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)

Bellringer

• Take out Baron-Cohen study

Which word best describes how each person is thinking or feeling?

There are 9 pictures.

Ready?

Let’s go.

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Friendly Guilty

Horrified Dominant

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Ashamed Serious

Bewildered Alarmed

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Sarcastic Irritated

Surprised Friendly

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Relieved Shy

Excited Despondent

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Hostile Aghast

Insisting Cautious

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Irritated Thoughtful

Encouraging Smypathetic

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Arrogant Jealous

Panicked Hateful

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Confident Dispirited

Aghast Joking

a

Which word best describes how this person is thinking or feeling?

Playful Bored

Comforting Irritated

The end

• Correct responses on next slide…

• 1. friendly• 2. serious

• 3. surprised• 4. despondent

• 5. hostile• 6. thoughtful• 7. panicked

• 8. joking• 9. playful

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)

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

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

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

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

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…

Eyes Task (1997) Banyard 353, Gross 70

• Reading the Mind in the Eyes 1997

• But did it really work?

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

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

2001 Eyes Test

• Reading the Mind in the Eyes 2001

Participants

• 15 AS/HFA, all ♂

• 225 ‘normals’ from Exeter town & Cambridge uni

• 14 ‘normals’ IQ-matched to AS/HFA’s

Matched Pairs Sample• Matches pairs of participants on key attributes• Participant variables are partly controlled because of

matching• High in control

Predictions

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

Results

• 1. AS/HFA < normals (Eyes Test)• Supported

• 2. AS/HFA > normals (AQ)• Supported

Results

• 3. ♀ > ♂ (Eyes Test)• Supported-ish p=0.07

• 4. ♀ < ♂ (AQ)• Supported

Results

• 5. AQ Eyes Test • Supported

Discussion

• Modifications worked!– 2001 Eyes Task is more sensitive– It detects individual differences better

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

Evaluation -

• Ecological validity– Static pictures, eyes only– Lab real life

• Could be more subtle?– Measure a P’s reaction times

Evaluation +

• Experimental validity– Measures an autistic trait, not a normal one– Question criteria– High control over extraneous variables

• Reliable, replicable– Pencil and paper test

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?

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.

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?