OCR AS Psychology: Core Studies - Baron-Cohen (3)

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  • Created by: Majid
  • Created on: 14-03-13 21:06

Baron-Cohen (3)

Advanced Theory of Mind Tests - Stange Stories Task: Happe developed a more advanced theory of mind test called the strange stories task which was designed for a normal 8-9 year old. The task involved a story comprehension, where the key question in the task either concerned a character's mental states (experimental condition) or physical events (control condition). It was found that both adults with Autism and Asperger syndrome had more difficulty with the mental state task than "normal" control participants.

Baron-Cohen developed a new test designed for adults. The Eyes Task. This task involves inferring the mental state of a person just from the info in a photograph of the person's eyes. This test aims to assess "mind reading" and Baron-Cohen argues that this is essentially the same as theory of mind.

Aim: To test if high functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome would be impaired on the Theory of Mind test called "The Eyes Task". Also they wanted to see if females performed better than males on the Eyes task.

M&P: Quasi experiment; IV = Characteristics of the participants/the group they were in (Whether they had autism or Asperger syndrome); DV = Performance on the advanced theory of mind test (Eyes task); Tourette's syndrome is a neurological condition and are involuntary and uncontrollable sounds and movements; researcher's included participants with Tourette's because they have similarities with autism and Asperger's as they're both developmental disorders experienced since childhood.

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