Baron Cohen (1997) Flashcards
What is theory of mind?
The ability to interpret one’s own and other people’s mental and emotional states, understanding that each person has unique motives, perspectives
What was the aim of the research?
To find out if individuals on the autistic spectrum had deficits with theory of mind.
To find out if there were gender differences in theory of mind
What research method was used in Baron Cohens research.
Quasi/natural experiment
What was the IV in research by Baron Cohen?
The type of person likely to have TOM deficits (adults with high-functioning autism/AS, normal adults and adults with Tourette Syndrome)
What was the DV in research by Baron Cohen?
The performance – score out of 25 – on the Eyes Task.
Measured by showing
each participant 25, black and white, standardised photographs of the eye region of faces (male and female).
Outline the sample used in Baron Cohen’s research.
Group 1: 16 individuals with high-functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome. All were normal intelligence, recruited through an advert in the National Autistic magazine.
Group 2: 50 normal age-matched adults. Taken from subject panel of the university department compromising of the general population of Cambridge.
Group 3: 10 adults with Tourette Syndrome also age-matched with groups 1 and 2. All were of normal intelligence
and were recruited from a tertiary referral centre in London
Outline the procedure in research by Baron Cohen.
The Eyes task, the Strange Stories and the two control tasks (Gender Recognition of Eyes Task, Basic Recognition Task) were presented in
random order to all participants.
The Gender Recognition Task involved identifying the gender of the eyes used in the Eyes Task.
The Basic Emotion Recognition Task involved judging photographs of whole faces displaying
basic emotions.
The Strange Stories Task was used to validate the results from the Eyes Task.
Participants were tested individually in a quiet room either in their own home, in the researchers’ clinic or in the researchers’ laboratory at Cambridge University.
Outline the key findings from research by Baron Cohen.
The mean score for adults with TS (20.4) was not significantly different from normal adults (20.3) but both were significantly higher than the autism/AS mean score (16.3).
Normal females performed significantly better than normal males on the
Eyes Task
The autism/AS group made significantly more errors on the Strange Stories
task than either of the other groups.
Outline the main conclusions of research by Baron Cohen.
Adults with autism/AS do possess an impaired theory of mind but it is lower than in normal people
As some of the autism/AS group hold university degrees and were all of normal intelligence, it is reasonable to suggest that TOM deficits are
independent of general intelligence.
Females have greater ToM skills. Baron-Cohen suggests this reflects differences in rate of development and superiority in language skills.
