1. BARON-COHEN, S., JOLLIFFE, T., MORTIMORE, C. & ROBERTSON, M. (1997) Another advanced test of theory of mind: evidence from very high functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 38: 813–822 CORE STUDY SLIDES

2. The main aim of this experiment was to investigate if high functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome would be impaired on a theory of mind test called the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task’ Previous tasks had not been appropriate for adults so BC wanted to use this new task to see if the impairments would be present in adult people with Asperger’s. The researchers were also interested to find out if females would be better than males on the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task’

3. Method and Design Repeated measures design Quasi experiment IV – type of participant DV – performance on the four tasks Eyes Task (as demonstrated above)  Strange Stories task  2 control tasks – gender recognition and basic emotional recognition - why? Presented in random order – why?

5. The Eyes Task (this was the basis for one of the control tasks) Magazine photos 15cm X 10cm Black and White Midway along nose to just above eyebrow. 3 second exposure and then a forced choice between 2 mental states.

8. HAPPE’S STRANGE STORIES

9. Katie and Emma are playing in the house. Emma picks up a banana from the fruit bowl and holds it up to her ear. She says to Katie “Look! This banana is a telephone!” Is it true what Emma says? Yes/No/Don’t know Why does Emma say this?

10. Today James is going to Claire’s house for the first time. He is going over for tea, and he is looking forward to seeing Claire’s dog, which she talks about all time. James likes dogs very much. When James arrives at Claire’s house Claire runs to open the door,and her dog jumps up to greet James. Claire’s dog is huge; it’s almost as big as James! When James sees Claire’s huge dog he says, “Claire, you haven’t got a dog at all. You’ve got an elephant!” Is it true,what James says? Yes/No/Don’t know Why does he say this?

11. One day Aunt Jane came to visit Peter. Now Peter loves his aunt very much, but today she is wearing a new hat; a new hat, which Peter thinks is very ugly indeed. Peter thinks his aunt looks silly in it, and much nicer in her old hat. But when Aunt Jane asks Peter, “How do you like my new hat”, Peter says,“Oh, it’s very nice”. Was it true, what Peter said? Yes/No/Don’t know Why did he say it?

12. Emma has a cough. All through lunch she coughs and coughs. Father says: “Poor Emma, you must have a frog in your throat!” Is it true, what Father says to Emma? Yes/No/Don’t know Why does he say that?

13. Ann’s mother has spent a long time cooking Ann’s favourite meal; fish and chips. But when she brings it to Ann, she is watching TV, and she doesn’t even look up,or say thank you. Ann’s mother is cross and says, “Well, that’s very nice, isn’t it! That is what I call politeness!” Is it true what Ann’s mother says? Yes/No/Don’t know Why does Ann’s mother say this?

14. Late one night old Mrs. Peabody is walking home. She doesn’t like walking alone in the dark because she is always afraid that someone will attack her and rob her. She is really very nervous! Suddenly, out of the shadow comes a man. He wants to ask Mrs. Peabody what time it is, so he walks towards her. When Mrs. Peabody sees the man coming towards her, she starts to tremble and says, “Take my purse, justdon’t hurt me”. Was the man surprised at what Mrs. Peabody said? Yes/No/Don’t know Why did she say that,when he only wanted to ask her the time?

15. Yvonne is playing in the garden with her doll. She leaves her doll in the garden when her mother calls her to come in for lunch. While they are having lunch, it starts to rain. Yvonne’s mother asks Yvonne: “Did you leave your doll in the garden?”Yvonne answers:“No, I brought her in with me”. Is it true,what Yvonne says? Yes/No/Don’t know Why does Yvonne say this?

16. The architect Ken Peterson is known as a person rich in ideas. He works with Solnes, a master builder who has his office in the town. He goes to Solnes almost daily with new ideas about how to build bigger and better buildings. The idea-rich architect uses steel and glass as construction materials, because they are the materials that can give the most protection against storms and bad weather.With these materials it is possible to build fine, big buildings. Wooden material and roof tiles are well suited for the construction of normal single-floored dwellings, he says. Question: Why doesn’t architect Peterson use wooden material and roof tiles when projecting high buildings?

17. John Frank is 25 years old and tunes all kinds of pianos.He is the only piano tuner in the town, and his clients must normally wait a week before he can do the work they desire.Usually he carries out his work in the homes of the clients. One day an old lady calls him. She presents herself as Mrs.Agnes Lind, and says that she would like to have her piano tuned. She tells John her address.Some minutes previously a small job John was to do this morning in the concert house had been cancelled. A few minutes later he arrives at Mrs. Lind’s villa. Question: Why doesn’t Mrs. Lind have to wait a week to have her piano tuned?

18. One late, dark autumn evening the 14 year old Paul is going along some scary town streets with his mother. They have heard and read of people who have been robbed of their money in this area. Earlier that day Paul’s mother has been to the bank and made a withdrawal of 8000 NOK. She has placed the money in an inside coat pocket instead of in her handbag. Her old washing machine broke down for good a couple of days ago, and she has to buy a new one in one of the coming days. Question: Why has Paul’s mother been to the bank and made a withdrawal?

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

20. 1Male or Female Control task 1 – gender recognition

21. 2Male or Female Control task 1 – gender recognition

22. 3Male or Female Control task 1 – gender recognition

23. “Basic emotion recognition” Control task Gender recognition task – same eyes but Ps required to recognise gender Basic emotion recognition task (emotion task) – participants are required to judge the emotion of the whole face Six faces were used – happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgusted and surprised (= basic emotions)

24. Happy Sad Control task 2 – basic emotion of face

25. Angry Afraid Control task 2 – basic emotion of face

26. Findings:

28. Ecological validity

29. Data collected

30. Laboratory Experiment

32. Ethnocentrism:

33. Sample not representive?

34. Able to be generalised?

35. SUGGESTED CHANGES?

36. HOMEWORK Revise the study for a timed test (SEC B) next lesson. YOU ARE GOING TO DO A TIMED SECTION B TEST NEXT LESSON, SO ENSURE THAT YOU REALLY COVER THIS IN DETAIL

37. Timed Q practice 5 minutes! In Baron Cohen: Identify the two control groups used. (2) Explain why one of these control groups was used. (2)