Baron-cohen✅

Question 1

Aim:

Answer 1

Testing for advance theory of mind in high functioning adults with either autism or Asperger’s (whether or not their theory of mind is impaired)

Also would females be better than males?

Question 2

IV:

Answer 2

• autism
• Tourette’s
• or normal control group

Question 3

DV:

Answer 3

Performance on eye task (and other tasks)

Question 4

Why choose pps with Tourette’s?

Answer 4

-similarities between autism and Tourette’s
E.g. normal intelligence, suffered with disorder from childhood, difficulty forming relationships, males are affected more than females

Question 5

What did they ensure that both Tourette’s group and autism group had completed?

Answer 5

The theory of mind test that relates to a 6 year old theory of mind (had to pass this test)

Question 6

Design:

Answer 6

Independent measures

Question 7

Type of experiment:

Answer 7

Quasi

Question 8

Pps:

Answer 8

• 16 with high functioning autism/ Asperger’s (sampled through advertisement)
• 50 normal (random sample draw from subject panel and Cambridge uni)
• 10 with Tourette’s (sampled through advert in London clinic)

Question 9

Eye task:

Answer 9

• 25 photographs of female and male faces (all same size) (black and white) (same region of face used)
• 3 seconds to look at face and had to decided (between basic and complex adjectives), how person was feeling

Question 10

Results

Answer 10

• Autism group didn’t score as high as Tourette’s and normal (16.3 correct answers to 20.3/20.4 correct answers)
• a number of pps in control group scores full marks

Question 11

What was done to validate reading eyes task?

Answer 11

AS group TS group had to complete strange story task

Question 12

Strange stories task:

Answer 12

• had to answer questions if brief story they were given

- asked questions about character’s thoughts or physical events

Question 13

Results of strange stories task:

Answer 13

Tourette’s made hardly any errors at all (if any)

Autism/ Asperger’s made frequent errors

Question 14

What does the strange story take give the eye task? (Validity wise)

Answer 14

Concurrent validity- same results/ findings were found

Question 15

What were the other tasks they asked AS group only to complete?

Answer 15

Gender recognition of eyes

Basic emotion recognition

Question 16

Gender recognition of eyes: (for AS group only)

Answer 16

Had to identify gender of someone in photo
Not testing theory of mind (just face perception)
Pps performed normally on this task

Question 17

Basic emotion recognition task: (for AS group only)

Answer 17

• Image of whole face
• Had to identify emotions (wasn’t measuring theory of mind just recognition of emotions!)
• pps performed normally

Question 18

Gender results (female compared to male)

Answer 18

Females performed better in normal group

Normal males performed better than males with TS or AS

Question 19

Conclusions:

Answer 19

Adults within AS group did have an impaired theory of mind
Normal females better than normal males on theory of mind
Intelligence is not linked to performance (some of the AS group has university degrees).