A Swansea University researcher investigating how neurodivergent people interpret the visual symbols embedded in modern life has received an international scholarship to present her findings at one of the world’s leading psychology conferences. Zoe Alderson, a PhD researcher in the university’s School of Psychology, will travel to San Diego to attend the 2026 Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting after securing funding from the Worshipful Livery Company of Wales. The award places her research at the centre of a rapidly growing scientific conversation about accessibility, human-computer interaction and the way different brains extract meaning from visual information.
Icons and symbols are now an essential part of everyday communication. They direct passengers through transport networks, warn people of hazards, identify public facilities and allow users to navigate websites, smartphones and digital services without reading lengthy instructions. Their apparent simplicity, however, can conceal a complex chain of mental processes. To understand an icon, the brain must detect its visual features, connect those features to a stored concept, interpret the intended meaning and select an appropriate response. Alderson’s research examines whether these stages operate differently in neurodivergent and neurotypical people.
The question is increasingly important because public information is often designed around assumptions about how people see, remember and interpret visual cues. A symbol that appears immediately obvious to one person may be ambiguous, distracting or difficult to decode for another. Neurodivergent people, including individuals with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, can show distinctive patterns in attention, perception, memory and information processing. These differences do not necessarily represent a deficit; in some situations, they may provide an advantage, particularly when tasks demand rapid recognition of visual detail or accurate matching between symbols and meanings.
Alderson’s latest findings produced a striking result. In the study, neurodivergent participants responded to visual symbols more quickly and more accurately than neurotypical participants. The result challenges the widespread assumption that neurodivergence automatically makes visual information harder to process. Instead, it suggests that the effectiveness of an icon may depend on the interaction between the design of the symbol and the cognitive characteristics of the person interpreting it. A symbol system that works well for one population cannot automatically be considered universally intuitive.
Reaction time and accuracy provide complementary evidence about cognitive processing. Faster responses can indicate that a participant identifies and interprets a visual stimulus efficiently, while high accuracy shows that speed is not being achieved simply through guessing. Together, the two measures can reveal differences in how information moves from perception to decision-making. Alderson’s findings therefore raise important questions about whether neurodivergent participants may be especially efficient at extracting certain visual patterns, filtering irrelevant information or linking images with previously learned meanings. Further research will be needed to determine which mechanisms are responsible.
The findings do not mean that every neurodivergent person will process every icon more quickly, nor that neurotypical users experience symbols in a uniform way. Neurodivergence includes a wide range of abilities, preferences and sensory experiences, while icons themselves vary in complexity, familiarity, colour, contrast and cultural meaning. The result is best understood as evidence of group-level differences that deserve closer investigation. It also highlights why inclusive design should be guided by testing with diverse users rather than by intuition or assumptions about what counts as “obvious.”
The practical consequences could extend from public transport and emergency signage to online forms, healthcare systems and mobile applications. Designers may be able to create symbol sets that reduce ambiguity, improve visual hierarchy and communicate more reliably across different cognitive profiles. Testing could measure not only whether users eventually understand an icon, but also how quickly they recognise it, how confidently they act on it and whether the symbol remains clear under stress, distraction or limited attention. Such methods could contribute to more accessible services without requiring every message to be repeated in text.
The research is already attracting attention outside academic psychology. After a previous conference presentation, Alderson was invited to discuss her findings with representatives from the Welsh Government and explore how the work might inform accessibility initiatives in Wales. Public bodies across the country are seeking ways to create more neuroinclusive environments and services, making evidence about visual communication particularly valuable. If symbols can be designed and evaluated with a broader range of cognitive experiences in mind, they may help reduce barriers in settings where people must understand information quickly and independently.
Alderson, who has autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder herself, said her personal experience has strengthened her commitment to understanding how neurodivergent people encounter the world. The scholarship will allow her to present the work to international experts, receive feedback and develop research collaborations. She was selected through a competitive scheme for Swansea University researchers at an early stage of their careers. Sylvia Robert-Sargeant of the Worshipful Livery Company of Wales Awards Committee said the organisation was pleased to support research capable of making a practical contribution to organisations and public bodies across Wales.
The Worshipful Livery Company of Wales, founded in 1993, promotes education, science, technology and the arts throughout the country and supports students, apprentices and members of the armed forces through scholarships and bursaries. For Alderson’s project, the support provides more than an opportunity to attend a conference: it creates a route for findings about cognition and visual communication to reach designers, policymakers and technology developers. As icons become an ever more prominent language of public life, understanding how different minds read that language could help transform accessibility from a general aspiration into a measurable feature of everyday design.
Subject of Research: Neurodivergent and neurotypical processing of everyday visual icons and symbols, with implications for inclusive accessibility design.
Article Title: Neurodivergent People Process Everyday Icons Faster and More Accurately, Study Finds
Web References: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/psychology/ ; https://www.liverycompanywales.cymru/ ; https://www.psychonomic.org/page/2026annualmeeting
Image Credits: Zoe Alderson
Keywords: Neurodivergence, autism, ADHD, cognitive psychology, visual symbols, icon design, inclusive design, accessibility, information processing, human-computer interaction, neuroscience, Swansea University, Wales, psychological science
