The links between Autistic traits, Theory of Mind and Moral Judgement.

Transcription

1 The links between Autistic traits 1 The links between Autistic traits, Theory of Mind and Moral Judgement University of Roehampton Extended Research Project PSY040X350Y Supervised by: Lance Slade 8,206

2 The links between Autistic traits 2 Contents 1) Abstract.3 2) Introduction..4 3) Method..10 4) Results 15 5) Discussion..21 6) References..26

3 The links between Autistic traits 3 Abstract: Current research in the field of Autism investigating the link between Theory of mind and moral judgment indicates that impairments in using mental state information, e.g. intentions, beliefs and perspectives, affect an individual s ability to make moral judgments (Moran et al., 2011; Zalla, Barlassina, Buon & Leboyer, 2011). Although research within a non-clinical sample has observed links between levels of autistic traits and poorer Theory of Mind (Best, Moffat, Power, Owens and Johnstone, 2008), it has not yet been investigated whether these traits are linked to moral judgment and subsequently whether this relationship could be explained by poorer Theory of mind, as seen in clinical samples. The present study aimed to look specifically at the link between levels of autistic traits, Theory of mind and moral judgement competence in a sub-clinical undergraduate university sample. 36 participants (32 female) were recruited through opportunity sampling (mean age 23 years). Participants completed three self-report questionnaires: Autistic Spectrum Quotient, Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 and Moral Judgment Test, followed by a computer-based perspective taking task measuring Theory of Mind. The main finding supports the idea that poorer moral reasoning is a key characteristic of Autism, however, this relationship is not dependent on Theory of Mind ability. These findings are discussed with respect to the limitations of measuring Theory of Mind in the general population.

4 The links between Autistic traits 4 Introduction Autism is a severe developmental disorder, which is characterised as having core deficits in social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and is dominated by repetitive stereotyped activities: known as the triad of impairments (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; Wing, Gould & Gillberg, 2011). Previous research has shown that individuals with Autism have deficits in Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith, 1985; Kleinman, Marciano & Ault, 2001), with further investigations in non-clinical samples noting that individuals with higher levels of autistic traits also show a poorer performance on Theory of Mind tasks (Best et al., 2010). It has been suggested that deficits in Theory of Mind are linked to poorer moral judgments (Casebeer, 2003; Killen, Lynn Mulvey, Richardson, Jampol & Woodward, 2011). In support of this, recent research has revealed that individuals with Autism have difficulties with forming moral judgements (Takeda Kasai and Kato, 2007); using Theory of Mind deficits to explain this relationship (Zalla et al., 2011; Moran et al., 2011). In light of this, using a non-clinical sample the current study aims to investigate whether autistic traits are linked to poorer moral reasoning and whether this can be explained by poorer Theory of Mind. Autism and Theory of Mind In the mid 1980 s many theories were proposed in the attempt to explain the core elements of Autism as arising from a single cognitive deficit. One cognitive theory proposed was the Theory of Mind (ToM) hypothesis (Rajendran & Mitchell, 2007). The term ToM was coined by Premack and Woodruff (1978) and is defined as the ability to impute mental states to the self and others in order to predict behaviours. The first test of the ToM hypothesis involved children with Autism taking part in a false belief task (FBT) (Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith, 1985). Baron-Cohen et al. (1985) modified Wimmer and Perner s (1983) original unexpected transfer task to create the Sally-Anne task used in their study to measure ToM ability (Doherty, 2009). Baron-Cohen and colleagues found that 80% of children with Autism failed the FBT, which is significant in comparison to mental age-matched neurotypical and Down s Syndrome groups (15% and 14%). They concluded that the failure seen in the FBT constitutes a deficit of ToM in individuals with Autism.

5 The links between Autistic traits 5 This original paper by Baron-cohen et al. (1985) sparked a lively debate surrounding the ToM deficit in Autism. Happe (1994) states that the ToM hypothesis is challenged by the 20% of individuals with Autism in Baron-Cohen s study that pass the FBT. Following this challenge Baron-Cohen (1989) investigated ToM using a more difficult explicit FBT (he thinks she thinks). He found that no child with Autism was able to pass the second-order FBT, concluding that children with Autism don t have a fully representational ToM. This assumption is supported by Spek, Scholte and Van Berckelaer-Onnes (2009) who found that individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and high functioning Autism (HFA) show deficits on various ToM tasks (faux-pas and strange stories test), as well as showing more self reported ToM problems compared to neurotypical individuals. Evidence against a ToM deficit by Ozonoff, Rogers and Pennington (1991) and Bowler (1992) found that individuals with Asperger s were able to pass tasks requiring the use of second-order ToM. However, when the individuals with Asperger s were asked to further explain their solutions, they did so without the use of mental state terms (Bowler, 1992). This suggests that these individuals may be using a separate system to pass classic FBTs measuring ToM ability. Frith, Happe and Siddons (1994) support this by showing that some individuals with Autism use local strategies to hack out the answers on the FBTs, which are not present in real life. This indicates that individuals with Autism may be able to pass the classical FBT, whilst still having subtle deficits in ToM, therefore suggesting that it may not be a valid measure of ToM in adults with Autism. In support of this, Research using an advanced ToM task (eyes test) found that adults with HFA who passed a first order ToM task did significantly worse on the advanced task, indicating that ToM is a core deficit for individuals with Autism (Kleinman, Marciano & Ault, 2001). Further support from Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) found that adults with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) who were able to pass both first and second order FBTs showed significant impairment on the eyes test in comparison to normal and clinical control groups. This suggests that even though individuals with ASD are able to pass a simple FBT they still think differently about social behaviours. However, this different thought process remains unclear (Moran et al., 2011). Studies using looking time measures of ToM reveal evidence to show the use of a different thought process, supporting a subtler ToM deficit in adults with Autism (Moran et al., 2011). Senju, Southgate, White and Frith (2009) found that adults with AS can pass explicit FBTs with ease; however, they predominantly fail to pass non-verbal (implicit) FBTs,

6 The links between Autistic traits 6 showing an impairment in spontaneous mentalising. That is, they correctly answer explicit questions about where someone thinks an object is, but fail to correctly or spontaneously look to the correct location. This paradox could be explained through compensatory learning on the explicit FBT, leaving the difficulties seen in spontaneous mentalising to account for the everyday social impairments seen in individuals with ASD. The evidence suggests a subtler ToM deficit in adults with ASD and implies that a more sensitive measure of ToM may be needed that cannot be solved through compensatory learning. Research on ToM in typically developing adults and children has lead to the development of an online communication task that requires the use of ToM in real time spontaneous interactions. The online communication game requires participants to adopt another person s perspective in order to successfully master the task, therefore measuring ToM ability (Begeer, Malle, Nieuwland & Keysar, 2010). Research using this online communication game has shown that adults and children are prone to egocentric errors when using this task to infer another person s beliefs (Keysar, Barr, Balin & Brauner, 2000; Epley, Morewedge & Keysar, 2004). This evidence suggests that the online communication game task is a sensitive measure of ToM in typically developing children and adults. This task has been modified to run as a computer-based task (Apperly et al., 2010), which has been shown to observe individual differences in perspective taking for adults. This study will employ this task as a measure of ToM, both measuring accuracy in understanding perspective, and reaction time to process perspective, giving a subtler measure of ToM. Autism and Autistic traits The continuum hypothesis suggests that Autism lies at the extreme end of a spectrum of traits, which are also seen to be present in the general population (Best, Moffat, Power, Owens & Johnstone, 2008). Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Skinner, Martin & Clubely (2001) created the Autistic Spectrum Quotient (AQ) to measure the degree to which an individual without ASD has traits that are present in the autistic spectrum. Adults with ASD score significantly higher on the AQ than control groups, supporting the idea that it is accurately measuring autistic traits (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste & Plumb, 2001). Similar results with the AQ have been found cross-culturally, indicating high reliability and criterion validity (Wakabayashi, Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright & Tojo, 2006). An alternative self-report measure that can discriminate between an ASD group and typically developing adult group is the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). This questionnaire is used to assess an individual s level of cognitive processing of emotions (Berthoz & Hill, 2005). It

7 The links between Autistic traits 7 has been suggested that individuals with ASD have a core difficulty in processing other s emotions as well as their own (Hill, Berthoz & Frith, 2004). Research has shown that individuals with ASD score higher on both the AQ and the TAS-20 than a control group (Minio-Paluello, Baron-Cohen, Avenanti, Walsh & Aglioti, 2009). This suggests that the TAS-20 can be used to measure autistic trait levels in a typically developing individual. The current study used both the TAS-20 and AQ questionnaires to investigate Autistic traits within a non-clinical sample. Extensive research has shown that adults with higher levels of autistic traits share cognitive features with individuals who have a clinical diagnosis of Autism. For example, Best et al. (2010) found that young adults who had higher levels of autistic traits were more likely to have a poorer ToM, as measured by first and second order FBTs. Similarly, a study looking at broader Autism phenotypes in university students found that sub-clinical autistic traits were linked to poorer performance on a cartoon ToM task (Brunet, Sarfati & Hardy-Baylé, 2003) measuring attributions of intentions (Sasson, Nowlin & Pinkham, 2012). In addition to this, Carroll and Chiew (2006) showed that student population s scores on the AQ were significantly associated with performance on ToM tasks. In contrast to this, research on university students has shown that there is no relationship between the AQ and the eyes task which reflects ToM ability by measuring an individual s ability to attribute thoughts and feelings to pictures of eyes. This finding suggests that cognitive deficits are not present in the general population (Kunihira, Senju, Dairoku, Wakabayashi & Hasegawa, 2006). However, the eyes task used to measure ToM may have not been sensitive enough to show any individual cognitive differences in the general population. This is consistent with research supporting the continuum hypothesis, which shows that adults with high autistic traits perform slower on a perspective-taking task (Brunye et al., 2012). This suggests that observing reaction time scores may be a more sensitive measure of ToM. Overall then, research supports the continuum hypothesis and suggests that Autism can be placed on a wide spectrum. Several findings indicate that ToM deficits seen in individuals with ASD are also present to some degree in the general population. Autism and Moral Judgements Moral judgements are defined as evaluations (bad versus good) of the character or actions of an individual that are made based on a set or virtues held by either a culture or subculture (Haidt, 2001). Within the moral judgement literature it has been suggested that ToM is

8 The links between Autistic traits 8 crucial for an individual to make healthy moral judgements (Casebeer, 2003). This assumption is supported by research looking at children s false belief understanding in a morally relevant situation. Killen et al. (2011) found that the children who failed a FBT were more likely to assign bad intentions towards an accidental transgressor. However, children who passed the FBT used moral reasoning, by separating the good intentions from the transgressor s bad act when attributing blame to the accidental transgressor. These findings suggest that ToM competence aided the children s ability to create moral judgements about an individual s behaviour. Further support from recent neuroimaging evidence shows the importance of the interaction between ToM and moral judgements in adults. Young, Cushman, Hauser and Saxe (2007) found evidence that moral judgments depend on the right temporoparietal junction brain region, which is associated with belief attribution, and to a lesser extent in similar areas (medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus and left temporoparietal junction) associated with ToM. Similarly, evidence shows that using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to interrupt normal functioning in an area of the brain involved in mental state reasoning led individuals to rely less on an actor s mental state and judge attempted harms of an actor as more morally acceptable (Young, Camproden, Hauser, Pascual-Leone & Saxe, 2010). Taken together, the evidence indicates that the formation of a moral judgement relies on ToM ability. Moral reasoning is an important feature of social cognition and thus assessing whether individuals with Autism have the ability to form moral judgments is key to understanding the amount of their social impairment (Zalla et al., 2011). One of the first studies to research the link between ToM and moral reasoning in individuals with Autism found that children with Autism could distinguish between conventional and moral transgressions despite failing a FBT (Blair, 1996). This suggests that ToM is not a prerequisite for moral development. Replicated results provide further support for Blair s research findings (Leslie, Mallon & Dicorcia, 2006). However, for competent moral judgements it is suggested that appropriate justification must be given following this distinction (Zalla et al., 2011). In light of this, Grant, Boucher, Riggs and Grayson (2005) found that although ability to make moral judgments was not impaired in children with Autism, when prompted for justification of their answers they typically rephrased the story or gave significantly poor responses. This research indicates that children with Autism have difficulty explaining their moral judgements and so may not have proper moral reasoning. More recent findings by Takeda Kasai and Kato (2007) found that students with ASD show impaired internal (autonomous) moral reasoning. This indicates that individuals with ASD are less able to establish their

9 The links between Autistic traits 9 own internal standard of what is right or wrong, leading to a poorer formation of verbal moral judgements. Further research has investigated the link between moral judgments and ToM ability in adults with Autism. Zalla et al. (2011) found that adults with HFA and AS had difficulties producing moral justifications for actions and rating the seriousness of a transgression. This could be explained by a cognitive impairment, as lower performance on a ToM task correlated with a higher serious rating of the transgression, suggesting that moral judgments are affected by ToM ability. Additionally, Moran et al. (2011) found that adults with ASD failed to judge attempted and accidental harms as morally different. When forming a moral judgment, individuals with ASD relied more on the negative outcome of a situation than the intentions of an individual. Under reliance on intentions shows a clear ToM deficit, which influenced the explicit moral judgement. This shows that producing moral judgments based on the use of ToM is impaired in adults with ASD. So far the evidence presented indicates a subtle deficit in moral reasoning in individuals with Autism, and suggests that this may be linked to a deficit in ToM. Although studies have investigated the relationship between ToM and moral judgements in an adult clinically diagnosed ASD sample, surprisingly, there is as yet, no research investigating the relationship between levels of autistic traits, ToM and moral judgment in an adult non-clinical sample. In the present study moral judgment competence, which is defined by Kohlberg as the ability to make judgments and decisions that are moral, and act consistently in line with these judgments (Kohlberg, 1964, as cited in Lind, 2000), will be measured using the Moral Judgment Test (MJT) (Lind, 1978). This questionnaire based test probes a participant s ability to judge a diverse range of arguments for two moral dilemmas based on moral orientations and principles, rather than the participant s opinions. The MJT is both theoretically and cross-culturally valid, being adapted by the author for use in a variety of different cultures (Lind, 2000). The MJT has also been used widely in research on students (Bosco, Melchar, Beauvais & Desplaces, 2010; Duriez & Soenens, 2006), making it an appropriate measure for use in this study. Present study The present study will use the AQ and TAS-20 as measures of autistic traits. An online (computer-based) communication task (Apperly et al. 2010) will be used to measure ToM

10 The links between Autistic traits 10 ability. Lastly, this study will use the MJT to measure moral judgment competence. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationships between Autistic traits, Theory of Mind and moral judgment competence in a sub-clinical sample of undergraduate students. The study further aims to investigate whether ToM mediates the relationship between level of autistic traits and moral judgement ability. First it is hypothesised that levels of autistic traits and scores on the TAS-20 will correlate with ToM ability as measured by the online communication task. Secondly, it is hypothesised that there will be a relationship between an individual s score on the AQ and TAS-20 and their moral judgement competence, as measured by the MJT. As previously suggested, individuals with higher Autistic traits have a deficit in ToM, which is crucial for making moral judgments. This study therefore hypothesises that individuals with higher levels of autistic traits will show poorer performance on a ToM task, which will be linked to a poorer level of moral judgment competence. Method: Design: This study employed a mixed design, using both self-report questionnaires to measure autistic traits and moral judgment competence and a computer-based experimental task to measure perspective taking. Following the experiment, data was inputted into SPSS and correlations were used to look at the relationship between autistic traits, theory of Mind and moral judgements. Participants: Thirty six participants between the ages of (mean age = 23, 32 females) were recruited through opportunity sampling. All participants were undergraduate students from the University of Roehampton. Participants were either recruited through SONA or word of mouth and received one credit for completion of the study. Ethical Considerations: Participants were required to give written consent before taking part in the study. Each participant was made fully aware that withdrawal from the study was possible at any point,

11 The links between Autistic traits 11 without any consequence on his or her marks or credits received. It was noted that the Autistic Spectrum Quotient questionnaire used in the study cannot and is not being used to diagnose Autism and is widely used in studies on non-clinical samples, including student populations. No reference is made to Autism (or autistic traits) in the documentation given to participants rather the questionnaire is referred to as a measure of aspects of personality to prevent any misunderstanding or concern in participants. This has been d for previous projects and is approved at a University Ethics Committee level. Furthermore, debriefing the participants at the end of the study and reiterating their right to withdraw will rectify this issue of minor deception. Each debrief form had a designated unique participant number, which should be reported via to the experimenter or supervisor in case participants wish to withdraw their data from the study. It was made clear that all participant data would be kept confidential in a locked draw at the experimenter s home and on a password locked University computer. The participants were informed that any data removed from the study would be disposed of properly by either shredding or burning. Materials and Procedure: All experiments were carried out in the social and developmental lab at the University of Roehampton. The experiment was run daily over a 4-week period, with each testing session lasting approximately 1 hour. The study consisted of 3 self-report questionnaires and a computer-based experimental task. Three fixed order sequences were used in all experiments to counterbalance any order effects. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants at the beginning of the study and a full debrief was administered upon completion. A description of all materials used within the experiment will be presented, followed by a full outline of the experimental procedure. Demographic questionnaire: The participants were first asked to complete a demographic/family questionnaire, which required them to give information on their gender, age, ethnicity, type of degree and general background information on their family (number and age of siblings etc.). (See Appendix 3).

12 The links between Autistic traits 12 Autistic-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) (See Appendix 3): The following questionnaire was used to identify the level of Autistic traits in each participant. The AQ (Baren-Cohen, Wheelwright, Skinner, Martin & Clubley, 2001) consists of 50 questions with 10 questions assessing five different areas: social skill, attention switching, attention to detail, communication and imagination. The questionnaire uses a 4-point likert scale ranging from to. Half of the questions are reverse scored to avoid any response biases. The AQ is scored by participants receiving 1 point if they give a or response on questions 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 33, 35, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46 and 1 point if they give a Definitely or response on questions 3, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 44, 47, 48, 49, 50, with a maximum score possible of 50. Cronbach s alpha reliability was conducted on the AQ (.69), which showed internal reliability close to the acceptable range (approximately.70 and above) (Field, 2009). The subscales: attention to detail (.70) and communication (.71) showed good internal reliability, however, imagination (.24), Social skill (.52) and attention switching (.34) showed poor internal reliability, indicating that analyses with these subscales needs to be treated with caution. Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) (Bagby, Parker & Taylor, 1994) (See Appendix 3): The following questionnaire was used as an additional measure of Autistic traits in each participant. The TAS-20 assesses an individual s ability to describe and identify emotions and is a commonly used measure of Alexithymia. The TAS-20 is a self-report questionnaire that contains 20 items. The self-report rating scale measures 3 different aspects of emotion processing: difficulty describing feelings, difficulty identifying feelings, and externally oriented thinking. All items are rated using a 5-point likert scale from strongly to strongly. A total score on the TAS-20 is the sum of all 20 items, ranging from 1-5 points (strongly =1 to strongly =5) for 15 questions and the reverse for 5 negatively keyed questions (4, 5, 10, 18 and 19). The maximum score possible for the TAS- 20 is 100. Cronbach s alpha reliability was conducted on the TAS-20 (.83), which suggested good internal reliability. One subscale showed good internal reliability: difficulty describing feelings (.79), however, two of the subscales showed poor internal reliability: difficulty identifying feelings (.20) and externally oriented thinking (.42), indicating that analysis with these subscales needs to be treated with caution. Moral Judgment Test (MJT) (Lind, 1978) (See Appendix 3): The MJT was used in this experiment to measure an individual s moral judgement competence by evaluating how an

13 The links between Autistic traits 13 individual deals with arguments that may oppose their own views. The MJT consists of two short stories containing behavioural dilemmas. Participants were required to read the two stories and answer on a 7 point likert scale from strongly to strongly on what they thought about the decision made in each story. Following this, participants answered a series of 24 questions (12 on each story, for an example see figure 1) regarding how acceptable they found the arguments in the questionnaire. The 24 questions are answered on a 9-point likert scale from I strongly reject to I strongly accept. The C- score (a score of an individual s moral judgment competence) was calculated in SPSS using a syntax provided by the Author. The calculation of the C-score was also checked with the original author of the Questionnaire. A maximum possible score for the MJT is 100. Cronbach s alpha reliability was conducted on the MJT (.70), which indicates acceptable internal reliability. Figure 1: Two example questions from the Moral Judgment Test Theory of Mind (Keysar) task (Keysar, Barr, Balin & Brauner, 2000) (See Appendix 3): Participants took part in a computerised version (using E-Prime1) of the Keysar task (modified by Apperly et al. 2010), which was used in this experiment to measure Theory of Mind ability in adults. The task showed participants a 4x4 grid with a number of objects placed in some of the compartments, which were either open or occluded from a director on the other side of the grid. The participants were required to follow instructions from the director as to which object to move in the array. This task consisted of 32 different pictures of a grid, each with four instructions to move an object, making in total 128 trials. Out of 128 trials, 16 were experimental (perspective), 16 were control and the remaining 96 trials were fillers. The experimental trials required the participants to take the perspective of the director, thus testing the participant s Theory of Mind ability. These trials measured perspective taking by requiring the participant to take the point of view of the director on an instruction where the object best suited to the instruction was not in the director s vision. Participants also took part in 16 control trials that required them to move a specific object, e.g. a small ball, that was visible to the participant and director. These trials differ

14 The links between Autistic traits 14 from the experimental trials, where the object was only be visible to the participant. The control trials had the same task requirements as the experimental trials but there was no perspective taking aspect. As well as measuring accuracy on experimental and control trials this task provided a reaction time difference measure by looking at the difference in time taken to complete all control and experimental trials. The task also had two practice grids prior to the main experiment, where participants received both an accuracy score (how many of the 8 trials they got right) and a reaction time measure (the mean of how fast they were on their accurate trials). This picture shows an example of the Keysar task: When the director gives an instruction to Move the small ball one place down he is referring to the tennis ball (marked x) because he can t see the golf ball (marked y), which is visible only to the participant. If the participant moves the tennis ball it means that they have taken into account the director s perspective. However, if they use their own understanding then they would move the golf ball. In the testing sessions the participants were given a consent form to read and fill out (see appendix 2). The consent forms were then collected by the experimenter and put into a separate folder. The participants were briefed about the layout of the experiment and were given an opportunity to ask the experimenter any questions. Following this participants were told that they could withdraw from the study at any point and to leave out any questions that they did not feel comfortable answering.

15 The links between Autistic traits 15 All participants had an individual participant number that was issued to them by the experimenter and was presented on the top of every questionnaire. First, a demographic/family questionnaire was issued to each participant to fill out. Subsequently the participants were issued two questionnaires: the Autistic Spectrum Quotient and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. Upon completion of the questionnaires participants were issued with the Moral Judgment Test to complete. During the completion of all questionnaires the experimenter waited outside of the room and was available for the participant upon request. After completing all questionnaires the experimenter placed these into a folder that was kept separately from the consent forms. Following completion of the questionnaires, participants were seated in front of a computer to take part in an online version of the Keysar task. Participants were shown two printed colour pictures (participant and director s view) of the visual array and given a verbal explanation of the experimental procedure. These instructions, alongside the picture, were used to emphasise the difference in perspective. The instructions further emphasised the importance of taking the director s point of view when moving objects around the array. Participants were informed on how to move objects around the grid and reminded to move them as quickly and accurately as possible. Following the instructions participants took part in two practice grids, which were supervised by the experimenter to ensure participants had a clear understanding of the task. The participants were given a chance to ask any questions and then they began the main experiment. Following completion of the experiment participants received a verbal and written debrief explaining the purpose, hypothesis and aims of the study (see appendix 2). Results: An initial investigation of the descriptive statistics for the full 36 participant data set was performed to check for any outliers. A series of box plots were created for the main variables, which revealed a total of 4 outliers across the Autistic Spectrum Quotient (AQ), Moral Judgement Test/C-Score (MJT) and Perspective-taking task (PT). These outliers were subsequently removed from any further analysis leaving a total of 32 participants (see appendix 5). Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for the main variables for the remaining 32 participants.

16 The links between Autistic traits 16 Table 1: Descriptive statistics for Autistic traits, Alexithymia, Moral judgment and Perspective taking measures Accuracy Perspective Taking Control Reaction time (RT) Perspective taking Control Difference Moral Judgment Test (MJT) Moral competence score (C-Score) Autistic Quotient (AQ) Total AQ Social skill Attention switching Attention to detail Communication Imagination Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS-20) Total TAS-20 Describing feelings Identifying feelings Externally-oriented thinking N Min Max Max score Mean Standard Skewness Kurtosis Possible Deviation PT = Perspective Taking, MJT = Moral Judgment Test, AQ = Autistic Spectrum Quotient, TAS-20 = Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 and RT = reaction time. Preliminary analysis of the main variables was run to check for outliers and normality. The mean score for PT accuracy (M= 10.97) suggests that the task was not too easy or too hard, as no ceiling or floor effects were present. However, the mean score for control accuracy (M= 15.94) shows ceiling effects, suggesting that task demands were low. In the present study mean scores on the AQ (M=13.87) are comparatively lower that other studies (Wakabayashi, Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2006). However, mean scores on the TAS-20 (M= 44.87) and MJT (M= 19.80) are similar to those reported in other studies (Hill, Berthoz & Frith, 2004; Mouratidou, Barkoukis & Rizos, 2012). Checks on both

17 The links between Autistic traits 17 skewness and kurtosis of the AQ (s =.05, k = -.12), MJT (s =.74, k =.48), TAS-20 (s =.28, k = -.67) and PT accuracy (s = -.03, k = -1.7) show that the total scores are normally distributed with suitable levels of Skewness and kurtosis (see appendix 7). This indicates that it is acceptable to analyse the data further for correlations using a parametric Pearson s product moment correlation. However, acceptable levels of skewness and kurtosis for the reaction time measure for control trials and two of the AQ s subscales (social skills and communication) were not met and so non-parametric Spearman s correlation will be used with these. A series of one-way between subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted on all main variables to investigate any effect of order on the AQ, MJT, TAS-20 and PT accuracy total scores. The between subjects factor variable was the order the tasks were administrated and the dependent variables were the AQ total scores, TAS-20 total scores, MJT (C-Score) and PT accuracy. Prior to running the ANOVA a Levene s test was conducted to investigate the homogeneity of variance of the AQ, TAS-20, C-Score and PT accuracy across the 3 fixed orders used in the study. The Levene s test revealed a nonsignificant effect of order on the AQ total scores (F(2,28) = 2.86, p >.05), TAS-20 total scores (F(2,27) =.09, p >.05), C-Score (F(2,28) =.43, p >.05) and PT task accuracy (F(2,29) =.48, p >.05), suggesting that all main variable scores were equally varied across the 3 fixed orders and therefore homogeneity of variance can be assumed (see appendix 8). When variance is assumed the ANOVAs revealed a non-significant main effect of order on the AQ total scores (F(2,28) = 1.20, p >.05), TAS-20 total scores (F(2,27) = 1.19, p >.05), C-Score (F(2,28) =.01, p >.05) and PT accuracy (F(2,29) =.80, p >.05). All ANOVAs indicated that there was therefore no significant main effect of order of tasks administered to participants on the total scores of the AQ, TAS-20, MJT or PT accuracy (see appendix 8). The effect of gender was checked next. A series of one-way between subjects ANOVAs were performed to look at the effect of gender on all main variables (See table 2 for means and standard deviations). In this ANOVA the fixed factor variable was gender and the dependent variables were the AQ total scores, TAS-20 total scores, C-Score and PT accuracy. A Levene s test was conducted to investigate the homogeneity of variance of the AQ, TAS-20, C-Score and PT accuracy across both males and females. The Levene s test revealed a non-significant effect of gender on the AQ total scores (F(1,29) = 2.25, p >.05), TAS-20 total scores (F(1,28) =.19, p >.05), C-Score (F(1,29) = 2.27, p >.05), suggesting

18 The links between Autistic traits 18 that these main variable scores are equally varied across gender and therefore homogeneity of variance can be assumed (see appendix 8). The one-way ANOVA analysis yielded a nonsignificant main effect of gender on the AQ total scores (F(1,29) = 1.06, p >.05), TAS-20 total scores (F(1,28) = 1.16, p >.05, C-Score (F(1,29) =.00, p >.05). However, a significant effect of gender on PT task accuracy (F(1,30) = 6.92, p <.05) was revealed, suggesting that equal variance are not assumed, therefore an independent t-test will be used to adjust for a significant Levene s test. An independent t-test was conducted which revealed a nonsignificant main effect of gender on PT task accuracy (t(4.79) = -.14, p >.05). All one-way ANOVAs and the independent t-test show that gender did not have a significant effect on performance of each task and so was not considered further (see Appendix 8). Table 2: Main variable means and standard deviations for males and females Males Females Mean Standard deviation Mean Standard deviation AQ PT TAS MJT

19 The links between Autistic traits 19 Table 3: Raw correlations (Listwise) between main measures PT Accuracy C-Score AQ Total TAS-20 Total PT Accuracy - RT control.03 RT experimental.07 RT difference.59** MJT C-Score.23 - AQ Total * - AQ subscales Social skill ** Attention switching ** Attention to detail *.61** Communication ** Imagination TAS-20 Total TAS-20 subscales Describing feelings ** Identifying feelings *.86** Externally-oriented ** thinking PT = Perspective Taking, MJT = Moral Judgment Test, AQ = Autistic Spectrum Quotient and TAS-20 = Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20. * p< 0.05 ** p<0.001 (all two-tailed) Results from the Pearson s correlation presented in table 3 show a medium significant negative correlation between AQ total score and MJT r=-.41, p <.05. This shows that participants who scored higher on the AQ scored significantly lower on the MJT. A medium positive significant correlation is seen between PT accuracy and RT difference r=.59; p <.001, showing that participants with higher PT accuracy had a bigger RT difference between control and experimental trials. This suggests that those who were more accurate were taking longer on the perspective trials. Furthermore, the Pearson s correlation revealed a non-significant positive correlation between the AQ and TAS-20 total scores r =.23; p >.05, indicating no relationship between total scores on the AQ and the TAS-20. In addition, a non-significant correlation was found between the PT task accuracy and the total scores on the AQ r = -.07; p >.05, TAS-20 r =.28; p >.05 and MJT r =.23; p >.05. This indicates that there is no relationship between accuracy on the PT task and the AQ, TAS-20 or MJT (see Appendix 9). A 2x2 ANOVA was performed to investigate whether high or low PT accuracy moderates the relationship found between the AQ total scores and the C-Score. A median split was

20 The links between Autistic traits 20 performed on AQ total scores (median =14) and on PT accuracy scores (median =10) (see appendix 7). The ANOVA revealed a non-significant main effect of high (M = 17.93, SD = 2.91) versus low (M = 10.06, SD = 3.04) AQ scores on the C-Score total, F(1,26) = 2.86, p >.05, ηp 2 =.10. There was also a non-significant main effect of high (M= 14.75, SD = 1.39) or low (M = 7.19, SD = 1.38) PT accuracy on the C-Score total, F(1,26) =.43, p >.05, ηp 2 =.02. There was a non-significant interaction effect between low and high scores on the AQ and low and high PT accuracy scores on the C-Score total, F(1,26) =.83, p >.05, ηp 2 =.03. This suggests that high or low scores on PT accuracy do not moderate the relationship between AQ total scores and the C-Score (see appendix 10). A power analysis using G*Power shows a minimum sample size of 256 participants would be required to achieve a significant interaction effect (see Appendix 11). Figure 2: Graph to show the interaction between AQ and PT on MJT scores Figure 2 shows a visual representation of the results from the 2x2 ANOVA. The graph suggests that for the low AQ group, higher PT accuracy scores are linked with high MJT scores. However, for the high AQ this is not the case. Although the visual representation in

21 The links between Autistic traits 21 this graph suggests a potential link between PT accuracy scores and MJT scores in the low AQ group, the interaction was not significant, indicating that there was no moderating effect and therefore this interaction was not explored any further. Discussion: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between an individual s level of Autistic traits, performance on a theory of mind (ToM) task and moral judgment competence. The main finding from the current study is that a significant negative correlation was found between Autistic traits and moral judgement competence. That is, individuals who have higher levels of autistic traits have poorer moral judgement competence. This finding supports the hypothesis that scores on the AQ affect moral judgment competence and thus the hypothesis can be accepted. Further analysis of the data revealed no association between the AQ or TAS-20 and accuracy and reaction times on the ToM task. This finding implies that cognitive deficits such as ToM usually seen in individuals who have been clinically diagnosed with Autism are not necessarily present in those who exhibit higher autistic traits or alexithymia symptoms in the general population. This finding indicates that the original hypothesis that the scores on the AQ and TAS-20 will affect ToM ability must be rejected, as no significant effect was found. Additional analysis revealed no correlation between the ToM task and MJT. This indicates that there was no evidence for a link between the AQ and MJT with ToM as a mediating factor. Further analysis was conducted to explore whether performance on the ToM task moderated the relationship between the AQ and MJT. The results show that performance on the ToM task had no interaction with AQ group on the MJT. These findings suggest that ToM is not a factor that moderates the relationship between level of autistic traits and moral judgment competence and therefore the final hypothesis is rejected. Previous research investigating the relationship between levels of Autistic traits, alexithymia and ToM in the general population has found seemingly mixed results. Best et al. (2008) found that people with higher behavioural autistic traits exhibit similar, but to a lesser extent, underlying cognitive deficits (ToM) seen in individuals with a clinical diagnosis of Autism. Similar links between ToM ability and alexithymia have also been observed (Moriguchi et al., 2006). Whilst previous research has found these links, the

22 The links between Autistic traits 22 present study provides evidence to suggest no relationship between scores on the AQ or TAS-20 and ToM ability. Although this finding was not expected, comparable findings by Kunihira et al. (2006) found that Autistic traits in the general population are not related to ToM ability. This debate within the Autism literature challenges the strong claim of a continuum hypothesis, suggesting that although behavioural traits directly linked with Autism are present within the general population, this may not be the case for the cognitive characteristics that are commonly associated with the disorder. Although the present study s results and previous literature has found no relationship between Autistic traits and theory of mind, there are several explanations that could have contributed towards this finding. Firstly, the present study had a small sample size (n = 32), suggesting that the results must be interpreted with caution, as the wide range of autistic traits may not have been fully represented in this small sample. This is further indicated through participants scores on the AQ, as the autistic trait levels in the sample were comparatively low (Mean score = 14), with no participants scoring beyond or near the cut off point for a clinical diagnosis of Autism (32+) (Baren-Cohen et al., 2001). This implies that cognitive deficits may have not been present in the sample. However, a power analysis revealed that a sample size of 256 participants would be required to produce an interaction effect, suggesting that the unobserved interaction is not reflective of the small sample size in the present study. Furthermore, considerably more female participants took part in the study than male participants. Substantial research has found that males score significantly higher than females on the AQ (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001; Wakabayashi et al., 2006; Carroll & Chiew, 2006), which can be seen as reflecting the higher levels of males with Autism (Happe & Frith, 1996; Frith, 2003; Frith, 2008), leading to the extreme male brain hypothesis (Baron-Cohen, 2002). The underrepresentation of male participants in this study could be the underlying factor contributing towards the low AQ scores, providing an explanation for the finding of no relationship between autistic traits and ToM ability. However, the analysis revealed no differences between males and females scores on the main measures, suggesting that using more male participants may not reveal a relationship between autistic traits and ToM ability. Likewise, evidence for no association between the AQ, TAS-20 and ToM ability could have been observed due to the lack of sensitivity of the ToM task used in the present study to

23 The links between Autistic traits 23 measure cognitive characteristics. Recent research using the same communication task, however, with real objects and people, looking at accuracy (reaching errors) and reaction times, has found that both ASD individuals and controls show similar performance, suggesting no deficiency in ToM (Begeer, Malle, Nieuwland & Keysar, 2010). This research indicates that if individuals with ASD, who show deficits in ToM in an extensive amount of tasks (Spek, Scholte & Van Berckelaer-Onnes, 2009), are performing similarly to controls on the online communication task, it could be assumed that this task may either not be accurately measuring ToM or is not sensitive enough to measure ToM ability in the general population. This study s limitations suggest that the findings, which contradict previous research, may be due to problems in the methodological design. Through using the eyes task (developed by Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) individual differences in ToM ability have been observed in parents with and without children with Autism (Baron-Cohen & Hammer, 1997). This implies that future research exploring the links between the AQ, TAS-20 and ToM ability in the general population should look at using multiple ToM tasks to accurately measure all aspects of ToM ability (socio-cognitive measures e.g. perspectives, beliefs, eyes task and mental state talk). Additionally, research has suggested that through a lifetime of practice the process of perspective taking is more efficient in adults (Epley, Morewedge & Keysar, 2004). This suggests that implicit tasks, looking at eye gaze measures (Wu & Keysar, 2007), could be used in future research to investigate ToM ability in adults. Research has shown that adults with Asperger syndrome have ToM deficits for only implicit/spontaneous tasks (Senju, Southgate, White & Frith, 2009), further highlighting the importance of using implicit measures of ToM in the general population. In summation, the present study s findings have revealed that cognitive deficits may not be present in the general population. This finding should be taken into consideration by future research. Previous research into the associations between Autism and moral judgement have focused mainly on the cognitive deficits of the disorder as being a main predictor of this relationship. Moran et al. s (2011) findings show that people with high functioning Autism/Asperger syndrome (HFA/AS) have difficulties making moral judgements that rely on the use of ToM. These findings indicate that using ToM plays a crucial role in the process of forming moral judgments. In addition to this evidence, Zalla et al. (2011) provides similar results showing that individuals with HFA/AS have difficulties with

24 The links between Autistic traits 24 providing correct moral justifications and analysing the seriousness of a transgression. This is described as the HFA/AS individuals failing to process any relevant information about an agent s intentions and just focusing mainly on rule violations and outcomes of the situation. The findings in the current study do not correspond with this previous evidence, but instead suggest that ToM neither mediates nor moderates the relationship between autistic traits and moral judgement. This could be explained by the AQ not being a reliable measure reflecting cognitive characteristics, or simply the task used to measure ToM ability may not have been sensitive enough to reveal any individual cognitive differences in a non-clinical sample. The present research considered only social cognitive deficits (ToM) as a factor affecting the relationship between autistic traits and moral judgment; however, new research has provided evidence to suggest multiple factors that could potentially mediate this relationship. Research by Gleichgerrcht et al. (2012) provides further evidence to support the findings that cognitive impairments (ToM) in individuals with HFA/AS influence moral judgements. This study also found that deficits in cognitive aspects of empathy and emotional deficits in individuals with AS/HFA were associated with moral judgements. Although the present study reported no relationship between autistic traits and alexithymia, Gleichgerrcht et al s research is consistent with findings in clinical samples that show a link between AS and alexithymia (the inability to describe and identify emotions; Fitzgerald & Bellgrove, 2006; Tani et al., 2004). This research, along with the novel findings in the present study, calls for future research to look at the links between emotional saliency/alexithymia, empathy, autistic traits and moral judgements in the wider population, with empathy and emotional saliency/alexithymia as possible mediators of the novel relationship. Although the present study failed to find a link between AQ and ToM, and ToM and MJT, it did reveal a novel finding in the literature as correlations between level of autistic traits and moral judgment competence were observed. These findings are supported by previous research in clinical samples of children and adults diagnosed with Autism who have also shown difficulties with tasks involving moral reasoning (Takeda Kasai & Kato, 2007). Lind (1998) reports that moral judgement competence is crucial for solving dilemmas by means of peaceful discussions and negotiations, without resorting to power, violence or force. This indicates the importance of acknowledging that deficits in aspects of moral judgements, which are so crucial to understanding the extent of an individual s social

25 The links between Autistic traits 25 impairments (Zalla et al., 2011), are widely present in the general population. Future research should also consider the extent to which moral judgments are impaired within the general population, and look at this in relation to individuals who have poor social interaction skills, as this could be a contributing factor. As noted by previous research, moral judgement includes the interplay of both social cognition and emotions (Montoya et al., 2013). The evidence that autistic traits are linked to moral judgment in the general population also proposes opportunities for future research to investigate these links in individuals with psychopathic tendencies. In wider research Autistic traits have been linked to psychopathic tendencies, which are further associated with poor attribution of moral emotions (e.g. guilt), lower levels of cognitive and affective empathy (Pardini, Lochman, & Frick, 2003; Tangney, Stuewig & Mashek, 2007) and an enhanced ability to manipulate others (Hare, 2003 as cited by Jones et al., 2011), requiring good mentalising skills (Jones et al., 2011). In light of this, future research could investigate the link between autistic traits, moral judgment ability and psychopathic tendencies, which is characterised by a lack of empathy and enhanced ToM (components found to be crucial for moral reasoning/judgments among individuals with Autism). Broadening the research area allows the exploration of other potential factors mediating the relationship between deficits in Autism and moral judgment competence, with the goal of targeting specific factors and creating interventions to help improve moral judgment competence in a society where moral behaviour is encountered on a daily basis (Tangney, Stuewig & Mashek, 2007). There are a few limitations in this study that should be taken into consideration by future research in this area. Firstly, this study only looked at the cognitive domain of moral judgement. Replications of this study should consider using the Defining Issues Test (Rest, 1979) and MJT to measure both the cognitive and affective domains of moral judgement (Lind, 2013), thus increasing the generalisability of the findings. Secondly, the present study used only self-report measures to assess level of autistic traits, which could bias the results as participants may have given socially desirable answers. If appropriate, caregiver reports could be used in conjunction with self-report measures to increase concurrent validity. Lastly, the online communication task (used to measure ToM) is prone to fatigue effects, which may have lead to a drop in participants performance on the task following questionnaires. Therefore, future studies could use shorter less time consuming tasks to measure ToM ability. Alternatively, an eye-tracking version of the online communication

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33 The links between Autistic traits 33 Young, L., Camprodon, J., Hauser, M., Pascual-Leon, A., & Saxe, R. (2010). Disruption of the Right Temporoparietal Junction with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Reduces the Role of Beliefs in Moral Judgments. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107, Young, L., Cushman, F., Hauser, M., & Saxe, R. (2007). The Neural Basis of the Interaction between Theory of Mind and Moral Judgment. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104, Zalla, T., Barlassina, L., Buon, M., & Leboyer, M. (2011). Moral Judgment in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Cognition, 121,

34 The links between Autistic traits 1 Appendix Appendix contents 1) Ethical approval form..2 2) Consent and debrief forms...4 3) Questionnaires.7 4) Questionnaire instructions..16 5) Outliers (boxplots) ) Reliability.21 7) Descriptive statistics 23 8) ANOVA, Levene s test and T-test ) Correlation ) Two-way ANOVA 40 11) G*power analysis ) Workshop attendance log.42

35 The links between Autistic traits 2 Appendix 1: Ethical approval form Psychology Extended Research Project Research Proposal and Application for Ethical Approval The completion of this form should not be seen as an end in itself but is a vehicle to ensure that you have gone through a process of considering the ethical implications of your research in detail and that you are able to communicate this clearly. STUDENT/SUPERVISOR DECLARATION FORM APPLICANT DETAILS Family Name: Pickard First name(s) Hannah Student number: Roehampton pickardh@roehampton.ac.uk Supervisor name: Lance Slade Student declaration I confirm that this submission accords with the BPS Code of conduct and all information given in this form is correct. Signature Hannah Pickard Date 29 th October 2012 Supervisor declaration I have read, and approved the attached form and that the submission is ethically sound, and that all documentation meets the required standards and it can go forward for approval by the Psychology Third Year Projects Ethics committee. Signed Dr Lance Slade Date 29 th October 2012 Supervisor s comments to the committee University Ethics Approval: Y N Supervisor to add any further notes here if necessary: For Studies involving External Agencies Student declaration Permission will be applied for when Ethical Approval from Roehampton University has been secured Permission has been received from the external agency where the study is planned

36 The links between Autistic traits 3 Signature Date If student proposes to work with children or other vulnerable groups then Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) clearance must be applied for and granted before the study starts. To apply for CRB clearance please Tom Cottington in Admissions t.cottington@roehampton.ac.uk, and copy in the Chair of Student Ethics, Dr Catherine Gilvarry c.gilvarry@roehampton.ac.uk. Supervisor declaration CRB Checks are currently being processed by Roehampton University Y N N/A CRB Checks have been carried out by Roehampton University Y N N/A Signature Dr Lance Slade Date 29 th October 2012 Supervisor declaration that the recommended changes suggested by Ethics Reviewers have been made (data collection cannot start until this declaration is made). Signature Date

37 The links between Autistic traits 4 Appendix 2: Consent and debrief forms PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM Title of Research Project: The links between aspects of personality, social understanding and moral judgment. Brief Description of Research Project: This research project aims to explore the links between aspects of personality, social understanding and moral judgment in undergraduate students by using self-report questionnaires and an experimental task. In this study you will be given four questionnaires and will be required to take part in an experimental task which will be presented on a computer. The first questionnaire you will be given will ask you for general information about your age, gender, ethnicity, family etc. The following two questionnaires will present you with statements about aspects of your personality (such as your social understanding and behaviour) and will require you to answer based on how much you or with how true these statements are for you. The fourth questionnaire you will be given will present you with two scenarios involving social behaviours and a series of questions about the issues around these scenarios. These two scenarios and the questions surrounding them may potentially involve thinking about emotionally sensitive issues. Finally you will take part in an experimental task that will require you to follow a director s instructions and move objects around a 4x4 visual array. This study should take approximately 50 minutes for you to complete. Right to withdraw: You have the right to withdraw from the experiment at any point without justification. If you would like to withdraw your data you should contact the researcher and provide them with the unique participant number displayed on the top of your debrief form. Your data will then be destroyed appropriately by the researcher (shredding). Once you have completed your signed consent form please return it to the researcher and make sure you retain your debrief form (which has your ID number) given to you at the end of the study for future use. Confidentiality and anonymity: The questionnaire data collected in this study will be kept in the researcher s locked cupboard and the experimental data will be stored on a University computer or the researcher s computer, which are both password protected. Your questionnaires and experimental data will contain no personal information which could lead to any further identification being made. Furthermore, the consent form and experimental data will be kept separately to ensure anonymity. Investigator Contact Details: Miss Hannah Pickard Department of Psychology

38 The links between Autistic traits 5 University of Roehampton Whitelands College Holybourne Avenue London SW15 4JD pickardh@roehampton.ac.uk Consent Statement: I to take part in this research, and am aware that I am free to withdraw at any point. I understand that the information I provide will be treated in confidence by the investigator within the limits described and that my identity will be protected in the publication of any findings. Name. Signature Date Please note: if you have a concern about any aspect of your participation or any other queries please raise this with the investigator. However if you would like to contact an independent party please contact the Project Supervisor or Head of Psychology: Project Supervisor Contact Details: Dr Lance Slade Department of Psychology University of Roehampton Whitelands College Holybourne Avenue London SW15 4JD Head of Psychology: Dr Diane Bray Department of Psychology University of Roehampton Whitelands College Holybourne Avenue London SW15 4JD L.Slade@roehampton.ac.uk d.bray@roehampton.ac.uk. Tel: Tel:

39 The links between Autistic traits 6 Participant Number: PARTICIPANT DEBRIEF Title of Research Project: The links between aspects of personality, social understanding and moral judgment. Thank you very much for taking part in this study, I greatly appreciate your contribution. The study was designed to look at whether aspects of an individual s personality will influence their social understanding and ability to make moral judgements. Specifically, this study intended to examine whether an individual s personality characteristics would predict poorer social understanding and poorer moral judgement. All data gathered during this study will be held securely. If you wish to withdraw your data please contact the researcher with your participant number (above), and your data will be removed from our files and discarded appropriately. Should you have any concern about any aspect of your participation in this study please raise it with the investigator in the first instance, or with the Project Supervisor or Head of Psychology. Investigator Project Supervisor Head of Psychology Hannah Pickard DrLance Slade Dr Diane Bray Department of Psychology Department of Psychology Department of Psychology University of Roehampton University of Roehampton University of Roehampton Whitelands College Whitelands College Whitelands College Holybourne Avenue Holybourne Avenue Holybourne Avenue Londond SW15 4JD London SW15 4JD London SW15 4JD pickardh@roehampton.ac.uk L.Slade@roehampton.ac.uk d.bray@roehampton.ac.uk Tel: Tel: Tel: If you are a student at the University of Roehampton and are troubled or worried about any aspect of the study, or issues it may have raised, you may find it helpful to contact one of the following who will be able to advise you on agencies that can deal with your particular concern: Student Welfare Officer: Whitelands College Ejiro Ejoh 3502 If you feel your concerns are more serious or complex you may wish to contact the Student Medical Centre on Ext Appendix 3: Questionnaires

40 The links between Autistic traits 7 Participant Number: Family Questionnaire Yourself: Gender: M / F Age: Is English your first language? Y / N Degree Programme: Ethnicity: Family: Age of mother when you were born: Number of siblings (that you grew up with): Age & Gender of Each: Sibling 1. Age: Older/Younger M / F (Starting with the oldest) Sibling 2. Age: Older/Younger M / F Sibling 3. Age: Older/Younger M / F Sibling 4. Age: Older/Younger M / F Mother s occupation: Mother s education (eg. Completed GCSE s, A Levels, College, University, Post- grad): Father s occupation: Father s education:

41 The links between Autistic traits 8 Participant Number: How to fill out the questionnaire Below are a list of statements. Please read each statement very carefully and rate how strongly you or with it by circling your answer. DO NOT MISS ANY STATEMENT OUT. Examples E1. I am willing to take risks. E2. I like playing board games. E3. I find learning to play musical instruments easy. E4. I am fascinated by other cultures.

42 The links between Autistic traits 9 1. I prefer to do things with others rather than on my own. 2. I prefer to do things the same way over and over again. 3. If I try to imagine something, I find it very easy to create a picture in my mind. 4. I frequently get so strongly absorbed in one thing that I lose sight of other things. 5. I often notice small sounds when others do not. 6. I usually notice car number plates or similar strings of information. 7. Other people frequently tell me that what I ve said is impolite, even though I think it is polite. 8. When I m reading a story, I can easily imagine what the characters might look like. 9. I am fascinated by dates. 10. In a social group, I can easily keep track of several different people s conversations. 11. I find social situations easy. 12. I tend to notice details that others do not. 13. I would rather go to a library than a party. 14. I find making up stories easy. 15. I find myself drawn more strongly to people than to things. 16. I tend to have very strong interests which I get upset about if I can t pursue. 17. I enjoy social chit- chat.

43 The links between Autistic traits When I talk, it isn t always easy for others to get a word in edgeways. 19. I am fascinated by numbers. 20. When I m reading a story, I find it difficult to work out the characters intentions. 21. I don t particularly enjoy reading fiction. 22. I find it hard to make new friends. 23. I notice patterns in things all the time. 24. I would rather go to the theatre than a museum. 25. It does not upset me if my daily routine is disturbed. 26. I frequently find that I don t know how to keep a conversation going. 27. I find it easy to read between the lines when someone is talking to me. 28. I usually concentrate more on the whole picture, rather than the small details. 29. I am not very good at remembering phone numbers. 30. I don t usually notice small changes in a situation, or a person s appearance. 31. I know how to tell if someone listening to me is getting bored. 32. I find it easy to do more than one thing at once. 33. When I talk on the phone, I m not sure when it s my turn to speak. 34. I enjoy doing things spontaneously. 35. I am often the last to understand the point of a joke.

44 The links between Autistic traits I find it easy to work out what someone is thinking or feeling just by looking at their face. 37. If there is an interruption, I can switch back to what I was doing very quickly. 38. I am good at social chit- chat. 39. People often tell me that I keep going on and on about the same thing. 40. When I was young, I used to enjoy playing games involving pretending with other children. 41. I like to collect information about categories of things (e.g. types of car, types of bird, types of train, types of plant, etc.). 42. I find it difficult to imagine what it would be like to be someone else. 43. I like to plan any activities I participate in carefully. 44. I enjoy social occasions. 45. I find it difficult to work out people s intentions. 46. New situations make me anxious. 47. I enjoy meeting new people. 48. I am a good diplomat. 49. I am not very good at remembering people s date of birth. 50. I find it very easy to play games with children that involve pretending. MRC- SBC/SJW Feb 1998

45 The links between Autistic traits 12 Participant Number: Indicate how much you or with each of the following statements. Just tick the appropriate box. Use the middle box ('I neither or ') only if you are really unable to assess your behaviour. 1- I am often confused about what emotion I am feeling I strongly I quite I neither nor I quite I strongly 2- It is difficult for me to find the right words for my feelings 3- I have physical sensations that even doctors don t understand 4- I am able to describe my feelings easily 5- I prefer to analyze problems rather than just describe them 6- When I am upset, I don t know if I am sad, frightened, or angry 7- I am often puzzled by sensations in my body 8- I prefer to just let things happen rather than to understand why they turned out that way 9- I have feelings that I can t quite identify 10- Being in touch with emotions is essential 11- I find it hard to describe how I feel about people 12- People tell me to describe my feelings more 13- I don t know what s going on inside me

46 The links between Autistic traits 13 I strongly I quite I neither nor I quite I strongly 14- I often don t know why I am angry 15- I prefer talking to people about their daily activities rather then their feelings 16- I prefer to watch «light» entertainments shows rather than psychological dramas 17- It is difficult for me to reveal my innermost feelings, even to close friends 18- I can feel close to someone, even in moments of silence 19- I find examination of my feelings useful in solving personal problems 20- Looking for hidden meanings in movies or plays distracts from their enjoyment

47 The links between Autistic traits 14 Workers Recently a company fired some people for unknown reasons. Some workers think that their bosses are listening in on their private conversations through cameras and microphones in the building and using the information against them. The bosses say that they are not listening in. The workers cannot legally do anything until they can prove that their bosses are listening in on their conversations. Two workers then break into the main office and take the tapes that prove their bosses were listening in. 1. Would you or with the workers action... I strongly I strongly How acceptable do you find the following arguments in favor of the two workers action? Suppose someone argued they were right for breaking in because they didn t cause much damage to the company. I strongly reject I strongly accept because the company did not follow the law that says that they should not listen in, the actions of the two workers were allowed to bring back law and order. because most of the workers would approve of their action and many would be happy about it. 5. because trust between people and individual dignity count more than the company s rules. 6. because the company had done something wrong first by listening in, the two workers were right in breaking into the main office. because the two workers saw no legal ways of proving the company misused 7. their trust by listening in, and therefore chose what they considered the lesser of two evils. How acceptable do you find the following arguments against the two workers actions? Suppose someone argued they were wrong for breaking in because if everyone acted as the two workers did, we would be going against law and order in our society. I strongly reject I strongly accept 9. because a person must not break such a basic right as the right to protection of property and take the law into one's own hands, unless there is universal moral principle that says it is o.k. to do so. 10. because risking getting fired from the company in order to help other workers is not very smart. 11. because the two workers should have used all the legal ways available to them without breaking a law. 12. because a person doesn't steal if he wants to be considered decent and honest. 13. because the firing of other workers had nothing to do with them, the two workers had no reason to steal the tapes. Moral Judgement Test MJT / MUT. International Copyright by Georg Lind. No copying allowed without written permission. Free for use in institutions of public education and basic research. Contact: Georg.Lind@uni-konstanz.de More information:

48 The links between Autistic traits 15 Doctor A woman had cancer and she had no hope of being saved. She was in terrible pain and was so weak that a large dose of a painkiller such as morphine would have caused her to die. During a brief period of improvement, she begged the doctor to give her enough morphine to kill her. She said she could no longer stand the pain and would be dead in a few weeks anyway. After some thinking, the doctor decided to give her an overdose of morphine. 14. Do you or with the doctor s action? How acceptable do you find the following arguments in favor of the doctor s actions? Suppose someone said he acted in a right way because the doctor had to act according to his conscience and what he believed was right. The woman's pain made it right for the doctor to ignore his moral obligation to preserve life. 16. because the doctor was the only one who could do what the woman asked; respect for her wish made him act the way he did. 17. because the doctor only did what the woman talked him into doing. He does not need to worry about negative consequences. I strongly I strongly I strongly reject I strongly accept 18. because the woman would have died anyway and it didn't take much effort for him to give her an overdose of a painkiller 19. because the doctor didn't really break the law. Nobody could have saved the woman and he only wanted to shorten her suffering. 20. because most of his fellow doctors would most probably have done the same thing in a similar situation. How acceptable do you find the arguments presented against the doctor s action? Suppose someone said that he acted in a wrong way because he acted opposite to other doctors beliefs. If the rest of them are against mercy-killing, then the doctor shouldn't have done it. 22. because a person should be able to have complete faith in a doctor's commit- ment to save every life even if someone with great pain would rather die. 23. because protection of life is everyone's highest moral duty. We have no clear moral way of telling the difference between mercy-killing and plain murder. 24. because the doctor could get himself into a lot of trouble. Other doctors were punished before for doing the same thing. 25. because he could have had it much easier if he had waited and not interfered with the woman's dying. 26. because the doctor broke the law. If a person thinks that mercy-killing is illegal, then one should refuse such requests from the patient. I strongly reject I strongly accept 27. How difficult was it for you to fill out this questionnaire? Not difficult at all Very difficult 28. Roughly how much time did it take you to fill it out? minutes

49 The links between Autistic traits 16 Appendix 4: questionnaire instructions MJT: Dear participant, On the following pages you will find two short stories. In both stories someone has to make a decision. You will be asked: What do you think about that decision? After each decision you will find reasons pro and contra this decision. You will be asked: Do you with these reasons or reject them? Please respond to all questions. Do not skip any. There is no time limit. But do hesitate too long, either. Please turn over Perspective taking task: This experiment is investigating people s ability to follow instructions on the computer. You will be asked to move objects around a grid by following the instructions of a character on the screen. The task should take around 15 minutes. Here is an example [showing picture example]. In the experiment you will be presented with a grid with several objects located in the slots. The director, who is on the other side of the grid, will give you instructions on which objects to move and where to move them. As you can see, there are several covered slots. You are able to see the objects in these slots, but the director cannot. This is how things look for the director [show slide of the array from director s point of view]. The director does not know what is behind the covered slots, so it will be important to take his point of view into account when you follow his instructions. Your task is to listen to the director s instructions and then move the object by clicking the mouse pointer on the object and sliding it to the correct slot. You should do this as quickly and as accurately as possible. When you click on them, the objects won t actually move, but you should act and move the mouse as if they did. Keep in mind the left and right directions should be taken from your point of view, not the director s. Also, you will sometimes be asked to move the same object twice. In this case, you should pick up the object from the location where you can see it on the screen, not the one you may have moved it to earlier. There is an object to move every time the director makes a request. If for some reason you don t respond quickly enough the experiment will move on automatically. If that happens, don t worry you should just respond to the next instruction and not try to catch up.

50 The links between Autistic traits 17

51 The links between Autistic traits 18 Appendix 5: SPSS boxplots (outliers) Perspective taking accuracy C_SCORE (MJT)

52 The links between Autistic traits 19 AQtotal TAStotal

53 Perspective Taking real time difference The links between Autistic traits 20

54 The links between Autistic traits 21 Appendix 6: SPSS Reliability Autistic Spectrum Quotient reliability: Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 reliability:

55 Moral Judgment Test reliability: The links between Autistic traits 22

56 The links between Autistic traits 23 Appendix 7: SPSS frequencies and descriptives Frequencies:

57 The links between Autistic traits 24 Descriptives: Male descriptives: Female descriptives:

58 The links between Autistic traits 25 AQ and Perspective taking medians: AQ low mean and SD: AQ high mean and SD: PT low mean and SD: PT high mean and SD:

59 The links between Autistic traits 26 Appendix 8: SPSS Levene s test, ANOVA and an independent T-test Perspective taking accuracy (order effects):

60 MJT (order effects): The links between Autistic traits 27

61 AQ (order effects): The links between Autistic traits 28

62 TAS-20 (order effects): The links between Autistic traits 29

63 The links between Autistic traits 30 Levene s test for Gender effects: Anova (Gender effects):

64 The links between Autistic traits 31 Independent T-test for Perspective taking accuracy (gender effects):

65 The links between Autistic traits 32 Appendix 9: SPSS Correlations Pearson:

66 The links between Autistic traits 33

67 The links between Autistic traits 34

68 Spearman: The links between Autistic traits 35

69 The links between Autistic traits 36

70 The links between Autistic traits 37

71 The links between Autistic traits 38

72 The links between Autistic traits 39

73 Appendix 10: SPSS two-way ANOVA The links between Autistic traits 40

74 The links between Autistic traits 41 Appendix 11: G*power analysis Thanks to Kieran for doing the power analysis