Baron Cohen et al.

Theories the study is based on: 

Triad of Impairments: 

Some difficulties that people with autism may experience are sometimes known as the triad of impairments: 

1. Difficulties with social communication: 

   • May not be able to 'read' facial expressions or understand sarcasm 

2. Difficulties with social interaction: 

   • May behave in ways others find / would deem inappropriate 

3. Difficulties with social imagination: 

   • May find it difficult to predict what would happen next or anticipate danger 

 

The most influential theory of autism in recent years maintains that what all autistic people have in common (the core deficit) is mind blindness (Baron-Cohen, 1990), a severe impairment in their understanding of mental states and in their appreciation of how mental states govern behaviour. They have a lack of 'theory of mind' (TOM).  

Because autistic individuals fail to develop the ability to attribute mental states to other people, fundamental implications arise for communication, where making sense of other's intentions enables the listener to understand what is being said (inferred/intended). (Baron-Cohen, 1955a). 

Individuals diagnosed with autism show a tremendous variation in the degree to which they are affected. To address this issue, a 'spectrum of autism' was devised. Difficulties experienced by children, judged in relation to set criteria, allow them to be placed within the spectrum

Those with Asperger Syndrome show the same characteristics of autism but are of average or above average intelligence appear to have good communication skills, though this may not be the case.

Autism: 

Autism can co-occur with other learning disabilities, people can also be diagnosed with 'high functioning autism'. 

 

Asperger syndrome is another disorder that is on the autistic spectrum. It is similar to high-functioning autism with the main difference appearing to be the way those with high-functioning autism will have experienced a delay in language development at an earlier age (not the case typically for Asperger syndrome). 

 

Theory of mind – the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them (e.g. beliefs, desires and intentions). 

Sally-Anne Task: 

Sally has a marble, puts it in her basket and goes for a walk.  
Anne takes the marble and puts it in her box. 

The children were asked where Sally would look for her marble. 
Only 4/20 autistic children answered correctly saying Sally would look in her basket, showing that autistic children do not have theory of mind. 

Background to the study: 

• Some evidence suggests that a TOM deficit is not a core cognitive deficit in autism. However, no conclusive evidence has yet shown that individuals such as adults with 'high functioning autism' or Asperger Syndrome (AS) have an intact TOM. This is because usual tests to assess TOM have a ceiling in developmental terms corresponding to the mental age of about 6 years. Therefore, although existing TOM tests are challenging for 6 year olds, they are far too easy for adults who all pass even though they may not have a fully functioning TOM. 

• Happé (1994) tested adults with autism or AS on an 'advanced' TOM task and found her participants had more difficulty with her mental state stories (Happé's strange stories) than matched controls. 

• Baron-Cohen et al built on Happé's research by using an adult test to assess the theory of mind competence in high-functioning autistic or AS adults. 

Aim: 

To test whether adults with high-functioning autism and Aspergers Syndrome would struggle to identify emotions from photographs of eyes (The Eyes Task). 

Sample: 

Three groups of participants were tested: 

• Group 1: 16 individuals with high-functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome (HFA=4, AS=12). The sex ratio was 13 : 3 (m : f). All were of normal intelligence and were recruited through an advert in the National Autistic magazine and a variety of clinical sources. 

• Group 2: 50 normal age-matched adults (25m:25f), drawn from the subject panel of the university department comprising of the general population of Cambridge (excluding members of the university). 

• Group 3: 10 adults with Tourette Syndrome also age-matched with groups 1 and 2. The sex ratio was 8:2 (m : f). All were of normal intelligence and were recruited from a tertiary referral centre in London. 

Research Method: 

• This is a quasi-experiment because the IV – type of person likely to have TOM deficits (adults with high-functioning autism/AS, normal adults and adults with Tourette Syndrome) - was naturally occurring so could not be manipulated or controlled by the researchers. The DV was the performance (score out of 25) on the Eyes Task; measured by showing each participant 25, black and white, standardised photographs of the eye region of faces (male and female) and asking them to make a forced choice between two mental state words (target and foil) to best describe what the person in the photograph was thinking or feeling. 

• The study used an independent measures design. All participants were considered to be of normal intelligence. 

Outline of the procedure: 

1. The Eyes Task – participants were shown 25 photographs for 3 seconds each. They were taken from magazines, all in black and white and standardised to 15x10cm. The photographs were taken of the eye region of a person's face and the participants were asked 'Which word best describes how this person is thinking/feeling?' Underneath each photograph, there were 2 mental state terms they had to choose from (always semantic opposites). The photographs were all different m/f faces. 

2. Strange Stories Task – participants are presented with 2 examples of each of the 12 story types. These include: lie, white lie, joke, figure of speech and irony. In each story, a character says something that is not literally true and the participant is asked why the character said what they did, e.g. "Anna breaks a vase, her mother will be cross. Anna tells her 'the dog knocked it over'" (correct answer: lie). Answers are scored correct / incorrect and either involve mental / psychological factors e.g. 'said it to fool her' or involving physical states 'because the dog is big'.* 

3. Gender recognition task – participants look at the same set of eyes that were used in the eyes task, but this time their task is to identify the gender of the person in each photograph. The maximum score on this test was 25. ** 

4. Basic emotion recognition task – participants were shown photographs of whole faces. Six faces were used and they displayed the 6 basic emotions (based on categories proposed by Ekman in 1992). These were happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgust and surprise. ** 

*groups 1 and 3 only 

**control task to ensure autistic p's didn’t have visual problems 

Key findings: 

• The mean score for adults with TS (20.4) was not significantly different from normal adults (20.3) but both were significantly higher than the autism/AS mean score (16.3). 

• Normal females performed significantly better than normal males on the Eyes Task (mean 21.8 versus 18.8) but the normal males were significantly better than the autism/AS group (mean 18.8 versus 16.3). 

• The autism/AS group made significantly more errors on the Strange Stories task than either one of the groups. 

• On the Gender and Emotion control tasks, there was no difference between the groups. 

• Within the autism/AS group, there was no significant correlation between IQ and performance on the Eyes Task. 

• On Happé's Strange Stories, no participants with TS made any errors, but those with autism/AS were significantly impaired, making many errors. 

Result from the eyes task

Condition	Mean score /25	Range of scores
Autistic/AS	16.3	13-23
Normal	20.3	16-25
TS	20.4	16-25

Possible Conclusions: 

• Contrary to previous research with adults, these results seem to provide evidence that adults with autism/AS do possess an impaired theory of mind. 

• As some of the autism/AS group hold university degrees and were all of normal intelligence, it is reasonable to suggest that TOM deficits are independent of general intelligence.  

• Theory of mind is not affected by Tourette Syndrome. 

• Those who found the eyes task and the strange stories task difficult shows evidence for the validity of the eyes task – the eyes task is a valid test for theory of mind for adults with high functioning autism. 

Strengths: 

• Concurrent validity (two tests used – Strange Stories and Eyes Task) 

• Quantitative data – made it possible for results to be compared across the different conditions 

• Standardised instructions (same faces and eyes every time) 

Limitations: 

• Different locations may cause anxiety/stress in people with autism and Tourette's, so could be a variable that impacts the results 

• Qualitative data might have been helpful in illuminating why the participants chose the particular mental states in the eyes task 

• Participants may have felt under pressure and performed differently as a result