Cognitive Psychology

Question	Answer
What was the aim of Baron-Cohen's study	To provide support for a cognitive explanation of autism, that adults lack advanced theory of mind.
What is theory of Mind?	The ability to predict the thoughts or behaviors of another person
Why was the group with Autism compared to a group with Tourette's Syndrome in Baron-Cohen's study?	In order to show that an impaired theory of mind was a specific deficit associated with Autism. A Tourette's group was chosen due to the similarities between Tourette's and Autism, such as; - Both developmental disorders. - Both cause disruptions to normal schooling and peer relations. - Both believed to effect the same area of the brain. - Both have intelligence in the normal range. - Both believed to be genetic in origin, - Both effect males more than females.
Who were the Participants in Baron-Cohen's study?	Group 1 - 16 participants, 12 male and 3 females, with high functioning Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. Group 2 - 50 normal, age-matched participants, 25 male and 25 female. All were of average intelligence and had no history of psychiatric condition. Group 3 - Ten participants, 8 male and 2 female, with Tourette's Syndrome, also age-matched.
Where were participants tested in Baron-Cohen's study?	Subjects were tested individually in a quiet room in their own home, in the researcher's clinic, or in the laboratory at the University.
How were the pictures for the Eye's Test created for Baron-Cohen's study?	Magazine photographs were collected of the eye region of 25 faces. All were standardized to one size and black and white.
What happened in the Eye's Task for Baron-Cohen's study?	Each picture was shown for 3 seconds, with a forced choice between two mental state terms printed under each picture. The experimenter asked the subject 'Which word best describes what this person is feeling or thinking?', the maximum score was 25.
How were the mental state terms decided on in Baron-Cohen's study?	Four judges (2M 2F) discussed and decided on the target word for each picture. A 'foil' word was also selected which represented the exact opposite of the target word. These words were tested on a panel of 8 judges (4M 4F), blinded to the study, and there was full agreement.
In Baron-Cohen's study, who was tested on Happe's Strange Stories task and why?	The two clinical groups (Tourette's and Autism) were tested on Happe's Strange Stories task, another theory of mind test, to insure that the Eye's Task was a pure theory of mind test.
Which group participated in the two control tasks in Baron-Cohen's study and why?	Group 1 (autism) completed the control tasks to check whether poor performance on the Eye's Task was due to other factors.
What were the two control tasks in Baron-Cohen's study?	The Gender Recognition Task - looking at the same sets of eyes as the Eye's Task, but identifying the gender of the person. Basic Emotion Recognition Task - Judging photographs of whole faces displaying basic emotions (Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy, Sadness and Surprise).
Why was the Gender Recognition Task used in Baron-Cohen's study?	It involved making a social judgement, whether someone looked like a man or woman, rather than mind reading. It checked whether poor performance on the eyes task was due to general deficits in face perception or social perception.
Why was the Basic Emotion Recognition task used in Baron-Cohen's study?	This checked whether poor performance on the Eye's task was due to a problem with recognizing basic emotion expression.
What was the mean performance for each group on Baron-Cohen's eye test?	Group 1 (autism) - 16.3 Group 2 (normal) - 20.3 Group 3 (Tourette's) - 20.4
In Baron-Cohen's study, what did the results of Happe's Strange Stories Task show?	No subjects with Tourette's made errors, but the subjects with Autism made errors and were significantly impaired on this task.
In Baron-Cohen's study, what were the results for the Gender and Emotion control tasks?	There were no differences between the groups.
In Baron-Cohen's study, what were the gender differences of the 'Normal' group's mean performance of the Eye's Task?	Females performed significantly better than the male subject, females had a mean performance of 21.8 whereas males has 18.8.
What conclusions did Baron-Cohen make?	He confirmed that adults with Autism or Asperger's syndrome performed badly on the Eyes Test (an advanced theory of mind test), meaning the core deficit involved in Autism is the lack of an Advanced Theory of Mind. Also females could have a more advanced theory of mind
How was Baron-Cohen's finding (that a core deficit of Autism is a lack of advanced theory of mind skills) justified?	Poor performance could not have been due to a low IQ as subjects were in the normal or above average range and it couldn't have been due to having a developmental neuropsychiatric disability, as subjects with Tourette's were unimpaired on this task.
What was the aim of Loftus and Palmer's study?	To see the effect of leading questions on a memory of an event.
In Loftus and Palmer's first Experiment, who were the participants?	45 Student participants.
What was the procedure of Loftus and Palmer's first experiment?	Participants were shown 7 clips of traffic accidents taken from Road Safety films, 5-30 seconds long. After, participants were given a questionnaire which first asked to 'give an account of the accident you have just seen', followed by a series of questions.
What was the independent variable in Loftus and Palmer's first experiment?	Participant's were asked a 'critical question', 'About how fast were the cars going when they .... into each other?' Participants were divided into 5 groups of 9 and each was given a different verb in the question; Smashed, Collided, Bumped, Hit, and Contacted.
What were the average ratings of speed for each condition in Loftus and Palmer's first experiment?	Smashed - 40.8 mph Collided - 39.3 mph Bumped - 38.1 mph Hit - 34.0 mph Contacted - 31.8 mph
What finding supports the idea that the experimental groups, in Loftus and Palmer's first experiment, were not very good at estimating speed?	One of the clips showed a car travelling at 20 mph and the average speed estimate of its speed was 37.7 mph.
What were the two conclusions that Loftus and Palmer reached in the first experiment?	The results were due to bias factors - participants consciously biases their response in the direction of the verb, giving the answer they think the researcher wants. The question causes a distortion of the memory representation of the accident.
Why did Loftus and Palmer conduct a second experiment?	To determine whether an actual distortion of memory took place or whether participants were simply responding to demand characteristics.
Who were the participants in Loftus and Palmer's second experiment?	150 student participants.
Describe the procedure of Loftus and Palmer's second experiment.	Participants saw a 1 minute film that contained a 4 second scene of a multiple car accident and then where given a questionnaire which first asked them to 'give an account of the accident' followed by a series of questions. A week later subjects were asked 10 questions and another critical question, 'Did you see any broken glass?'. They did not get to watch the video again.
What was the independent variable of Loftus and Palmer's second experiment?	The students were divided into 3 groups of 50 and each was asked a different critical question (same as experiment 1). Group 1 - The verb hit was used. Group 2 - The verb smashed was used. Group 3 - Subjects were not asked about the speed of the vehicles.
What were the findings for Loftus and Palmer's second experiment?	In the smashed condition 16 participants said 'yes' to seeing broken glass, in the hit condition 7 said yes, and in the control group 6 said yes.
What conclusion did Loftus and Palmer make after their second experiment?	There are two types of information which make up memory of a complex event. The participant sees the film and forms some representation of it in their memory. The experimenter then supplies further information in the form of the question asked.These two pieces of information become integrated and the participant is left with a memory of the accident that is more severe than it was.
What was the aim of Savage-Rumbaugh's study?	To study the language acquisition of two pygmy chimpanzees, Kanzi and Mulika, compared with two 'common' chimpanzees, Austin and Sherman. To describe the first instance in which a non-human species acquired symbols without specific training towards it.
How was Savage-Rumbaugh's study longitudinal?	The data was gathered over a 10 year span, the study reports on a 17 month period.
Why is their low researcher bias in Savage-Rumbaugh's comparison between Pygmy and Common chimpanzees?	The researchers claimed that the project was not undertaken with the intent of producing the findings described, however comparisons between the chimpanzees were made.
Why is Savage-Rumbaugh's study a quasi/natural experiment?	The independent variable, the species of the chimpanzees, was natural occurring.
How old were the chimpanzees when Savage-Rumbaugh's report was written?	Kanzi - 4 Mulika - 3 Sherman and Austin were 9 and 10
How was the lexigram used in Savage-Rumbaugh's study?	All chimpanzees used a visual symbol system called a lexigram. This consisted of geometric symbols that brighten when touch, connected to a speech synthesizer so that words were spoken when touched. When outdoors, Kanzi and Mulika used a 'pointing board', a thin laminated panel containing photographs of all of the lexigrams.
Why was the lexigram used in Savage-Rumbaugh's study?	It is thought that apes can not produce human-like vocalizations.
What were the differences between the rearing environments of the chimpanzees in Savage-Rumbaugh's study?	Sherman and Austin were in a training setting, whereas Kanzi and Mulika were in an observational setting. Sherman and Austin's key board did not have a speech synthesizer because tests revealed they did not understand spoken English words. Sherman and Austin did not used a key board outside of the laboratory, as their broad hand movements made it difficult to distinguish which symbol they were selecting.
What were the similarities between the rearing environments of the chimpanzees in Savage-Rumbaugh's study?	They both experienced attachment to caretakers, opportunity to interact with and observe people, exposure to human speech, exposure to gestures, photographs, formal tests, discipline, and the opportunity to watch television.
How were the utterances of Kanzi and Mulika classified in Savage-Rumbaugh's study?	Correct - appropriate utterances. Incorrect - inappropriate utterances. Spontaneous - initiated without prior prompting. Imitated - includes part of a companion's prior keyboard utterance. Structured - any utterance initiated by questions, requests, or object-showing.
In Savage-Rumbaugh's study, what was the criteria that had to be met before a word could be included in Kanzi and Mulika's vocabulary?	Symbol production should appear appropriate. The word should occur spontaneously on 9/10 occasions, followed by a demonstration of concordance on 9/10 additional occurrences.
How did Savage-Rumbaugh ensure that data has been accurately recorded?	An analysis was done on 4.5 hours of video tape in which real-time coding was checked against the videotape. This scoring was done independently by two difference observers and there was 100% agreement.
In Savage-Rumbaugh's study, how did the Pygmy chimpanzees compare to the common chimpanzees on the formal tests?	Kanzi was correct on 97% of formal tests that matched symbols to photos compared to Sherman who was correct on 7% of these tests.
In Savage-Rumbaugh's study, how did the Pygmy chimpanzees' gesture use compare to that of the common chimpanzees?	Between 6 - 16 months both Kanzi and Mulika spontaneously began to use gestures to communicate actions they wished to have performed and preferred directions of travel. Similar gestures were seen in Sherman and Austin when they were older (2-4 years). Kanzi and Mulika's gestures were often more explicit than Sherman and Austin's.
What were the main differences between the pygmy and common chimpanzees as summarized by Savage-Rumbaugh?	Pygmy chimpanzees comprehended the lexigrams with far more ease, used them more spontaneously and without the need of training. Pygmy chimpanzees were more able to comprehend spoken English words. Pygmy chimpanzees used lexigrams more specifically whereas common chimps used broader categories. Kanzi was able to refer to requests involving others, the common chimpanzees never formed requests which benefited someone other than themselves.
What did Savage-Rumbaugh conclude?	The results suggest Pygmy chimpanzees exhibit symbolic and auditory perceptual skills that are distinctly different from those of common chimpanzees.

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