New Aspie Quiz version being developped

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I'm in the process of improving the grouping process in Aspie Quiz. Previously, I couldn't find the groups with direct factor analysis, but a different method of doing factor analysis have changed this, so it is now possible to use direct factor analysis to get suggested factors, which is a much more objective method than previously used.

Because of this, a few groups in Aspie Quiz have been changed. The Aspie hunting group was merged with Aspie communication, the NT hunting group was merged with NT talents. The Aspie compulsion and talent groups were also merged, as were the NT compulsion and NT social groups. In addition to that, I've used many newly discovered social traits to form 3 distinct social groups on each side: Contact behaviors, general socialization behaviors and attachment behaviors. Some of these groups still lack enough traits.

There now is a new (experimental) version with 210 items, where 60 are experimental. Link: http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

Suggestions and feedback are welcome. The aim is to publish the new process of grouping in an autism-related journal.

It would be helpful if the quiz could help to differentiate other disorders with overlapping symptoms. For example cyclothymia. Other members on this site also often mention other disorders too. So some symptoms may not only be indicative of Asperger's but other disorders.

Is this the Aspie quiz that started the Asperger's range at a score of 32, or could it be the one that uses a score range of 200 and produces a circular graphic along with the numerical score?

Interesting. Previously, I received a both Aspie/NT score; with this version I scored "very likely an Aspie." I noticed that there were more questions that I could unhesitatingly answer, vs. the previous version when I had to stop and really think about the question.

My only concern is:

"Do you dislike sexual intercourse other than as procreation?"

Um...heterocentric question? I couldn't answer it. I was wondering if a similar dynamic was at play with:

"Do you become shy or passive when you see somebody of the opposite sex that you are interested in?"

But I assumed that could apply to platonic situations.

You got my attention. Gotta take it some time this week.

I got slightly lower scores on the new experimental version compared to the old version (Aspie points 148 VS 150, NT points 41 VS 49), and the visual figure looks different although it is still roughly the same type of shape.

It's the test with the score range of 200.

The one with the 32 cutoff is the AQ Test by Simon Baron-Cohen

There is also a new ASD test out called RAADS-14, although I have only seen it in a journal article, not in any web-based test. RAADS-14 is a cutdown versin of the much longe RAADS-R test.

I think any kind of improvement is great, but the one thing that still bothers me are questions like this:

Is it more important to be a team player than to express oneself?

For me this question is hard to answer because there are so many dimensions in which it could be answered. What type of 'team' are we talking here? Is this strictly my subjective opinion, or should I let the more objective view on the question intrude on my answer? I'm assuming that 'expressing oneself' in that context would be to go against the team? There are so many situations and contexts.

I have those problems with most questions, and feel as if answering 'A Little' or leaving them blank doesn't suffice, as they would both have a negative influence on the results.


EDIT - Just thought I'd add in a second question as an example of what I find hard to answer:

Do you avoid being the centre of attention?

This depends. I hate walking into a classroom late because I get stared at or walking out into a bunch of people (including family) that I know will notice me etc. Typically I won't really like being the centre of attention in most situations, but I LOVE it when it's with my 2 best friends. If I'm drunk I also tend to hog attention and talk about myself constantly. There's obviously many more variables that could come into play too, and answering a question like this would also be affected by my mood and current 'feel' towards the question.

This could just be a problem that only I have however.

These are part of the new relationship questions. It seems like neurodiversity has a rather strong link to these issues. It's not so much that Aspies lack social competence and relationship skills, but more that they have fundamentally different preferences in this area. To cover this aspect is the major reason for the update. But the actual contents and groups are still experimental. It might be that new factor analysis will provide different groups with more experimental items in this area.

Edit: This really isn't a heterocentric question, because if you are homosexual you should answer it as "yes".

Last edited by rdos on 20 Jan 2014, 2:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes. I have kind of started to remove or rephrase questions that seems to have multiple dependencies. However, this one is only experimental at the moment (and thus untested). and it might very well turn out to have multiple dependencies. Maybe it needs to be connected to a more situational context in order to catch what it is intended to catch?

Aspie Quiz will never measure any specific disorder defined in DSM. The one and only attempt to do this failed several years ago, and it will not be attempted again. OTOH, I will cover new aspects where there is a strong correlation to neurodiversity, like for instance "intimacy problems" and "insecure attachment", which are two examples of personality disorders that really aren't disorders at all, but neurodiversity traits.

I've also removed the environmental group, since it turned out that many of these issues primarily seem to be a consequence of the neurodiverse attachment profile.

I wasn't suggesting that the quiz was able to diagnose other disorders so much as not be fooled by them into giving a false positive for Asperger's if for the person has other disorder(s). Just because someone isn't neurotypical doesn't mean the non-neurotypical aspects are related to Asperger's, ideally you need to filter these overlapping diagnostic criteria out.

In #146 the word "rhythms" is misspelled.

In #149 the word "strong" is misspelled.

In #151 the word "abandoned" is misspelled.

The problem with the label Asperger's (which doesn't even exist in the new DSM-5) is that it is something assembled in a random process without verifying that the traits are related. In addition to that, the label itself requires a bad compensatory process either because of a bad environment or low IQ or a combination of both. We have proved in our new communication paper (in submission) that Aspie Quiz "very likely Aspie" category is more discriminatory for stims than is the ASD label. The same thing is evident for research on religious behaviors (soon to be submitted).

IOW, trying to copy the ASD criteria and finding co-morbid conditions that way will not result in typical neurodiverse traits, but will result in various traits related to anxiety, bullying, bad coping skills and alike. What I'm interested in is the traits that are part of neurodiversity. That was the whole point of developing and publishing a novel, replicatable neurodiversity definition. Before we can do anything about the reason why neurodiverse people receive ASD-labels, we need to understand neurodiversity. You cannot treat ASD without understanding neurodiversity, and you certainly cannot find the causes either.

Hmm...I answered completely honestly and got this:

"You have answered inconsistently on too many control-questions"

I think that the test could be improved by adding a text box at the end of each line, so that people could elaborate on why they answered the way they did. This would allow you to see which questions people were having trouble answering.

Also, certain questions are asked as if the only responses are binary, like "Do you prefer to have friends of the opposite gender?" If the answer is yes, then someone would know that they answer yes, but how would a person answer if they preferred not to have friends at all? How would they answer if they preferred to have friends of their same gender? Or they could have interpreted the question as "Do you prefer to have [any] friends of the opposite gender?"

Allowing test-takers to clarify answers(with the goal of reducing the number of clarification responses over time) seems like it would be useful. Wording questions in a way that they are definitely binary seems like a good way to work toward that.