The "Empathy Quotient" (EQ) and "Systemizing Quotient" (SQ) are used worldwide to measure people's empathizing and systemizing cognitive styles. This study investigates the psychometric properties of the Dutch EQ and SQ in healthy participants (n = 685), and high functioning males with autism spectrum disorder (n = 42). Factor…

Field-independence, or weak central coherence, is a recognised phenotype of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There is also evidence of cultural variation in this perceptual style, as neurotypical individuals from Western nations are more field-independent than neurotypical individuals from East-Asian nations. The majority of research on perceptual…

"Weak central coherence" refers to the detail-focused processing style proposed to characterise autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The original suggestion of a core deficit in central processing resulting in failure to extract global form/meaning, has been challenged in three ways. First, it may represent an outcome of superiority in local…