Is there an intellgence test for people with AS?

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Do standard IQ tests work well for people with AS, or is there a better general intelligence test out there for Aspies? My AS seems to get in the way when I take tests, delaying/distracting me. My main testing problem is that I often feel rushed, and like I need more time on a problem than I'm supposed to take. Maybe there is a general intelligence test specifically for people on the Autism Spectrum, meaning a test that is designed to avoid the main Autism-related impairments. I realize that many Autistics score very highly on intelligence tests, so that puts my above assumptions into some doubt. (Except that, as we all know, Auties differ greatly in their abilities/impairments.) But I always have the distinct impression while testing that I "haven't even begun", due to lack of opportunity, to demonstrate my true intelligence by the time the test is over. It always feels like I didn't get the chance to show my actual ability to think.

Many times, this is because my intelligence allows me to see the test questions as being more open-ended than the test makers probably believe they are. This comes from the "overly literal" symptom of Austim. When testing, I therefore have to take the time to "imagine myself in the limits of the questioner's thinking, and imagine the arbitrary assuptions being held" in order to answer the question the way they believe it should be answered. (There's some "Theory of Mind" coming into play here.) Instead of multiple choice questions, I would rather be able to provide written responses. Such would much better reflect how I'm thinking. So I guess a test designed with more correct/exact wording would be more helpful to Auties than test questions worded in a colloquial manner, as many are.

I think there are much better ways of scoring an intelligence test question than saying, "For whatever reason, you didn't answer "B" when you were supposed to." The "for whatever reason" part includes a vast number of learning disability-related possibilities. And yet, the assumption when grading is always this: The test taker fully understood what was being asked, but simply didn't know the answer.

I realize that many here who score brilliantly on standardized tests will have bias in favor of these tests, but I'd like them to overcome that bias and really try to honestly evaluate these tests' fairness to Auties/Aspies. I'm sure I'd naturally want to applaud any test I did well on, but I'd like to think I'd eventually come to take a more objective look.

Last edited by Ragtime on 14 May 2010, 10:35 am, edited 7 times in total.

I hope that there's a better test, out there.

I don't value IQ tests highly. My belief is think they are massively overused and don't confirm as much as is claimed. (But, then again, perhaps that's because I was expected to be a high performer as a child, but just couldn't keep up with expectations once I reached college.)
My results on IQ tests were always punctuated; some average, some off-the-charts. My family and I always claimed that it's the higher ones that counted, so my numbers seemed biased.
Before the mid 1990's, these tests were rather culturally biased. Immigrants did horribly while well-schooled/privileged average-performance children reported much higher than expected numbers. Since then, there has been some progress in non-verbal IQ testing. I took one of those about 8 years ago, and was satisfied that the result was more in line with my observations of my own intelligence (rather than social expectations).

I suggest you try taking of the many free non-verbal IQ tests available. You can likely find paper-bound versions from MENSA in your local bookstore -- these are usually both inexpensive and rather reliable. Perhaps your over-analytical thought process can be assuaged by less verbosity.

I was tested with the MENSA IQ test.

I know of a good spatial IQ test that might get around this. It uses shapes and designs rather than worded questions and tests pattern recognition. This is a better test for those with AS because there is nothing to "read into".

But on this site, IQ tests primarily manifest as a way for people to try to have something to lord over each other. And I really have no interest in being the impetus behind another lame "My IQ is soooo high" thread (not that I'm saying YOU will post it, but I'm sure someone who takes the test a few times to get a higher score will).

IQ is simple: Do you know you're smart? Smarter than average? Then why do you need some test to tell you what you already know? Any number doesn't make my opinions any more or less "right". It can mean the opposite; there are so many ways of looking at things that a "low scorer" can solve problems a "high scorer" cannot simply because of a different outlook (for example, the high scorer might become "locked" by the very thing you described - reading too much into a question) add cultural biases and these tests become a little bit more than useless. Except as a club.

My IQ has varied 50 points throughout my lifetime. It's my verbal IQ that varies so much. They want to test me again this week and I'm going to try to refuse, ebcause I was just tested a few months ago, and THEY ARE NOT ACCURATE!

There is a test that tests different kinds of skills, i.e. visual/spatial, mathmatic, perceptive, logical (etc), that is the closest test i have seen that seems fair to everyone, i.e. NT's have as much chance to score high as aspies, since the pattern/visual tests that mensa do are clearly in favour for Aspies with high spatial-percieving abilities... i mean i could do my laundry, make dinner and take that particular mensa test all at the same time without thinking it was hard.

Unfortunately, i cannot remember the name of that test ("b"...something), but given the description above, you'll know it when you take it.

I had a doc tell me that people on the autism spectrum usually have lower IQs. He said that people who have scores lower than a certain range are usually easily diagnosed as having developmental disabilities. He thought I didn't have AS because I had a high-school diploma & had never needed to take an IQ test. I'm under the impression that IQ test mainly measure book smarts & do not look at social skills or common sense. I know some people with high IQs who seem to lack common sense

"I had a doc tell me that people on the autism spectrum usually have lower IQs."


Ummmm bullcrap.

We have difficulty dealing with social situations this does not affect our intelligence or ability to reason. Standard IQ tests work just fine but don't expect us to chat up the person next to us when we are finished.

Vanilla_Slice

I consider this test to be pretty accurate : http://mensa.dk/iqtest/ , it's not specifically designed for aspies, but theres no verbal section on it.

I don't think that Aspies need special tests. IQ tests are logical and require thinking. They don't ask for emotions, Mary is angry, why? or Is this face happy, excited, jealous or ironic? They don't require social skills and many people around.
Special tests sound for me like special needs. Maybe I'm unsociable, but my brain works good and it works itself, not using others. So it doesn't matter if I'm sociable or not.

No, that's actually true. We have a higher percentage of mental retardation on the spectrum than in the general population. People with Asperger's, now, don't have lower IQs, but that's only because they defined Asperger's as only people without developmental delay.

IQ tests simply don't work to accurately gauge an autistic person's abilities. This is because they are designed for people whose cognitive traits are pretty much clumped at the same level. A typical person, for example, may be at the 32nd percentile in memory, 45th percentile in math, the 74th percentile in language, and the 52nd percentile in visual-spatial skills. On the other hand, autism can end up with really scattered skills, like being in the 2nd percentile in language but the 97th percentile in visual-spatial, or the 50th percentile in math but topping out all known tests in memory and being given 99th percentile by default.

Your typical individual will have strengths and weaknesses; but they won't be too extreme. Autism, on the other hand, affects brain development in such a way as to create extreme cognitive traits--things far off the average, things that you won't often see either in terms of being really good at something, or really horrible at it.

That means when you give an autistic person an IQ test, they often end up getting an IQ that simply doesn't predict very much at all. A typical person with an IQ of 100 (the average) can be expected to be capable of about the same things that other people (of his age) can do. On the other hand, that can't be said of an autistic person with an IQ of 100. He could be years ahead and years behind simultaneously; he could have a weakness that's hiding strengths or strengths that are making up for weaknesses; some of those really high or really low skills won't be tested on an IQ test.

Autistic people are also harder to test.
--The language barrier can create problems. Can you understand what they want you to do? If not, then you won't be able to do it no matter how good you are at it.
--Cognitive speed and executive function can be a big issue in timed tests. Given unlimited time, an autistic person might be just as good at a task as anyone else; being forced to work quickly, he may not be capable of nearly the same quality of work.
--Endurance can be lower. Keeping up effort for six hours on an IQ test may be tough but doable for a typical person; but an autistic person may be utterly exhausted after half an hour.
--Most IQ tests are administered one-on-one by a tester. Having to socialize with the tester can cause problems and take up resources that could be used solving the presented problems.