Baron-Cohen et al (2001)

• When analysing markets, a range of assumptions are made about the rationality of economic agents involved in the transactions
• The Wealth of Nations was written

  1776
• Rational


  (in classical economic theory) economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one
• Consumers act rationally by


  Maximising their utility
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by


  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by


  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Groups assumed to act rationally


  • Consumers
  • Producers
  • Workers
  • Governments
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• The original version of the test had more female faces than male faces, and it was unclear if this may have biased the test in some way
• In the revised version of the test, the number of male and female faces was carefully controlled to be equal
• In the original version of the test, the target word and its foil were always semantic opposites, making the test too easy
• In the revised version of the test, the foil words have the same emotional valence as the target word, making the test more challenging
• The revised version of the test includes a glossary of all the mental state terms, which subjects were encouraged to consult if they were unsure of a word
• The study reports data from the revised version of the Eyes Test
• Aims of the study

  • Test a group of adults with AS or HFA on the revised version of the test
  • Test if in a sample of normal adults, an inverse correlation would be found between performance on the Eyes Test (Revised) and the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ)
  • Test if the sex difference (female superiority) found on the first version of the test replicated
• Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ)


  A self-report questionnaire that measures the degree to which any individual (adult) of normal IQ possesses traits related to the autistic "spectrum"
• Subject groups


  • Adults with AS or HFA
  • Normal adults
  • Normal adult students
  • IQ-matched controls
• Subjects in the AS/HFA group were also asked to judge the gender of each person in each photo, as a control task, given anticipated impairments on mental state recognition
• Normal adults were found to be at ceiling on the gender recognition task during piloting, so they were not required to do this task
• Subjects were asked to read through a glossary of mental state terms and indicate any word meanings they were unsure of, and they were encouraged to refer to this glossary during the test
• New criteria were applied to the data from the normal control groups to select the final set of 36 items for the revised Eyes Test
• Subjects in the four groups did not differ in the number of words in the glossary that they were unsure of, and in all subjects, the number of words checked never exceeded two
• All subjects with AS/HFA scored 33 or above out of 36 on the gender recognition control task
• There were no within-group differences in the student group according to subject studied
• no within-group differences in Group 3 (students) according to subject studied, F(1, 99)139, p 24
• On the AQ, as expected, Group 1 scored significantly higher than Groups 3 and 4: one-way ANOVA of group, F(2, 103)234, p 00001; Scheffé's tests indicated Group 1 scored significantly higher at the .05 level than Groups 3 and 4, for which there was no difference
• The predicted sex difference on the AQ (males scoring higher than females) in Group 3 was also found (t197, p 03 for one-tailed significance)
• The modifications from the original version led to normal performance being significantly below ceiling
• This study replicated the earlier finding that adults with AS or HFA are significantly impaired on such tests, whereas they are not impaired on the gender recognition control test
• Among the general population controls and student group, there was a trend towards a sex difference (female superiority) (p 07)
• There was no significant correlation between IQ and the Eyes Test, suggesting this is independent of general (nonsocial) intelligence
• Performance on the Revised Eyes Test was inversely correlated with performance on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), suggesting that both measure degrees of autistic traits across the notional spectrum
• The AQ is not diagnostic but may serve as a useful instrument for quantifying the extent of an individual's "caseness" in terms of ASHFA, measuring personality traits
• The present results confirm our earlier finding that adults with HFA or AS score significantly higher on the AQ than do general population controls
• Even with the new modifications, the stimuli are static, whereas the real world never is
• Future studies might usefully employ dynamic stimuli of eye expressions
• Static stimuli, however, make the test quick and easy to use, since it can be administered as a "pencil and paper" test