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level: Baron-Cohen (ID)

Questions and Answers List

level questions: Baron-Cohen (ID)

QuestionAnswer
+ 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 groupsGroup 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 taskTarget: 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-CohenFreud - 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