Baron-Cohen Flashcards
What is a theory of mind?
- It is a cognitive mechanism in our brain
* It is the ability to recognise that we all have different mental states, thoughts, knowledge, imagination and emotions
What is 1st order theory of mind?
• Allows us to make guesses about other people’s thoughts and feelings and therefore predict what they will do
What is 2nd order theory of mind?
• Allows us to think about a second person’s thoughts about a third persons thoughts about an event
What happens if somebody does not posses a theory of mind?
• The person will misinterpret people and situations
What have been previous tests for ToM? (SallyA)
Sally-Anne test
- Designed for 6 year olds
- Two dolls (Sally and Anne)
- Participants are asked 4 questions, the critical belief question tests ToM
Why can’t the Sally-Anne test be used for Autism in adults? (ceiling effect)
- The term ceiling effect is a measurement limitation that occurs when the highest possible score or close to the highest score on a test or measurement instrument is reached, thereby decreasing the likelihood that the testing instrument has accurately measured the intended domain.
- The Sally-Anne test is designed for 6-year olds so if it was applied to adults with autism the test wouldn’t be complex enough and it would only demonstrate that the adults have ToM skills equivalent to those of a six-year old.
- The test produces a ceiling effect - whereby data cannot take on a value higher than some ‘ceiling’. This test only measures the abilities of a 6 year old and not the abilities of where an adult should be if they had a fully functioning T
What is the background behind Baron-Cohen’s study? (Sally + ceiling)
- Some evidence suggests that a TOM deficit is not a core cognitive deficit in autism. However, no conclusive evidence has yet shown that individuals such as adults with ‘high-functioning autism’ or Aspergers Syndrome (AS) have an intact TOM.
- This is because usual tests to assess TOM have a ceiling in developmental terms corresponding to a mental age of 6 yrs old.
- Although existing TOM tests are challenging for 6yr olds, they are too easy for adults who all pass even though they may not have a fully functioning TOM.
What is the background behind Baron-Cohen’s study? (Happé)
- Happé (1994) tested adults with autism or AS on an ‘advanced’ TOM task and found her participants had more difficulty with her mental state stories (Happé’s Strange Stories) than matched controls.
- Baron-Cohen et al built on Happé’s research by using an adult test to assess TOM competence in high-functioning adults with AS or autism.
What theories is Baron-Cohen’s research based on?
• The most influential theory of autism in recent years maintains that what all autistic people have in common (the core deficit) is mind-blindness (Baron-Cohen, 1990), a severe impairment in their understanding of mental states and in their appreciation of how mental states govern behaviour.
They lack a TOM
- Because autistic individuals fails to develop the ability to attribute mental states to other people, fundamental implications arise for communication, where making sense of other’s intentions enables the listener to understand what’s being said (inferred/intended) (1995)
- Individuals diagnosed with autism show a tremendous variation in the degree to which they are affected. To address this issue a ‘spectrum of autism’ was devised. Difficulties experienced by children, judged in relation to set criteria, allow them to be placed within the spectrum
e.g classic autism Asperger’s syndrome normality
(those with AS show the same characteristics as autism but are of average or above average intelligence and appear to have good communication skills, though this may not actually be the case.)
What experimental design was used?
• Quasi experiment because the IV was naturally occuring
What experimental design was used?
• Repeated measures design
What was the IV?
- IV - The type of person likely to have TOM deficits (adults with high-functioning autism/AS, normal adults and adults with Tourettes syndrome)
- IV was naturally occurring so could not be manipulated or controlled by the researchers.
What was the DV?
- DV - Performance - score out of 25 - on the Eyes Task
- Measured by showing each participant 25, black and white, standardised photographs of the eye region of faces (male and female) and asking them to make a forced choice between two mental state words (target and foil) to best describe what the person in the photograph was feeling or thinking.
Outline the procedure of this study
1) The eyes task, the Happé’s strange stories and the two control tasks (Gender Recognition of Eyes Task, Basic Recognition Task) were presented in a random order to all participants.
2) Eye task
- 25, black and white, standardised photographs of the eye region of the face
3) Happé strange stories tested physical and mental states of characters in the stories.
- Compared this with the eyes test for concurrent validity
4) The Gender Recognition Task involved identifying the gender of the eyes used in the Eyes Task. The task controlled for face perception, perceptual discrimination and social perception.
5) The Basic Emotion Recognition Task involved judging photographs of whole faces misplaying basic emotions identified by Ekman (1992) The task was done to check whether difficulties on the Eyes Task were due to difficulties with basic emotional recognition.
6) Participants were tested individually in a quiet room either in their own home (not standardised) , in the researchers clinic or in the researchers’ lab at Cambridge University (pressure)
Describe the sample in Baron-Cohen’s study
Three groups of participants were tested:
1) Group 1:
- 16 individuals with high-functioning autism or Aspergers Syndrome (HFA - 4, AS - 12)
- sex ratio = 13:3(m:f).
- normal intelligence
2) Group 2:
- 50 normal age-matched adults
- sex ratio = 25:25(m:f)
3) Group 3:
- 10 adults with Tourette’s syndrome
- age-matched with group 1 and 2
- sex ratio = 8:2 (m:f)
- Normal intelligence
