COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY – Baron-Cohen et al



COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY – Baron-Cohen et al.: Background

What is this study about?

Autism is a psychiatric disorder usually detected from the age of 4. Although often seen as a disorder of childhood, autism actually stays with an individual throughout their lifetime. Its main characteristics fall into 3 categories:

• Impairments in social interaction

• Impairments in communication

• Repetitive and stereotypical patterns of behaviour.

In particular, autistic people have poor eye contact, fail to develop friendships, don’t recognise how other people might be feeling or how they might react in certain situations (empathy), fail to develop language skills, stick inflexibly to routine and lack creativity and imaginative play.

Not all people with autism have these impairments to the same degree, and despite the social difficulties listed above, some have considerable abilities in one or two areas, for example, musical talent; these are known as “islets” of ability. Others are very high functioning, in other words have a higher than normal I.Q. This is rare however, as in most people with autism intellectual development suffers as a result of their social difficulties.

Baron-Cohen was one of the first researchers to propose a cognitive explanation of autism. He suggests the core problem is the inability to predict how others think or feel, a skill which the majority of humans develop automatically. This skill was called mind-reading and since autistic children lacked this skill they are referred to as having “mind blindness”. Baron- Cohen suggested that reading or predicting the mind of others (i.e. guessing what they are thinking or how they might react) was based on the ability to see things from their point of view. He called this a “theory of mind”, in other words a theory that an individual has about how minds in general, including their own and that of every other human being.

Baron-Cohen rejects all other explanations of autism. He particularly wants to demonstrate that autism is not due to intellectual impairment (low IQ, etc), but the result of the failure to develop a specific cognitive (mental) skill: a theory of mind (ToM).

How has theory of mind been tested?

Baron-Cohen had previously carried out research on autistic children, using the Sally- Anne doll test, a simple test involving two dolls. One doll leaves the room, the other moves an object. The first doll returns and the child is asked where the doll will look for the object. Children who have a basic ToM will understand that the doll will look in the wrong place for the object; autistic children often fail this test.

What was the aim of the study?

Several researchers have tried more complex ToM tests. For example Happé (1994) created the “Strange Stories task” for 8-9 year olds. This task is still to simple for testing adults with autism, however.

Baron-Cohen was searching for a different test for advanced theory of mind skills, one that would discriminate between autistic and non-autistic adults. Baron – Cohen developed a new test for adults with autism. The new test was called “Reading the mind in the eyes task” or “Eyes Task” for short. This advanced test aims to discover if high-functioning adults with autism or Asperger’s do have a problem with mind-reading which it is argued is related to the ability to employ ToM.

The “Eyes Task” evaluated

The Eyes Task is similar to problems that children with autism have. Often, young children with autism have difficulty making eye contact or figuring out what a person is doing or feeling from their facial expressions.

Although it’s a “very advanced” ToM test, the “Eyes Task” is still much simpler than real-life social interactions. A more complex task might involve making judgements about people in movies.

Many of the participants with autism/Asperger’s reported that they found it very hard to understand films – who knows what, why people laugh at particular points. The problem with using movies is that they aren’t a pure ToM test – when you watch a film you use lots of other cognitive skills besides just ToM.

Student Activities

1. Write a suitable hypothesis for this study. [2 marks]

2. What sort of experiment is this? Explain your answer. [2 marks]

3. The normal adult participants in the study were “age-matched”. What does this mean? [2 marks]

4. Explain why adults with Tourette Syndrome were selected as a control group. [2 marks]

5. Explain why Baron-Cohen used “control tasks” in this study. [2 marks]

6. Write a set of standardised instructions for the Eyes Task. [2 marks]

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Take the Test Youself!

You can take the “Eyes Task” yourself.

There’s an online version at

This version has 36 “eyes” and a choice of 4 emotions for each.

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