The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) is a questionnaire published in 2001 by

Simon Baron-Cohen Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen (born 15 August 1958) is a British clinical psychologist and professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge. He is the director of the university's Autism Research Centre and a Fellow of ...

and his colleagues at the

Autism Research Centre The Autism Research Centre (ARC) is a research institute that is a part of the Department of Developmental Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, England. ARC's research goal is to understand the biomedical causes of autism spectrum conditio ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, UK. Consisting of fifty questions, it aims to investigate whether adults of average

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

have symptoms of autism spectrum conditions. More recently, versions of the AQ for children and adolescents have also been published. The test was popularised by ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'' in when published alongside their article, "The Geek Syndrome". It is commonly used for self diagnosis of

autism spectrum disorder The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental disorder, neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) ...

s, although it is not intended to be a diagnostic test.Take the AQ Test
, ''

Embarrassing Bodies ''Embarrassing Bodies'' (formerly ''Embarrassing Illnesses'') is a British BAFTA Award-winning medical reality television programme broadcast by Channel 4 and made by Maverick Television since 2007. In 2011, an hour-long live show was introduc ...

'' website,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, 2011. Accessed 2011-09-16. The

PhenX Toolkit The PhenX Toolkit is a web-based catalog of high-priority measures related to complex diseases, phenotypic traits and environmental exposures. These measures were selected by working groups of experts using a consensus process. Use of PhenX measur ...

uses age-specific versions of AQ as its adult and adolescent screening protocols for Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Format

The test consists of 50 statements, each of which is in a forced choice format. Each question allows the subject to indicate "definitely agree", "slightly agree", "slightly disagree" or "definitely disagree". Approximately half the questions are worded to elicit an "agree" response from neurotypical individuals, and half to elicit a "disagree" response. The subject scores one point for each question which is answered "autistically" either slightly or definitely. The questions cover five different domains associated with the autism spectrum: social skills; communication skills; imagination; attention to detail; and attention switching/tolerance of change.

Factor analysis Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved variables called factors. For example, it is possible that variations in six observed ...

of sample results have been inconsistent, with various studies finding two, three or four factors instead of five.

Use as a diagnostic tool

In the initial trials of the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4, with men scoring slightly higher than women (about 17 versus about 15). 80% of adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders scored 32 or more, compared with only 2% of the control group. The authors cited a score of 32 or more as indicating "clinically significant levels of autistic traits". However, although the test is popularly used for self-diagnosis of

s, the authors caution that it is not intended to be diagnostic, and advise that anyone who obtains a high score and is suffering some distress should seek professional medical advice and not jump to any conclusions. A further research paper indicated that the questionnaire could be used for

screening Screening may refer to: * Screening cultures, a type a medical test that is done to find an infection * Screening (economics), a strategy of combating adverse selection (includes sorting resumes to select employees) * Screening (environmental), a ...

clinical practice Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...

, with scores less than 26 indicating that a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome can effectively be ruled out. It is also often used to assess milder variants of autistic-like traits in

neurotypical Neurotypical (NT, an abbreviation of neurologically typical) is a neologism widely used in the neurodiversity movement as a label for non-neurodivergent people. That is, anyone who has a typical neurotype, so excluding autistic people, those wit ...

individuals.

Mathematicians, scientists and engineers

Although most students with an autism spectrum disorder have average mathematical ability and test slightly worse in mathematics than in general intelligence, some are gifted in mathematics and autism spectrum disorder has not prevented adults from major accomplishments. The questionnaire was tried on Cambridge University students and a group of 16 winners of the

British Mathematical Olympiad The British Mathematical Olympiad (BMO) forms part of the selection process for the UK International Mathematical Olympiad team and for other international maths competitions, including the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad, the Romanian Mast ...

to determine whether there was a link between a talent for mathematical and scientific disciplines and traits associated with the autism spectrum. Mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering students were found to score significantly higher, e.g., 21.8 on average for mathematicians and 21.4 for computer scientists. The average score for the British Mathematical Olympiad winners was 24.

References

* Taylor et al. 2020
"Psychometric concerns with the 10-item Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ10) as a measure of trait autism in the general population"

External links

Online version of the AQ questionnaire
{{Autism resources Autism screening and assessment tools

Format

Use as a diagnostic tool

Mathematicians, scientists and engineers

See also

References

External links