Baron-Cohen (1997) Flashcards
What is autism?
Autism is a developmental disorder which affects the social functioning of individuals
What are some Autism statistics in the UK?
- over 1/2 million people in the UK have autism
- boys are 4 times more likely to receive a diagnosis than girls
What is commonly thought to be the cause of Autism?
- bad parenting
- genetics
- neurological development
- age of parents
- air pollution
- pesticides
- infection
What is theory of mind?
The ability to understand that other people have independent minds of their own and it is possible for them to think and feel differently to us.
What does Baron-Cohen suggest about theory of mind in autistic people?
That people who have Autism struggle with social communication due to lacking theory of mind and he deems it a cognitive deficit
What is theory of mind used for?
- understanding and predicting what other people think and feel
- identifying threats in our environment
- forming social bonds
- persuading people
- understanding jokes and sarcasm
- role playing
Do we always have theory of mind or does it develop?
Several experiments concluded that we are not born with theory of mind but develops from around the age of 4
What is the Sally Anne Task?
A way of measuring to see if someone has theory of mind
What is the Sally Anne scenario?
Sally who has a basket and Anne who has a box - Sally who has a marble in her basket goes to the shops and Anne takes the marble from the basket and places it in her box
How would this first order test check for theory of mind?
If a child has theory of mind they would answer that Sally would look in her basket - those who lack theory of mind would say the box as they know that is where it is and they don’t understand that Sally has different perspectives and thoughts to them
What is Happe’s strange stories?
a measure of theory of mind for adults which consists of of a collection of physical and mental stories and answering related questions
What are the physical and mental stories for?
Mental - understanding the intentions of characters
Physical - a control to ensure that participants don’t have general reading difficulties and comprehension
What is the aim of the Baron-Cohen study?
Investigating whether adults with high functioning autism and Asperger’s would be impaired on the tasks and the males and females were also compared
How many sample groups were there?
3
What was the experimental groups sample?
16 people with Autism
- 4 with high functioning autism
- 12 people with Asperger’s
- 13 males and 3 females
What is the importance of the gender split in the experimental sample?
Initially it may seem bias but it reflects the the ratio of diagnoses of Autism due to males receiving more diagnosis’s than females
What did the experimental group have to do before the study?
complete the Wechsler intelligence test and score above 85 in order to prove they had a average intelligence level and are able to complete the Sally Anne Task
What was the sample of control group 1?
50 ‘normal’ adults with no known neurological disorders
- 25 male and 25 female
- age matched against the experimental group
What was the sample in control group 2?
10 people with Tourette’s syndrome
- age-matched with experimental group
- gender ratio is also mirrored with the experimental group (8 males, 2 females)
What is a strength of age-matching the participants?
As theory of mind suggests that it develops over time comparing different ages there will be differences in ability - age-matching removes this
What is a strength of the sample in the experimental group?
As there are both males and females and the sample consists of those with both high functioning autism and Asperger’s it makes results more generalisable
What is a weakness of the experimental sample?
It is ethnocentric as it only samples British people and different cultures may have different explanations for Autism making results less generalisable
What was the sampling technique in this study?
Self-selected (volunteer)
How was a self-selected sample used in this study?
- placing an advert in the National Autistic magazine (experimental group)
- The Tourette’s group were recruited from a referral centre in London
- the ‘normal’ group were a random subject panel from Cambridge
What is a strength of this sampling technique?
- results more ecologically valid as participants take the study seriously
- less likely to suffer from attrition (participants dropping out)
What is a weakness of the sampling technique?
- A bias as only a certain type of person would volunteer (confident and outgoing) therefore it is not representative of everyone who has Autism
- lacks population validity
What was the method in this study?
quasi-experiment due to naturally occurring IV
What is the IV in this study?
Whether the participant had Autism, Tourette’s or neither
What is the DV in this study?
the performance on the Eyes task out of 25
What was the setting for each group?
Autism - a quiet room in their own home
Tourette’s - a quiet room in a London clinic
‘normal’ - university laboratory
What is an outline of the procedure?
- 2 experimental tasks
- 2 control tasks
What was the main experimental task material?
The Eyes Task
- 25 black and white magazine photos of the eye region (male and female faces)
- 15x10 cm
How long were the photos displayed?
3 seconds
What were the participants asked in The Eyes Task?
- forced choice
- what they thought that the person in the photo was thinking or feeling
- asked to select from two opposite words (one being correct target and one being the incorrect foil)
How were the target words generated?
4 judges (2 male and 2 female)
Which groups completed the Eyes Task?
All
What was the second experimental task?
Happe’s strange stories
Which groups completed the strange stories task?
Autism and Tourette’s
What were the two control tasks?
1) Gender Recognition
2) Basic Emotion Task
What was the Gender Recognition Task?
Took place at the same time as the Eyes Task and participants were asked to identify the gender of the 25 photos that they were shown
What was the Basic Emotion Task?
Recognising basic emotions based on pictures to ensure that participants did not have a perceptual deficit (as it would be an extraneous variable)
What were the 6 emotions in the basic emotions task?
- fear
- anger
- sadness
- happiness
- surprise
- disgust
What are the strengths of the procedure?
- As in the Eyes Task all participants were shown the exact same type of photo (15x10 black and white photo of eye region) results are more likely to be reliable
- Causality can be established as extraneous variables (such as perceptual deficits) have been controlled
What are the weaknesses of the procedure?
- The Eyes Task lacks mundane realism (not something one would typically do in day-to-day life)
- lacks ecological validity
What was the result from the Eyes Task?
Participants with Autism scored significantly lower (16.3) than the ‘normal’ (20.3) and the Tourette’s group scored the highest (20.4)
What would the results of the Happe’s strange stories task?
Only those with autism made errors on this task
What were the strengths of the findings?
Gathered quantitative data which was easier to analyse and make comparisons between groups
What are the weaknesses of the findings?
no qualitative data means that no explanations for behaviour can accurately be drawn
What is the conclusion of this study?
This study suggests that people with Autism have an impaired theory of mind in comparison to people without Autism. It also indicates that ‘normal’ males find theory of mind more difficult than females and perhaps explains the differences between how they socialise
What are the ethical issues within the study?
- results may be socially sensitive
What experimental design is used in this study?
Matched pairs
How were the participants matched?
Age and intelligence
