Baron Cohen eye test presentation

1. By: Baron Cohen et al

3.  The test demonstrates whether one can
explain the difficulties of an individual with
Autism Spectrum Disorder in terms of
cognitive processes.

4.  Baron-Cohen wanted to demonstrate that
autism wasn't due to intellectual impairment
but was the result of the failure to develop a
specific cognitive (mental) skill.
 Individuals with Autism Disorder Spectrum
had an impaired theory of mind.

5.  To use an adult test of theory of mind
competence.
 To provide support for a cognitive
explanation of autism, specifically that
autistic adults lack advanced theory of mind
skills.
 A secondary aim was to investigate whether
females would be better than males!

6.  Independent Variables-
 Autism
 Tourette’s Syndrome control group
 Normal control group
 Dependent Variable-
 Performance on the Eye’s Task( and other
taks)

7.  People with Tourette’s Syndrome have
similarities with participants with Autism so
this controls some extraneous variables.
 Similarities like-
 In both cases genes are involved
 Suffered with disorder since childhood
 Disrupted schooling and peer relations
 Males are more affected than females.

8.  Independent measures design
Each participant only takes part in one
aspect of the independent variable.
 Quasi experiment
Participants cannot be randomly assigned
to the independent variable.
 Snapshot study
It takes place over a period of time.

9.  Three groups of participants with normal
(>85) intelligence on Wechsler Adult Test
 16 adults(13 male, 3 females) with high
Autism/ Asperger’s Syndrome recruited by
clinics
 50 normal adults(25:25) from Cambridge.
 10 adults(8 males: 2 females) with Tourette’s
Syndrome recruited by clinic in London

10.  Patients with Tourette’s Syndrome would be
unimpaired on the Advanced Theory of Mind
test, but subjects with Autism or Asperger’s
Syndrome would show significant
impairment.
 Subjects with problems when completing the
Eyes task will also have problems completing
the Strange Stories task.
 Normal females may be superior to normal
males in emotion perception.

11.  Photographs of the eye region of 25 different
faces were used.
 Same size 15 x 10 cm
 Black and white
 Same region midway along nose to just above
eyebrow

12.  Participants look at photographs of the eye
region( 3 seconds per photograph)
 There’s a forced choice of two words to
describe what the person in the photograph
may be feeling or thinking
 Some emotions are basic and opposite e.g.
Happy, sad, angry
 Some are complex e.g. Arrogant, scheming.

14. GROUP MEAN CORRECT ANSWERS
AUTISM/ AS 16.3
NORMAL 20.3
TOURETTE’S SYNDROME 20.4
•Ranges were fairly similar: as 13-23 and
controls 16-25
•There was a ceiling effect on the task because
some participants in the control groups
scored full marks

15.  It was carried out to validate Eye’s task(only
completed by TS and AS).
 Participants answered questions on what
characters in a story were thinking as well as
about physical events
 Tourette’s Syndrome subjects made no errors
but Autism subjects made significant errors.
 This validates Eye’s Task.

16.  Completed only by AS paricipants
 They had to indentify gender of eyes
 It was face perception not mind reading

17.  In normal groups, females performed
significantly better than males.
 Comparing normal males to AS group, normal
males performed significantly better

18.  Adults with ASD/ Autism were impaired on
the Theory of Mind test.
 The Eye’s task was validated by only Autism/
ASD participants making errors on both tasks.
 Normal females better than normal males on
the Theory of Mind test.
 Intelligence is not linked with performance(
as some in the autism group had university
degrees)

19.  Participant consent was taken and they knew
the nature of the study.
 Data was collected anonymously.
 Group 1 participants were diagnosed using
APA criteria

20.  Lacks ecological validity as eye expressions in
real life are quick not static.
 The experimental group (Autism/ ASD) is
small so generalising results is not suitable.
 Only eyes were used but the whole face(
mouth especially) can be expressive. It
therefore lacks ecological validity.

21.  It’s a lab experiment so confounding
variables could be controlled and it could be
replicated.
 Improvements on the Eye’s test improved
validity.

22.  https://study.com/academy/lesson/quasi-
experiment-in-psychology-definition-
example-
 https://youtu.be/uxxjgoOk9Zc
 https://www.studywithmehar.com/as-level-
baron-cohen/amp/