Baron Cohen et al (1997) Reading Minds The eye task

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)Reading MindsThe eye
task
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Baron Cohen et al (1997)Reading MindsThe eye
task
Which word best describes what this person is
thinking or feeling CONCERNED or UNCONCERNED
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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Advanced test for theory of mind in adults with
  Autism
• Discussion
• Why minds can only ever be a theory!

Are these two people happy or sad?
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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Research Question WHY do adults with autistic
  spectrum disorders have problems with social
  relationships
• The hypothesis
• That adults with Asperger Syndrome (Autism) cant
  interpret states of mind from reading eyes

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Ist order Theory of Mind task
• Reasoning what another person is thinking
  (example Sally Ann test)
• Normal children develop this ability by the age
  of 6 BUT the Sally Ann test is not appropriate
  for adults

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Method Natural experiment
• 3 groups of participants
• IV Normal, Autistic, Tourettes syndrome
• DV performance on eye task (maximum score 25)

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Participants
• 16 autistic (Asperger) 13 male 3 female
• 50 normal, 25 male, 25 female
• 10 Tourettes patients, 8 male, 2 female
• matched on age normal intelligence

Note The 2 clinical groups had passed 1st order
TOM tests at 6 year old level
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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• The eyes task procedure
• 25 photos of eyes
• each 15 x 10cm black and white
• each photo shown for 3 seconds
• forced choice question
• tested individually in quiet room

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)
Which word best describes what this person is
thinking or feeling serious or playful
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Baron Cohen et al (1997)
Which word best describes what this person is
thinking or feeling reflective or unreflective
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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Forced choice eye task questions
• examples
• TARGET FOIL
• attraction worried
• friendly hostile
• calm anxious
• The TARGET is the correct answer presented
  randomised both left and right

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• How was the eye task created
• Magazine photos selected
• 4 judges generated the target words
• TARGET FOIL
• calm anxious
• The TARGET is the correct answer the FOIL is the
  opposite

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• CONTROL in generating targets foils
• (increases eye task VALIDITY)
• eye photos shown to panel of 8 adults who did not
  know there was a right or wrong answer there
  was 100 agreement with TARGET

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• CONTROL tasks
• (1) Gender Identification all participants asked
  to identify the GENDER of each of the 25 eye
  photos
• (2) Basic emotion task all participants asked to
  identify the emotion in full face photos, happy,
  sad, angry, afraid, surprise, disgust (Ekman
  categories)

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Findings

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Are females better at reading minds from eyes
  than males ?

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Were these differences significant (above the
  level of chance) ?
• At a significance level of p lt 0.0001
  Normal and Tourettes better than Autistic
• At a significance level of p lt 0.0001 Normal
  females better than males

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)

• Conclusion
• Evidence for subtle mindreading deficits in
  intelligent adults on the Autistic spectrum
• The eye task is a pure theory of mind test
  because there is NO context

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Baron Cohen et al (1997) Ecological Validity?

• Is the way the experiment measures the DV (Theory
  of Mind)
• and the experimental setting
• and the sample of participants realistic in a
  real life setting? Would the same Ps behave in
  the same way in real life?
• Discuss why or why not?

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)Types of datadiscuss
strengths limitations

• Quantitative matters of fact objective,
  scientific replicable
• useful for analysis comparison
• or
• Qualitative matters of opinion
• subjective, rich in detail, can be hard to
  analyse, may be misinterpreted

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Baron Cohen et al (1997) The experimental
methodology

• Was the method appropriate for the aim?
• Are the experimental conditions realistic
  (mundane realism real world realism)
• How was the DV operationalised and was this a
  valid measure of the behaviour being studied?

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)The experimental
procedure

• How were the participants allocated to the
  conditions and were controls used to remove
  extra variables ?
• Were there any cues that might have generated
  demand characteristics ?
• RELIABILITY Could the study be replicated to
  find the same results? Why or why not?

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Baron Cohen et al (1997) The sample

• Who were the participants
• Was the sample biased in any way?
• Was the sample large enough to mask the effect of
  individual differences?
• To which population can we safely generalise the
  findings?

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Baron Cohen et al (1997)Reading minds from eyes!

Which word best describes what this person is
thinking or feeling sympathetic or unsympathetic
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