Asperger's individuals show higher than normal Fluid Intelligence

Superior fluid intelligence (abstract reasoning ability) in children with Asperger’s disorder

• Mika Hayashi^a, Motoichiro Kato^a, Kazue Igarashi^b, Haruo Kashima^a

Abstract

Asperger’s disorder is one of autistic spectrum disorders; sharing clinical features with autism, but without developmental delay in language acquisition. There have been some studies of intellectual functioning in autism so far, but very few in Asperger’s disorder. In the present study, we investigated abstract reasoning ability, whose form of intelligence has been labeled fluid intelligence in the theory of Cattell [Cattell, R. B. (1963). Theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence: A critical experiment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 54, 1–22.], in children with Asperger’s disorder. A test of fluid intelligence, the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices Test, was administered to 17 children with Asperger’s disorder and 17 age-, gender-, and FIQ-matched normal children. The results showed that children with Asperger’s disorder outperformed on the test of fluid reasoning than typically developing children. We suggest that individuals with Asperger’s disorder have higher fluid reasoning ability than normal individuals, highlighting superior fluid intelligence.

Eugenics aka "Good Birth" Cannot Be Ignored

Most Americans are unaware of the Eugenics movement in U.S. history, which was an attempt at improving the human species through selective reproduction. Superior people were encouraged to have children; inferior people were to be banned from reproducing. This goal of directing the future of human evolution was not promoted by mere crack pots or racists: laws were passed in many states which allowed the sterilization of an array of "unfit" humans; approximately 60,000 citizens were sterilized in 33 states. Those of us who have been diagnosed as autistic or Asperger, and our parents, friends and relatives, need to be aware of this movement, its history and the ongoing presence of ideas that support genetic discrimination.

Eugenics promoted the "weeding out" of defective humans through selective breeding. Only 'superior' humans would be allowed to have children - and defective humans prevented from having children. This movement was popular in the United States during the first half of the 20th C.

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