| + Background to the study | - Baron Cohen developed the Sally Anne test (study in 1985), which was a simple task designed to test Theory of Mind in children up to 6. It showed that children with autism did lack a theory of mind |
| Autism disorder | - Cognitive deficit, impaired theory of mind |
| Define theory of mind | - Ability to understand that others have different feelings/mental states to our own |
| Define core cognitive deficit | - Lack of main cognitive functions |
| Ceiling effect | - When test items are too easy for a group of individuals, so too many people do very well |
| Background | - No evidence that proves autistic people do/don't have a theory of mind
- Adults have been tested in the past, had difficulty with mental state stories |
| Aim | - To test theory of mind
- To extend Happé's research
- Use more appropriate test to assess ToM |
| Design | - Quasi experiment
- Matched pairs design (on age and IQ)
- Snapshot study |
| DV | - Performance on eyes task out of 25 |
| How was the DV measured | - Showing ppts 25 standardised photos of eye region
- Had to choose between 2 words to best describe the feelings/thoughts of the person |
| The three groups | Group 1: Autism
Group 2: Normal (control)
Group 3: Tourette (control) |
| IV | - Whether they had autism/as, Tourette's syndrome or were normal adults |
| Group 1 | - 16 people with High functioning autism
- Self-selected sample from an advertisement in the National Autistic Society magazine
-13 males, 3 females |
| Group 2 | - 50 people age-matched
- Normal IQ
- 25 males + females
- Normal sample (subject panel from Cambridge) |
| Group 3 | - 10 people with Tourette syndrome
- Self-selected sample from a clinic in London
- Age matched with group 1,2
- Abnormalities in the frontal lobe (like autism)
- 8 males, 2 females |
| Why was the Tourette's group chosen? | - Similar to autism |
| Reasons Tourette's is similar to autism | - Causes disruption in relationships, social
- Abnormalities in the frontal lobe (like autism)
- Affects more males than females
- Developmental disorder from childhood |
| Materials | - Showing ppts 25 standardised photos of eye region
- Had to choose between 2 words to best describe the feelings/thoughts of the person
- Black and white
- Shown for 3 sec |
| How did Baron-Cohen show how young children with autism lack a theory of mind? | - Through their Sally-Anne test |
| Problem with Sally-Anne test | - Not sensitive enough to test theory of mind in autistic adults
(ceiling effect) |
| Procedure | - Eyes task
- Strange stories task
- Control task
- Done in random order
- Tested individually in a quiet room either in their home or in the researchers lab at Cambridge uni |
| How validity checked on the eyes task | - 8 independent judges choose the target + foil
-100% agreement
- Use of Happe's strange stories, already existing (and proven reliable) task, thus a concurrent validity check |
| Name for real answer | - Target |
| =Name for false answer | - Foil |
| 3 examples of target and foil words as given in the eyes task | Target: Concerned
Foil: Unconcerned
Target: sad thought
Foil: happy thought
Target: Attraction
Foil: Repulsion |
| Strange Stories task | - Group 1,3 in order to prove the Eyes Task is a test of ToM
- If valid, should correlate significantly (concurrent validity)
- Questions on what the character was thinking + physical events |
| Control tasks | - Gender recognition eyes task
- Basic emotion recognition |
| Gender recognition of eyes | - Had to identify the gender of the eyes
- Face perception |
| Basic emotion recognition task (EKMAN) | - Had identify basic emotions in whole faces
- 4 tasks in random order
- To check the difficulties of eyes task |
| 6 basic emotions in EKMAN | - Happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgust, surprise |
| Group 1 results | - 16.3 |
| Group 2 results | - 20.3 |
| Group 3 results | - 20.4 |
| Overall results | - Ceiling effect: some p's in TS and control group had max scores
- Normal females performed significantly better than normal males on Eyes Task
- Normal males were significantly better than the AS males |
| Result of strange stories | - AS group had more difficulty with this task than TS group
- Supports the validity of Eyes Task as a test for autism |
| Control conditions | - Shows they could perceive facial features
- And basic emotion from eyes |
| Suggestions from the results | - AS adults had an impaired ToM, despite having normal intelligence
- Females do better males on ToM tests |
| Suggestions from the results on AS impairment | - Not due to low IQ
- No link between ToM and frontal lobe processes
- Evidence of ToM deficits |
| Criticism of Eyes Task | - There were only a choice of 2 words
- The answer could be a 50/50 guess |
| Ecological validity | - ToM is much simpler than real life situations, people are in motion
- Only eyes, unrealistic |
| Strength of method | - Control groups, acts as baseline, allows to compare
- Matched design: p's variables were controlled |
| Weakness of method | - Quasi: not controlled
- Cannot claim that the IV caused change in DV: AS amy not cause ToM deficit |
| Strengths of eyes task | - Objective test on paper, reduces bias
- No differences between photographs, reducing bias |
| Weakness of eyes task | - May have not been measuring ToM
- Researchers ask p's questions, questions may vary, bias |
| Reliability | - Standardised, replicable |
| Ethnocentrism | - British sample, Western perspective
- Autism may be associated with normal behaviour in some cultures
- Ethnocentric as the lack of social interaction is a problem to be solved |
| Strength of sampling bias | - Self-selected sample
- Previous test only looks at children
- Deficit cannot be explained in terms of immaturity |
| Ethics | - Consent, issues people lacking ToM "vulnerable group"
- Protection from harm, might have felt labelled by the task
- Debriefed |
| Differences between Freud and Baron-Cohen | Freud
- Case study
- Low reliability + replicability
- Qualitative data
Baron-Cohen
- Snapshot study
- High reliability + replicability
- Quantitative data |
| Similarities | - Focuses on understanding disorders
- Useful in training therapists + professionals |
| How does the contemporary study of improve our understanding of the key theme? | - BC shows other ways of understanding disorders
- Explored whether it is a cognitive deficit that is central to autism
- Experimental method can be used to achieve understanding
- F only studies 1 child, in own environment, results are collected by his father
- BC looked at 3 different groups, shows there are other explanations |
| How does the contemporary study improve our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity? INDIVIDUAL DIVERSITY | - Both develop understanding of ID + why behaviour may differ
- BC analysed specific characteristics that lead to changes in behaviour over a more sustained period of time
- F explaining reason some individuals experienced phobias for a relatively shorter period of time |
| How does the contemporary study improve our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity? SOCIAL DIVERSITY | - BC does not give further information about social diversity, nor does Freud’s |
| How does the contemporary study improve our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity? CULTURAL DIVERSITY | - BC in UK, suggests that Aspergers can be explained in the same way across other cultures
- However, like Freud, this research only focused on one culture |
