Baron Cohen Et Al - (Autism) & Savage - Rumbaugh (Animal language) Flashcards
What was the context given for Baron-Cohen’s study?
The tests previously given to Autistic patients had a ceiling effect for people of the age 6 and above, Happe then developed a more advanced ToM task but it was only for maximum 8-9yr old
What is the theory of mind?
The ability to infer, in other people, a range of mental states - basically mind-reading
What was the ceiling effect present within the previous ToM tests?
Had an age limit of firstly 6 and then 8/9 after these ages the participants would be able to complete the test on experience alone
What was the aim of Baron-Cohens study?
In order to assess whether high functioning ASD adults do really have ToM the eyes task was developed - The aim was to find the results of this test
Who were the participants within Baron-Cohens study?
3 groups
Group 1: Autistics 13 males and 3 females
Group 2: 50 adults - 50/50 gender ratio - Age matched
Group 3: Tourette’s patients, 8 males and 2 females - age matched
How were Participants in Group 1 of Baron-Cohens study recruited?
Advert in Autistic magazine and also through doctors
Why were were Group 3 including in Baron Cohens study?
As they had similarities between both
What were the similarities between Group 1 and Group 3 of Baron Cohens study?
Suffered from childhood, disorder affected education and socialising with peers, both could be genetically transferred and both were associated with abnormalities in the frontal lobe
What were the results of the first and second order false belief tasks between Group 1 & 3 of Baron Cohens Study?
Both groups were able to pass the tasks
Why were the first and second order false belief tasks conducted?
So that any failure on the Eyes Task would be attributed to mind reading problems past the age of 6
What were the expected results of the Eyes Task for Group 1 in Baron Cohens study?
Group 1 would be significantly impaired on the Eyes Task
What were the four tasks included in Baron Cohens study?
The Eyes task, Happes Strange Stories, Gender Recognition Eyes Task and Basic Emotion Recognition Task
What tasks did Group 1 of Baron Cohens Study do?
All 4 of them
What tasks did Group 2 of Baron Cohens study complete?
They only did the Eyes Task
What tasks did Group 3 complete in Baron Cohens study?
The Eyes Task and Happes Strange Stories
What did the Eyes Task of Baron Cohens study involve?
Consists of 25 magazine photos of different faces, Male & Female.
All photos were standardised: same size, all black & white, and all of the same region of the face
Each photo was shown for 3 secs
Participants were then asked what emotion the photo reflected out of 2 choices
The words were the answer and it’s opposite
How were the Eyes Task emotions validated in Baron Cohens Study?
Answers would count as correct by a panel of four judges and confirmed by. 8 other independent taters independently
What Approach does Baron Cohens study come under?
Cognitive
What was the purpose of The Stranges Stories task of Baron Cohens study?
To demonstrate the validity of the Eyes Task as a test of ToM
What did the Gender Recognition Eyes Task within Baron-Cohens study involve?
Identifying the gender of the eyes used for the Eyes Task
Why were the control tasks of Baron Cohens Study used?
To check whether difficulties with the Eyes Task might be due to other factors.
What was the procedure for the Basic Emotion recognition task?
Participants were asked to judge photos of whole faces which displayed one of six emotions
What were the results of the Eyes Task in Baron Cohens study?
Group 2 & 3 had the same Range while Group 3 had a slightly better score. Females did better than males in Group 2. Group 1 had a lower range and significantly lower mean score
What were the mean scores of all 3 groups of the Eyes Task in the baron Cohen Study?
- 3 Austim/AS
- 3 Normal
- 4 TS