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
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’
Method and Design
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•
•
•
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?
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.
HAPPE’S STRANGE
STORIES
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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, just don’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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
“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
Control task 1 – gender recognition
1
Male or Female
Control task 1 – gender recognition
2
Male or Female
Control task 1 – gender recognition
3
Male or Female
“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)
Control task 2 – basic emotion of face
Happy
Sad
Control task 2 – basic emotion of face
Angry
Afraid
Findings:
Ecological validity
Data collected
Laboratory Experiment
Laboratory Experiment
Ethnocentrism:
Sample not representive?
Able to be generalised?
SUGGESTED CHANGES?
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
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)