Abstract：
Securing an accurate autism-spectrum-condition diagnosis, particularly among women, remains challenging for autistic adults. Building upon previous research highlighting the short-story task (SST) as a promising tool for detecting fiction-based mentalizing difficulties in autistic adults, this study expands its scope. We investigated the SST\'s discriminative capacity across three distinct groups: autistic individuals (n = 32), nonautistic individuals without mental health problems (n = 32), and nonautistic individuals with clinical depression (n = 30). All three groups differed significantly from each other in their SST mentalizing score with the nonautistic group having the highest scores, the nonautistic but depressed group having medium scores and the autistic group showing the lowest scores. Receiver operator curve (ROC) analysis reaffirmed the SST\'s efficacy as a discriminator. Moreover, a linear regression analysis identified the SST mentalizing score, the SST comprehension score, and the number of books read per month as significant predictors of autism-spectrum-condition diagnosis. These findings bolster the SST\'s potential as a valuable adjunct in autism diagnostics, highlighting its discriminatory ability across diverse samples.
摘要：
确保准确的自闭症谱系诊断，尤其是在女性中，对于自闭症成年人来说仍然具有挑战性。在先前的研究的基础上，强调短篇小说任务（SST）是一种有前途的工具，用于检测自闭症成年人中基于小说的心理困难，这项研究扩大了其范围。我们调查了SST在三个不同群体中的辨别能力：自闭症个体(n=32)，没有心理健康问题的非自闭症个体(n=32)，和患有临床抑郁症的非自闭症个体（n=30）。所有三组的SST心理评分均存在显着差异，非自闭症组得分最高，非自闭症但抑郁组得分中等，自闭症组得分最低。受试者操作曲线（ROC）分析重申了SST作为鉴别器的功效。此外，线性回归分析确定了SST心理评分，SST理解分数，每月阅读的书籍数量是自闭症谱系诊断的重要预测因素。这些发现增强了SST作为自闭症诊断中有价值的辅助手段的潜力，强调其对不同样本的歧视能力。
