Individual differences area: Baron-Cohen

Question 1

What is autism?

Answer 1

A lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with and related to other people

Question 2

What are the ‘triads of impairment’?

Answer 2

Social communication, social interactions, social imagination

Question 3

Describe social communication in terms of being part of the triad of impairment

Answer 3

May not read a p’s face or tone of voice and may have difficulty understanding jokes

Question 4

Describe social interactions in terms of being part of the triad of impairment

Answer 4

May behave in a way deemed to be inappropriate (e.g. stand to close)

Question 5

Describe social imagination in terms of being a part of the triad of impairment

Answer 5

Find it hard to predict what might happen next or anticipate danger

Question 6

Define theory of mind

Answer 6

The ability to understand others’ mental states and that others have independent minds of their own

Question 7

What is the ceiling effect?

Answer 7

A task that is too simple, it doesn’t show full potential of someone’s ability (or inability)

Question 8

What is tourette sydrome?

Answer 8

A neurological disorder characterised by tics - sudden involuntary movements or vocalisations

Question 9

What was Baron-Cohen’s hypothesis in terms of the adults with autism?

Answer 9

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)

Question 10

What was Baron-Cohen’s hypothesis in terms of the normal population?

Answer 10

Females would perform better on the eyes task than males

Question 11

What was the ‘condition’ of group 1?

Answer 11

Autism/Asperges

Question 12

How large was the sample size of group 1?

Answer 12

16

Question 13

What was the age range of group 1?

Answer 13

18-49

Question 14

What was the IQ level of group 1?

Answer 14

Normal

Question 15

How was the sample from group 1 obtained?

Answer 15

From clinical sources and from an advert in communication magazine

Question 16

Why was the sample from group 1 included?

Answer 16

To see if autistic adults could not assess mental states via an eye task

Question 17

What was the ‘condition’ of group 2?

Answer 17

‘Normal’

Question 18

What was the sample size of group 2?

Answer 18

50

Question 19

What was the gender mix of group 2?

Answer 19

25 males and 25 females

Question 20

What was the mean age of group 2?

Answer 20

30

Question 21

What was the age range of group 2?

Answer 21

18-48

Question 22

What was the IQ level of group 2?

Answer 22

Normal

Question 23

How was the sample from group 2 obtained?

Answer 23

General population from Cambridge

Question 24

Why was the sample from group 2 included?

Answer 24

As a control group and to see if females are better than males at the eyes task

Question 25

What was the 'condition' of group 3?

Answer 25

Tourettes syndrome

Question 26

What was the sample size of group 3?

Answer 26

10

Question 27

What was the age range of group 3?

Answer 27

18-47

Question 28

What was the IQ level of group 3?

Answer 28

Normal

Question 29

How was the sample from group 3 obtained?

Answer 29

Attending a referral clinic in London

Question 30

Why was group 3 included?

Answer 30

As a control - Tourette's adults would also have their life disrupted/a similar genetically developed disorder

Question 31

What was the IV of Baron-Cohen's study?

Answer 31

Impairment or not: Autism/Aspergers, Normal, Tourettes

Question 32

Where were P's tested?

Answer 32

In a quiet room, at home, in the researchers clinic or in a lab at the university

Question 33

Why were the 4 tasks given in a random order?

Answer 33

To reduce order effects

Question 34

Why were the 2 control tasks only completed by those with Autism/AS?

Answer 34

To check whether they had any basic processing or perception problems which would influence their ability to complete the theory of mind eyes task

Question 35

How many photos were used in the eyes task?

Answer 35

25

Question 36

How long was each photo presented for in the eyes task?

Answer 36

3 seconds

Question 37

Were were the photos sourced from in the eyes task?

Answer 37

Magazines

Question 38

What was the condition and the size of the photographs in the eyes task?

Answer 38

15 x 10cm black and white photo of the eye region

Question 39

What were P's asked to do in the eyes task?

Answer 39

Pick which word (out of 2) best described how the person in the photo was feeling

Question 40

What were the 2 options that were given in the eyes task?

Answer 40

Semantic opposites (e.g. Happy thought or Sad thought)

Question 41

Who decided what the semantic opposites would be?

Answer 41

4 judges

Question 42

How did the 4 judges come to a decision of the semantic opposites?

Answer 42

In open discussion with one another

Question 43

How did they ensure that the choices made by the initial 4 judges was accurate?

Answer 43

They showed the photos with the choices to another 8 judges unaware of the aims and they rated the target words

Question 44

What were the strange stories?

Answer 44

They were 2 examples of 12 story types in which P's were asked why the character said what they said in the story

Question 45

Give 5 examples of the 12 story types?

Answer 45

Lie, white lie, joke, figure of speech and irony

Question 46

What did the character do in the strange stories?

Answer 46

They would say something which is not literally true

Question 47

How were answers in the strange stories tasks rated?

Answer 47

As correct or incorrect and either involving mental states/psychological factors or physical states

Question 48

What were the 2 control tasks?

Answer 48

Gender recognition and basic emotion recognition

Question 49

Describe the gender recognition task

Answer 49

Same eyes in the eyes task were shown and P's had to identify the gender of the person

Question 50

Describe the basic emotion recognition task

Answer 50

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

Question 51

What was the mean score of group 1 (autism) on the eyes task?

Answer 51

16.3

Question 52

What was the mean score of group 2 (normal) on the eyes task?

Answer 52

20.3

Question 53

What was the mean score of group 3 (tourettes) on the eyes task?

Answer 53

20.4

Question 54

What was the difference in mean score between 'normal' males and females on the eyes task?

Answer 54

Males - 18.8 | Females - 20.8

Question 55

What were the results in terms of the strange stories task and the control tasks?

Answer 55

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

Question 56

What was the type of data collected?

Answer 56

Quantitative

Question 57

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?

Answer 57

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

Question 58

What is a weakness of the sample in the autism group?

Answer 58

Quite a small sample so difficult to generalise (especially females although this does represent actual rates of autism)

Question 59

Which ethical guidelines did Baron-Cohen uphold?

Answer 59

Consent | Withdrawal - P's could stop answering questions

Question 60

Which ethical guidelines did Baron-Cohen break?

Answer 60

Protection from harm if P's worried about giving the wrong answer Debrief - not mentioned

Question 61

To what extent is Baron-Cohen's study ethnocentric?

Answer 61

Autism/Tourettes occurs across all cultures however cultural differences may impact one's ability to read emotion (e.g. Muslim women wearing a Niqab)

Question 62

Was the procedure controlled and standardised? (internal reliability)

Answer 62

Yes - same photos and same instructions

Question 63

How did Baron-Cohen address issues of reliability in the construction of the eyes task? (internal reliability)

Answer 63

Results were consistent between judges so ensured answers were correct

Question 64

Was the sample large enough to check for consistency? (external reliability)

Answer 64

Quite small sample of Autistic and Tourettes

Question 65

Why was the 'forced choice' nature of the eyes task a problem? (internal validity)

Answer 65

Only 2 choices were given so P's could've guessed - are people with Autism just less good at guessing

Question 66

How did the use of the strange stories help to improve validity? (concurrent validity)

Answer 66

Allowed B-C to test the eyes task was actually measuring how autism affects perception

Question 67

Was it actually theory of mind that the eyes task was testing? (construct validity)

Answer 67

Effective use of matching participants and checks to see that it was not just a general deficit (through use of the control tasks)

Question 68

Did the eyes task resemble real life? (ecological validity)

Answer 68

Not really, normally we see someone's whole face in colour and other clues would suggest a persons emotions