Baron-Cohen: Autism Eyes Test

Question 1

Define psychometrics

Answer 1

“Measurement of the mind” or “science of psychological assessment (measuring intelligence and personality through questionnaires and tests)

Question 2

What are the strengths and weaknesses of psychometrics?

Answer 2

Strengths: standardization allows for higher objectivity, reliability, and wider generalization.

Weaknesses: may lack validity because not everyone is familiar with the test, people make assumptions based on results, labels are difficult to remove, and people CHANGE.

Question 3

Define IQ

Answer 3

Intelligence quotient

-Measures intelligence based on cognitive functions (such as problem solving, memorization, reading comprehension)

(Majority of scores from 50-150)

Question 4

Define AQ

Answer 4

Autism quotient

-Measures the degree to which any individual of normal IQ possesses traits related to the autistic “spectrum”

(Self-report questionnaire scores range from 0-50)

Question 5

What are the characteristics of autism?

Answer 5

• Developmental disorder
• Starts in childhood
• Incurable
• ASD means there are different levels of autism based on the individual
• social disorder
• Asperger’s is considered a form of ASD

Question 6

What is ToM?

Answer 6

Theory of mind

-Shorthand for “the ability to attribute mental states to oneself or another person”

Stage 1: attribution of relevant mental state
Stage 2: inferring of content of that mental state

(Flawed study concluded that AS/HFA could do stage 1 but not stage 2)

Question 7

What is the Eyes Test?

Answer 7

(1997)

Used actors’ eyes to see if AS/HFA people could determine mental state using minimal physical cues

Question 8

What were the issues with the original study?

Answer 8

• Ceiling effect
• Easy items
• Gaze-perception
• Female/male ratio
• Target-foil opposites
• Unknown language

Question 9

What is the Ceiling Effect? How did they control for it in the revised study?

Answer 9

Issue: combination of word choice and narrow range issue meant too many people scored too highly which does not recognize individual differences.

Solution: having 36 items & increasing to 4 words accounted for both the ceiling effect and individual differences

Question 10

What is meant by “Easy Items”, and why was it a problem in the original study? How did they fix it?

Answer 10

Issue: inclusion of both basic mental states meant that some items were too easy and could be recognized without needing to attribute belief

Solution: fewer easier items

Question 11

What is the significance of “Gaze-Perception”? How was it a problem in the original study, and how was it remedied?

Answer 11

Issue: gaze direction was sufficient to solve some items

Solution: excluded from revised version

Question 12

How was female-male ratio a problem in the original study? How was it fixed?

Answer 12

Issue: more female than male faces

Solution: equal number of male and female faces in revised version to reduce gender bias

Question 13

What is meant by “Target-foil Opposites” and how was it a problem in the study? What did they do to fix it?

Answer 13

Issue: target & foil were always opposites–too easy

Solution: words wouldn’t be semantic opposites

Question 14

How was “unknown language” a problem in the original study, and how was it remedied?

Answer 14

Issue: requirement to map word to picture, meaning, didn’t know word

Solution: included glossary, and encouraged participants to use it if they were unsure of a word

Question 15

Name the 3 AIMs

Answer 15

1. To test a group of autistic adults to see if the revised version “works”
2. To see if there’s an inverse correlation between eyes test and AQ for a sample of adults
3. To see if females have superiority on the eyes test

Question 16

What were their five predictions?

Answer 16

1. The HFA/AS group would score lower on the eyes test than the other groups
2. AS/HFA group would score much higher on the AQ than the other groups
3. Females in the “normal” groups would score higher than males on the eyes test
4. Males in the normal group would score higher than females on the AQ
5. Scores on the AQ & eyes test would be inversely correlated (negative)

Question 17

What is the explanation of the five predictions as it relates to the AIMs?

Answer 17

Those with AS disorders score high on the AQ. One feature of AS disorders is lack of ToM, so low scores on eyes test. Should mean inverse correlation with AS people scoring high on one variable and low on the other.

Baron-Cohen suggests that autism may be due to what he calls an “Extreme Male Brain” and that males in general have more autistic tendencies.

Question 18

What method was used?

Answer 18

Natural experiment using questionnaires

Question 19

What is the design?

Answer 19

Independent groups but groups 1 & 4 were matched

Question 20

What is the apparatus?

Answer 20

The AQ, the eyes test, and a quiet room in Cambridge/Exeter

Question 21

Describe the participants and sampling.

Answer 21

Group 1 - AS/HFA (experimental)
-15 male adults with Asperger’s Syndrome or High Functioning Autistics (IQ: 115 average) found through volunteer sampling in the U.K. National Autistic Society Magazine

WAIS-R was used to assess IQ for AS/HFA and included 4 tests: block design, vocabulary, similarities, picture completion (overall score in normal range)

Group 2 - Normal adults

• 122 people with a mix of occupations
• Secondary school only, additional occupational or degree (IQ: 115 average)
• Found through opportunity sampling from adult community/education classes at Exeter and public library users at Cambridge

Group 3 - Normal adult students

• 103 Cambridge undergrads, 53 male/50 female, 71 science/32 other subjects
• ASSUMED to have high IQ
• Sampling unspecified

Group 4 - (IQ matched control) Random adults from population

• N=14
• IQ matched with group 1
• Similar in age to group 1
• IQ: 116 average
• Sampling unspecified

Question 22

How was the questionnaire designed?

Answer 22

1. 36 black and white photos of different males’ and females’ eye regions taken from a magazine
2. The images are all 15 x 10 cm
3. Each photo has 4 words that describe the mental state
4. Participant is presented with card, eyes, and words. Asked which word best describes what the person is thinking or feeling.
5. One answer is correct and the other three are foils. Number correct is shown as the overall score.

Question 23

Does this experiment have independent and dependent variables? Why or why not? If yes, what are they?

Answer 23

It has no TRUE IV/DV because it’s a correlational analysis.

BUT

Because this is an experiment, one would say that the IV is whether the participant is AS or not, and that the DV is whether they labeled correctly.

Question 24

What is the procedure?

Answer 24

1. All 4 groups given eye test in quiet room
2. Participants in groups 1, 3, & 4 are given the AQ
3. Group 1 also has to judge gender

Question 25

What type of data was collected?

Answer 25

Quantitative, considering that the results from the eyes test and the AQ were purely numerical due to a lack of open-ended questions

Question 26

What did they find?

Answer 26

All predictions were supported.

Group 1 had the lowest eyes test score and the lowest AQ score.

Females in groups 2 & 3 scored higher on the eyes test but NOT significantly

Males in groups 2 & 3 scored higher on the AQ but NOT significantly

Inverse correlation between AQ and eyes test

Question 27

What did they conclude?

Answer 27

Previous research on the ToM was supported, and people with AS/HFA have some degree of weakness when working through ToM.

Question 28

What were the evaluation issues?

Answer 28

Ecological validity
-pictures vs. real life

Nature vs. nurture

• What causes lack of ToM?
• Why would gender be used to explain?

Designing an alternative study