Baron-cohen

Question 1

key theme + area

Answer 1

key theme =
area =

Question 2

theory of mind + autism

Answer 2

• It has been suggested that Autistic children do not possess theory of mind.
• Lacking this ability would make social interaction very difficult as they can’t predict what others will do in a situation.
• The absence of a theory of mind would explain some of the key
  features of Autism.
• For most people it develops between 4 to 6 years old

Question 3

false belifs

Answer 3

First order beliefs - Requires the child think about another persons
thoughts about a real event
second order beliefs - Require the child to think about a second person’s thoughts about a third person’s thoughts about an event
Second order tests are more difficult but are designed for a ‘normal’ child aged 6
Baron-Cohen suggests that these tests are not complex enough– it may be that these tests have a ceiling effect i.e. They are too easy so everyone who takes them achieves full marks

Question 4

Happe

Answer 4

• Happé used a method called the strange stories task to test ToM in adults with autism & Asperger’s syndrome (AS)
• tasks required the P’s to understand the characters’ mental states to demonstrate ToM. He found that adults with autism & AS had more difficulty with ToM
• Criticism – this test measured ToM of a ‘normal’ child aged 9 so
  whilst more advanced than second order tasks it still is not really an adult test of ToM
• Baron-Cohen et al built on Happé’s research by using an adult test to assess theory of mind competence in high-functioning adults with autism or AS.

Question 5

aim

Answer 5

• Adults with autism or AS would be impaired on a test of theory of mind (despite being of normal IQ)
• Females would perform better at this task than males

Question 6

sample - tourettes

Answer 6

A neurological disorder characterised by tics – sudden involuntary movements or vocalisations (often swear words) that are repeated
Generally appears in childhood & often accompanied by hyperactivity, inattention, mood swings & obsessions
Research suggests cause is genetic
Why they were included;
- Similarities with Autism
- A developmental disorder causing disruption to school and social
interactions
- Genetic basis for cause
- Affects Males more than females
- Similar IQ’s
- Individuals with Tourette’s do have ToM

Question 7

sample - group 1

Answer 7

• 16 adults ( 13 male ,
• 3 female)
• HFA or AS
• All of average intelligence

Question 8

smaple - group 2

Answer 8

• 50 ‘normal’ ( 25 male 25 female)
• 18-48 yrs
• General population from Cambridge ( not uni)
• All healthy and assumed to have normal IQ

Question 9

sample - group 3

Answer 9

• 10 adults with tourettes syndrome age matched with group one and two
• The gender split matched group one ( 8 males and 2 females)

Question 10

hypothesis

Answer 10

1. Adults with autism would show significant impairment on the Eye tasks impaired on a test of theory of mind (despite being of normal IQ)
2. Females would perform significantly better at the eye tasks compared to males

Question 11

method

Answer 11

• quasi experiment
• IV – the type of person likely to have TOM deficits (adults with high-functioning autism/AS, normal adults and adults with Tourette Syndrome) – was naturally occurring
• DV - was the performance – score out of 25 – on the Eyes Task

Question 12

procedure

Answer 12

They were tested on their own in a quiet room in their home or in the researchers clinic or in a laboratory at Cambridge University
Each participant was tested on 4 tasks (order of presentation randomised)
1. Eyes task = advanced ToM test
2. Strange stories task (if pp had difficulty with the eyes task they
should also have difficulty with this as both ‘advanced’ tests) = to establish the concurrent validity
3. Two control tasks – gender recognition (from eyes) & basic emotion recognition (whole face) = To establish that someone stood a chance of succeeding on the Eyes Task

Question 13

eye tasks

Answer 13

• Photos were always of the same area of the face
• Photos taken from a magazine
• Photos same size
• The foil (wrong) word was always the semantic opposite of the target word
• Experimenter said ‘which word best describes what this person is thinking or feeling’
• Photos were shown for 3 seconds with a forced choice from 2 options

Question 14

results - hypothesis 1

Answer 14

Condition Mean score (total =25)

Adults with AS or high
functioning autism 16.3

Normal adults 20.3

Adults with Tourette’s
syndrome 20.4

Question 15

results - hyothesis 2

Answer 15

Condition Mean score (total = 25)

Normal males 18.8

Normal females 21.8

Question 16

other findings

Answer 16

• The autism/AS group made significantly more errors on the Strange Stories task than either of the other groups.
• On the Gender and Emotion control tasks, there were no differences between the groups.
• Within the autism/AS group there was no significant correlation between IQ and performance on the Eyes Task.
• On Happé’s Strange Stories, no participants with TS made any errors but those with autism/AS were significantly impaired, making many errors.

Question 17

conclusions

Answer 17

• Those with Autism have deficits in mindreading ability (TOM
• Females are better at TOM than Males
• The adults with autism had no problems with the 2 control tasks so the researchers concluded that their poor performance in the eyes task was not due to any other cognitive skill

Question 18

designing eye task

Answer 18

• The target word for each photo was determined by 4 judges (2 male 2 Female) they also selected the foil(distracter) word
• These were tested on a panel of 8 judges who were not informed of the aim of the study – they all agreed on the target words