nmb3000's Journal: Autism Quotient

Saw this in Kymermosst's journal.

I find it hard to believe anything a 50-question test tells me, but here's the idea:

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.

I scored a 35.

Sure it's clichéd, but clichés usually have basis in fact: I'd guess that most people on Slashdot score slightly higher than average. Based on the questions, it seems many people interested in technology and engineering may be slightly autistic, being detail-oriented and slightly to largely unsocial.

Or it's just me.

autism quotient

[mcewen]

It's a pretty limited test - I saw the same one. I think you're right that if you take this pool / sample of people, you're likely to get skewed results. Certainly nothing to worry about. Cheers http://whitterer-autism.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

Re:

[Tim Worstall]

There's another set of tests created by Simon Baron Cohen, a version of which is here: http://www.eqsq.com/eqsqtest.php [eqsq.com] There's also some of his papers etc referenced. His essential theory is that there is something called the "male brain" and something called the "female". Actually, it's a spectrum with balanced in between. Taking the known differences physiologically between the brains of the two sexes he asks why they occur. His answer is exposure to fetal testosterone. We then end up with (by his estima