Baron-Cohen+-+Period+2

Aim- To see if the is any significant difference in results, when seeing if people with and without autism can define emotions by just seeing a persons eyes


 * Baron-Cohen et al (Eyes Test)**


 * Background Information:**
 * **Theory of Mind:** level of develoment certain species reach when they are able to undersand that other creatures have their own independent mind.


 * Method:**
 * Matched Pairs Design
 * Weaknesses:**
 * **Ecological Validity (static pictures, eyes only/strange task)**
 * Strengths:**
 * **Experimental Validity: measures an autistic trait, not a normal one**
 * **Question Criteria**
 * **High Control over extranneous variables**
 * **reliable and replicable\**
 * Ecological Validity:**
 * It has low ecological validity because there are only static (non-moving) pictures of just eyes. It is also an abnormal thing for people to do.**

what data was collected-

1997 the data collection was flawed, there were restricted choices, a ceiling effect, the emotion choices were far too broad, too generic for example happy, sad, angry etc some items were inked to gazing. there were more male faces than female

2001 they fixed the problems with data collection for the revised study, they increased the number of items in the test and increased the number of responses offered. used more complex emotions, involving attribution of intention, eliminated the emotions linked to gazing. 18 male 18 female

how was data collected-they were given tests containing a bunch of pictures and a selection of words below it to describe which emotion it is. They simply had to pick which one was the best fit.

1997

2001

research method-

It is an experiment, they matched participants with similar IQ’s

conclusions- people with autism were less able to determine/identify what emotion was depicted by the picture

results-

ethics-