1. Baron-Cohen et al. (1997)

2. Key term: Theory of Mind (ToM)
Theory of mind is the mental ability to understand mental states and the mental stages of other people. This deficit of theory of mind is referred to as mind blindness. People with autism and Asperger’s cannot understand other people’s mental states.

3. Background:
Previous research suggests that individuals with autism have a common deficit: theory of mind (ToM).
Aim:
Baron-Cohen had two aims:
To identify if individuals on autism spectrum had deficits with ToM
To find out if there were gender differences in ToM

4. Method:
Independent variable (IV) was the type of person:
Adults with Autism/Asperger’s
Adults with Tourette’s
‘Normal’ adults
Dependent variable (DV) was the persons performance on the eyes task (out of 25)
Quasi experiment

5. Task 1: Eyes task
The task included a range of images, all of which were standardised. Each image was black and white, the same size, cropped above eyebrow and at bridge of nose. In the eyes task, each photograph was coupled with two words to describe a mental state. One of the words was the correct mental state displayed in the photograph, the other was a foil (see below for examples). All photographs were appraised by a panel of independent judges to gain an accurate and reliable word for each photograph. Thus making the study even more standardised.

6. Task 2: The Gender Recognition Task
In this task, photographs standardised exactly like those above were used. Instead of participants identifying mental states, participants were asked to identify the gender of the person in the photograph.

7. Task 3:The Basic Emotion Recognition Task
In this task, participants were shown photographs of full faces. There were six full faces used in this task. Participants were asked to identify the correct emotion. This task was used to ensure the findings of the eye task were not due to failures in ability to recognise basic emotions. The emotions used in the task were: happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgusted and surprised.

8. Task 4: Happe’s Strange Stories Task
Baron-Cohen incorporated Happe’s Strange Stories Task. This was done to validate the findings from the eyes task.
Example: Sarah and Tom are going on a picnic. It is Tom’s idea, he says it is going to be a lovely sunny day for a picnic. But just as they are unpacking the food, it starts to rain, and soon they are both soaked to the skin. Sarah is cross. She says, ‘Oh yes, a lovely day for a picnic alright!’
Is it true, what Sarah says? Why does she say this?

9. Sample: Group 1: 16 individuals
4 of whom had high-functioning autism and 12 had Asperger's syndrome
13 males 3 females
Normal intelligence
Recruited through advert in the National Autistic magazine and a variety of clinical sources.
Volunteer Sampling

10. Sample: Group 2: 50 individuals
All ‘normal’ (eg absence of autism, Asperger's syndrome or Tourette's)
25 male, 25 female
Drawn from general population of Cambridge
Random sample

11. Sample: Group 3: 10 individuals All with Tourette syndrome
Age matched with groups 1 and 2
8 males and 3 females
All of normal intelligence
All were recruited from a tertiary referral centre in London.
Snowball Sampling

12. Procedure
All the participants were tested in a quiet environment, which was either their own home, or in a laboratory setting. Participants would take part in the following tasks:
Eyes task
Strange stories
Basic emotion recognition
Gender recognition
It is important to note that these tasks were presented in a randomised order as a control. Why is this a good thing?

13. Results Mean Score on the Eyes Task (Out of 25)
Autism/AS Group – 16.3 (Range: 13 – 23)
‘Normal’ Adults – 20.3 (Range: 16 – 25)
Tourette's Group – 20.4 (Range: 16 – 25)
Normal males and Females mean scores on the eyes task
Males – 18.8 (Range: 16 – 22)
Females – 21.8 (Range: 20 – 25)

14. Results Mean Score on the Gender Recognition Task
Autism/AS Group – 24.1 (Range: 23 – 25)
‘Normal’ Adults – 23.3 (Range: 22 – 25)
Tourette's Group – 23.7 (Range: 23 – 25)

15. Results
The mean score on the eyes task did not differ significantly between the Tourette's group and the ‘Normal’ adult group
The means core on the eyes test did differ significantly from the Autism/AS group with the Tourette's and normal group.
On both the gender recognition task and the basic emotion recognition tasks, there were no significant differences between the groups.
The Autism/AS made significantly more errors on the strange stories task compared with the other groups.

16. Conclusions
Baron-Cohens findings provide evidence that adults with autism/AS do possess an impaired theory of mind.
As some of the autism/AS group hold university degrees and were all of normal intelligence, it is reasonable to suggest that Theory of Mind deficits are independent of general intelligence