Core Studies - Baron-Cohen et al.

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  • Created by: Megan
  • Created on: 29-04-13 19:36
What was the aim of Baron-Cohen's study?
To investigate whether adults with autism (and high functioning autism) would be impaired on a theory of mind task - the 'Eyes Task'. Also interested in whether clinically normal females would perform better than males in this test.
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Give one hypothesis of B-C's study
Adults with autism will get a significantly lower score on the Eyes Task (out of 25) than adults in the clinically normal condition.
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Give information about the sample in B-C's study
16 autistic participants (13 m: 3 f), mean age of 28.6yrs; 50 clinically normal participants (25 m: 25 f); 10 Tourettes participants (control group) (8 m: 2 f), aged matched. All normal of above average intelligence.
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Who was expected to perform worse on the Eyes Task and why?
The autistic participants, thought to lack a theory of mind (therefore impaired on this task)
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Give a brief overview of the Eyes Task and what it measured
Measures 'theory of mind'. 25 photographs of the eye region, participants given 3 seconds to look at each, then asked to chose which emotion could be seen from each photo (one correct option, one the exact opposite - the 'foil'). Max score of 25.
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Two control tasks were used - what were these?
The 'gender recognition task' (identifying gender from photos of eyes), and the 'basic emotion recognition task' (judging emotion by whole face).
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Give 2 results from the Eyes Task
1) Participants with autism performed significantly worse on the Eyes Task (mean score of 16.3 vs. 20.3 in normal condition); 2) Normal males performed worse on the Eyes Task than females, (mean score of 18.8 vs. 21.8)
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Give one conclusion that can be drawn from B-C's study
Autistic adults have a lack of 'theory of mind'
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Is the ecological validity of B-C's study high or low?
Low - lab setting and task were unusual to participants
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How is concurrent validity established in B-C's study?
The results from the gender recognition task and the basic emotions task gave similar results to that of the Eyes Task - evidence that they were measuring the same thing
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What kind of data was collected in B-C's study, and why is it useful?
Quantitative data; allows for comparison
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Give one hypothesis of B-C's study

Back

Adults with autism will get a significantly lower score on the Eyes Task (out of 25) than adults in the clinically normal condition.

Card 3

Front

Give information about the sample in B-C's study

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Who was expected to perform worse on the Eyes Task and why?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Give a brief overview of the Eyes Task and what it measured

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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