Baron-Cohen Flashcards
What is the primary social difficulty experienced by adults with autism spectrum disorders?
Problems with social relationships
What type of theory of mind tasks are children with autism often challenged by?
1st order theory of mind (TOM) tasks
What is an example of a 1st order TOM task?
The ‘Sally Ann’ test
At what age do children without autism typically develop the ability to ‘read minds’?
By the age of 6
Why is the ‘Sally Ann’ test not suitable for adults?
It is designed for children
What was the aim of the study?
To find out why adults with autistic spectrum disorders have problems with social relationships and to develop an advanced test for theory of mind in adults with autism
What type of experiment was conducted?
A quasi (natural) experiment with a matched participant design
How many groups of participants were involved?
Three
What were the three participant groups?
Autistic
What variables were matched between the groups?
Age and normal intelligence
How many participants were in the autistic group?
16 (13 male
How many participants were in the normal group?
50 (25 male
How many participants were in the Tourette’s Syndrome group?
10 (8 male
What was the independent variable (IV) in the study?
Normal
What was the dependent variable (DV) in the study?
Performance on the ‘eyes task’ (max score 25)
How long were the eye photos shown for?
3 seconds
What type of question were participants asked in the ‘eyes task’?
A forced-choice question (e.g.
How were the target and foil words generated for the ‘eyes task’?
Four judges generated the words from magazine photos
What was used as a control when generating targets and foils?
A panel of 8 adults who agreed 100% on the target
What control tasks were used?
Gender identification and basic emotion task
What were the Ekman categories used in the basic emotion task?
Happy
What was the main finding regarding the ‘eyes task’?
Autistic adults were less likely to identify the target foil than the normal or Tourette’s group
What was the significance level of the difference in ‘eyes task’ scores?
p < 0.0001
What was the mean score of the autistic group on the ‘eyes task’?
16.3
What was the mean score of the normal group on the ‘eyes task’?
20.3
What was the mean score of the Tourette’s group on the ‘eyes task’?
20.4
What was the range of scores for the autistic group on the ‘eyes task’?
10
What was the range of scores for the normal group on the ‘eyes task’?
9
What was the range of scores for the Tourette’s group on the ‘eyes task’?
9
How did the groups perform on the gender identification task?
All groups performed similarly
Who performed better on the ‘eyes task’ males or females?
Females
What was the significance level of the difference between male and female scores on the ‘eyes task’?
p < 0.0001
What was the mean ‘eyes task’ score for normal males?
18.8
What was the mean ‘eyes task’ score for normal females?
21.8
What was the range of ‘eyes task’ scores for normal males?
6
What was the range of ‘eyes task’ scores for normal females?
5
What was the main conclusion of the study?
There is evidence for subtle ‘mind reading’ deficits in intelligent adults on the autistic spectrum
Why is the ‘eyes task’ considered a ‘pure theory of mind test’ for adults?
Because it lacks context and does not require understanding of the person’s actions
