Emotions
1. What emotions do you think these cartoons are showing?
2. What are the key features of the
face that we use to show
emotion?
3. Now draw faces for the following
emotions:
• amazed
• confused
• fearful
Surprised or indifferent?
Angry or pleased?
Calm or fearful?
Cheerful or sad?
Happy or sad?
Disgusted or delighted?
Surprised
Angry
Fearful
Sad
Happy
Disgusted
Simon Baron Cohen &Therese Joliffe
(1997)
A new test for Theory of Mind
3/22/2016
Baron Cohen et al (1997)
The eye task
Which word best describes what this person is
thinking or feeling
CONCERNED or UNCONCERNED
3/22/2016
Autism
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An experimental approach,
investigating the nature of autism
Autism (from Greek meaning
“self”)
Identified by Leo Kanner (1943)
Children very much in their own
little world, show no regard for the
existence of others
“treat people and objects alike”
Characteristics of Autism
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Impaired ability to communicate verbally
Impaired ability to communicate non-verbally (no
pointing)
Inability to relate socially to others
Inability to behave flexibly
Obsession with a restricted repertoire of activities
(“insistence on sameness”)
“Islets of ability” (eg. art/music)
IQ below 70 (80%) – but not consistent (eg.
above average in visual/spatial tests, low in
language tests)
Asperger’s Syndrome
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Identified by Hans Asperger (1944)
in young Austrian boys
Less severe than Autism
Problems with social interactions,
behaviour, emotions, etc
Fewer problems with language and
cognitions
Grouped with the AUTISTIC
SPECTRUM DISORDERS
Explanations/Theories for
Autism/Asperger’s
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Kanner (1943) & Bettelheim (1967): poor parenting
(psychoanalytic)
Nikolas Tinbergen (1983): lack of instinct to
bond/form attachment with other members of family
Lovaas (1979) suggested that the symptoms are dealt
with, without going into the causes (behaviourism)
Physiological/genetic – some evidence of brain
differences, seems heritable, identical twins concordant
for autism, 1/3 also suffer epilepsy
Second Order Representations
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Alan Leslie (1984) suggests
a cognitive mechanism
Second order
representations –
developed in 2nd year of life
“ability to impute mental
states to others”
Responsible for pretend
play
Simon Baron-Cohen
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Professor at Cambridge
University
Suggests physiological
explanations (hereditary)
 Autism is extreme form of
the “male brain”
(It’s 3 times more common in
boys)
Cousin of Sacha Baron-Cohen
“Ni-i-ice!”
Baron-Cohen et al's explanation
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Autistic people do not have a
“Theory of Mind”
They do not understand that
people have their own thoughts
about the world
 serious implications for social
interaction
They do not understand people
can hold false beliefs
They do not engage in pretend
play
An old test for Theory of Mind
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The Sally-Anne test
was used (Wimmer &
Perner, 1983)
 tests a child's ability
to understand what a
person believes
easily solved by
“normal” 5-year-olds
The “Sally – Anne Test” 1
Sally has a basket.
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Anne has a box.
Children tested individually - seated at
desk opposite researcher
Two dolls - Sally & Anne
Sally has basket, Anne has box
The “Sally – Anne Test” 2
Sally has a marble. She puts the marble into her
basket.
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Naming Question: children asked to
confirm they know the names of the two
dolls (CONTROL)
Sally puts marble in basket
The “Sally – Anne Test” 3
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Sally goes for a walk (doll disappears from view)
Anne plays a trick - takes marble from Sally's
basket and puts it in her (Anne's) box
The “Sally – Anne Test” 4
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Sally returns
CRITICAL QUESTION (the “Belief
Question”): “Where will Sally look for her
marble?”
The “Sally – Anne Test” Responses
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"Where will Sally look for her marble?"
Correct response: "in Sally's basket"
(that is where Sally left it - she is unaware
of Anne's trickery)
Incorrect response: "in Anne's box"
(Sally does not know this - child is saying
where they believe the marble is)
 demonstrates inability to understand
Sally has a false belief
Why a new test?
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Sally-Anne test identifies autism in CHILDREN
Adults with Autism can pass it
(they apply logic and experience, rather than
trying to “get into Sally’s head”)
CEILING EFFECT  test stops being useful
when participants reach a certain level of ability
Need a new test for adults
The “Strange Stories” test
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Francesca Happé (1994) created this test for
older children
24 “vignettes” (very short stories, just a
paragraph each)
2 questions – one about physical events (what
happened?); one about mental events (what did
people think, mean or feel?)
People with Autism/Asperger’s have difficulty
with the mental events question
Example from the “Strange Stories”
test
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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!"
PHYSICAL EVENTS: Is it true, what Sarah
says?
MENTAL EVENTS: Why does she say this?
The Study
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Research Question: WHY do adults with autistic
spectrum disorders have problems with social
relationships?
The hypothesis:
That adults with Autism/Asperger’s Syndrome
can’t interpret states of mind from ‘reading eyes’
3/22/2016
Details of the Study
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Method: Natural experiment (or “quasiexperiment”)
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3 groups of participants
IV = Normal, Autistic, Tourette’s syndrome
DV = performance on eye task (maximum score
= 25)
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3/22/2016
Participants
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There were three groups of participants.
All had normal (>85) intelligence on Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Test.
 16 Adults with High functioning autism/Asperger’s
Syndrome
 13 males: 3 females
 recruited by advert and clinics
 10 adults with Tourette’s Syndrome
 age matched
 8 males: 2 females
 50 normal adults (from Cambridge)
 25 males: 25 females
 assumed normal intelligence
Groups 1 and 2 and both passed 1st order ToM Tests
Why did Baron-Cohen use participants with Tourette’s Syndrome?
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Tourettes participants were used as Tourette’s Syndrome and
autism are similar and using both would control some of the
extraneous variables.
Both Tourette’s Syndrome and autism participants:
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suffered with disorder from childhood
 had disorders that disrupted schooling and peer relations
 had disorders supposed to originate in frontal lobe
abnormalities.
Participants in both clinical groups had passed Theory of Mind
tests based on 6-year-old Theory of mind skills.
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had normal intelligence
Method and design
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The Eyes task, Strange Stories task and two
control tasks were presented in random order to
all subjects.
Subjects were tested in a quiet room either at
home, in clinic or in a laboratory.
Independent design.
Independent and dependent variables
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Independent variables:
autism
 Tourette’s Syndrome
 normal
 gender in normal group
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Dependent variables:
correct identification of emotion
 correct identification of gender
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Hypotheses
1.
2.
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Patients with Tourette’s Syndrome would be
unimpaired on this advanced theory of mind
test, but the subjects with autism or Asperger’s
Syndrome would show a significant
impairment on this test.
Subjects who had difficulties when completing
the Eyes task or Strange Stories task should
also have difficulties when completing the
other task.
Normal females may be superior to normal
males in emotion perception.
Eyes task
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Words were generated by the panel and tested.
Each word was presented with a ‘foil’ or
opposite.
e.g. serious vs playful
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The method of using the eyes only was chosen
as no context/planning skills are required.
More on the Eye Task Procedure
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Forced choice ‘eye task’ questions
examples
TARGET (correct)
FOIL (opposite)
attraction
worried
friendly
hostile
calm
anxious
The TARGET is the correct answer presented
randomised both left and right.
3/22/2016
More on how the eye task was
selected
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How was the ‘eye task’ created
Magazine photos selected
4 judges generated the target words
TARGET
FOIL
calm
anxious
The TARGET is the correct answer. The FOIL is the
opposite.
3/22/2016
Strange Stories task
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This had already been linked to theory of mind
(Joliffe 1997).
It was carried out to validate Eyes task.
It found that Tourette’s Syndrome group made
no errors, autism/Asperger’s Syndrome group
made a significant number of errors.
This gives the Eyes task concurrent validity.
Control tasks
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Basic emotion recognition task
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Gender recognition task
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looking at whole faces and judging emotions
looking at two sets of eyes and identifying gender
On the two control tasks, there were no
differences between the groups.
Controls 1
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CONTROL in generating targets & foils
(increases eye task VALIDITY)
eye photos shown to panel of 8 adults who did
not know there was a ‘right or wrong’ answer
there was 100% agreement with TARGET
3/22/2016
The Procedure
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The ‘eyes task’ procedure:
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25 photos of eyes
each 15 x 10cm black and white
each photo shown for 3 seconds
forced choice question
tested individually in quiet room
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3/22/2016
Controls 2
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CONTROL tasks
(1) Gender Identification: all participants asked to
identify the GENDER of each of the 25 eye photos
(2) Basic emotion task: all participants asked to identify
the emotion in full face photos, happy, sad, angry,
afraid, surprise, disgust (Paul Ekman’s 6 basic
categories of emotion)
CORRELATION
Participants also attempted Happé’s Strange Stories task
– check for CONCURRENT VALIDITY
3/22/2016
Results
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Findings:
Score are out of 25; mean scores below:
Eyes Task
Autistic
Mean
16.3
Range
10
Identify gender? 24.1
3/22/2016
Normal Tourettes
20.3
20.4
9
9
23.3
23.7
Conclusions
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Were these differences significant (above the
level of chance) ?
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At a significance level of p =< 0.0001
Normal and Tourette’s better than Autistic
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At a significance level of p =< 0.0001 Normal
females better than males
3/22/2016
Conclusions
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Evidence for subtle ‘mindreading’ deficits in
intelligent adults on the Autistic spectrum
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The eye task is a ‘pure theory of mind test’
because there is NO context
(but that does mean it lacks ecological validity)
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3/22/2016