Thinking in Pictures
Livestock Handling and Transport
Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals