Baron cohen et al

• IQ


  Intelligence quotient, a measure of intelligence that produces a score representing a person's mental age
• The average IQ for people is 100 and the range can be 15 points below and 15 points above, so 85 to 115
• WAIS-R


  Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised, a scale used to measure intelligence
• There are many different intelligence scales, but the WAIS-R was the scale used in the Baron-Cohen et al. study
• EQ


  Emotional quotient, a measure of emotional intelligence, the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions
• Many current studies show that business success is better predicted by emotional quotient (EQ) than intelligence quotient (IQ)
• AQ


  Autism quotient, a score obtained from the Autism Spectrum Quotient test, which measures autistic traits
• The higher the AQ score, the more autistic traits the person has
• Getting a high AQ score does not necessarily mean a person has autism, it just indicates they have a high number of autistic traits
• To get a formal diagnosis of autism, one needs to be assessed by a professional mental health expert
• DSM


  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, published by the APA, used to classify and diagnose mental health and psychological issues
• ICD


  International Classification of Disorders, published by the WHO, covers a range of health-related conditions
• For psychology, the DSM is usually the main reference used to classify disorders
• Ceiling effect


  When a majority of participants score the highest possible value on a test, making it difficult to differentiate between participants
• Basic emotions


  • Happiness
  • Sadness
  • Fear
  • Disgust
  • Anger
  • Surprise
• Complex emotions are usually a combination of the six basic emotions
• Quasi-experimental


  A study design that has some level of control and variables, but lacks random allocation of participants
• Empathy


  The ability to emotionally understand what other people feel
• Theory of Mind


  The ability to realize that others have different feelings, beliefs, knowledge, and desires from our own
• Theory of Mind is a social cognitive skill that develops as we move from childhood to adulthood
• Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task


  A test that measures the first stage of Theory of Mind, the ability to attribute a mental state to someone based on their eyes
• The original Reading the Mind in the Eyes task had a forced choice between only two responses, which had some problems that were later addressed
• the test is looking at whether or not you can just attribute a mental state to the eyes
• Short form of reading of the mind in the eyes

  Eye task
• In the first edition, the picture had four examples but it was a false choice forced choice between only two responses
• In the first edition, the answer choices were opposites of each other
• In the revised version, they added more options to become a total of four
• In the first edition, there were fewer items, only 25 pictures
• In the first edition, there were a lot of basic emotions and these were too easy to identify
• In the first edition, there was a gender imbalance, there were more female faces than male faces
• The definitions of certain words in the first edition were problematic, some subjects may not have understood all the words provided
• The aims of the study were to test whether a group of adults with asperger's syndrome or high functioning autism would be impaired on the revised version of the reading the mind in the eyes task
• The research method was a quasi-experimental design, a between subjects design
• Dependent variables


  IQ, Autism Quotient test, Reading the Mind in the Eyes task
• The autism group was recruited through volunteer sampling or self-selected, they had 15 participants all male
• The adult comparison group was recruited through convenience sampling, they had 122 participants
• The student comparison group had 103 participants, 53 male and 50 female
• The IQ matched group was randomly selected from the general population, they had 14 participants
• The pilot study was also tested with the normal adult and student comparison groups
• For the main study, 40 items were initially tested, items were removed if less than 50% selected the target word or if 25% or more selected a foil