Lecture 3: Peterson Study: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder are skilled at reading emotion body language [test 2]

Question 1

t/f- there is solid evidence to suggest that people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulty perceiving emotional expressions

Answer 1

false- mixed evidence

Question 2

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopment disorder involving deficits in these 3 domains:

Answer 2

1. interpersonal communication
2. social interaction
3. repetitive mannerisms and interests

Question 3

some argue that ASD includes reduced emotional competence during social exchanges, and that individuals with ASD display impaired recognition and expression of affect. Comment on the strength of the evidence for this

Answer 3

mixed

Question 4

3 main methodological issues that plague research of ASD in relation to affect recognition/perception

Answer 4

1. focus has been on adults and older adolescents
2. small sample sizes
3. stimuli often include eyes or face alone to indicate target emotions (excluded the body)

Question 5

BONUS: t/f- in 48 meta analyses, only 29% included children with ASD aged 12 or younger AND only 4/14 studies looking at child samples had samples of at least 15

Answer 5

true

Question 6

BONUS: t/f- another bias in literature on ASD and emotional perception is the inclusion of participants diagnosed with ASD who are skilled in verbal abilities. Those individuals diagnosed with ASD who are non-verbal are often excluded from research studies, since they often cannot understand instructions or perform the needed tasks correctly (often requires some verbalization of responses)

Answer 6

true

Question 7

t/f- the goal of Peterson’s study was to compare the ability to recognize emotions displayed via body postures to the ability to recognize emotions displayed in the eyes in children with ASD, something which has not been done before

Answer 7

true

Question 8

t/f- the Peterson study did NOT have differences in age or verbal IQ between children with ASD and control participants

Answer 8

true

Question 9

in the Peterson study, researchers used a False Belief task- 2 changed location tasks (2 trials of the Sally-Ann). These tasks involved watching a video of a girl putting a ball in a basket, leaving the room, then having a boy come in the room and move the ball to a box (task 1) or the experimenter’s pocket (task 2). Participants were then asked these 3 questions:

Answer 9

1. when the girl returns, where will she look for ball?
2. where is the ball now?
3. where did she put the ball first?

Question 10

in order to pass the false belief changed-location “Sally-Ann” task, participants must correctly answer

a. one question
b. two questions
c. all three questions

Answer 10

c. all three questions

Question 11

the Theory of Mind encompasses 5 concepts that develop in a sequential progression through development: rank in order from earliest to latest to acquire:
knowledge access, diverse beliefs, hidden emotion, false belief, diverse desires

Answer 11

1) diverse desires
2) diverse beliefs
3) knowledge access
4) false belief
5) hidden emotion

Question 12

the Theory of Mind encompasses 5 concepts that develop in a sequential progression through development. Children in the Peterson study were given a score based on their performance on these 5 components. Define each:

1) diverse desires
2) diverse beliefs
3) knowledge access
4) false belief
5) hidden emotion

Answer 12

1. diverse desires- awareness that people can have both different and incompatible desires
2. diverse beliefs- gaining understanding that different people may have different opinions, which are each potentially true
3. knowledge access- understanding that a person who hasn’t seen something will be ignorant about it
4. false belief- assessed in standard misleading container false belief task (see prev slide)
5. hidden emotion - understanding that deliberate manipulation of facial expressions can mask true emotions

Question 13

the Peterson study included the Reading in Mind in the Eyes Test (RMEC)- describe

Answer 13

test involving looking at a black/white photo of the eye and brow region of a face with 4 emotion labels printed around corners, and participants having to choose which emotion best describes the image

Question 14

the Peterson study used the Body-Emotion test- describe

Answer 14

photos shown of faceless body postures exhibiting one of the 6 basic emotions (exclusion contempt), participants given 4 response choices for each item, and have to identify which given emotion best describes the image

Question 15

how did the Peterson study measure empathetic helpfulness?

a. had the children complete self reports
b. the researchers collected behavioural data during recess
c. children’s main class teacher rated children on empathy assessment

Answer 15

c. children’s main class teacher rated children on empathy assessment

Question 16

the Peterson study used the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, a common receptive vocabulary test, to measure Verbal IQ- describe the test

Answer 16

participants hear words and point the corresponding picture that the word describes (from a series of 4 choices)

Question 17

t/f- when data distribution is not normally distributed, we need to use nonparametric stats to analyze data

Answer 17

true

Question 18

in the Peterson study, what were the results of the Body-Emotion test?

a. typically developing (TD) group did better than ASD group
b. TD group did worse than ASD group
c. there was no difference between TD and ASD group
d. TD group did better, but only in female participants

Answer 18

c. there was no difference between TD and ASD group (shocking result- much research suggests that children with ASD have issues with emotional perception)

Question 19

the Peterson study found no difference between typically developing and ASD group on the Body-Emotion test. Why might it be that so many past studies found conflicting results wherein ASD participants showed issues with emotional perception?

Answer 19

these past studies focused only on the face, without taking body into consideration

Question 20

there was no difference between the typically developing (TD) and ASD group on the Body emotion test, and…

a. there were no gender differences in the ASD group
b. females did better on the assessment in the TD group
c. both of these
d. neither of these

Answer 20

c. both of these

Question 21

in the Peterson study, typically developing (TD) children did better than children with ASD on…

a. RMEC test (Reading in Mind in the Eyes test)
b. TToM (total theory of mind)
c. teacher rated empathetic helpfulness scale
d. Body-Emotion test
e. all but d

Answer 21

e. all but d

Question 22

children in both the typically developing and ASD groups scored higher on the…

a. Body Emotion test
b. RMEC test (Reading in Mind in the Eyes test)

Answer 22

a. Body Emotion test

Question 23

t/f- in the Peterson study, VIQ scores were not associated with Body-Emotion scores or RMEC scores for the TD or ASD kids.

Answer 23

true

Question 24

t/f- in the Peterson study, Chronological age was not significantly associated with Body-Emotion scores or RMEC scores among the ASD group, but was associated with Body-Emotion scores among children in the TD group

Answer 24

true (note that control (TD) group was younger though)

Question 25

in the Peterson study, Theory of Mind was associated with Body-Emotion scores in the…

a. ASD group
b. TD group
c. both
d. neither

Answer 25

c. both

Question 26

t/f- in the Peterson study, Empathy was not associated with Body-Emotion scores, RMEC scores or ToM for either ASD or TD group, and for the ASD group, this suggests that once ASD children reach age/level of intellectual maturity, they aren’t prevented from behaving empathetically by an inability to perceive other people’s distress/emotions

Answer 26

true