Superior fluid intelligence in children with Asperger's

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Just going to hunt up tests/refs and descriptions of "fluid int".



" ability to find meaning in confusion, and solve new problems. Ability to draw inferences, ...etc"
........Like the inferences i have drawn which lead me to believe, ( a sensible and simple explanation which avoids all the hysteria and confusion surrounding the issue) , that the socially disabling aspects of "Aspergers/HFAS" are the result of the involuntary acting out by highly sensitive introverts ( the genetic element) of the socially impaired style behaviours of teachers in classrooms, an unconscious mechanism of "copying that which one resents"( that have power over you so that seem to have no choice in a situation); evolutionary advantages clear in the past (!), but not when copying teachers!! Highly sensitive introverts perhaps the most likely to resent teachers and the whole school exp.
Also most likely to suffer sensory issues , incl allergies etc. And unfortunately the worst degrees of poorly developed proprioceptive systems as a result of motor-skill-use deprivation now endemic in the West!

.. "pattern recognition"... like my suggesting that the medication and labelling and treatment of children in last 25 years looks uncannily like the wave of treatments of "female hysteria" 150 years ago, which heralded the womens rights movement.
Like my noticing that the descriptions of Aspergers/HFAS behaviours strangely resemble those of teachers in the classroom. ( excluding the sensory issues and motor problems as explained above)

???
That sort of intelligence?

Montythanks for that, helps explain a few things...

I'm in my late 40's and was only diagnosed recently myself and was tested for Fluid reasoning and my automatic cognitive processing is advanced, which includes fluid reasoning and processing speed, even at my age

Well at least it explains why I always seem to be 10 steps ahead in general.

Its like when people are telling me things, like new process I pick it up really quickly and I move on, its not that I stop listening, I already get it and find if people try to over explain, I just shut off, as seems pointless to me and could say even bores me...

This is interesting, the traditional perception has been that Aspies and Auties have superior crystallized intelligence (as stereotypically embodied in the photographic memories of savants such as Kim Peek and Daniel Tammet) but researchers have long maintained that we lack the capacity for advanced abstract thought (the whole "theory of mind" bit, along the assertions that we go into engineering because we need our work to be very concrete). So, if we have superior abilities in pattern recognition/ abstract reasoning ("fluid intelligence") and we have generally better memorization abilities, the basis for crystallized intelligence... again, this is interesting. It was previously thought that we had better memories but fell behind in abstract reasoning. If it turns out that Aspies in general really do have higher fluid intelligence in addition to our memories, it will prompt researchers to approach Asperger's in a fundamentally different way. Of course, one study with 17 Aspies vs 17 NTs is hardly conclusive. I look forward to any new research on this subject.

So what. Overall, we are less able to function in society than people with less fluid intelligence.

Fluid intelligence is the ability to find meaning in confusion and solve new problems. It is the ability to draw inferences and understand the relationships of various concepts, independent of acquired knowledge..

Just wondering how many of you have and/or still can do the rubik cube!

I recenlty took an IQ test as well as a cognative assessment and achievment assessment. My overall IQ wasn't that exciting (full scale 117/ general ability 120), but my congative fluency was in the 99th percentile (135) and decision speed was in the 99.8 percentile (143). I was wondernig how those scores compared to others on the spectrum? It seems that many of us may have crazy high scores in these areas despite having an IQ that is more or less average (maybe a little higher). I am no genius, but I have noticed that I seem to capture the essence of things much faster than most and I also tend to know almost right away that something is wrong, right, won't work, etc. and a good deal of the time I am correct. My shortcoming is not being able to explain "how" I know this.

Often this takes the shape of being knowing that someones execution of a problem will fail... and exactly "how" it will fail with no way to further explain my statement other than "watch... it won't work... this is what will happen.....". When asked how I knew this would happen the only answer that I usually have is that I can "see it" inside of my head.

Stuff like that..... It makes people think that I am a know it all b***h, so I try to avoid it at all costs most of the time.

The 2 year old, therefore fairly recent, Tokyo research Monty highlights in OP, is significant in terms of establishing how AS is more a matter of difference than disorder. Thanks Whipstitches for resurrecting it.

If such research is kept from being swept under the carpet, it will soon be obvious that, in some ways, Aspies have superior mental processing compared with NTs. Therefore to label superior mental functioning a disorder-- is clearly a misnomer.

I am much better at inferring than I am memorizing.

You're welcome Alba!

I agree that it seems like the IQ thing is sort of a nice diagnostic "accessory" rather than a true "tool". I have read a lot of different things since I made that previous post. I am now realizing that it isn't so much that "we" as a group are not highly intelligent, it is that the relative differences between areas of strenght and areas of weakness can be very large (more than one standard deviation). This causes us to have some mild - moderate learning disabilities. In fact, that is what I was just recently "reclassified" as having. My origingal assessment from about 9 years ago was ADD. Now it has been changed to Learning Disability Not Otherwise Specified. I have now officially been refered to a psychiatrist for the final "diagnosis" of AS/HFA/PDD-NOS... whatever one they end up giving me. The IQ information coupled with the ASD questions and the personal interviews are a very strong case for or against the diagnosis of an ASD, I think. I don't think IQ alone can tell anyone much of anything, however.