COGNITIVE APPROACH- Baron and Cohen (THEORY OF MIND) Flashcards
state the psychology being investigated (terms)
- theory of mind
- Social sensitivity : the 2 stages
- autism : This study suggested that those with ASD lack/ have an underdeveloped cognitive process called the theory of mind
What is theory of mind
- The ability to determine the mental state of ourselves and others.
- is linked to social sensitivity
- it is also about how we use this ability to explain the behaviours of others and understand them
- this knowledge can help with predicting peoples actions
Identify the 2 stages that attributed to the theory of mind
STAGE 1: Attributes of relevant mental state e.g compassion
STAGE 2: Inferring to the content of that mental state e.g compassion for loss.
What is the methodological basis of this study
-Psychometric tests
-Self reports (Close ended )
what is the background of the study
it was found difficult to get a test that could measure a cognitive dysfunction in adults with a typical IQ however impaired social understanding.
Investigating whether adults with ASD have troubles with theory of mind. Using their first version of ‘Reading the mind in the eyes’ Task
-The improvements made
- The judges criteria for selecting foils
How did the eyes task help investigate theory of mind
It was believed to use the cognitive processes associated with a theory of mind as participants needed to empathise with the person in the photograph in order to figure out their emotional state
Improvements made:
The questions were forced choice with only 2 choice options And were opposite in meaning /semantic opposites
The number of options for responding increased to four and were not opposites but instead same valence as the target word.
improvements made:
only 25 sets of eyes were used leading to ceiling effects
-Were increased to 36 sets of eyes
Improvements made:
The eyes showed basic emotions and complex and were too easy
Only used complex emotions
Improvements made:
The emotions could be gazed by simply looking at the direction of the eyes
These were removed from the set
improvements made:
Imbalance of male and female eyes (more female eyes)
Equal distribution of both genders
Improvements made:
Some words in the choices were hard for participants to understand
There was a glossary introduced which had the emotions listed with their meanings.
What was the main aim of the study
To investigate whether the ‘revised’ eyes test would show a clear impairment in a group of adults with ASD to assess its effectiveness.
What were the 5 hypothesis/ predictions that they were testing
> Adults with HFA/AS will score significantly lower in the eyes test compared to the control group
Adults with HFA/AS will score significantly higher in the AQ test than the control group
Females in the ‘normal’ groups would score higher in the eyes test than males
Males in the normal group will score higher in the AQ test than females
Results of the eyes tests are negatively correlated with the AQ test (-0.53)
What does the AQ test stand for
Autistic spectrum Quotient test
what were the IVs of the study
-the condition of the participants (AS/HFA Vs Non autistic)
-the different emotions displayed
What was the DV of the study
The score from the eyes test and AQ test
what type of experiment was this
natural experiment /Quasi experiment