Baron-Cohen et al.

 Baron-Cohen et al.

The main aim of this experiment was to investigate if high functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome would be impaired on a theory of mind test called the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task’

The researchers were also interested to find out if females would be better than males on the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task’

Three groups of participants were tested – participants with high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome, ‘normal’ adults’ and participants with Tourette syndrome.

Group 1 consisted of sixteen participants with high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome. They were all of normal intelligence. There were 13 men and 3 women.

Group 2 consisted of fifty age-matched controls (25 male and 25 female) with no history of psychiatric disorder and presumed to be of normal intelligence.

Group 3 consisted of ten participants with Tourette…