The influence of autistic traits and ambiguous situations on the interpretation bias of senior high school students / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the changing characteristics of interpretive bias of senior high school students with different levels of autistic traits in ambiguous situations, and to investigate the consistency of interpretive bias across self/other relevant conditions.Methods:A survey of 1 080 senior high school students from a high school in Anhui province was conducted by using the autistic-spectrum quotient (AQ). According to the criteria of high scores and low scores of 27%, the subjects in the high autistic trait group ( n=266) and the low autistic trait group ( n=266) were selected.The ambiguous situation paradigm was used to measure the frequency of positive interpretation of ambiguous information by two groups of subjects under the conditions of self and others, SPSS 26.0 was used for descriptive statistics, and jamovi 2.2.3 was used for generalized linear mixed model analysis. Results:(1) The results of the between-group effects at the level of autistic traits indicated that the frequency of positive interpretations in the high autistic group was significantly lower than that in the low autistic group(54.5(11.8), 57(11.8) )( χ2=13.99, P<0.001). The results of the interaction between level of autistic traits and type of ambiguous situation indicated that in the positive ambiguous situation, the frequency of positive interpretations in the high autistic group was smaller than that in the low autistic group (33(4), 34(3)) ( P<0.001). There was no significant differences in the number of positive interpretations between high autistic group and low autistic group in negtive ambiguous situation( P>0.05). (2) The results of the main effects of the ambiguous situation types indicated that the frequency of positive interpretations in positive ambiguous situations was significantly higher than that in negative ambiguous situations(33(4), 23(9.25)) ( χ2=1 348.50, P<0.001). The results of the interaction between level of autistic traits and type of ambiguous situation indicated that the frequency of positive interpretations in positive ambiguous situations (33(4), 34(3)) in both high and low autistic groups was larger than that in negative ambiguous situations (22(10), 24(9)) ( P<0.001). (3) The main effects results for the self/other related conditions suggested that the frequency of positive interpretations of familiarity with others (19(4)) was significantly higher than that of self-related conditions (19(5)) and strangers (19(5)) ( χ2=9.51, P<0.01), and there was no significant difference between self-related conditions and strangers( P>0.05). The results of the interaction between ambiguous situation type and self/other related conditions suggested that in the positive ambiguous situation, the frequency of positive interpretations of familiarity with other people's conditions was greater than that of self-related conditions( P<0.01), and in the negative ambiguous situations, there was no significant difference in the frequency of positive interpretations related to different self/others( P>0.05). Conclusions:(1) High school students with high and low autistic traits are more inclined to show positive interpretations in the ambiguous situations, and it higher under the condition of positive ambiguous situations and acquaintances.(2) Compared with those with low autistic traits, individuals with high autistic traits tend to give less positive interpretations to ambiguous situations, but this difference is mainly manifested in positive ambiguous situations.(3) In the negative ambiguous situation, there is no significant difference in number of positive interpretations produced by senior high school students with high and low autistic traits, and they are stable across self and other related conditions.