Comparison between the Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) and the Perceptual Behavioural Precision Scale (PS-PC-ASD)

Comparison between the Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) and the Perceptual Behavioural Precision Scale (PS-PC-ASD) for the Diagnosis of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

PhD Manuel Ojea Rúa

European Modern Studies Journal, 9(6), 368-383

Abstract

Ojea (2023) has published a Perceptual-Behavioural Precision Scale (PS-PC-ASD) for the diagnosis of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which are made up of three main domains weighted based on the number of items 
that each domain contains: 1) the perceptual-cognitive domain, 2) the social domain, and 3) the practical domain, in the aim of incorporating the measurement of cognitive values that involve the level of neuropsychological and biological processing of information, starting from the input of information of the sensory-perceptual memory into the semantic and episodic memory if possible, as well as the interconceptual relationships developed by the coding processes, which provide this access through working memory.

This study compared the data resulting from the ASD' diagnosis, found in accordance with the PS-PC-ASD Scale, in relation to the Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) (Rutter et al., 2003), which is based mainly on the basic criteria of the currently official International Classification of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2013).

The main aim of this study is therefore to observe whether there're statistically significant differences in the diagnosis of people with ASD between the two Scales, the ADI-R Scale and the PS-PC-ASD Scale.

The comparative levels, found through the Wilcoxon statistical test, showed that there were significant differences in the diagnostic results of the participants, according to diagnostic Scale applied (sig: .00).

Furthermore, the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test found the variables of 'gender' and 'age' of the participants were interdependent for both Scales. Results didn't were shown significant differences in the variable ‘gender’ for the ADI-R Scale, non-significant critical levels were obtained (sig: .27), nor for the PS-PC-ASD Scale (sig: .81). However, when the PS-PC-ASD Scale was used, significant critical levels were observed for the variable ‘age’ (sig: .01), whereas in the ADI-R Scale, no statistically significant levels were found for ‘age’ variable (sig: .09).

Keywords: ASD, Diagnostic Scale, Cognition, Perception, Social, Behaviour, Neuropsychological Processing.