Baron-Cohen Flashcards
What is Baron-Cohen study on
Advanced Theory of Mind
What is autism
How is aspergers different
What is theory of mind
1) developmental disorder which have problems with social skills + have troubles understanding peoples thoughts + feelings
2) asperges is less severe symptoms and the absence of language delays
3) The ability to understand that other people have different thoughts and feelings
have cognitive deficit (problem processing information)
Background to Baron-Cohen
1) Sally-Anne Task - test theory of mind in children
= find it hard to understand sally will look for the marble where it was originally hidden + sally doesn’t know where marble has been moved to
= because children with autism find it harder to understand that other people have different perspectives
2) Sally-Anne task is too easy for adults, Happe tested adults with autism by using TOM task _ found they had difficult with her stories (Happe Strange Stories)
3) Baron-cohen built on Happes research by using an adult test to assess theory of mind in adults with autism
Aim of Baron Cohen
too see if high functioning adults with autistic spectrum disorders have problem identifying peoples emotions from photographs of eyes as a test for theory of mind
Sample of Baron Cohen
Group 1 = 16 individuals with high functioning autisms/Asperger syndrome, more males, all normal intelligence + recruited through advert in National Autistic magazine
Group 2 - 50 normal age-matched adults in Cambridge (equal m+f)
Group 3 - 10 adults with Tourette’s age matched with groups 1 and 2 , more males, all normal intelligence
Research method in Baron Cohen
Quasi experiment
IV - type of person occurred naturally, those with diagnosis of autism/aspergers, ‘normal people’ and those with tourettes syndrome
DV - performance on eyes task (out of 25)
Why were people with tourettes used in the sample
tourettes is also a developmental disorder.
People with tourettes were used to allow the researchers to check that the lack of theory of mind is specific to autism and not other developmental disorders
Procedure of Baron Cohen
EYES TASK
Participants were shown 25 black and white photos of eyes for 3 seconds each. They were asked which mental state is best represented in the eyes. basic = ‘sad’ complex = ‘fantasising’
HAPPES STRANGE STORIES
Used to validate the results from eyes task as it also tests theory of mind
=eg ‘emma has a cough, her father says “poor emma, you must have a frog in your throat”, is this true?’
CONTROL TESTS
Gender recognition task - identifying gender of eyes in eye task - see if they had normal perception
Basic emotion recognition task - involved judging photos of whole faces displaying basic emotions - to see if difficult in eyes task were due to difficulties with basic emotional recognition
ALL TASKS WERE IN A RANDOM ORDER TO ALL PARTICIPANTS
PARTICIPANTS TESTED INDIVIDUALLY IN QUIET TOOM AT HOME OR IN LAB AT CAMBRIDGE
Results of Baron Cohen
Participants with autism/Asperger’s syndrome had lower mean score (16.3) on Eyes task than Tourette’s (20.4) or normal adults (20.3)
Normal females performed better than normal males on Eyes Task
Austims/AS made signigcantly more errors on Strange Stories Task than either groups
On control tasks, there were no differences between the groups
Conclusions of Baron Cohen
People with autism/AS lack theory of mind - they find it hard to read mental states in other people
Supports idea that theory of mind deficit is central to understanding autism + directly cause main symptoms
The Eyes task is a valid test of theory of mind suitable for high-functioning adults with autism
Generalisability of Baron Cohen
small sample of autistic adults (16) and only 3 were females
= not representative of all high-functioning adults with ASD
all autistic/AS were volunteers
= certain people, possibly with better communication skills + more confident
= not representative of all people with autism/AS
Reliability of Baron Cohen
Standardised procedure
= all participants given eye task
= participants shown same 25 photos of eyes
= for same amount of time (3s)
therefore more replicable + reliable
Applications of Baron Cohen
shows high functioning adults with ASD have problems reading emotions
can help people with ASD read emotions > counselling
help understand autistic people better
Validity of Baron Cohen
CONCURRENT VALDITY
= happe’s strange stories were used to validate the Eyes Task as both test theory of mind
INTERNAL VALIDITY
= stories + control tests were presented in randomised order
= measures what it intends to measure
LACKS MUNDANE REALISM
= judging emotions by looking at isolated pair of eyes is not how we process emotion in everyday life
Ethics of Baron Cohen
STRENGTHS
= adults with ASD were volunteers
= no deception
= no distress
= important as vulnerable adults + responsibility of researcher to maintain high ethical standards
WEAKNESSES
= people with ASD are vulnerable and therefore informed consent is questionable
= also more likely to became distressed
