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

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1
Q

What is autism

A

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

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2
Q

What is theory of mind

A

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

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3
Q

What is the sally anne test

A
  • 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
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4
Q

What were the findings from the original Sally Anne test

A

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

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5
Q

What do we learn from the original Sally Anne test

A
  • 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
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6
Q

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

A

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

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7
Q

What is Happe’s Strange Stories Test

A
  • 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
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8
Q

What were the findings of the Strange Stories Task

A

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

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9
Q

What was the aim of Baron-Cohen’s study

A

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’

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10
Q

What was the sample in Group 1

A
  • 16 people
  • 13 male and 3 female
  • Had high functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome
  • They were all of ‘normal’ intelligence
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11
Q

What was the sample in Group 2

A
  • 50 people
  • Age matched controls
  • 25 male and 25 female
  • No history of psychiatric disorder
  • Presumed to be of ‘normal’ intelligence
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12
Q

What was the sample in Group 3

A
  • 10 people
  • 8 male and 2 female
  • Had Tourette’s syndrome
  • Age matched with groups 1 and 2
  • They were all of normal intelligence
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13
Q

What was the sampling method for Group 1

A
  • Volunteer sampling
  • Recruited using an advertisement in the National Autistic Society magazine
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14
Q

What was the sampling method for Group 2

A
  • Random sampling
  • Selected randomly from a participant list drawn from the general population (excluding members of the university)
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15
Q

What was the sampling method of Group 3

A
  • Opportunity sampling
  • Recruited from a referral from a referral centre in London which they were attending
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16
Q

Why was a Tourette’s group used in this study

A
  • 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
17
Q

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

A

Quasi experiment

18
Q

What was the IV

A

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

19
Q

What was the DV

A

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

20
Q

What was the experimental design

A

Independent measures as each participant only experienced one condition

21
Q

What were the control tasks

A
  • Basic emotion recognition task
  • Gender recognition task
22
Q

What was the basic emotion recognition task

A

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

23
Q

What was the purpose the basic emotion recognition task

A

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

24
Q

What was the gender recognition task

A

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

25
Q

What was the purpose of the gender recognition task

A

To control for difficulties in face perception

26
Q

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

A

Mean score of 16.3

27
Q

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

A

Mean score of 20.3

28
Q

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

A

Meana score of 20.4

29
Q

What were the results from the strange stories task

A

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

30
Q

What were the results from the gender recognition task

A

No significant differences were found between the groups

31
Q

What were the results for the basic emotional recognition task

A

No significant differences between groups

32
Q

Conclusions

A
  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
33
Q

What was the first conclusion

A
  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
34
Q

What was the second conclusion

A
  1. 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
35
Q

Link to Key Theme

A

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

36
Q

Link to Area

A

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