baron- cohen

Background:

Possible explanation for ASD

Theory of mind- understanding that someone else has a separate mind to your own. Understanding of facial expressions

Tested TOM using the Sally Anne test previously - autistic children lacked TOM.

Aims

• see if adults with ASD had a theory of mind using the eyes task as the test

• Expected that only ASD adult would be impaired on the eyes task compared to control groups

Method

Quasi experiment - IV not manipulated

Matched participant design

Snapshot study

Sample

Group 1 - Autism/ AS normal intelligence 16. Self selected sample from an advertisement

Group 2 - 50 “ normal “ adults age matched. Random sample - university of Cambridge

Group 3 - Tourette syndrome 10 total self selected from clinic in London

2 + 3 acted as controls

Materials

Photographs of the eye region - 25 different faces

Standardised photos- 15X10 cm and all black and white

Participants had to identify mental state of person by choosing 1 of 2 terms

Procedure

DV = score on tasks

Eyes - tested in a quiet room or at home

Strange stories - AS and TS tested on Happé task

Asked what the characters were feeling

gender recognition of eyes - control

AS had to identify gender of eyes

Basic emotion recognition task - AS has to identify basic emotions in whole faces - show they knew emotional states

Test presented in random orders

Results

Autism/ AS group - mean score 16.3/25 ( worst )

Normal and TS got 20.3 and 20.4

Ceiling effect - some participants scored full marks ( Normal/TS)

Normal females did better than normal males on eyes task (21.8 vs 18.8 )

Conclusions

Adults with autism/ AS may lack a TOM

Not due to intelligence or frontal lobe damage ( TS functioned normally with similar brain development )

Gender differences - genetic or because girls socialise differently