Baron Cohen et al. (1997): Adults with Autism (functioning test of theory of mind)

>[NARRATOR] Okay, so the next video that
we are looking at is by Baron-Cohen et al.

When it says "et al.", it means that there
has been three or more researchers,

so if there's one researcher,
it'll say the researcher's name;

if there's two, it will say
the two researchers' names

(for example, Loftus & Palmer);

but if there has been three or more,

we usually put "et al.",
so Baron-Cohen et al.

So it was done in 1997

and it is looking at autism and
something called Theory of Mind.

So I'm just gonna go
through some key terms,

through a bit of background,

so make sure you make notes
on the background information,

and then we'll look at the study.

So autism is a developmental disorder,

and it affects the social
functioning of individuals.

So it looks at how individuals can
have impairments in several areas

related to their ability
to function socially,

communicate socially,
and things like that.

So if you have autism,
you're on what is known as a spectrum.

So there isn't just one type of autism

and [not] everybody who has autism
has that type of autism, if you will.

What it is, is, there's a spectrum,

so when you're talking about a spectrum,
it means a range, okay?

The autistic spectrum refers to a range of
disorders which consist along a continuum

from mildly affected to severely affected.

This is what your autistic
spectrum might look like.

So it's a continuum.

So a continuum means,
you could fall anywhere along here.

So it's not categories.

It's not "you're in this category"
or "you're in this category"

or "you're in this category."

It means that you could fall
here or here or here or here

so you could be anywhere
along that continuum.

So you could be mildly affected,
so individuals who have things
like high-functioning autism

and Asperger's are in this mildly affected region.

So it might mean that you've got
an average IQ or a slightly above average IQ.

It might mean that you have some
extreme ability in some area,

so we have something called
autistic savants who have particular abilities, particular skills that they are incredibly skilled at,

like memorizing large amounts of numbers
or memorizing what a city looks like from above, things like that.

But it doesn't actually affect your learning
in a particular type of severe way.

Whereas this end of the spectrum is
what's known as a severe learning disability,

so this is where you'd find classic autism,

where your learning and skills
are massively affected.

Asperger's Syndrome is when an individual
is at the milder end, if you will, of the spectrum,

and that's not to say-- "mild end,"
that's not to say it's not affecting you at all;

obviously, it is, but it's what's known
as the milder end of the spectrum.

So it means that they have problems
with social interaction,

but they have generally normal levels
of cognitive development.

So we've got high-functioning autism
and then Asperger's Syndrome.

Now, there's a concept called Theory of Mind.

Theory of Mind is having
the ability to understand

that other people have
independent minds of their own.

So it allows us to understand and predict
what other people think and feel, basically.

So I'm gonna talk a bit more
about Theory of Mind in a moment.

But it's basically understanding

that somebody else has
another mind than you,

they know other things than you,
they've seen other things than you,

they feel other things than you.

There's a few things that we're gonna
talk about when it comes to autism.

Some of these,
we're gonna look at in lesson.

Half a million people in the UK have autism,

and boys are four times more likely
to receive a diagnosis than girls.

So the statistics of autism is that there are
four boys for every one girl that has autism.

And there's a number of things
that people have linked to autism

as a factor or a cause.

There's this kind of continuing debate
about whether autism is caused by nature.

(Is it something that you're born with?

Is it to do with your genetics
or your neurological development?)

Or is it nurture? So is it things like
how your parents raise you?

Is it something that you've picked up in
your environment, like a bacterial infection?

Is it due to being around people
who smoke, or your mother smoking?

Is it due to being in a place
where there's lots of air pollution,

or where there's sorts of pesticides?

Or is it to do with something like
your parent or the age of your parent?

Is it something that's within the environment?

You're gonna research some of these in lesson
but there's a whole different argument there.

But essentially, people who
are on the autistic spectrum

have what is known as
the triad of impairments.

So the triad of impairments.

If you are on that spectrum,

you have difficulties in these three areas.

So you can have difficulties
in social communication,

so these are things like
not understanding facial gestures,

so like non-verbal communication,

They may use a set of phrases repeatedly,

They may have difficulties with verbal
and non-verbal communication;

and they may repeat what other people say.

Social interaction is another area
which they may be impaired in,

so that might be things like difficulty
in forming relationships.

They don't necessarily want to have eye contact
or might not want to be touched.

They may have difficulty in expressing
themselves to others like I currently am.

And the last area of your triad is social imagination,

so you might find it difficult
to imagine how others are feeling

or wanting to engage in
pretend play with others.

So that's things like putting yourself
in somebody else's shoes

or understanding other people's perspectives
or playing role-play games like imagination games.

If you've ever watched any programs or films
with somebody who is on the autistic spectrum in it,

you might see a few of these things,

so if you have, I'd encourage you
to watch those again now

and see if you can pick any of those things up.

There's things like "[Undateable]" is a program which brings a lot of awareness of people with autism or with Asperger's

and you quite often see things like
having certain phrases that they use repeatedly,

like there's a fellow on there that says "exactly" all the time,

so he'll finish a sentence and say "exactly."

And then he'll say something else
then turn around and go "exactly,"

even if nobody has responded to him,

he'll have that phrase
that he uses quite consistently.

TIME 8:15