A study of intellectual abilities in high-functioning people with autism.
Expect a split profile on Wechsler scales: verbal abilities often outpace visual-motor skills in high-functioning clients with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lincoln et al. (1988) looked at how smart high-functioning people with autism are.
They gave each person the Wechsler IQ test and wrote down every sub-score.
The team then compared the verbal part with the hands-on, puzzle part.
What they found
Most clients talked well but scored lower on block design and picture tasks.
The split was so clear it became a red flag for autism in later manuals.
How this fits with other research
Chiang et al. (2014) pooled 52 studies and saw the same verbal-beat-visual gap.
Alaimo et al. (2015) tried both WISC-IV and SB-5 and still found the same tilt, proving the pattern sticks across newer tests.
Deserno et al. (2017) and Pathak et al. (2019) add a twist: even bright clients fall behind in daily living skills, so strong verbal IQ can hide real-world needs.
Why it matters
When you see a big verbal-to-performance split on a Wechsler report, think autism first.
Do not let high word scores fool you—still assess dressing, cooking, and friendship skills.
Use the gap to explain to teachers why extra social and life-skills goals belong in the plan.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This research extends previous research regarding the intellectual functioning of autistic individuals on standardized measures of intelligence (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised). In Study I 33 individuals with autism who closely fit the DSM-III criteria were studied. Clear evidence was found that differentiates these individuals' verbal intellectual processes from their visual-motor intellectual abilities. Principal components analysis was used to examine the interrelationship among the various intellectual abilities which such tests of intelligence measure. In Study II the intellectual abilities of a group of autistic 8- to 12-year-olds were compared to age-matched groups of children with receptive developmental language disorder, dysthymic disorder, or oppositional disorder. The intellectual abilities of autistic children were significantly different from the other groups of children.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1988 · doi:10.1007/BF02211870