What's your "Autism Quotient"?

[app103]

Excellent point Carol and that's why I suspect my real score would be higher. For most questions it was clear what direction the different answers would push you towards.

-Eóin (November 30, 2006, 05:39 AM)

It wasn't clear to me on most questions...only the ones having something to do with numbers.

and I have been wondering what my score would have been if I wasn't dyscalculic. 

I just answered them honestly. Why would one be tempted to do otherwise on a test like this? I can't see any benefit to getting a higher score...or a lower one.

and for what it's worth, I am kind of bothered by my score, how high it is.

[Carol Haynes]

I am not saying anyone would consciously set out to deceive (as you say that would be pointless) but I found that reading the questions I became aware that I was considering what was my actual response and what I thought the 'right' answer was (whatever 'right' means in this case). It was at a purely subsconscious level but I became aware that I was 'playing a game' with myself after the first few questions and after that tried to answer the questions from the gut rather than thinking about the answers. This probably says a lot about the way my mind works in itself !!!

Te trouble is that all multiple choice questionnaires tend to have this effect on me and I wondered if other people had similar difficulties in answering them in a detached manner.

[Eóin]

Ok so I took the test again trying to be as honest as possible and this time scored 10

That surprised me as I suspected the first time I was picking answers that would steer me away from the higher end of the spectrum.

A question for any psychologists in the house- Regarding the two questions about playing pretend as a child, what age do you think they were referring to and does having enjoyed playing pretend push you in the direction of autism or away from it?

[Carol Haynes]

I would guess 'pretend games' would push you away from the autism scale because a characteristic of autism is the inability to see the world from another person's point of view - a pre-requisite for pretending.

[Ruffnekk]

That could explain my ‘bad’ score. I’m pretty much unable to pretend I’m someone else.