Psychology Baron Cohen Cheat Sheet by Zmodak27

1) To test adults with high-f­unc­tioning autism (HFA)/­Asp­erger syndrome (AS) on the revised eyes test to see if the deficits on the original test were still seen.

3) To see if females score higher on the eyes test than males.

Theory of mind refers to the ability to determine the mental state of another person or ourselves, otherwise known as ‘menta­lis­ing’. It refers to a person’s ability to put oneself in the position of someone else. We use this knowledge to explain and predict the behaviour of other people.

Social sensit­ivity means being good at knowing how other people feel and what they think when you talk to them. If someone is really socially sensitive, they can tell how someone else is feeling and talk to them in the right way. But if someone isn't very socially sensitive, they might not notice how the other person feels and might interrupt them when they're talking instead of letting them speak.

Baron-­Cohen and colleagues devised their first test of adult social sensit­ivity called the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ test

The eyes test aimed to determine how sensitive a person was to another’s mental state, otherwise known as ‘theory of mind’.

On the eye test, males did a bit worse than females, and adults with high-f­unc­tioning autism or Asperger's did much worse than people of the same gender who didn't have these condit­ions.

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, refers to a range of conditions charac­terised by challenges with social intera­ctions and commun­ica­tion, as well as repetitive or inflexible patterns of behaviour.

It is challe­nging to develop tests in psychology which are sensitive enough to detect subtle cognitive dysfun­ction, partic­ularly in adults with typical intell­igence who may struggle with social unders­tan­ding.

Grown-ups who have conditions like Asperger's or autism may have learned special ways to deal with their challenges over time. So, when we test them, the tests need to be good at noticing even small differ­ences between how they work and how most people do.

The new eye test is better at measuring how well adults understand social things than the old one. People without autism did well, but not perfectly, on the new test, so it can show small differ­ences between people. Adults with autism did worse on the test, but they could still tell the gender of the eyes. This shows that the test can help find social differ­ences in people with normal intell­igence and tell them apart from those without autism.