Survey comparing Pragmatic language -With/without Aspergers

Post Reply New Topic

Hi I did post a survey a little while ago but i had to re create it due to problems with the old one and i put it on a different site this time. This survey is now shorter and much easier to fill in.

Basically I am looking at pragmatic language use and comprehension among those with Asperger's and those without. I am also looking at age and severity of those with Asperger's.

The survey takes about 20 mins. It is for a uni project I am doing for my final year.

If you have time to fill it in , that would be great. If you could pass it on to others with and without autism that would also be great. Thanks

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, I wasn't sure where to put it.

Please read the beginning of the survey.

Here is the link to the survey- just copy and paste thanks

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QSK7F8B

That was hard :/

You ask at one point for an ...alternate... title for your canoe/camping story... when there is no original title.

You ask to put the story in order using just the letters / you used numbers not letters. Might also suggest to people that they open a word processor and copy the lines there in order to reorder them / there are WAY too many lines there to do it mentally / you might consider shortening the list or asking about how hard it was / what method people used to organize them. In fact/ that might be a much more interesting topic/study than whatever it is you're doing with the existing quiz.

Needs a note at start that the program may take a few seconds to load - I almost closed it because pushing the "buttons" didn't do anything immediately, and I have low "waste of time if this aint gonna work" tolerance.

Are we gonna see the outcome of this whole thing? Let us know. Might get you more interested people.

**
I'm going to post my answer to the fiction question here, because after writing it I realized how vehement I am about fiction and FRUSTRATED that EVERY "do you have autism" quiz implies that if you like fiction you aren't autistic. (Hence my forum name - by the way.)
***
Fiction / that's what I was given growing up / also fiction books tend to explore or detail social interactions, acceptances, etc. and to explore mental / internal thoughts and processes (Zach Hughes, the Dark Side). At least the ones I enjoyed did / do ... and they are ENTIRE WORLDS with their own social mores / societies / intellectuals / personalities/ etc

I love seeing how the (Good) authors build, create, maintain, explore ... how they have entire realities /laws /rules /quests / goals / etc (David Eddings, The Belgeriad / Robert Jordan, Eye of the World). How the stories form within those rules /reality / social /intellectual / interactive guidelines.

Or life lessons, maybe pushing the levels of morality – but exploring them too (Ender’s Game / Ender’s Shadow, Orson Scott Card). And exploring spiritual ideas in a more receivable way / not a study, but a revelation (Orson Scott Card, Ender in Exile, Children of the Mind).

Fiction (good fiction) provides an insight into how other people think! How they view the world! Into understanding the THOUGHTS and VIEWS and OPINIONS of the author (thru the characters) with more meat that I’ve ever found in non-fiction. This is what draws me.

Such epic works of the author’s imagination / mind! And of course there are some (Octavia Butler: Racism) who use the alt world to explore problems or concerns that exist in our own world, or to accept things / people / views that are different (Anne McCaffrey: Homosexuality is common amongst her dragon riders – if you pay attention, since it is really unremarkable in that social group), etc / but removed so that the "preaching" or opinion of the author is inserted slyly into your mind as you enjoy / are captivated by / the story.

A fiction author wants to mold minds, offer comfort, acceptance (if you read the right ones). They are trying to do this by writing, in an effort to share their mind, their thoughts, their experiences, their opinions, their lives – in romantic / poetic / lyrical / easy to process, enjoyable to read, larger than life ways that will enthrall the reader… and comfort or change or offer them another way to see things – the author’s way – which it is up to the reader to consider, to accept, to dismiss, to rage against… to have an emotional and intellectual RESPONSE to (Tom Robbins).

Which is not often found in non fiction readings.

*Note – I’ve given a few examples for each point / each of those books also strikes into the other points too! As all MEMORABLE fiction does! Shape the world by shaping minds! Unite the world by sharing thought and experiences! Guide (by connecting or by upsetting)! SHARE! A good book (primarily in the category / deportment / style of social(fantasy), religious and science fiction books) is the only way you'll truly get inside another person / walk a mile in their mind!

I'd like to ask you kindly why have you excluded all autistic people other than those specifically diagnosed with AS? AS is not even included in the new DSM, and there are many high-functioning autistic people with other diagnostic labels such as autim and PDD-NOS. It is well-known that the accuracy of diagnosing with a specific ASD label had been unreliable in the past, unlike the accuracy of identifying whether someone is on the autism spectrum. Also, what's about people who are self-diagnosed? Am I missing something?

@OddFiction: Your answer seems like a stereotypical aspie reply: giving a dissertation when a few sentences or a paragraph tops would suffice. I'm not knocking you, but in terms of comprehension, although it's well articulated, it drifts from the original question. You were asked why YOU liked reading fiction, but then wandered off and appointed yourself spokesman for fiction authors collectively. So, much of your response wasn't really answering the question as asked.

As for the test itself, I think any native English-speaking adult would do just fine. It kind of reminded me of those comprehension tests from middle school, but I guess it was fun for old time's sake.

Did anyone have any problems with it?

I found this survey rather easy except for the different types of irony because I forgot what their definitions are, I just gave them my best guess.

I noticed errors in the survey too but I have to try not to get too fussed about that in everyday life. I also found it impossible to keep track of the order without copy-pasting the sentences into Word and rearranging them there. I assumed that it would be fine to do this since it didn't specify that we shouldn't - this isn't supposed to be a working memory test!



Crap, well, I wrote a couple of dissertations myself for my responses! I guess that's to be expected when you ask a bunch of aspies for input. But, in all seriousness, I think OddFiction's response is good because we were meant to explain our reasoning as to why we like either fiction or non-fiction. I think that his arguments are valid and I agree with some of the points. I think one of the things that's soured me against fiction in recent years is that I've begun to be wary of anyone who, in OddFiction's words, "wants to mold minds" exactly because this only applies to "the right ones." How is the average reader supposed to sort through the endless stacks of novels to discover these allusive "right ones," and how are they to know it when they do? This is why I tend to trust teachers' ideas on novels, or gravitate to the "tried and true" of the literary cannon, and I've been made fun of before because all of my favourite novels were "just typical high-school English class" books (e.g., "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Catcher in the Rye").

I suppose I feel uncomfortable with any attempted manipulation that isn't obvious and thus easy to isolate and refute. But on the other side of things it also irritates me beyond belief when people give examples of books that are "soo deep" and have such progressive ideas when to me they just seem cheaply constructed and way too obvious, and/or they pander to the basest of human appetites and sort of ruin their purpose for me. Before anyone brings it up, yes, I am aware that all communication has an agenda. It is inherently manipulative. If you're reading scientific articles, the authors are subtly trying to turn you to their ideology and the smallest things like the choice of language or even the order of the content is usually carefully constructed.

I ended up asking my NT friends what those phrases meant. I feel stupid now ;-;