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.

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 is
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