Baron-Cohen Flashcards
What year Baron-Cohen’s study done in?
2001
What is autism?
A failure to develop particular processes linked to social interaction
How often does autism occur (percentage of the population, and fraction of boys and girls with diagnosed autism in the world)
1% of the population, 1/189 girls and 1/42 boys
What are three things that autism involves
social functioning, communication, coping with change
What does autism mean regarding the person’s interests
Interests are often narrow
What does autism as a generic term refer to
A wide range of disorders
What two criteria did autism require to be diagnosed (in 2014, 5th addition)
- An impairment of social communication and social interaction skills
- Evidence of restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities
What were AS and HFA combined into eventually and why
AS and HFA were combined eventually into one cateragory called “Autism Spectrum Disorder” (ASD) as the distinction was too fine to differentiate
What was the test called that was designed for children that tested their theory of mind (being able to be aware of another individual’s actions/feelings), as most children who do have autism wouldn’t be successful in this test
The Sally-Anne test
How was the AQ set up, what does AQ stand for, and who had to take it?
10 questions about your preferences as a person, and a scale between Definitely Disagree and Definitely Agree, ‘Autism Quotient’, and Participants already diagnosed with HFA/AS did not have to take the AQ for the purposes of the Baron-Cohen study
What was the central aim of the Baron-Cohen study
To test whether a group of adults with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) or High-Functioning Autism (HFA) would be impaired on the revised version of the ‘Reading the mind in the eyes’ task
What were two other, smaller aims within the Baron-Cohen study
- Is there an association between performance on this test and measures of autistic traits
- Are there gender differences in those without autism in this task
What is Hypothesis #1 in the Baron-Cohen Study?
Participants with autism will score significantly lower scores on the revised ‘Reading the mind in the eyes’ task than the control group
What is Hypothesis #2 in the Baron-Cohen Study?
Participants with autism will score significantly higher on the Autism Spectrum Quotient Test (AQ) measure
What is Hypothesis #3 in the Baron-Cohen Study?
Females in the ‘normal’ group (groups 2 & 3) will score higher on the ‘Reading the mind in the eyes’ task than males in those groups
What is Hypothesis #4 in the Baron-Cohen Study?
Males in the ‘normal’ group (group 3) would score higher on the AQ measure than females
What is Hypothesis #5, the final hypothesis in the Baron-Cohen Study?
Scores on the AQ and the ‘Reading the mind in the eyes’ task would be negatively correlated
What is one similarity in the results of all of the hypothesis
They were all proved right
What does Baron-Cohen suggest that people with autism lack?
Baron-Cohen suggests that people with autism lack/have an underdeveloped, cognitive process called ‘theory of mind’
What is the definition of ‘Theory of Mind’
A cognitive ability that enables us to realize that others have different feelings, beliefs, knowledge, and desires from us
What is the definition of empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand the world as another, separate from ourselves
Who are most ‘Theory of Mind’ designed for, and what is an example of a Theory of mind test
Most ‘Theory of mind’ tests are designed for children, and an example is the Sally-Anne test
What is a test that Baron-Cohen suggested for adults, and what does it test their ability to do
Baron-Cohen suggested one for adults called ‘Reading the mind in the eyes’ to test their ability to attribute emotional labels to others
What did Baron-Cohen also do 4 years before the 2001 study, and provide details on what it was about
He experimented in 1997 to investigate whether adults with AS or HFA had problems employing the theory of mind
How were the groups in the 1997 study compared
A group of individuals who had AS or HFA were compared with a group who did not
What were participants shown in the 1997 study
Participants were shown photographs of eyes and asked to identify the emotion being shown from 2 options
What did Baron-Cohen suggest about the 1997 study?
Baron-Cohen suggested this test demands similar cognitive processes as having a theory of mind as it requires empathy
What did the results of the 1997 study conclude
The results concluded that HFA or AS adults could identify significantly fewer emotions correctly in the task than ‘normal’ participants (control group)
What were the 3 key issues within the 1997 study
- It was a forced choice question with only 2 responses which were always opposites
- The small number of examples (25) led to many in the ‘normal group’ scoring 24 or 25 causing the ceiling effect
- The 25 sets of eyes illustrated both basic emotions and complex emotions, and the basic ones were too easy
Suggest 5 flaws in the OLD eyes test in 1997
-Did not reveal a huge difference between those diagnosed with autism and those who were not
-Some opposites used (sympathetic/unsympathetic)
-Mostly female faces
-No glossary
-Some were too easy, leading to the ceiling effect
Name the 6 basic, universally recognized emotions
-Anger
-Happiness
-Surprise
-Disgust
-Sadness
-Fear