Baron and Cohen A level Psychology PDF

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Psychology notes from the cognitive approach from the syllabus which help understand the topic at a summary level....

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BARON-COHEN et al. (2001) AIM: To test if the revised version of ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ task would be successful at differentiating participants with Asperger’s Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism from the general population → AS and HFA participants would be impaired at the task HYPOTHESIS: a testable statement • Participants with AS or HFA will have lower scores on the task (this would show a lack of ‘theory of mind’ in these participants) • Participants with AS or HFA will have higher scores on the Autism Spectrum Quotient Test (AQ) measure • Females in the adult and student comparison group will score higher on the task than males in the same group (this would show females have more ‘theory of mind’) • Males in the student comparison group will score higher on the AQ than females (this would show mild autistic traits generally in males) • The scores on the AQ and eyes task will be negatively correlated (the more up the scores will go on one measure, the more down on the other: more autistic traits in an individual means less ‘theory of mind’) BACKGROUND: Autism is a condition characterized by challenges in social skills, impaired verbal and non-verbal communication and lack of imaginative abilities. Individuals with autism, therefore, struggle with understanding the intentions of others, realizing what they experience and lack empathy. Baron-Cohen named this decreased cognitive process a lack of ‘theory of mind’ – they cannot impersonate others. To measure the ‘theory of mind’ of individuals with autism, Baron-Cohen et al. came up with the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ task, where participants would be evaluated on their ability to label others’ emotions by observing their eye expressions on photographs. Some issues with the initial form of the task were: only two choices of answers for each emotion and usually they were antonyms (high possibility of giving a correct answer by chance), only 25 examples which created a ceiling effect (test was too easy and individuals with autism would score similarly to those without), the ratio between the number of male and female on the photographs was imbalanced, some emotion description were not familiar to the participants (difficult to understand and make the right choice), some emotions could be easily labeled by checking the direction of gaze. RESEARCH METHOD: The experiment was conducted in a laboratory setting but because the independent variable was naturally occurring (whether participants had AS or HFA), it was a quasi(natural) experiment. DV was the test scores/results on the eyes task and AQ test

RESEARCH DESIGN: The experiment had an individual groups design since the participants took part in only one of the four groups. VARIABLES: The independent variable was the type of participant in each condition – either they had AS or HFA or not; for the control group – their IQ and social background The dependent variable was the scores on the AQ and the eyes task SAMPLE: There were four participant groups in the experiment: • Group 1. AS/HFA participants – 15 adults recruited by volunteer sampling using an advert in the Autistic Society magazine, they were diagnosed by the DSM or ICD criteria, their mean IQ was 115 (matched with Group 4) and mean age 30 • Group 2. Adult comparison group – 122 adults recruited by opportunity sampling from educational classes in Exeter and Cambridge library users, mean age 46 • Group 3. Student comparison group – 103 young adults, recruited by opportunity sampling from the Cambridge University (their intellect may be higher since Cambridge is a highly selective university and therefore not representative of the general population) mean age 21 • Group 4. IQ matched group – 14 individuals recruited by random sampling from the general population, with a mean IQ of 116 and mean age of 28 PROCEDURE: Prior to the study, a pilot study was conducted to assess the most appropriate label for each of the emotions on the photographs – at least 5 out of the 8 judges had to agree. The revised ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ task was improved with the following adjustments: there were more sets of eyes – 36 as opposed to the prior 25; the gender of the eyes was balanced – 18 males and 18 females; there were 4 choices of emotions for every photograph; the participants were given a glossary to which they could refer to for the definition of the emotions at any time during the experiment. All participants consented to take part in the study. Participants in all groups except the adult comparison one were asked to complete the Autism Spectrum Quotient test. Participants in all groups were asked to complete the eyes task. Additionally, participants in the AS/HFA group were asked to determine the gender of the eyes. The control groups were not asked so since pilot tests showed that most ‘normal’ adults score 100% at this. Participants could take as much time as necessary to complete the task.

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RESULTS: The eyes task showed that participants in the AS/HFA group identified fewer correct emotion labels than those in the other groups. They, however, identified at least 33 out of the 36 genders on the photographs. There were differences between the results of males and females in the adult and student comparison group but they were not significant. There were no cases in which participants would check more than 2 definitions in the glossary. AS/HFA group participants scored significantly higher on the AQ test than the student comparison and IQ matched group. There was a significant difference between the male and female score in the student comparison group on the AQ test. The negative correlation between the AQ and eyes task was confirmed and therefore suggests how as an individual’s AQ score increases (presenting higher autistic traits), their ability to recognize emotions decreases. There was no negative correlation between IQ and eyes task. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome and High Functioning Autism have an impaired cognition at identifying the emotions of others and therefore a lack of theory of mind. There is a basis to which males can be considered as having more autistic traits than females since they performed poorer at the Eyes Task, however not significant. The revised version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task is more efficient at measuring social intelligence than the original version and thus allows a more accurate method of deciphering individual differences when assessing autistic traits....