Individual differences area: Baron-Cohen Flashcards
What is autism?
A lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with and related to other people
What are the ‘triads of impairment’?
Social communication, social interactions, social imagination
Describe social communication in terms of being part of the triad of impairment
May not read a p’s face or tone of voice and may have difficulty understanding jokes
Describe social interactions in terms of being part of the triad of impairment
May behave in a way deemed to be inappropriate (e.g. stand to close)
Describe social imagination in terms of being a part of the triad of impairment
Find it hard to predict what might happen next or anticipate danger
Define theory of mind
The ability to understand others’ mental states and that others have independent minds of their own
What is the ceiling effect?
A task that is too simple, it doesn’t show full potential of someone’s ability (or inability)
What is tourette sydrome?
A neurological disorder characterised by tics - sudden involuntary movements or vocalisations
What was Baron-Cohen’s hypothesis in terms of the adults with autism?
That the adults with autism of aspergers syndrome would be impaired on a theory of mind task called the eyes task (despite being normal IQ)
What was Baron-Cohen’s hypothesis in terms of the normal population?
Females would perform better on the eyes task than males
What was the ‘condition’ of group 1?
Autism/Asperges
How large was the sample size of group 1?
16
What was the age range of group 1?
18-49
What was the IQ level of group 1?
Normal
How was the sample from group 1 obtained?
From clinical sources and from an advert in communication magazine
Why was the sample from group 1 included?
To see if autistic adults could not assess mental states via an eye task
What was the ‘condition’ of group 2?
‘Normal’
What was the sample size of group 2?
50
What was the gender mix of group 2?
25 males and 25 females
What was the mean age of group 2?
30
What was the age range of group 2?
18-48
What was the IQ level of group 2?
Normal
How was the sample from group 2 obtained?
General population from Cambridge
Why was the sample from group 2 included?
As a control group and to see if females are better than males at the eyes task
What was the ‘condition’ of group 3?
Tourettes syndrome
What was the sample size of group 3?
10
What was the age range of group 3?
18-47
What was the IQ level of group 3?
Normal
How was the sample from group 3 obtained?
Attending a referral clinic in London
Why was group 3 included?
As a control - Tourette’s adults would also have their life disrupted/a similar genetically developed disorder
What was the IV of Baron-Cohen’s study?
Impairment or not: Autism/Aspergers, Normal, Tourettes
Where were P’s tested?
In a quiet room, at home, in the researchers clinic or in a lab at the university
Why were the 4 tasks given in a random order?
To reduce order effects
Why were the 2 control tasks only completed by those with Autism/AS?
To check whether they had any basic processing or perception problems which would influence their ability to complete the theory of mind eyes task
How many photos were used in the eyes task?
25
How long was each photo presented for in the eyes task?
3 seconds
Were were the photos sourced from in the eyes task?
Magazines
What was the condition and the size of the photographs in the eyes task?
15 x 10cm black and white photo of the eye region
What were P’s asked to do in the eyes task?
Pick which word (out of 2) best described how the person in the photo was feeling
What were the 2 options that were given in the eyes task?
Semantic opposites (e.g. Happy thought or Sad thought)
Who decided what the semantic opposites would be?
4 judges
How did the 4 judges come to a decision of the semantic opposites?
In open discussion with one another
How did they ensure that the choices made by the initial 4 judges was accurate?
They showed the photos with the choices to another 8 judges unaware of the aims and they rated the target words
What were the strange stories?
They were 2 examples of 12 story types in which P’s were asked why the character said what they said in the story
Give 5 examples of the 12 story types?
Lie, white lie, joke, figure of speech and irony
What did the character do in the strange stories?
They would say something which is not literally true
How were answers in the strange stories tasks rated?
As correct or incorrect and either involving mental states/psychological factors or physical states
What were the 2 control tasks?
Gender recognition and basic emotion recognition
Describe the gender recognition task
Same eyes in the eyes task were shown and P’s had to identify the gender of the person
Describe the basic emotion recognition task
Photos of full faces were shown giving one of the 6 basics emotions (happy, sad, angry, disgust and surprised) and P’s had to identify which emotion the face was feeling
What was the mean score of group 1 (autism) on the eyes task?
16.3
What was the mean score of group 2 (normal) on the eyes task?
20.3
What was the mean score of group 3 (tourettes) on the eyes task?
20.4
What was the difference in mean score between ‘normal’ males and females on the eyes task?
Males - 18.8
Females - 20.8
What were the results in terms of the strange stories task and the control tasks?
Those with autism struggled with the strange stories tasks whereas the other groups didn’t and those with autism were not impaired on the controlled task
What was the type of data collected?
Quantitative
What can we conclude from Baron-Cohen’s findings in terms of mindreading abilities of adults with autism? and in terms of males and females from the ‘normal’ population?
Adults with autism despite being of normal IQ have subtle deficits in mindreading abilities and within the normal population, adult females are significantly better at mindreading than males
What is a weakness of the sample in the autism group?
Quite a small sample so difficult to generalise (especially females although this does represent actual rates of autism)
Which ethical guidelines did Baron-Cohen uphold?
Consent
Withdrawal - P’s could stop answering questions
Which ethical guidelines did Baron-Cohen break?
Protection from harm if P’s worried about giving the wrong answer
Debrief - not mentioned
To what extent is Baron-Cohen’s study ethnocentric?
Autism/Tourettes occurs across all cultures however cultural differences may impact one’s ability to read emotion (e.g. Muslim women wearing a Niqab)
Was the procedure controlled and standardised? (internal reliability)
Yes - same photos and same instructions
How did Baron-Cohen address issues of reliability in the construction of the eyes task? (internal reliability)
Results were consistent between judges so ensured answers were correct
Was the sample large enough to check for consistency? (external reliability)
Quite small sample of Autistic and Tourettes
Why was the ‘forced choice’ nature of the eyes task a problem? (internal validity)
Only 2 choices were given so P’s could’ve guessed - are people with Autism just less good at guessing
How did the use of the strange stories help to improve validity? (concurrent validity)
Allowed B-C to test the eyes task was actually measuring how autism affects perception
Was it actually theory of mind that the eyes task was testing? (construct validity)
Effective use of matching participants and checks to see that it was not just a general deficit (through use of the control tasks)
Did the eyes task resemble real life? (ecological validity)
Not really, normally we see someone’s whole face in colour and other clues would suggest a persons emotions
