The effects of autistic traits and academic degree on visuospatial abilities

Abstract

In the present study we were interested to investigate how autistic traits (including systemizing and empathy) and academic degree influence individuals' visuospatial abilities. To this end, 352 university students completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), the Empathy Quotient (EQ), the Systemizing Quotient (SQ) and visuospatial tests measuring figure disembedding and mental rotation of two-dimensional figures. Engineering-Design students (architecture and engineering) were the most accurate in disembedding and mentally rotating figures, followed by students of Physical sciences (computer science, chemistry, physics, etc), and Fact-Based Humanities (languages, classics, law); students of Biological (psychology and neuroscience, etc) and Systems-Based Social Scientists (economics and commerce) were the least accurate. Engineering-Design students also showed higher SQ scores with respect to the other four academic degree subjects, with students of Biological sciences showing lower SQ scores. Importantly, results from a path analysis revealed that SQ (but not AQ) exerted an indirect effect on figure disembedding and mental rotation through the influence of the academic degree. Future studies could include non-systemizing disciplines, which would be expected to fully elucidate this relationship. Implications of these results for education are discussed.

Autistic Traits Differently Account for Context-Based Predictions of Physical and Social Events

“…= 6.58), but the difference between the two gender groups did not reach significance (t 76 = 1.8, p = 0.076). Importantly, a recent study [ 45 ] describing a sample of Italian University students of fact-based humanities, which best matched our sample for age, study-field, and gender, revealed comparable distributions of AQ scores for both men (N = 29; Mean = 17.9, s.d. = 6; t 57 = -0.21, p = 0.837) and women (N = 30; Mean = 17.5, s.d.…”

“…Individual AQ total and subscale scores were calculated according to standard procedures [30,44]. Independent sample t-test (two-tailed) was used to compare the score of male and female participants within our sample and with those reported in age-, education-, and gender-matched Italian samples reported a previous study [45].…”

Dissociable Effects of Social and Non-Social Autistic Traits on Figure Disembedding and Mental Rotation in Women and Men

“…Neurotypical adults with high levels of autistic traits show superior performance compared to people with low autistic traits on gure disembedding tasks, analogous to what has been found in autistic individuals [9][10][11]. Larger inconsistencies are seen on mental rotation [12][13][14][15]. In particular, some authors found that different cognitive abilities and autistic traits predict mental rotation performance in women and men [14].…”

“…The interaction between traits and sex could led to differences both in performance [12] and the strategy used to solve mental rotation tasks [15]. Other authors found that an interaction between autistic traits and academic degree subject could account for differences in mental rotation in men and women [13].…”

“…Together, although these results are not fully consistent with respect to the relationship between autistic traits and mental rotation abilities, they converge in highlighting the need to test such relationships taking into account sex differences. Sex differences in mental rotation have been investigated for a long time, reporting better abilities on average in men than women, although the size of the difference varies across studies [16][17][18][19][20], and some recent investigations report no difference at all [13,21,22].…”