Autism Spectrum Traits Linked with Reduced Performance on Self-Report Behavioural Measures of Cognitive Flexibility.

Albein-Urios et al. (2018) asked college-age adults without an autism diagnosis to fill out two questionnaires. One measured autism traits. The other measured everyday cognitive flexibility.

Then the team ran short lab games that also test flexibility. They wanted to see if people with more autism traits scored worse on either measure.

People with higher autism-trait scores said they had more trouble switching plans, coping with change, and coming up with new ideas.

Yet those same people did fine on the quick lab games. The paper shows self-report tools catch problems that five-minute computer tasks miss.

Karaca et al. (2026) pooled 42 studies and found flexibility is the weakest executive skill in autistic adults. Natalia’s work lines up: flexibility flags show up even in non-autistic people who simply have more autism traits.

Lacroix et al. (2022) also saw flexibility gaps only when rule shifts were hidden and emotional. Together these papers warn that sterile, predictable lab tasks can hide real-life rigidity.

Strang et al. (2017) built the Flexibility Scale used here. Natalia’s team proves the scale works beyond clinical kids; it picks up subtle trait differences in typical young adults.

If you assess teens or adults for flexibility, add a short self-report scale to your battery. Quick computer tests may look normal and still miss the daily rigidity clients and families complain about. Pair both measures and you will have a fuller picture for goal setting and intervention planning.