Unit 2; Core Studies; Baron-Cohen et al

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  • Baron-Cohen et al
    • Background: autism affects social interaction/ communication/ imagination
      • Strange Stories task was previous method to assess autism
    • Aim: create test for theory of mind in adults; would autistic aduts have less ToM?; would females do better?
    • IV: condition of participant DV: score on task
    • Sample
      • 76;16 w autism 50 'normal' 10 w Tourette's
      • sampled by magazine ads, clinical referrals, opportunity in Cambridge
      • included tourette's as similar disorder to Autism
    • Procedure
      • each condition was tested on the Eye's Task & the Strange Stories task
      • Autism group tested on gender recognition & that of basic emotion
        • to check they didn't have an other disorder
      • Eye's Task: 25 black & white photos of eyes shown for 3 seconds
        • person had to identify emotion between 2 given opposites
      • Strange Stories: told 2 (/12) stories & asked why character said something not literally true e.g. sarcasm
    • Results
      • Mean scores; Autism: 16.3 'Normal': 20.3 Tourette:20.4 out of 25
      • 'Normal' men vs women; Men:18.8 Women: 21.8
      • no problems in the recognition tasks
    • Conclusions
      • Autism impairs theory of mind
      • Women have better ToM than men
    • Ethics: broke deception, protection form harm (may have got angry if didn't know answer)
    • Ethnocentrism: autism doesn't change per culture but has varying priorities
      • Muslim women wear Niqab so could be better at Eye's Task
    • Reliability & Validity
      • IR: high inter-rater as 4 people decided on pics & words
      • ER: 'normal' gave reliable effect, sample of A & T was too small
      • IV: forced between 2 words, compared with old task
      • EV: similar to real life but diiferences
    • Links to Debates: nature vs nurture
      • can't  help genetic disorders, born with them
    • Summary
      • Relates to individual differences area as studied differences in theory of mind
      • Relates to understanding disorders as those with autism have poor ToM

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