The Level and Nature of Autistic Intelligence

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Dawson, M., Soulières, I., Gernsbacher, M. A., & Mottron, L. (2007). The Level and Nature of Autistic Intelligence. Psychological Science, 18(8), 657-662. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01954.x

Journal or book title
Psychological Science
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
18
Issue
8
Pages
657-662
Publication date: 31 Jul 2007 Added to AutiHub: 3 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)
  1. Michelle Dawson *
  2. Isabelle Soulières
  3. Morton Ann Gernsbacher
  4. Laurent Mottron

Abstract

Autistics are presumed to be characterized by cognitive impairment, and their cognitive strengths (e.g., in Block Design performance) are frequently interpreted as low-level by-products of high-level deficits, not as direct manifestations of intelligence. Recent attempts to identify the neuroanatomical and neurofunctional signature of autism have been positioned on this universal, but untested, assumption. We therefore assessed a broad sample of 38 autistic children on the preeminent test of fluid intelligence, Raven's Progressive Matrices. Their scores were, on average, 30 percentile points, and in some cases more than 70 percentile points, higher than their scores on the Wechsler scales of intelligence. Typically developing control children showed no such discrepancy, and a similar contrast was observed when a sample of autistic adults was compared with a sample of nonautistic adults. We conclude that intelligence has been underestimated in autistics.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 07:56.

Cited references
41
With a DOI
30
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
9
1 / 41 (2.4%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
3 / 41 (7.3%)
References with detected author names
39 / 41 (95.1%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
9
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
78
From DOI or external metadata
78
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
1
22 / 78 (28.2%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 56 / 78 (71.8%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
1 / 78 (1.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 1 / 22 (4.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 67 (1.5%).
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