Baron Cohen Flashcards
(Inspiration)
Baron Cohen and his colleagues…
…believed that the standard tests for theory of mind were too easy for high functioning adults with Asperger syndrome or autism, SO THEY DEVELOPED THEIR OWN.
They wanted to prove that autistic adults to have theory of mind deficit compared with adults with no clinical condition.
(Aim)
To investigate whether high functioning…
…adults with autism or Asperger syndrome would struggle with new and more difficult tests for theory of mind.
(Sample)
16 high functioning…
…autistic/Asperger syndrome adults (13 male/3 female).
(Sample)
They were recruited through…
…their doctors and in the national autistic society magazine.
(Sample)
10 people with Tourrettes syndrome…
…(8 male 2 female). Recruited through a referral centre.
(Sample)
50 age matched…
…adults with no clinical condition (25 male/25 female).
Sample - Autism/Asperger syndrome.
- 16 high functioning autistic adults with A or AS. (13M/3FM).
- Recruited through their doctors and in the National Autistic society magazine.
Sample - Tourrettes syndrome.
10 people with Tourrettes syndrome (8M/2FM). Recruited via a referral centre.
Sample - Adults with no clinical condition.
50 age matched adults with no clinical condition.
25M/25FM
(Independent variable)
High functioning…
…adults with autistic/Asperger syndrome.
(Independent variable)
Adults with…
…Tourrettes syndrome.
(Independent variable)
Adults with no…
…clinical condition.
(Dependant variable)
Score of participant on the Eye Task.
(Main Findings)
The high functioning autistic…
…adults performed significantly worse on the eyes task (16) compared to Tourrettes group and no clinical condition group (20).
(Main Findings)
Gender…
…recognition tasks - no significant difference.
(Main Findings)
In the no clinical…
…condition group, female performed better than males in the eye task.
(Conclusion)
Even high functioning…
…autistic adults have a significant problem with their theory of mind. (Find it hard to read mental states).
(Strengths)
High Validity.
The pattern of results from the eyes task was mirrored in Happe’s strange stories.
(Strengths)
Useful study.
There are real life applications, as if the findings are accepted it could open up ways of helping high functioning autistic adults.
(Weaknesses)
Low Ecological Validity.
The eyes task did not resemble real life as the photos of eye were static.
They were photos of just the eyes, but in real life people are in motion, you can ready their body language and can see they whole face.
(Weaknesses)
Unrepresentative Sample.
Sample of autistic adults was small (16) and only 3 were female. Makes it hard to assume this is a representative sample of high functioning autistic adults. Generalisability is low.
