Baron-Cohen
- Created by: Catherine
- Created on: 19-05-14 11:31
View mindmap
- Baron-Cohen
- Aim; To produce an adult test to asses Theory of Mind, (TOM)
- There were three groups in the study, who are the independent variable
- Group 1; consisted of 16 adults with high functioning autism or Aspergers' syndrome 13:3 (M:F). They were recruited through adverts in doctors' surgeries, clincs and direct mailing
- Group 2; consisted of 50 "normal" age-matched adults drawn from the Cambridge area but without directs links to the univeristy 25:25 ( M:F)
- Group 3; consisted of 10 adults with Tourettes sydrome, 8:2 (M:F) , selected through group 1
- Results; All the groups scored identically on the gender recogition task and the basic emotion task showing there wasn't a cognitive defecit
- The scores on the eyes task and Happes strange stories task were similar for the Tourette's Syndrome and the "normal" group but the autism/Aspergers group scored significantly lower
- In addition "normal" females scored better than "normal" males
- The scores on the eyes task and Happes strange stories task were similar for the Tourette's Syndrome and the "normal" group but the autism/Aspergers group scored significantly lower
- Method; Quasi expermental method as IV isn't occuring
- Design; Independent measures design although there is matching on some variables
- Procedure; Each particpant carried out two control tasks to ensure there was no cognitive decifit. The first was a gender recognition task where the particpants asked the gender of 25 faces from black white photos of only the eyes and mid nose area.
- The second was a basic emotion task where the participant had to study photographs of the whole face where one of the six basic emotions were displayed, such as happy, sad, fear, anger, disgust or surprise
- In the eyes task, participants had used the same photos in the gender recognition task but had to select the correct emotion being displayed with a foil term as a alternative e.g happy/ sad
- Finally participants had to Happes Strange Stories Test which was an already valid test of theory of mind
- In the eyes task, participants had used the same photos in the gender recognition task but had to select the correct emotion being displayed with a foil term as a alternative e.g happy/ sad
- The second was a basic emotion task where the participant had to study photographs of the whole face where one of the six basic emotions were displayed, such as happy, sad, fear, anger, disgust or surprise
- Conclusion: This study shows that the eyes task is a valid Theory of Mind (TOM), as it has conurrent validily with Happes strange stories test
- EVALUATION; asking participants to find out which emotion being displayed makes it low in ecological validilty
Comments
No comments have yet been made