Sensory Perception Quotient

The Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ) is a 92-item self-report questionnaire that explores how readily you detect and distinguish sensory information.

Developed by Teresa Tavassoli, Rosa Hoekstra, and Simon Baron-Cohen, the SPQ focuses on basic sensory perception across five sensory systems: hearing, vision, touch, taste, and smell.

This is different from asking whether a sensation bothers you or whether you seek or avoid it. Instead, the SPQ asks about experiences such as noticing quiet sounds, detecting small changes in brightness or temperature, or distinguishing subtle differences in tastes and smells.

We score the questionnaire using the Revised Scoring of the Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ–RS). The revised method produces separate hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity scores rather than combining both patterns into one continuum.

Many autistic people experience pronounced sensory differences, but the SPQ-RS is not an autism test. Sensory sensitivity varies among autistic and non-autistic people, and a particular score cannot determine whether someone is autistic.

You might find the SPQ-RS helpful if you’ve wondered:

• Why do I detect sounds, lights, smells, tastes, or touch that other people seem not to notice?
• Why do I sometimes need sensory input to be stronger before I register it?
• Why can I be hypersensitive in one sensory system but hyposensitive in another?
• Why can I notice some types of sensory information immediately but miss other information within the same sense?
• Which sensory systems stand out most strongly within my own profile?

Taking the SPQ and receiving your hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity scores are free, as always.

Once you receive your scores, you’ll have the option to purchase a PDF with additional 10 sensory-system scores and a personalized interpretation for $3.50.

Take the SPQ

Please read each statement and choose the answer that best reflects your sensory experience.

92 statements · Approximately 15–20 minutes · Free scores · Anonymous

Common reasons people take the SPQ

People often arrive here because:

• They notice faint sounds, flickering lights, subtle smells, or small sensory changes that other people overlook.
• They sometimes do not register pain, temperature, sound, touch, taste, or smell as quickly as others.
• Their sensitivity seems very different from one sensory system to another.
• They experience both hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity and want to understand how both can be present.
• They are autistic, ADHD, or exploring neurodivergence and want a more detailed picture of basic sensory perception.
• They want to compare the sensory systems within their own profile rather than reduce everything to one overall sensory score.

The SPQ-RS is useful because it does not treat hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity as opposites on a single line. It measures them separately across hearing, vision, touch, taste, and smell.

This questionnaire uses the original 92 SPQ statements and the revised SPQ-RS scoring method developed by Taylor and colleagues.

Notes on answering the questions

A few things to keep in mind:

• Answer according to what you believe you would notice or distinguish, rather than whether you would enjoy the sensation.
• Think about your usual experience, not only your most sensitive or least sensitive day.
• Some statements describe very specific hypothetical situations. Choose the answer that best represents your likely experience.
• You may respond very differently to different forms of input within the same sensory system.
• Hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity can occur together.
• There are no “good” or “bad” sensory profiles.
• The questionnaire describes patterns; it does not diagnose autism, a sensory disorder, ADHD, or another condition.

Why is it called the SPQ-RS if there are still 92 questions?

The questionnaire is the original 92-item Sensory Perception Quotient. The scoring system is the revised SPQ-RS method.

The original SPQ combined responses into one score running from greater hypersensitivity to greater hyposensitivity. This created an important problem: hypersensitive and hyposensitive responses could partly cancel each other out, even though the same person can experience both.

In 2020, Taylor and colleagues re-evaluated every SPQ item and developed a revised scoring system that measures hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity independently. They excluded 13 statements from scoring because those items were considered ambiguous or only indirectly related to sensory sensitivity.

You therefore answer all 92 original statements, but 79 statements contribute to your SPQ-RS results:

• 34 hypersensitivity items
• 45 hyposensitivity items
• 13 statements excluded from revised scoring

The excluded statements remain in the questionnaire because this preserves the published SPQ administration while allowing your responses to be scored using the stronger revised method.

What do my scores mean?

The SPQ-RS produces two independent overall scores.

Hypersensitivity

The hypersensitivity score reflects responses suggesting a lower sensory threshold: detecting subtle sensory input, noticing changes quickly, or distinguishing small differences between sensations.

Scores range from 0 to 68. A higher score means that you endorsed more of the hypersensitivity responses measured by the SPQ-RS.

For example, hypersensitivity items may involve detecting a very quiet sound, noticing a tiny change in brightness or temperature, or distinguishing subtle differences between tastes or smells.

Hyposensitivity

The hyposensitivity score reflects responses suggesting a higher sensory threshold: needing input to be stronger before detecting it, taking longer to register it, or having more difficulty distinguishing sensory information.

Scores range from 0 to 90. A higher score means that you endorsed more of the hyposensitivity responses measured by the SPQ-RS.

For example, hyposensitivity items may involve not detecting quiet or low-frequency sound, being slower to notice an odour, or finding it difficult to distinguish differences in visual, tactile, or taste information.

There are no validated classification cutoffs

The SPQ-RS does not provide validated clinical ranges such as “low,” “average,” or “high.” Your results are therefore presented as raw scores.

The percentages shown in the detailed profile represent the proportion of available points you scored within each subscale. They are useful for comparing areas within your own profile, but they are not percentiles and do not compare you with a normative population.

Your 10 sensory-system scores

Each overall pattern can be broken down across five sensory systems, producing 10 scores:

• Hearing hypersensitivity and hearing hyposensitivity
• Vision hypersensitivity and vision hyposensitivity
• Touch hypersensitivity and touch hyposensitivity
• Taste hypersensitivity and taste hyposensitivity
• Smell hypersensitivity and smell hyposensitivity

Because the subscales contain different numbers of questions, their raw scores have different maximum values. The detailed report therefore also shows the percentage of available points for each sensory-system subscale. This makes within-profile comparison easier without implying normative classification.

Hearing

Hearing items explore auditory detection and discrimination, such as noticing quiet sounds, differences in pitch or volume, speech clarity, or low-frequency sound.

Vision

Vision items explore visual detection and discrimination, including brightness, colour, movement, fine detail, and seeing in low light.

Touch

Touch items explore tactile and temperature detection, including pressure, vibration, pain, clothing sensations, and changes in warmth or cold.

Taste

Taste items explore detecting and distinguishing differences in sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, sourness, strength, and ripeness.

Smell

Smell items explore detecting and distinguishing subtle, distant, new, familiar, or potentially important odours.

Understanding your sensory profile

The most important point is that hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity are not opposites that cancel each other out.

You may detect some kinds of sensory information exceptionally quickly while taking longer to register other kinds. This can happen across different senses or within the same sensory system.

For example, you might hear high-pitched electrical sounds very readily but have difficulty separating speech from background noise. You might detect a faint smell quickly but find it difficult to tell two similar smells apart.

Your results are therefore best understood as a multidimensional profile, not as a ranking from “not sensory” to “very sensory.”

The SPQ-RS also does not tell you whether a sensory experience is pleasant, distressing, distracting, or disabling. A readily detected sound might be useful, neutral, enjoyable, or overwhelming depending on the person and situation.

How is the SPQ different from the A/ASP?

The SPQ and the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile examine related but different aspects of sensory experience.

Neither test is universally “better.” The SPQ-RS is more focused on basic sensory acuity, while the A/ASP gives a broader picture of everyday sensory response patterns. Taking both can provide complementary information.

How valid is the Sensory Perception Quotient?

The SPQ has promising psychometric evidence, but the original questionnaire and revised scoring method have different evidence bases.

Original SPQ development

Tavassoli and colleagues (2014) studied 359 adults: 196 autistic adults and 163 non-autistic adults.

The researchers found:

• Excellent internal consistency for the full 92-item SPQ (α = .92)
• Excellent internal consistency for a reduced 35-item version (α = .93)
• High split-half reliability for the full questionnaire (Spearman–Brown = .91)
• A moderate relationship between the full SPQ and the Sensory Over-Responsivity Inventory, supporting concurrent validity
• Greater reported sensory sensitivity among autistic adults than non-autistic controls

The original study also found that greater sensory sensitivity was associated with more autistic traits. However, the authors noted that future work was still needed, including test–retest research and normative data.

Why the scoring was revised

The original SPQ total ranged from hypersensitivity at one end to hyposensitivity at the other. This assumed that the two patterns formed a single dimension.

Taylor and colleagues (2020) developed the SPQ-RS because a person can experience both patterns. Two raters independently evaluated the items, reaching 93.3% agreement about item classification and scoring. The resulting method retained 79 items and created separate hyper- and hyposensitivity scales with five sensory-system subdomains each.

SPQ-RS validation study

The revised scoring was examined in 329 adult women:

• 152 autistic women
• 103 mothers of autistic children
• 74 control mothers

Autistic women reported significantly more hypersensitivity than both comparison groups, but the groups did not differ significantly in hyposensitivity. Hypersensitivity scores were also associated with autistic traits in the autistic group and the mothers-of-autistic-children group.

These findings support the usefulness of scoring hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity independently. However, because the revised scoring study included only women and used a specific online volunteer sample, further validation in more diverse populations is needed.

What does the validity research mean?

Overall, the SPQ is a useful research-based questionnaire for describing individual differences in basic sensory perception. The revised scoring solves an important conceptual problem by allowing hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity to coexist.

However, “validated” does not mean that the questionnaire directly measures the nervous system or that an individual score has a diagnostic meaning. The SPQ-RS remains a self-report measure and does not replace laboratory sensory testing, occupational therapy assessment, or a broader clinical evaluation.

What about autism?

Hyperreactivity or hyporeactivity to sensory input is included within the DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria for autism. Research using the SPQ has also found group-level sensory differences between autistic and non-autistic adults.

However, the SPQ-RS is not an autism screening or diagnostic test.

Not every autistic person has the same sensory profile, and sensory differences also occur among non-autistic people and in association with ADHD, anxiety, migraine, pain conditions, trauma, and many other factors.

The questionnaire is most useful for answering, “What patterns of sensory detection and discrimination do I report?” rather than, “Am I autistic?”

Limitations of the SPQ-RS

The SPQ-RS has important limitations:

• It is a self-report questionnaire, so results depend on your interpretation and awareness of your sensory experiences.
• Many questions ask you to estimate how you would perform in a hypothetical situation rather than directly testing sensory thresholds.
• It does not provide validated clinical cutoffs, normative categories, or percentiles for individual interpretation.
• The revised scoring study involved adult women, so more validation is needed across genders, ages, cultures, and clinical groups.
• It focuses on hearing, vision, touch, taste, and smell. It does not provide separate scores for interoception, proprioception, or vestibular processing.
• It focuses on detection and discrimination rather than distress, sensory pleasure, seeking, avoidance, functional impact, or support needs.
• Thirteen of the 92 original statements are excluded from revised scoring because they were judged ambiguous or indirect measures of sensory sensitivity.
• Sensory experiences can vary with context, attention, fatigue, stress, illness, burnout, medication, and the environment.

Your results are therefore most useful when considered alongside your lived experience and the effect sensory differences have on your everyday life.

Sensory Perception Quotient Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the SPQ or the SPQ-RS?

It is the original 92-item SPQ questionnaire scored with the revised SPQ-RS method.

SPQ refers to the questionnaire statements. SPQ-RS refers to the revised scoring system that produces separate hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity scores.

Why are only 79 of the 92 statements scored?

Taylor and colleagues excluded 13 items from the revised scoring because they were considered ambiguous or only indirectly connected with sensory sensitivity.

Those responses are still recorded in your completed-answer report, but they do not contribute points to either SPQ-RS scale.

Does a higher score mean more sensory sensitivity?

Each scale must be interpreted separately.

• A higher hypersensitivity score means stronger endorsement of hypersensitive detection and discrimination responses.
• A higher hyposensitivity score means stronger endorsement of hyposensitive detection and discrimination responses.

One score does not subtract from the other.

Can I score highly in both hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity?

Yes.

You may detect some sensory information very readily while missing or needing stronger input for other information. Both patterns can also appear within the same sensory system because different questions examine different forms of detection and discrimination.

Why don’t I receive a low, average, or high classification?

The SPQ-RS research does not provide validated individual classification cutoffs or normative ranges.

Adding categories without supporting research would make the result appear more precise than the evidence allows. We therefore report the published raw scores and describe patterns within your own sensory profile.

Is the percentage beside a sensory-system score a percentile?

No.

It is the percentage of the points available within that subscale. It helps compare subscales that contain different numbers of items. It does not show how you compare with other people.

Why might my SPQ-RS and A/ASP results look different?

The questionnaires measure different aspects of sensory experience.

The SPQ-RS focuses narrowly on basic detection and discrimination. The A/ASP includes broader patterns of noticing, seeking, sensitivity, and active avoidance in everyday life.

You might detect a sensation very readily without disliking or avoiding it. You might also arrange your environment to avoid a sensation even if your basic detection threshold is not unusually low. Different results do not necessarily contradict each other.

Can the SPQ-RS diagnose autism?

No.

Autistic groups have reported more hypersensitivity in SPQ research, but there is substantial individual variation and sensory differences are not unique to autism. The SPQ-RS cannot determine whether someone meets diagnostic criteria.

Can ADHD, stress, or burnout affect my results?

They may affect how you notice, interpret, or report sensory experiences. Attention, fatigue, stress, health, and environmental conditions can all influence sensory functioning and tolerance.

Try to answer based on your general pattern rather than only your best or most difficult period.

Research behind the SPQ and SPQ-RS

Tavassoli T, Hoekstra RA, Baron-Cohen S. (2014). The Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ): Development and validation of a new sensory questionnaire for adults with and without autism. Molecular Autism, 5, 29.

This is the original SPQ development and validation study. It examined the 92-item questionnaire in autistic and non-autistic adults, including internal consistency, factor structure, concurrent validity, sensory-system scores, and associations with autistic traits.

Taylor E, Holt R, Tavassoli T, Ashwin C, Baron-Cohen S. (2020). Revised scored Sensory Perception Quotient reveals sensory hypersensitivity in women with autism. Molecular Autism, 11, 18.

This study developed the SPQ-RS scoring method, separated hypersensitivity from hyposensitivity, excluded 13 ambiguous or indirect items, and created the 10 sensory-system subdomains used in your detailed profile.

What would you like to explore next?

Basic sensory perception is one part of understanding how you experience and respond to the world.

Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile

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RAADS–R

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CAT-Q

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Autistic Trait Profile Questionnaire

Explores autistic traits across seven core areas.

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Autism Screening Assessment

Understand how your questionnaires, history, and experiences fit together with guidance from an autistic psychologist.