Age, Math & Tech Genes and AQ Test scores

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Hello there. I was curious about the connection between age, math and tech genes and AQ test scores.

My parents both scored below 15 on the AQ test, but my father works as a tech worker because he's technically skilled and my mother is a mathematical prodigy, despite being normal in a "social way", though she claims it's better for her to keep her mouth shut due to her ideas being so "far off the wall". Recently, I scored a 32 on the AQ test while my sister scored a 28 on the AQ test.

Is that because the younger generation is increasing in their expression of traits measured by the AQ test (The AQ test was made in 2001 and normed off adults who were 30), possibly due to technology and the younger generation's addiction to technology(video games and the device I use as a fifth appendage, a computer), or is that more symptomatic of the increase in autistic traits associated with when strong "math" & "tech" genes are combined? Or is it just a fluke that my sister and I scored substantially higher on the AQ test than our parents, despite their mathematical and technical predispositions and the association between 'math and tech genes' and Aspergers as mentioned in the Wired Article "The Geek Syndrome."? (See http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12 ... rs_pr.html)

One way to find out if the younger generation's AQ scores are increasing would be to get a bunch of random 19-20 year olds to take the AQ test, but I wouldn't know a good place to find such a population online given possible self-selection effects (More autistic-predisposed individuals would be more likely to use computers and thus take the AQ test.). I suppose another way would be just to go around and ask people if they have time for a random survey - Maybe I'd crop the questions down to 20 or so just to see if I could find general trends.

I dont think theres a direct correlation between scoring higher on AQ and being more inclined towards math, techy stuff. Id say theres a very vague correlation. I think there can be very socially savy people in the tech fields but there can be very ackward people as well. From my limited observation, in the more sciency techy fields 1 might find more socially awkward people in those fields then other fields but there are also very NT, socially savy people too in those fields too.

But then you also have to remember that there are a lotta aspies who suck at math as well. There are a good # of threads on this board of people disliking the aspie math stereotype.

For me, I scored 33 on the AQ test and Im a fairly sciency person. Im good at math up to Alg 2, my favorite subject is Chem. Tho techwise Im pretty average in comparison the general population. I think this was more due to me being intimidated by techy stuff when I was young and I was only forced to deal with techy stuff due to my area of study in college which brought me up to average. Otherwise, if I had suffciently explored things as a kid, Id probably be pretty good.

I scored in the low 40's on that test. Little surprise. But it is an interesting idea. It would not surprise me if the quiz needed to be modified to reflect newer communication forms.

Like, how many face book friends do you have?

NT: 387 (it took forever to get them. The longest 2 weeks of my life )

Aspie: 4. One family member, one co-worker, one aspie and one business. (true story - welcome to my world)

http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/doc ... Q-adol.pdf

Here, they normed the test off a bunch of students in 2006 and this would probably show any possible intergenerational score drifting trends and the female average was the same as the AQ test normed off in 2001 with adults averaging 30 years old, while males average 20 whereas the 30-year old males in 2001 averaged at about 17. So, there might be an increasing trend in AQ scores among males, but that's uncertain as different age groups are incomparable for obvious reasons (Maybe their scores will decrease as they age?).