Autism=Poor executive function? Try the flexibilty test.

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Heh, well, if it's modifiable via aerobic exercise, then I must have been even worse off before I started walking for half an hour to an hour per day.

I wish we had a sample of NTs to try this test. We're all scoring really low--now I want to know if that's because we're autistic, or because the test is hard for everyone and the percentiles are actually off by a few dozen points.

I did manage to fail one executive-functioning/attention test during neuropsych testing, but I've passed others. The simpler ones are just too easy for me to "figure out", using other, stronger skills to compensate for poor working memory and executive functioning. Like on the Wisconsin card-sorting task: Using pure logic made that one easy. I found myself starting out with the set of all possible rules and eliminating sections of that set; then when an answer violated the known set of rules, I knew the rules had changed. I wasn't depending very much on executive functioning at all. I didn't have to keep in my mind all the previous answers. Similarly, in everyday life I deal with executive dysfunction by turning multiple possibilities into concrete flowcharts. I almost "program" myself, the way I would program a computer.

I think many of us, especially the ones who are doing better than we "ought to" be doing given our autistic traits, probably have many workarounds like this that we've taught ourselves. Maybe some of them are workarounds that no therapist yet knows about, because they never bothered to ask us.

Even on this test - I dealt with it by instead of looking at color vs shape, teaching myself "green triangle" was always the same whether it was color or shape - and I had a weaker one of that with "red circle", but that one wasn't as automatic. But having those two as not needing to swap on, meant my average time got much better, and I also frequently used them to swap modes between color and shape, because they frequently colors in a row then lots of shapes in a row, and if they swapped on a green triangle, I had one to swap on that was easy.

So I had a way to cope.

Now, when I couldn't just ignore the fact that I was swapping between color as the important and shape as the important thing, I sometimes stared at it and couldn't figure out what was going on, for at least 4 times as long as my average time was. It just didn't matter because my average was good.

I'm sixteen, didn't want to sabotage their study results by faking my age so I decided not to take it...

I am very bad at task switching. Unsurprisingly I am much better at Spacial memory. I am poor at speed all around. Flexibility was my worst score.

Spatial Memory Test
Accuracy 93rd pctile
Speed 28th pctile

Attention Test
Accuracy 50th pctile
Speed 77th pctile

Flexibility Test
Accuracy 9th pctile
Speed 12th pctile

Balloon Test
Points 33rd pctile
Popped Balloons 18th pctile

Stroop Test
Accuracy 61st pctile
Speed 55th pctile
I do not agree with this accuracy percentile, I only missed on answer out of all six rounds.

Verbal Memory Test
Accuracy 42nd pctile
Speed 7th pctile

Hidden Treasures Test
Accuracy 41st pctile
Speed 29th pctile

Overall accuracy: 44th percentile.
Response time: 40th percentile.

96.4% accuracy is only the 44th percentile?

Wow...

Accuracy: 2nd percentile
Response time: 7th percentile
54.2% accuracy.

I did have a hard time with it though with the constant changing of colors and what not. Maybe it's my sensory issues that sabotaged me.

Accuracy: 76 percentile

Speed: 2nd percentile

Overall accuracy: 10th percentile.
Response time: 17th percentile.
89.1% accuracy

Overall accuracy: 59th percentile. (187/192 97.4%)
Response time: 78th percentile. (680ms)

Damn.

Averages for most task-switching tests tend to fall above 1000ms. Was this your first try? If it is that is very good.

Anywho, I have notice my own percentiles fluctuating one or two points, so either this is an error or the website is collecting data from visitors. Retest effects allow people to improve on the test via skill improvement, and this is especially true on flexibility tests, so scores on the 1st try are more representative of overall functioning. , Since people are allowed to take the test more than once, it would explain why the percentiles are a bit harsher than most. More evidence of this is that one error on the stroop test is in the 61st percentile, when most people will get several.

Accuracy: 28th percentile
Speed: 13th percentile

Overall accuracy: 28th percentile.
Response time: 43rd percentile.