Can NTs score high on the aspie test too

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20 Apr 2007, 11:58 am

I want to know if it's possible an NT can score "You are very likely an aspie"



The link in case you don't know what I'm talking about.

http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php



TheMachine1
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20 Apr 2007, 12:28 pm

Your very obsessed with getting a precise diagnosis. I think RDOS's test measures a larger spectrum of things so I scored higher on his test than the AQ(or is it EQ?). The official criteria for aspergers is alot narrower than how RDOS defines it. Like you know all the stereotypical things aspies claim here on WP but that are not really apart of any official description in the DSM-IV criteria. RDOS has added those things in his test. So in that regards a NT could score more aspie like on RDOS test than the AQ test.

But RDOS would likely explain that he is trying to provide a better over all definition of
aspergers. Regardless of why you score high on test does not matter. Even if genetic test fully explain ever variation in human neurology in the future and you have zero aspie related genes(unlikely) but you still score high on a test in which known genetic aspies score high on that still makes you aspies like. The reality saying one has aspergers or not means little. Because there is no real way to quantify it. Thats why I say unsure in my profile. Not because I do not understand myself but because the very
definition is not meaningful enough.



lennythegiant
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20 Apr 2007, 12:37 pm

I think someone with social anxiety could probably score kinda high even if they didn't have AS, but at the same time there is a lot of stuff in there that doesn't have to do with social anxiety to balance it out. It's possible, but I agree with the above poster that even if they aren't aspie, there is still no real way to quantify it.



Aspie_Chav
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20 Apr 2007, 1:06 pm

I is purebread aspie and I scored quite low an their test. Come bout everyone thinks I is an NT, only an NT would think that. w***e mon b***y mon bumberclarts .



DingoDv
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20 Apr 2007, 1:15 pm

Neurodiversity is a nice model to follow - everyone is on a sliding scale, NT being one end, LFA the other. In between everyone falls. In reality, I doubt anyone is truly NT - even if they think they are!
All of these interelated things (ADD, OCD, AS, ASD...) are todo with wiring in the brain, it is unfeasable to say that every NT brain is wired the same, just as we know every AS brain is different, going by this, it is very possible that someone who would clinically be classed as NT would still score highly, at a guess just the fact you are here and have taken the rdos test most likely means your verging towards the AS side of things anyway, I know I am in the grey bit in the middle, but most likely closer to AS than NT. Part of the problem is personal experience I guess, I may deem myself to be socially crippled (for the record I don't - just very often misunderstood) whereas in someone elses eyes I could be one of the most sociable people they know.
Other examples would be thinking doing something a couple of times a day (maybe a stim) was alot, whereas someone else does it a couple of times an hour, and doesn't think its much at all.
It is impossible not to answer anything biased in this context as you know why you are answering questions, to see the likelhood of being an aspie, and you know what kind of traits an aspie has...

In the end, a dx of aspie is what another human being has decided based on guidelines designed by even more humans. We are an extremely fallible species and are always making mistakes, being swayed due to biases etc. Just looking around here you will see most people, even with dx, vary extremely from each other. Criteria don't really take that into account and never will be able to.
I think an interesting test would be brain scans, I wouldn't be surprised to find a had an under developed prefrontal left cortex for example. I think the only issue is, there will always be a person that exhibits symptoms for something, but with no discernable cause!



rdos
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20 Apr 2007, 2:33 pm

TheMachine1 wrote:
Your very obsessed with getting a precise diagnosis. I think RDOS's test measures a larger spectrum of things so I scored higher on his test than the AQ(or is it EQ?). The official criteria for aspergers is alot narrower than how RDOS defines it. Like you know all the stereotypical things aspies claim here on WP but that are not really apart of any official description in the DSM-IV criteria. RDOS has added those things in his test. So in that regards a NT could score more aspie like on RDOS test than the AQ test.


Yes, you are right. Aspie-quiz is a lot broader than DSM. If it wasn't for historical reasons it would better to call it a "neurodiversity-quiz" instead.

TheMachine1 wrote:
But RDOS would likely explain that he is trying to provide a better over all definition of
aspergers.


Nah, not really. I use the term Aspie instead of Aspergers, and there are reasons for this choice. Up until version 6 or so I scored the test manually, and up to that point the test probably resembled DSM a lot better. I then made a decision that it was better to use automatic scoring based on intrinsic properties of the data (previous answers) than some arbitrary defined diagnosis. This change did increase misdiagnosis of AS to some extent but it was tolerable.

The existance of two scores instead of one also has to do with automatic scoring. Factor analysis of Aspie-quiz gives two major axises. The first one is used to calculate Aspie-score. The second one is more or less the inverse of the first, but not entirely. It is used to calculate NT-score.

So, in essence, I haven't defined what is Aspie-traits and what is NT-traits at all. Quiz-takers have defined it for me and continue to do so. I just run my principal components analysis program (which I have bought) on the answers and it basically generates the weight-factors for the quiz scoring. When a question have been in multiple quizes, an weighted average is calculated.



LostInSpace
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20 Apr 2007, 4:08 pm

lennythegiant wrote:
I think someone with social anxiety could probably score kinda high even if they didn't have AS, but at the same time there is a lot of stuff in there that doesn't have to do with social anxiety to balance it out. It's possible, but I agree with the above poster that even if they aren't aspie, there is still no real way to quantify it.


Having social anxiety definitely could skew the results a bit, but of course that is true even if you are just looking at the diagnostic criteria for AS. For instance, difficulty with eye contact is common with social anxiety. Being awkward socially, not having many friends, and not engaging in many social activities are often true of both people with AS and social anxiety. The difference is in the subjective experience of each, I guess. When just looking at the traits of each with no other information, there appears to be some overlap.



ahayes
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20 Apr 2007, 4:16 pm

probably, I could score 100% if that was my objective



dontwanttoknow
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22 Apr 2007, 11:18 am

Could an Aspie score as very likely neurotypical? This is my score (I've taken the test several times in its various forms, and always score as likely NT).

Your Aspie score: 72 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 141 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical

And I have social anxiety/avoidant personality disorder and OCD, but have been unable to get diagnosed as AS. I also am somewhat clumsy, probably have dysgraphia (I write really "hard"), and have trouble repeating conversations (I always end up leaving something out). I'm sure my Aspie score is much higher than NT's who don't have those problems.



blacktext
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23 Apr 2007, 2:20 am

I've scored within the spectrum on every self-test I've tried. It was an extreme revelation - never having realized that my behavior isn't typical until recently. Autism was the furthest thing from my mind, until I read an article about HFA that struck a little to close to home.

Social anxiety doesn't seem to explain my personal situation. Although I largely abhor social situations I don't fear them.



kitrona
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23 Apr 2007, 4:15 am

"It is impossible not to answer anything biased in this context as you know why you are answering questions, to see the likelhood of being an aspie, and you know what kind of traits an aspie has..."

Not entirely true. Sure, if you'd done research beforehand on Asperger's and THEN took the test, you'd have the knowledge to (possibly unconciously) skew the results, but I was sent the link to that quiz before I'd explored AS in-depth, and I found that some of the questions really startled me, because I'd never thought about the behavior described, or considered it to be in any way unusual. I had no idea what Aspie traits were; a friend simply noted that we had a lot in common, and she's Aspie, so she sent me to take the quiz.



DingoDv
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23 Apr 2007, 5:27 am

I guess that is true - I read Temple Grandins Thinking in Pictures, took me about 6 hours, but every bit I read was like "oh, I thought that was normal...".
It was even more of a shock to do the follow on stimming questionnaire, and realise how much of that I do as well - though everyone fidgettd around like that.



invivo
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23 Apr 2007, 5:38 am

interesting, I score higher on baron cohens test than this one



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23 Apr 2007, 8:56 am

DingoDv wrote:
I guess that is true - I read Temple Grandins Thinking in Pictures, took me about 6 hours, but every bit I read was like "oh, I thought that was normal...".
It was even more of a shock to do the follow on stimming questionnaire, and realise how much of that I do as well - though everyone fidgettd around like that.


What is stimming? I mean what are some specific examples?

And do you know some stuff Temple says in Thinking in Pictures? (I read one of her more recent ones, but not that.)

Regarding those quizes, I got a 116/200 on the Aspie score, and a 98/200 on the NT score.
Which, as always, leaves me wondering if I'm barking up the wrong tree, so to speak.

I got a 34 on the AQ score last time I took it (I'm always like 34-36 every time I take it), which is yet again leaving me wondering if I have it or not.



walk-in-the-rain
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23 Apr 2007, 10:45 am

When I first took a short quiz I was surprised to find out I scored so high. I had a clue because when my son was diagnosed with autism we had to fill out lots of questionairres but still they were focused more on kid behavior and autism. I had other labels and really wasn't sure exactly what AS was since my son also had significant receptive/expressive speech issues. I also scored high on the RDOS which I found very interesting because alot of things that are on there I would consider normal also.

To test the test though I had my husband grudgingly take it and he was very NT which I expected. He found lots of the questions odd that someone would even ask that. So I think if someone took the test honeslty it would be fairly accurate.



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23 Apr 2007, 10:48 am

walk-in-the-rain wrote:
When I first took a short quiz I was surprised to find out I scored so high. I had a clue because when my son was diagnosed with autism we had to fill out lots of questionairres but still they were focused more on kid behavior and autism. I had other labels and really wasn't sure exactly what AS was since my son also had significant receptive/expressive speech issues. I also scored high on the RDOS which I found very interesting because alot of things that are on there I would consider normal also.

To test the test though I had my husband grudgingly take it and he was very NT which I expected. He found lots of the questions odd that someone would even ask that. So I think if someone took the test honeslty it would be fairly accurate.


I've had my mom take some of these tests, and she comes out really "normal"...soooo, I'm more Aspie then she is anyway, even if it ends up I'm not Aspie :D