What type of sampling technique was used?
- Critique/Evaluate the Research Design issues:
- What specific research design(s) did the authors use? (May not be stated directly you should be able to figure it out based on what you have learned)
- Are there threats to internal and external validity? If yes, discuss.
- Critique/Evaluate the Sampling issues:
- What is the population that the authors wanted to study (i.e., target population)?
- Does the population (i.e., sampling frame) from which the sample was taken represent all of the appropriate people?
- What type of sampling technique was used?
- What are the implications of this sampling technique for the findings?
- Are there issues with external validity?
ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS. NO WORD FOR WORD or IN-TEXT CITATIONS
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Different associations between intelligence
and social cognition in children with and
without autism spectrum disorders
Tetsu HirosawaID 1,2*, Keiko Kontani1,2, Mina Fukai1, Masafumi Kameya1, Daiki Soma1,
Shoryoku Hino 3 , Tatsuru Kitamura
3 , Chiaki Hasegawa
2 , Kyung-min An
2 ,
Tetsuya Takahashi 2 , Yuko Yoshimura
2,4 , Mitsuru Kikuchi
1,2
1 Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University,
Kanazawa, Japan, 2 Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa,
Japan, 3 Department of Neuropsychiatry, Ishikawa Prefectural Takamatsu Hospital, Ishikawa, Japan,
4 Faculty of Education, Institute of Human and Social Sciences, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan
* hirosawatetsu1982@yahoo.co.jp
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by impaired social cognition and com-
munication. In addition to social impairment, individuals with ASD often have intellectual dis-
ability. Intelligence is known to influence the phenotypic presentation of ASD. Nevertheless,
the relation between intelligence and social reciprocity in people with ASD remains unclear,
especially in childhood. To elucidate this relation, we analyzed 56 typically developing chil-
dren (35 male, 21 female, aged 60–91 months) and 46 children with ASD (35 male, 11
female, aged 60–98 months) from university and affiliated hospitals. Their cognitive function
was evaluated using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. Their social cognition
was assessed using the Social Responsiveness Scale. We used linear regression models
to ascertain whether the associations between intelligence and social cognition of typically
developing children and children with ASD are significantly different. Among the children
with ASD, scores on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children correlated significantly
with social cognition, indicating that higher intelligence is associated with better social cogni-
tion. For typically developing children, however, no significant correlation was found. One
explanation might be that children with ASD fully use general intelligence for successful
learning in social cognition, although extensive use of intelligence might not be necessary
for TD children. Alternatively, autistic impairment in social cognition can be compensated by
intelligence despite a persistent deficit in social cognition. In either case, when using the
SRS as a quantitative phenotype measure for ASD, the influence of intelligence must be
considered.
Introduction
Numerous and diverse difficulties driven by social impairment are experienced by individuals
with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with
PLOS ONE
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235380 August 21, 2020 1 / 18
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OPEN ACCESS
Citation: Hirosawa T, Kontani K, Fukai M, Kameya
M, Soma D, Hino S, et al. (2020) Different
associations between intelligence and social
cognition in children with and without autism
spectrum disorders. PLoS ONE 15(8): e0235380.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235380
Editor: John Richey, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University, UNITED STATES
Received: August 24, 2019
Accepted: June 7, 2020
Published: August 21, 2020
Copyright: © 2020 Hirosawa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are
within the manuscript and its Supporting
Information files.
Funding: The authors received no specific funding
for this work.
Competing interests: The authors have declared
that no competing interests exist.
repetitive behaviors and characterized by impaired social cognition and communication [1].
For example, social impairment leads people with ASD to experience difficulties in education,
employment, and in severe cases, independent living [2–5]. Moreover, it is noteworthy that
severe social impairment in childhood strongly predicts those factors later in their adulthood
[6], which emphasizes the importance of understanding factors associated with childhood
social impairment.
