Lecture 4

Question 1

what is the DSM-V criteria for diagnosing autism

Answer 1

1] deficits in social communication across multiple contexts

2] restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour

3] symptoms must be present in early developmental period

4] symptoms cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or other areas

5] these disturbances are not explained by intellectual disability or developmental delay

Question 2

what is the first cognitive theory of autism

Answer 2

theory of mind - failure to acknowledge others have their own thoughts and beliefs

Question 3

what was the study of klin focused on

Answer 3

autistic children inferring the mental states of geometric figures

Question 4

what is the issue with kiln’s study and who opposed it

Answer 4

de Gelder - why test understanding with a game that involves make-believe when autistic children are known to have difficulties with this

Question 5

what did the study by sparrevohn & howie find

Answer 5

autistic children with higher verbal mental age more likely to pass ToM tasks

Question 6

what did the study by Happe find

Answer 6

there’s a relationship between child’s verbal mental age and passing FB tasks

mental age of 12 able to pass compared to 4y in typical children

Question 7

what is a 2nd order false belief task

Answer 7

“i think that she thinks that…” where does x think y think z is?

Question 8

what did baron-cohen find with 2nd order FB tasks

Answer 8

autistic people pass 1st order, fail 2nd order

ToM is a delay not a deficit

Question 9

what did bowler find regarding 2nd order false belief tasks

Answer 9

people with aspergers pass 2nd order tasks

therefore defecit of ToM not universal

impaired ToM is not autism

Question 10

what did minter, hobson & bishop find

Answer 10

children with visual impairment showed difficulty with FB

Question 11

what did woolfe, want & siegal find

Answer 11

children with hearing impairment have developmental delay acknowledging FB

Question 12

what does a communication disadvantage during early years lead to

Answer 12

delay in understanding minds

language & communication important for understanding other minds

Question 12

what is the second cognitive theory of autism

Answer 12

executive dysfunction - deficits in inhibition, planning & executive memory

Question 12

what did ozonoff et al find regarding the tower of hanoi game with autistic children

Answer 12

they acted impulsively, could not plan several moves ahead

Question 13

what did ozonoff et al find regarding the wisconsin card sort game with autistic children

Answer 13

unable to shift attentional focus, preservered to sort them by established system

Question 14

what did ozonoff et al find regarding the theory of mind tests with autistic children

Answer 14

many passed 1st order

some passed 2nd order

Question 15

what does russell et al state regarding executive control explaining social problems

Answer 15

maybe FB task failure due to insufficient flexibility in imagination to give correct judgement

children >4 unable to inhibit pre-potent response

maybe FB task failure about failure to inhibit, meaning it’s an executive dysfunction not lack of ToM

Question 16

what does executive dysfunction not explain

Answer 16

non-social features of autism

savant abilities

heightened perceptual abilities

Question 17

what is the third cognitive theory of autism

Answer 17

weak central coherence (frith)

preference for local details rather than global whole or context

Question 18

what did snowling & frith find regarding language processing

Answer 18

those with autism fail to use context when processing ambiguous homographs

difficulties with sarcasm & irony

Question 19

what did pring et al find regarding islets of ability

Answer 19

individuals with autism were as fast at solving a jigsaw upside down

Question 20

is weak central coherence a primary cause of ASD

Answer 20

no, not universal and other children with different impairments show problems with processing context (norbury et al)

Question 21

what did happe & ronald say about single explanations of ASD

Answer 21

they cannot be explained by a single cognitive deficit

Question 22

what is the medical model of autism

Answer 22

autistic on autistic interactions mean difficulties compounded

Question 23

what is milton’s double empathy problem

Answer 23

autistic on autistic interactions are more efficient than autistic on non-autistic interactions

Question 24

what did crompton et al’s diffusion chains find

Answer 24

autistic peer-to-peer information transfer was more efficient than a mixed chain

Question 25

what are three problems with crompton’s diffusion chains

Answer 25

not representative

ppts aware of diagnostic status

chains not gender biased

Question 26

what is the perception of autistic people according to sasson et al

Answer 26

non-autistic people rated autistic people less socially

Question 27

what are 3 problems with sasson et al’s study into the perception of autistic people

Answer 27

static images and brief videos don’t reflect real life

only explored explicit judgements

largely male sample, autistic adults without intellectual disability - not representative

Question 28

what did sheppard et al find regarding the perception of autistic people

Answer 28

non-autistic people find autistic people harder to read

Question 29

what did alkhaldi et al find regarding the perception of autistic people

Answer 29

non-autistic people might rate autistic people negatively because they are harder to read

Question 30

what did sasson & morrison find regarding the perception of autistic people

Answer 30

disclosing autism diagnosis and increased autism knowledge increased favourability ratings of autistic people

Question 31

what did bolis et al find regarding autistic friendships

Answer 31

friends with similar levels of autistic traits report higher friendship quality

Question 32

how does the DEP disagree with DSM-V

Answer 32

DSM-V reports defecits in forming stable long-term relationships

DEP states this will only occur when each person has different views and experiences

Question 33

what did klin find regarding social information for autistic people

Answer 33

it may be less salient to autistic children which has a knock-on effect on development

Question 34

how does the transponders help development

Answer 34

autistic children exposed to the resource for 4 weeks significantly improved across all measures

control group did not

Question 35

what did young & poselt find regarding the transporters

Answer 35

autistic children that watched the show improved in more emotion recognition than children who watched Thomas the tank engine

Question 36

what did dydra et al find regarding a meta-analysis of the transponders’ usefulness

Answer 36

limited evidence in support of interventions targeting emotion recognition

Question 37

what is the intervention of applied behaviour analysis developed by lovaas

Answer 37

uses positive reinforcement to teach new skills and repress “challenging behaviours”

Question 38

what did rodgers et al find in his meta-analysis regarding ABA

Answer 38

all studies were biased / poor quality

long term impact of early intervention beyond 2 years unknown

some evidence for positibe effects on cognitive ability

Question 39

what did mcdill & robinson find from testimony of autistic adults who experienced ABA as a child

Answer 39

potential harms not captured in research

Question 40

what did kapp et al find regarding stimming

Answer 40

suppressing stimming removes a self-regulatory mechanism