Component 2: Baron Cohen (Individual Differences)

Question 1

What is autism and what are the characteristics?

Answer 1

It literally means ‘self-orientated’. The characteristics include: communication problems, social isolation and withdrawal ‘aloneness, lack of imaginitive play and a below average IQ.

Question 2

What is savant syndrome?

Answer 2

A rare condition in people with autism who have astonishing abilities or talents.

Question 3

What is theory of mind?

Answer 3

The ability to recognise and appreciate the mental states (thoughts, fears, desires, etc) of others.

Question 4

What is the ‘Sally-anne’ test?

Answer 4

This was designed to test children for autism. Adults can learn to pass and therefore, it does not show their theory of mind.

Question 5

What was the aim of Baron-cohen et al.s study?

Answer 5

To investigate if autsim in adults is caused by a core cognitive defecit - an impaired theory of mind - by using a more complicated challenging test.

Question 6

What was the research method and experimental design of Baron-Cohen?

Answer 6

It was a quasi experiment (IV was naturally occurring), DV was the score out of 25 on the eyes task.
It used matched pairs design (matched based on age)
Self report as questions were asked.

Question 7

Describe the samples of all 3 groups in Baron-cohen et al.s study and the sampling methods used. .

Answer 7

Group 1 - 16 high functioning adults with autism (x4) or aspergers syndrome (x12.) 13 males and 3 females with average IQs who were recruited via self-select through an advert in the national austistic society magazine.
Group 2 - 50 clincally ‘normal’ age matched control particpants. (25 male and 25 female) They had presumed normal IQs and random sampling was used and drawn from the subject panel of the university department of the general population of Cambridge (excluding members of the university)
Group 3 - Ten adults (8 males, 32 females) with tourettes syndrome. They were age matched with groups one and two. They were recruited via self select sampling through a clinic in London.

Question 8

Why was the group with tourettes included in Baron-cohens study?

Answer 8

Just like autism, it is a developmental disoder and it affects their social interaction and communication with others. Baron-cohen wanted to show lack of theory of mind is specific to autism.

Question 9

Describe the eyes task in Baron-cohen’s study.

Answer 9

1. Each of the 4 tasks were presented to participants in a random order.
2. The eyes task was done by all participants.
3. It consisted of a set of 25 eyes (from midpoint of nose to just above the eyebrow) and each set of eyes was shown individually for 3 seconds. 4. Participants then had to slelect the mental state shown from a choice of two terms printed underneath.

Question 10

Describe Happe’s strange stores task in Baron-cohen’s study.

Answer 10

1. Each of the four tasks was presented to participants in a random order.
2. This task tested physical and mental states of characters in stories and measures ability to judge these states.
3. Only participants with tourettes and autism did this task.
4. This taks was used to validate the results form the eyes task.

Question 11

Describe the gender recognition task in Baron-Cohen’s study.

Answer 11

1. Each of the 4 tasks was presnted to participants in a random order.
2. This task involved identifying the gender of the eyes used in the eyes task.
3. The task controlled face perception, perceptual discrimination and social perception.
4. Only those with autism did this task.

Question 12

Where did Baron Cohen’s experiment take place?

Answer 12

The participants were tested individually in a quiet room. Either in their own home, in the researchers clinic or in the researchers laboratory in Cambridge.

Question 13

What were the results of the eyes task in Baron Cohen’s study?

Answer 13

1. The eyes task was out of 25.
2. The group with HFA/AS scored a mean of 16.3 with a range of 13-25. Females did better than males.
3. The clinically normal group had a mean of 20.5 and a range of 16-25
4. The Tourette’s group had a mean of 20.4 and a range of 16-25.

Question 14

What were the results of Happe’s strange stories task in Baron Cohen’s study?

Answer 14

Group 1 (HFA/AS) were significantly impaired. Group 2 did not take part. Group 3 (tourettes) made no mistakes.

Question 15

What were the results of the control tasks in Baron-Cohen’s study?

Answer 15

Only group 1 (HFA/AS) took part in these tasks. The performance on both the gender recognition and basic emotion recognition was normal.

Question 16

What was the conclusions of Baron Cohen’s study?

Answer 16

1. Contrary to previous research, these results provided evidence that adults with autism do possess an impaired theory of mind (core cognitive deficit)
2. As some adults with autism hold university degrees/were of normal intelligence, this suggests that deficits of theory of mind are independent of general intelligence.

Question 17

How does Baron Cohen’s study relate to the individual differences area?

Answer 17

Baron-Cohen was able to show that the core cognitive deficit of lacking theory of mind is unique to people with autism.

Question 18

How does Baron-Cohen relate to the key theme of understanding disorders?

Answer 18

Baron Cohen’s study showed that there are more ways than psychoanalysis to investigate individual differences, such as by using the experimental method. Baron Cohen’s work has moved attention away from emotion to cognition. The issues of people with ASD are not how they feel, but what are the thought processes that structure the way they experience the world.