Autism and IQ and memory

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Why would you include schizophrenia? Do you experience positive symptoms?

Do you know what kind of scores or score patterns are typical on memory tests like the WMS (Wechsler Memory Scale) for people with autism or ADHD?

What about scores or score patterns on IQ tests like the WAIS?

My proctor said she's going to analyze the results of the WAIS/WMS to see if there might be some indication of autism, schizophrenia or ADHD, but I want as much information as possible in order to maximize the accuracy of such an analysis. I get the feeling that most proctors have their own limited knowledge base for analyzing score patterns and more knowledge can't be a bad thing.

With schizophrenia, the most common hallucination is auditory (hearing voices having a conversation or commenting on your actions). Do you have delusions? Delusions in schizophrenia are connected to the auditory hallucinations. For instance, you might think the voice in your head is that of the devil. That is a common example of what happens when one experiences a psychosis. What about thought insertion? This is the idea that some outside force or entity is responsible for inserting thoughts into your mind. You might think it's the government or a family member, maybe a local celebrity like a news broadcaster. Maybe even the President.

Your thoughts do not appear disorganized, either, which is also a schizophrenia feature.

What the f.... is the connection between autism and scizophrenia. Can someone explain that to me?
Probably not. Because there is NO connection!

Most people with Aspergers and other forms of autism have normal to high IQ scores. There are non-verbal people with autism who have a very high IQ and there are some people with autism who have an IQ-score that's below average. I seriously doubt if autism has an effect on someones intelligence.

My highest score is about a 137 and some time ago I have received an invitiation from Mensa to do their test. However, I don't take IQ tests serious at all. I think that these tests are a ridiculous and superficial method to measure someones intelligence. If are lucky enough to have been born in a family that stimulates intellectual development and education you' ll probably score higher than someone who didn't have the opportunity to receive a good education, but that doesn't mean that that person is not as intelligent or even more intelligent than the one with the good education. It's also possible to train yourself when it comes to doing IQ tests. The more you practice the better you will get at them. IQ-tests have a cultural al aspect as well, they are probably designed for white, educated males. Another objection to IQ tests is that the outcome depends on how you feel when you are doing them. If you haven't slept well, if you are nervous or stressed out or if you have a cold for instance, your score will be lower.

To make a long story short, IQ test mean absolutely nothing to me and I think it's best if you have a good and long laugh at them. Do do I take pride in my IQ-scores? Absolutely NOT. My life has been a bit of a mess for a long time and I have got nothing to show for my IQ in the sence of a nice, fulfilling job.

Besides, there are many forms of intelligence and if you take an objective look at the state of the world it becomes pretty clear that we are all tremendously stupid. There are no intelligent human beings, they simply don't exist.

Scizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder and autism is a neurological disorder for crying out loud, so what's the connection?

Examples of Physical Symptoms----

--A blank, vacant facial expression. An inability to smile or express emotion through the face is so characteristic of the disease that it was given the name of affective flattening or a blunt affect.
--Overly acute senses- lights are too bright, sounds are too loud.
--Staring, while in deep thought, with infrequent blinking.
--Clumsy, inexact motor skills
--Sleep disturbances- insomnia or excessive sleeping
--Involuntary movements of the tongue or mouth (facial dyskinesias). Grimacing at the corners of the mouth with the facial muscles, or odd movements with the tongue.
--Parkinsonian type symptoms- rigidity, tremor, jerking arm movements, or involuntary movements of the limbs
--An awkward gait (how you walk)
--Eye movements- difficulty focusing on slow moving objects
--Unusual gestures or postures
--Movement is speeded up- i.e. constant pacing
--Movement is slowed down- staying in bed (in extreme cases, catatonia)

Examples of Feelings/Emotions----

--The inability to experience joy or pleasure from activities (called anhedonia)
--Sometimes feeling nothing at all
--Appearing desireless- seeking nothing, wanting nothing
--Feeling indifferent to important events
--Feeling detached from your own body (depersonalization)
--Hypersensitivity to criticism, insults, or hurt feelings

Examples of Mood----

--Sudden irritability, anger, hostility, suspiciousness, resentment
--Depression- feeling discouraged and hopeless about the future
--Low motivation, energy, and little or no enthusiasm
--Suicidal thoughts or suicidal ideation
--Rapidly changing mood- from happy to sad to angry for no apparent reason (called labile mood)
--Severe Anxiety

Changes in Behavior associated with schizophrenia ----

--Dropping out of activities and life in general
--Inability to form or keep relationships
--Social isolation- few close friends if any. Little interaction outside of immediate family.
--Increased withdrawal, spending most of the days alone.
--Becoming lost in thoughts and not wanting to be disturbed with human contact
--Neglect in self-care- i.e. hygiene, clothing, or appearance
--Replaying or rehearsing conversations out loud- i.e. talking to yourself (very common sign)
--Finding it difficult to deal with stressful situations
--Inability to cope with minor problems
--Lack of goal-directed behavior. Not being able to engage in purposeful activity
--Functional impairment in interpersonal relationships, work, education, or self-care
--Deterioration of academic or job-related performance
--Inappropriate responses- laughing or smiling when talking of a sad event, making irrational statements.
--Catatonia- staying in the same rigid position for hours, as if in a daze.
--Intense and excessive preoccupation with religion or spirituality
--Drug or alcohol abuse
--Smoke or have the desire to want to smoke (70-90% do smoke) - note: this is a very normal behavior for people who do not have schizophrenia also!
--Frequent moves, trips, or walks that lead nowhere
Examples of Cognitive Problems Associated with Schizophrenia ----

--Ruminating thoughts- these are the same thoughts that go around and round your head but get you nowhere. Often about past disappointments, missed opportunities, failed relationships.
--Making up new words (neologisms)
--Becoming incoherent or stringing unrelated words together (word salad)
--Frequent loose association of thoughts or speech- when one thought does not logically relate to the next. For example, "I need to go to the store to buy some band-aids. I read an article about how expensive AIDS drugs are. People take too many street drugs. The streets should be clean from the rain today, etc" The need to go to the store to buy band-aids is forgotten.
--Directionless- lack goals, or the ability to set and achieve goals

--Lack of insight (called anosognosia). Those who are developing schizophrenia are unaware that they are becoming sick. The part of their brain that should recognize that something is wrong is damaged by the disease.
--Racing thoughts
--In conversation you tend to say very little (called poverty of speech or alogia)
--Suddenly halting speech in the middle of a sentence (thought blocking)

--Trouble with social cues- i.e. not being able to interpret body language, eye contact, voice tone, and gestures appropriately. --Often not responding appropriately and thus coming off as cold, distant, or detached.
--Difficulty expressing thoughts verbally. Or not having much to say about anything.
--Speaking in an abstract or tangential way. Odd use of words or language structure
--Difficulty focusing attention and engaging in goal directed behavior
--Poor concentration/ memory. Forgetfulness
--Nonsensical logic
--Difficulty understanding simple things
--Thoughts, behavior, and actions are not integrated
--Obsessive compulsive tendencies- with thoughts or actions
--Thought insertion/ withdrawal- thoughts are put it or taken away without a conscious effort
--Conversations that seem deep, but are not logical or coherent

Examples of Delusions----

The most common type of delusion or false beliefs are paranoid delusions. These are persecutory in nature and take many forms:

--Overpowering, intense feeling that people are talking about you, looking at you
--Overpowering, intense feeling you are being watched, followed, and spied on (tracking devices, implants, hidden cameras)
--Thinking that someone is trying to poison your food
--Thinking people are working together to harass you
--Thinking that something is controlling you- i.e. an electronic implant
--Thinking that people can read your mind/ or control your thoughts
--Thinking that your thoughts are being broadcast over the radio or tv
--Delusions of reference- thinking that random events convey a special meaning to you. An example is that a newspaper headline or a license plate has a hidden meaning for you to figure out. That they are signs trying to tell you something.
--Religious delusions- that you are Jesus, God, a prophet, or the antichrist.
--Delusions of grandeur- the belief that you have an important mission, special purpose, or are an unrecognized genius, or famous person.
--Delusions that someone, often a famous person, is in love with you when in reality they aren't. Also called erotomania or de Clerembault syndrome.

Examples of Hallucinations----

--Hallucinations are as real as any other experience to the person with schizophrenia. As many as 70% hear voices, while a lesser number have visual hallucinations.
--Auditory hallucinations can be either inside the person's head or externally. When external, they sound as real as an actual voice. Sometimes they come from no apparent source, other times they come from real people who don't actually say anything, other times a person will hallucinate sounds.
--When people hear voices inside their heads, it is as if their inner thoughts are no longer alone. The new voices can talk to each other, talk to themselves, or comment on the person's actions. The majority of the time the voices are negative.
--Visual hallucinations operate on a spectrum. They start with the overacuteness of the senses, then in the middle are illusions, and on the far end are actual hallucinations.

This study was designed to examine the developmental and cognitive correlates of theory of mind (ToM) and emotion recognition ability in children with autism (N= 20), with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) (N= 20), and in psychiatric control children (N= 20). The diagnostic groups were person-to-person matched on age and verbal IQ. The age of the children was between 8 and 18 years; their Full Scale IQ was at least 65. The test battery included tasks for the matching and the context recognition of emotional expressions, and a set of first- and second-order ToM tasks. The relationships between composite domain scores and the subjects' age, Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, verbal memory, visual memory, and gender were examined in bivariate and multivariate analyses. Further, the subjects who reliably and consistently passed the tasks of a domain and those who could not were compared on developmental and cognitive characteristics. Overall, the results of the various analyses converged and indicated that verbal memory, Performance IQ, age and gender were the best predictors of social cognitive ability.

You sound like your projecting your bitterness on the one thing that you were probably told how promising you would be when you were younger, and I can understand that. I used to be fairly bitter, too, though it appears my bitterness seems to stem from a gap between what my IQ suggests I should be capable of and what I really seem to be capable of in the real world. I'm learning that this might be more related to ADHD or something along those lines, and I'm coming to terms that I might not be well suited for typical career paths. Luckily, I'm learning about this now so I can adjust and try to optimize my situation in life by playing to my strengths and letting other people cover my weaknesses, so we can all succeed together. This is what employment is supposed to do but employers aren't exactly kind to those who stand out in a seemingly deficient way.

If I'm ADH'D or have some "creativity" predisposing disorder of some type, it appears fields like marketing are excellent and I'm trying that out come next year. If I fail (And, pray to god, I don't want to fail, I don't really feel like I have any other viable options save the military.), then I guess I'm fvcked but I'll persist and try again, regardless.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1469-7610.00505/abstract




So it appears that a lower performance IQ and lower verbal memory seem to be particularly associated with autism. It'd be nice to know what exactly they mean by "verbal memory", though, as there are multiple subcomponents to "verbal memory". Does anyone have a license to view the research paper?

I don't believe that at all. I think that there is no particular connection between autism and intelligence.

And if I told you that aspies tended to score higher on the Raven's Progressive Matrices, you'd suddenly admit there was connection between autism and intelligence, right? Lake Wobegon!

nope!
I still don't agree.