Core study 14- Baron-Cohen (ID)

Question 1

Background

What theory is the study based off?

Answer 1

Theory of mind:
* The ability to predict/ read the mind of others
* Relies on being able to see things from another’s point of view

Question 2

Background

What 2 tests had been done previously to test for autism?

Answer 2

1. Sally-Anne test
2. Happe’s strange stories

Question 3

Aim

What was the aim of Baron-Cohen’s study?

Two aims- one is broad, one is specific

Answer 3

1. To investigate if autistic adults lack Theory of Mind
2. To investigate gender differences between Theory of Mind

Question 4

Sample

What was the sample within group 1?

What was the gender split?

Answer 4

16 individuals with high-functioning autism/ aspergers syndrome

13 males, 3 females (semi-androcentric)

Question 5

Sample

What sampling technique was used to obtain group 1’s sample?

Answer 5

Volunteer sampling

Question 6

Sample

What was the sample for group 2?

What was the gender split?

Answer 6

50 normal adults

25 females, 25 males

Question 7

Sample

What sampling technique was used to obtain group 2’s sample?

Answer 7

Random sampling

Question 8

Sample

What was the sample for group 3 (the control group)?

Answer 8

10 tourettes adults

Question 9

Sample

How was the sample for group 3 obtained?

Answer 9

Self-selected/ opportunity sampling

Question 10

Method

What type of experiment was used?

Why?

Answer 10

Quasi experiment

IVs were naturally occurring

Question 11

Method

What were the IVs in the study?

Answer 11

The type of individual likely to lack theory of mind
* Autistic
* Normal
* Tourettes

Question 12

Method

What was the DV in the study?

Answer 12

Score /25 on the eyes task

Question 13

Method/ Procedure

What did the eye task include?

Answer 13

• 25 pictures
• Black and white
• All same size
• Eye region only
• Had a choice of 2 emotions to choose from

Question 14

Method

What experimental design was used for the study?

Why?

Answer 14

Matched (pairs) design

group of normal adults or tourettes adults were matched via age with an individual with autism to compare scores

Question 15

Procedure

What tasks were the participants given?

Answer 15

• Eye task
• Gender recognition task (identify if pictures were male or female)
• Basic emotion recognition task (done to ensure people didn’t have problems identifying basic emotions)
• Strange Stories (to validate eye task results)

Question 16

Procedure

What type of validity did using Happe’s Strange Stories within the procedure increase?

Answer 16

Concurrent validity

Question 17

Results

What type of data did the study generate?

Answer 17

Quantitative data

Question 18

Results

What were the results of the autistic group (eye task results and the range)?

Answer 18

• Results of the eye task- 16.3
• Range of scores- 13-23

This grouo is relatively lower- showing they lacked ToM

Question 19

Results

What were the results in the normal group (eye task results and score ranges)?

Answer 19

• Results from eye task- 20.3
• Score range- 16-25

Question 20

Results

What were the results in the tourettes group? (eye task results and score ranges)

Answer 20

• Results from eye task- 20.4
• Score range- 16-25

Question 21

Results

Which two groups weren’t significantly different in terms of mean scores?

Answer 21

Tourettes and Normal group- they were significantly higher then the autistic group

Question 22

Results

Who did the normal females do better than?

Answer 22

Normal males (significantly better)

Question 23

Results

Who did the normal males do better than?

Answer 23

The autistic group

Question 24

Results

Which group made the most errors on the Happes’ Strange Stories?

Answer 24

Autistic group made significantly more errors
(concurrent validity)

Question 25

Conclusions

What was concluded about this study and theory of mind in adults?

Answer 25

Results provide evidence that adults with autism/ AS do possess an impaired theory of mind

Question 26

Conclusions

What was concluded about theory of mind deficits in relation to intelligence?

Which part of greedum would this apply to?

Answer 26

Despite having autism/ AS, it’s reasonable to suggest that theory of mind deficits are independent of general intelligence

ToM deficit does not determine general intelligence

Usefulness

Question 27

GREEDUM- evaluation

Why can generalisability be argued as a weakness of the study?

Answer 27

The uneven gender split in autistic group makes it difficult to generalise

(Low population validity)

Question 28

GREEDUM- evaluation

Why could data be argued as a weakness of the study?

Answer 28

The results are statistics, therefore do not give an explanation as to why the mean scores differed between autistic group and the other 2 groups

Question 29

GREEDUM- evaluation

Why could usefulness be argued as a strength of the study?

Answer 29

It helps understand that autistic individuals should not be treated any differently to nornal people (especially in terms of education)

They do not lack intelligence, they only have a ToM deficit

Question 30

GREEDUM- evaluation

Why is the presence of concurrent validity a strength within the study?

Answer 30

It suggests the old method is still creditable and valid, as it’s been integrated within the new method