1. The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Revised Version: a study with Normal Adults, and Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High- Functioning Adults Baron Cohen, Wheelwright et al. (2001)

2. Bellringer Take out Baron-Cohen study

3. Which word best describes how each person is thinking or feeling? There are 9 pictures. Ready? Let’s go.

4. Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling? FriendlyGuilty HorrifiedDominant

5. Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling? AshamedSerious BewilderedAlarmed

6. Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling? Sarcastic Irritated Surprised Friendly

7. Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling? RelievedShy ExcitedDespondent

8. Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling? HostileAghast InsistingCautious

9. Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling? IrritatedThoughtful EncouragingSmypathetic

10. Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling? Arrogant Jealous Panicked Hateful

11. Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling? ConfidentDispirited AghastJoking

12. a Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling? PlayfulBored ComfortingIrritated

13. The end Correct responses on next slide…

14. 1. friendly 2. serious 3. surprised 4. despondent 5. hostile 6. thoughtful 7. panicked 8. joking 9. playful

15. The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Revised Version: a study with Normal Adults, and Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High- Functioning Adults Baron Cohen, Wheelwright et al. (2001)

16. What is autism (ASD)? Autism Spectrum Disorder Signs/symptoms such as: obsessions repetitive behaviours lack of social skills – ‘out of sync’, atypical or offensive language difficulties with non-verbal communication

17. Baron-Cohen et al. Simon Baron-Cohen is the leading expert in autism research (1985) Sally-Anne test: autistic children have delayed development of a theory of mind (ToM) (1997) “Eyes Task” for adults

18. Social Cognition ToM = other people have thoughts and feelings doesn’t develop normally in autistic children no ‘mind reading’ Important finding: Intelligence (IQ)  social understanding

19. The Sally-Anne test Sally-Anne test on Youtube A first-order false belief task ‘normal’ children CA of 4, 90%+ pass autistic children MA of 5, 80% fail

20. Autistic adults Behavioural strategies –make eye contact –learn appropriate social responses, e.g. arm around crying child, tone of voice In 1985, Ψ had no test for autism in adults. Conclusion  adults ‘improved’? B-C developed the…

21. Eyes Task (1997) Banyard 353, Gross 70 Reading the Mind in the Eyes 1997 But did it really work?

22. B-C et al (2001) – Why? [Adapted from abstract] “The 1997 Eyes Task succeeded in discriminating adults with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) and high- functioning autism (HFA) from controls but suffered from psychometric problems” The 2001 task solves these problems

23. What is Asperger’s syndrome? an ASD impairment in reciprocal social interaction restricted & obsessively repetitive patterns of behaviour differs from other ASDs; a relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development

24. 2001 Eyes Test Reading the Mind in the Eyes 2001

25. Participants 15 AS/HFA, all ♂ 225 ‘normals’ from Exeter town & Cambridge uni 14 ‘normals’ IQ-matched to AS/HFA’s

26. Matched Pairs Sample Matches pairs of participants on key attributes Participant variables are partly controlled because of matching High in control

27. Predictions 1. AS/HFA < normals (Eyes Test) 2. AS/HFA > normals (AQ) 3. ♀ > ♂ (Eyes Test) 4. ♀ < ♂ (AQ) 5. AS/HFA: AQ  Eyes Test 

28. Results 1. AS/HFA < normals (Eyes Test) Supported 2. AS/HFA > normals (AQ) Supported

29. Results 3. ♀ > ♂ (Eyes Test) Supported-ish  p=0.07 4. ♀ < ♂ (AQ) Supported

30. Results 5. AQ  Eyes Test  Supported

31. Discussion Modifications worked! –2001 Eyes Task is more sensitive –It detects individual differences better

32. Discussion AQ (  social) & eyes task correlated IQ (=non-social) & eyes task NOT correlated  autistic people are not unintelligent there are different kinds of intelligence social difficulties are not correlated to IQ

33. Evaluation - Ecological validity –Static pictures, eyes only –Lab  real life Could be more subtle? –Measure a P’s reaction times

34. Evaluation + Experimental validity –Measures an autistic trait, not a normal one –Question criteria –High control over extraneous variables Reliable, replicable –Pencil and paper test

35. Evaluating the sample Was the sample biased in any way? Were controls used to remove ‘extra variables’? Was the sample large enough to mask the effect of individual differences? To which population can we generalise the findings?

36. New understanding Obsessions and repetitive behaviour previously regarded as ‘purposeless’ may in fact be… highly purposive, intelligent (hyper-systemizing), and signs of a different way of thinking.

38. Writing Practice Students practice writing a response to exam-style questions, then peer review. Outline what is meant by the term ‘cognitive psychology’. Using the following studies answer the questions below: – Mann et al. (lying) – Loftus and Pickrell (false memories) – Baron-Cohen et al (eyes test) – Describe how data were collected in each of these studies. – What problems might psychologists have when they investigate cognitive psychology?