An Investigation of Jumping to Conclusions in Asperger Syndrome

Background:  

Clinical accounts have described symptoms of psychosis in individuals with Asperger syndrome and a number of research studies have reported elevated levels of delusional beliefs in this population. Research into psychosis has highlighted data-gathering biases that may be related to delusional beliefs. 

Objectives:  

The current study aimed to investigate whether a data gathering bias, in the form of jumping to conclusions, was more evident in individuals with Asperger syndrome than a general population sample and to explore potential links with paranoia.  

Methods:  

The study compared the performance of the Asperger syndrome group (N=30) with a control group (N= 30) on two experimental tasks: a theory of mind task designed to assess mental state decoding ability, The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, along with The Beads task, used to assess data-gathering style. Self-report questionnaires were also employed to measure levels of depression, general anxiety, social anxiety, self-consciousness and paranoid thoughts. 

Results:  

The Asperger syndrome group performed less well than the control group on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task with regard to accuracy, but responded more quickly. Those with Asperger syndrome tended to make decisions on the basis of less evidence on the Beads Task and 50% demonstrated a ‘jumping to conclusions bias’. Higher levels of depression, general anxiety, social anxiety and paranoid thoughts were reported in the AS group. Levels of depression and general anxiety were found to be associated with levels of paranoid thoughts, but data-gathering style appeared to be unrelated to paranoia. 

Conclusions:  

The study indicated that those with Asperger Syndrome tend to make decisions on the basis of limited evidence and many display a jumping to conclusions bias in their data-gathering style.