Baron-Cohen Flashcards
What was the aim of Baron-Cohen’s research?
To see whether those on the autistic spectrum would perform differently on the ‘eyes task’ that tests Theory of Mind compared to those without any clinical diagnosis or Tourette’s syndrome
What was Baron-Cohen’s sample?
1- 13 men and three women with Autism
2- 25 men and 25 women with no diagnosis
3- 8 men and 2 women with Tourettes
How was the sample obtained?
Recruited through their doctors or in response to an advert in the NAS magazine
Why was a Tourette’s group used as a control?
It shares many qualities with Autism, most importantly it is believed to be associated with problems in the frontal lobes of the brain which is the same for autism
How many photos were the participants shown? What colour were they?
25 Black and White photographs
How long were they shown the images for?
3 seconds
What did the emotions used range from?
From calm to things like fantasising
What two validation tasks were the participants made to complete to ensure no visual deficiency?
1- A gender recognition task from eye photos
2- A basic emotion recognition task from photos of a whole face
How did Baron-Cohen validate the Eyes task?
Because it’s new they also completed the Happe’s Strange Stories test. If they did badly on the HSS and the Eye’s task then the eye’s task was a demonstration of lack of theory of mind
What was Baron-Cohen’s general result?
The autistic participants struggled with both the HSS task and the Eye’s task whereas no other group struggled with either
What was the mean score for autistic people on the eyes task?
16.3 out of 25
What does the performance of the Tourettes group compared to the Autistic group on the HSS task and the eyes test suggest about the eyes task?
It tests the theory of mind
What 2 conclusions did Baron-Cohen make?
1- Even high functioning autistic people struggle with the theory of mind and that the lack of such is key to understanding the disorder
2- The Eyes Task is a valid test of Theory of Mind
