AUTISM

1. Autistic Disorder n Impairments in social interaction, communication, and imaginative play. n Apparent before age 3. n Also includes stereotyped behaviors, interests, and activities

2. Asperger’s Disorder n Impairments in social interactions, and presence of restricted interests and activities n No clinically significant general delay in language n Average to above average intelligence

CHARACTERISTICS n 1. Communication/Language n 2. Social Interaction n 3. Behaviors n 4. Sensory and movement disorders n 5. Resistance to change (predictability) n 6. Intellectual functioning

2. Social Interaction n One of hallmarks of autism is lack of social interaction n 1. Impaired use of nonverbal behavior n 2. Lack of peer relationships n 3. Failure to spontaneously share enjoyment, interests, etc. with others n 4. Lack of reciprocity n Theory of mind?

6. Intellectual functioning n Autism occurs in children of all levels of intelligence, from those who are gifted to those who have mental retardation n In general, majority of individuals with autism are also identified as having mental retardation – 75% below 70 n Verbal and reasoning skills are difficult n Savant syndrome

6/9/2016 Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith (1985) Does the Autistic child have a Theory of Mind?

6/9/2016 The Sally-Anne Test A tool to diagnose Autism?

The Baron Cohen et al conclusion n That autistic children do not have a n THEORY OF MIND n are unable to recognise that other people may have ‘their own’ representation of the world in their heads

Another Advanced Test of Theory of Mind: Evidence from Very High Functioning Adults with Autism or Asperger Syndrome. Simon Baron-Cohen and Therese Jolliffe (University of Cambridge) Catherine Mortimore and Mary Robertson (University of London). 1997

Subjects Group 1 n 4 high functioning autistic adults with IQ > 85 (WAIS-R) diagnosed using DSM-IV with language delay. n 12 Asperger Syndrome adults diagnosed using ICD-10 with no language delay. n All together 13 males and 3 females. n All within normal intelligence range.

Subjects Group 1 n Sampling – clinical sources plus advert in National Autistic Society magazine ‘Communication’.

Group 2 n 50 normal age matched adults (25 males and 25 females). n Their IQ was not measured but was considered to be within the normal range.

Group 3 n 10 Adult Tourette Syndrome (TS) sufferers. n Age matched with groups 1 and 2. (8 males and 2 females). n IQ greater than 85

Q1: Write a suitable alternate hypothesis and a null hypothesis for this study:

Q2. The normal adult participants were ‘age-matched’. What does this mean? n Their age range was similar to the age range of the other two groups. n This is done as a control to make sure any differences between the groups is due to the IV rather than age differences (age can act as confounding variable)

Subjects Groups 1 and 3 had to pass: n 2 x 1 st order false belief tasks and n a second-order task (all passed). n A first-order task requires the subject to infer the thoughts of another person. A second-order task involves the subject reasoning about what one person thinks about another person’s thoughts.

3. Explain why adults with Tourette syndrome were selected as a control group. n Comparing people with autism to normal people is in a way unfair – differences may be due to the fact that the people with autism have had to cope with a developmental disorder since childhood, resulting in a disrupted school life and strained peer relationships, rather than Theory of Mind n People with Tourettes share a similar background; differences between them and the people with Autism is therefore more certain to be due to Theory of Mind

Method and Design n  Eyes Task n  Strange Stories task n  2 control tasks n Presented in random order.

The Eyes Task n Magazine photos n 15cm X 10cm n Black and White n Midway along nose to just above eyebrow. n 3 second exposure and then a forced choice between 2 mental states.

The Eyes Task n “Which word best describes what the person is feeling or thinking?” n 25 pictures

1Serious or Fantasising

2Anticipation or Despairing

3Certain or Doubtful

4Submissive or Defiant

5Uncertain or Confident

6Concerned or unconcerned

7Distrustful or Trustful

8Suspicious or Trusting

9Unfriendly or Friendly

Answers

1Fantasising

2Anticipation

3Doubtful

4Defiant

5Confident

6Concerned

7Distrustful

8Suspicious

9Friendly

The Eyes Task n Four judges 2 male and 2 female picked the labels and opposites in open discussion. n Eight judges 4 males and four females independently agreed the labels unanimously. n They were blind to the hypothesis. n Task validated by Happe’s (1994) strange stories.

Baron-Cohen: 3 other tasks additional to Eyes Test

Control task 1: Happe’s Strange Stories n Also an advanced TOM test n Since both are tests of the same thing (ToM) then if subjects had difficulties with one of these tests, then they should also have difficulties with the other n This is a way of checking VALIDITY – called CONCURRENT validity – based on assumption that two measures of the same thing should agree / produce similar results

Control tasks. n Gender recognition task – the same eyes were used but participants were required to recognise gender. n Basic emotion recognition task (emotion task) – participants are required to judge the emotion of the whole face. n Six faces were used – happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgusted and surprised. These are considered to be basic emotions.

Q5. Explain why it was desirable to use control tasks in this study n 1. To control for the possibility that OTHER FACTORS besides the IV (Theory of Mind in this case) could affect the DV (score on Eyes test) n These other factors can act as extraneous variables.

Q6. Explain what each of the control tasks were controlling n Gender recognition task – the task involved a social judgement, i.e. whether someone looks like a man/woman, rather than mind reading. n This task was done to check whether poor performance on the eyes task was due to general deficits in face perception or social perception rather than a lack of theory of mind skills.

Q6. Explain what each of the control tasks were controlling ctd. n Basic emotion recognition task n this was done to check whether poor performance on the Eyes task could be attributed to a problem with recognising basic emotional expression rather than a lack of theory of mind skills.

Q7: Why did only group 1 do the control tasks? n They were the only ones suspected to have difficulty with theory of mind skills, demonstrated in their lower scores on the Eyes test; n It was therefore important to establish whether their lower scores were indeed due to issues with ToM and not something else.

n The poor performance on the Eyes task was NOT mirrored in the two control tasks, suggesting that poor performance by G1 was NOT due to n the stimuli being eyes, or n to problems with basic emotion recognition n BUT probably due to lack of ToM.

Results n The performance of the autistic participants was equivalent to that of the Asperger’s. n On the strange stories task in the Tourette participants made no errors whereas the Asperger’s made many mistakes.

Results n Intelligence is not a factor here as all participants were within the normal range. n frontal lobe damage also is not a factor as Tourette’s participants did well even though frontal lobe damage is thought to be a factor in Tourette’s syndrome.

Afters… n The Lovaas Programme – why so expensive? n FC – Stephen Hawking

Male vs female brains Women empathise Men synthesise

HOMEWORK: n Read p 48 – ‘Afters’ n Spend at least ½ h on the internet reading up on: n The Lovaas Programme / other Autism sites / Freaks, Geeks & Asperger syndrome n Differences in male & female brains