Core Studies - Individual Differences Psychology - Baron-Cohen’s Study

Question 1

What is autism

Answer 1

Autistic spectrum disorder is when a person has difficulties in communication, relationships with others and imagination

Question 2

What is theory of mind

Answer 2

Theory of mind refers to one’s ability to not only understand that they themselves have their own thoughts and feelings but that other people have a different set of thoughts and feelings

Question 3

What is the sally anne test

Answer 3

• A method to test for autism for 6 year old children
• A child would witness sally place a marble in her basket but Anne would move the marble into her box when Anne was no longer there. Children were then asked “Where will sally look for her marble” in relation to whether she would look in the basket or the box

Question 4

What were the findings from the original Sally Anne test

Answer 4

Only 20% of autistic children would answer correctly and say that sally would look for her marble in the basket compared to the 85% of children who had no condition

Question 5

What do we learn from the original Sally Anne test

Answer 5

• Shows that those with autism are unable to predict behaviour
• Sally doesn’t know that the marble has been moved therefore children with autism answered that Sally would look in the box because that is where they know the marble is
• They don’t understand the thoughts and feelings of others
• Proof that people with autism lack theory of mind

Question 6

What are the potential problems of using the Sally Anne test to measure Theory of Mind

Answer 6

The task is not complex enough for adults with autism as they hav a fully functioning Theory of Mind

Question 7

What is Happe’s Strange Stories Test

Answer 7

• A method to test for Theory of Mind in children aged 8-9
• Children had to listen to a series of ambiguous stories and judge the mental state of the character

Question 8

What were the findings of the Strange Stories Task

Answer 8

Children with autism struggled to identify the mental states of the charters in the stories

Question 9

What was the aim of Baron-Cohen’s study

Answer 9

To investigate whether high-functioning adults with autism and Asperger Syndrome would struggle with a new and more difficult test for theory of mind known as the ‘Eyes task’

Question 10

What was the sample in Group 1

Answer 10

• 16 people
• 13 male and 3 female
• Had high functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome
• They were all of ‘normal’ intelligence

Question 11

What was the sample in Group 2

Answer 11

• 50 people
• Age matched controls
• 25 male and 25 female
• No history of psychiatric disorder
• Presumed to be of ‘normal’ intelligence

Question 12

What was the sample in Group 3

Answer 12

• 10 people
• 8 male and 2 female
• Had Tourette’s syndrome
• Age matched with groups 1 and 2
• They were all of normal intelligence

Question 13

What was the sampling method for Group 1

Answer 13

• Volunteer sampling
• Recruited using an advertisement in the National Autistic Society magazine

Question 14

What was the sampling method for Group 2

Answer 14

• Random sampling
• Selected randomly from a participant list drawn from the general population (excluding members of the university)

Question 15

What was the sampling method of Group 3

Answer 15

• Opportunity sampling
• Recruited from a referral from a referral centre in London which they were attending

Question 16

Why was a Tourette’s group used in this study

Answer 16

• Tourette’s is similar to autism in that both are childhood psychiatric disorders believed to be associated with abnormalities in the frontal region of the brain
• Comparing tourettes group with the autistic group would allow Baron-Cohen to see whether an impaired theory of mind in unique to those with autism or people with similar psyhiatric disorders such as Tourette’s

Question 17

What was the research method used in Baron-Cohen’s study

Answer 17

Quasi experiment

Question 18

What was the IV

Answer 18

Naturally occurring IV was whether paricipants had autism or Asperger syndrome, were normal, or had been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome

Question 19

What was the DV

Answer 19

The number of correct answers out o 25 on the Eyes task

Question 20

What was the experimental design

Answer 20

Independent measures as each participant only experienced one condition

Question 21

What were the control tasks

Answer 21

• Basic emotion recognition task
• Gender recognition task

Question 22

What was the basic emotion recognition task

Answer 22

P’s were shown black and white images of whole faces and asked to identify which of the six basic emotions were displayed (happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgust and surprise

Question 23

What was the purpose the basic emotion recognition task

Answer 23

To check if difficulties on the Eyes Task were due to basic difficulties with emotional recognition

Question 24

What was the gender recognition task

Answer 24

Participants were asked to identify the gender of the eyes used in the eyes task

Question 25

What was the purpose of the gender recognition task

Answer 25

To control for difficulties in face perception

Question 26

What were the results for the Autism / Asperger’s Syndrome group (Eyes task)

Answer 26

Mean score of 16.3

Question 27

What were the results for the Normal group (Eyes task)

Answer 27

Mean score of 20.3

Question 28

What were the results for the Tourette Syndrome group (Eyes task)

Answer 28

Meana score of 20.4

Question 29

What were the results from the strange stories task

Answer 29

The Autism / AS group were significantly impaired on the task compared to the Tourette Syndrome group who did not make any mistakes

Question 30

What were the results from the gender recognition task

Answer 30

No significant differences were found between the groups

Question 31

What were the results for the basic emotional recognition task

Answer 31

No significant differences between groups

Question 32

Conclusions

Answer 32

1. The study provides support for the idea that adults with Autism or AS lack a well developed Theory of Mind as they were impaired on the Eyes Task
2. This impairment cannot be linked to just having any developmental mental disorder as the P’s with Tourette’s Syndrome where not impaired on the Eyes Task therefore lack of Theory of Mind is specific to autism

Question 33

What was the first conclusion

Answer 33

1. The study provides support for the idea that adults with Autism or AS lack a well developed Theory of Mind as they were impaired on the Eyes Task

Question 34

What was the second conclusion

Answer 34

2. This impairment cannot be linked to just having any developmental mental disorder as the P’s with Tourette’s Syndrome where not impaired on the Eyes Task therefore lack of Theory of Mind is specific to autism

Question 35

Link to Key Theme

Answer 35

Provides evidence for theory of mind and tells us that this is a deficit that is specific to Autism Spectrum Disorders, not all developmental disorders

Question 36

Link to Area

Answer 36

A Theory of Mind deficit is unique to individuals with autism, so their behaviour will differ from the average person as a result e.g. being less able to judge emotions