investigated autism spectrum disorder, a disorder which causes unique behaviour like deficits in social communication, relationships with others and imagination
ASD also associated with lack of theory of mind- difficulty understanding another's thoughts and feelings
Background part 2?
3. to test theory of mind in children previously, used Sally-Anne task, where kid witnessed Sally place a marble in her basket, A would move the marble into her box when S wasn't there, kid was asked where S will expect marble to be, only 20% of ASD kids answer correctly
4. Happe devised more complex task for T of M- strange stories task, kids (8-9) listen to ambiguous stories, judge mental state of character, autistic kids struggle
5. but B-C suggested both tests too simplistic to assess T of M in adults with autism, so designed another more suitable test, the Eyes Task
What was the aim?
assess whether high functioning adults with autism struggle with a new and more difficult test for Theory of Mind- the Eyes task
Sample?
Group 1: 13 male and 3 female high functioning adults recruited from ad in National Autistic magazine and doctor referrals
Group 2: 25 male and 25 female age matched ppl with no history of psychologicaldisorder, all from Cambridge
Group 3: 10 people with Tourette's, volunteered from London referral centre
B-C research method?
Quasi experiment with individual measures
What was the purpose of the other groups?
Normal group were comparison because we know already that they have Theory of Mind. Tourette's group to test whether lack of theory of mind is specific to autism and no other developmental disorders.
What were the conditions of the tasks?
All tested individually in quiet room in lab at Cambridge uni- 4 tasks in a random order. The Eyes task, the Strange Stories task, the Basic Emotion Recognition task and the Gender Recognition Task.
Outline the Eyes Task
Ps shown the same set of 25 black and white photos of men and women's eyes, from the middle of the nose and the brow. Each photo shown for 3 seconds and ps answered forced choice question about mental state of person whose eyes they saw. Had choice of two words- the target (actual word) and foil (not the actual word) eg concerned and unconcerned. Word that correctly described emotion decided before hand by a panel of two male and two female judges.
Why was Happe'sstrange stories task done?
For concurrent validity because this was already known as a good test for autism.
Outline the basic emotion task
Ps shown black and white photos of the six basic emotions on whole faces to check that failure on the Eyes task because of poor emotional recognition.
Outline the Gender Recognition Task
Ps shown black and white photos of men and women's faces, ps asked to identify gender of eyes, ensure that T of M deficit caused difficulties in identifying emotions, not challenges in facial perception.
What were the results of the Eyes task?
Autistic: 16.3/25, Normal: 20.3/25, Tourette's: 20.4/25, range for autism between 13 and 23.
What were the results of the Strange Stories task?
Autism group significantly impaired compared to Tourette's
What were the results of the Gender Recognition task
no significant differences
What were the results of the emotion recognition task
no significant differences
What were the conclusions of the study?
supports idea that adults with autism lack well developed Theory of Mind as they are impaired
impairment not linked to other developmental disorders as Tourette's not impaired, so lack of T of M specific to autism