Deck 6: Understanding Others

Question 1

According to Hill & Frith (2003), what percentage of the autistic population have unusual or 'savant' skills?

A) 10
B) 1
C) 20
D) 50

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What was the conclusion of the fMRI study of Carr et al. (2003) concerning human imitation and empathy?

A) There is a direct link between visual perception and 'the emotional brain'.
B) The action-based mirror system alone can account for empathy.
C) There is an important role for the right temporal-parietal junction in empathy.
D) The action-based mirror system provides a link between visual perception and 'the emotional brain'.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What were the findings of the fMRI study of Singer et al. (2006) concerning empathy for pain?

A) Doctors were able to switch off the tendency to activate pain-related regions when watching someone else in pain.
B) Participants activated pain-related regions of the brain when watching someone else receive a shock irrespective of whether the other person had treated them fairly.
C) Participants activated pain-related regions of the brain when watching someone else receive a shock, but the degree of activation was modulated by whether the other person had treated them fairly.
D) Autistic people did not activate pain-related regions of the brain when watching someone else receive a shock.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

When watching someone else performing an action, which of the following statements is true?

A) A greater motor-evoked potential is elicited from the body when TMS is applied over the motor cortex.
B) A weaker motor-evoked potential is elicited from the body when TMS is applied over the motor cortex.
C) A greater motor-evoked potential is elicited from the body when TMS is applied over the visual cortex.
D) A weaker motor-evoked potential is elicited from the body when TMS is applied over the visual cortex.

Question 5

Where does the term 'theory-of-mind' originate from?

A) Dennett (1978)
B) Premack and Woodruff (1978)
C) Wimmer and Perner (1983)
D) Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith (1985)

Question 6

Which of the following is assumed by the extreme male brain theory of autism?

A) In the typical female brain, systemizing dominates over empathizing
B) In the typical male brain, systemizing dominates over empathizing
C) In the typical male brain, systemizing and empathizing are similar
D) In the typical female brain, systemizing and empathizing are similar

Question 7

Which of the following is not straightforward to account for using perception-action based versions of simulation theory?

A) Yawn contagion
B) The personal distress component of empathy
C) Recognition of facial expressions
D) False beliefs

Question 8

Which of the following regions is not implicated in 'mentalising'?

A) Temporal poles
B) Medial prefrontal cortex
C) Anterior intra-parietal region
D) Parieto-temporal junction

Question 9

Which of the following statements about the social psychology of imitation is untrue?

A) Being imitated results in greater liking of the imitator.
B) Participants who imitate more tend to rate themselves as higher in empathy.
C) The degree of imitative behaviour is unrelated to the in-group/out-group status of the other person.
D) Being imitated increases the chances of charitable donation.

Question 10

Which region of the brain did Jabbi et al. (2007) find that responded both to pleasant/unpleasant tastes and watching another person drink pleasant/unpleasant drinks?

A) Insula
B) Amygdala
C) Tempero-parietal junction
D) Premotor cortex

Question 11

Which region typically responds more to thoughts about one's self than thoughts about another person?

A) The right temporo-parietal junction
B) The temporal poles
C) The amygdala
D) The medial prefrontal cortex

Question 12

Which test do children with autism do particularly well on?

A) Deception tests
B) Sally-Ann test
C) Embedded figures test
D) Recognising expressions such as admiring or scheming

Question 13

Who has put forward the idea that autism is an extreme form of the male brain?

A) Asperger
B) Perner
C) Baron-Cohen
D) Fodor

Question 14

Who is associated with the 'theory-theory' of theory-of-mind?

A) Gallese (2001)
B) Gopnik & Wellman (1992)
C) Decety & Jackson (2004)
D) Rizzolatti et al. (1996)

Question 15

What method is used to measure mu suppression?

A) fMRI
B) EEG
C) TMS
D) EMG

Question 16

What is simulation theory?

A) The idea that we tend to copy the actions of others
B) The idea that mental states cannot be simulated using perceptual-motor cues
C) The idea that there is a dedicated theory-of-mind mechanism in the brain
D) The idea that we understand other people (their behaviour, thoughts) by recreating their mental processes in ourselves

Question 17

According to Saxe (2006) what is the role of the right temporal-parietal junction in theory-of-mind?

A) Perception-action coupling via the mirror system
B) Representing that other people are similar but separate from one's self
C) It is specialized for the attribution of mental states
D) Shifting perspective between self and other

Question 18

At what age do normally developing children typically pass the Sally-Ann task?

A) 4 years
B) 2 years
C) 3 years
D) 5 years

Question 19

False belief tasks require the attribution of what kind of intentionality?

A) Zero-order intentionality
B) First-order intentionality
C) Third-order intentionality
D) Second-order intentionality

Question 20

From a diagnostic point of view, what is the difference between autism and Asperger's syndrome?

A) The two terms are synonymous with each other.
B) Asperger's syndrome is autism but without the impairments in mentalising.
C) Asperger's syndrome is autism accompanied by conduct disorder.
D) Asperger's syndrome is autism but without a delay in early language and cognitive development.

Question 21

In the model of empathy proposed by Decety & Jackson (2004) what is the role of the right temporal-parietal junction?

A) The attribution of mental states
B) Perception-action coupling via the mirror system
C) Shifting perspective between self and other
D) Representing that other people are similar but separate from one's self

Question 22

In the study of Singer et al. (2006) activity in which region of the brain was linked to self-reported desire for revenge in males when watching someone else receive a shock?

A) Insula
B) Nucleus accumbens
C) Anterior cingulate
D) Fusiform face area

Question 23

Samson et al. (2004) found that brain lesions in which area lead to relatively specific difficulties on theory-of-mind tasks?

A) Temporal poles
B) Medial prefrontal cortex
C) Lateral prefrontal cortex
D) Temporal-parietal junction

Question 24

The attribution of mental states to non-living things may account for what?

A) Anthropomorphism
B) Asperger's syndrome
C) Mu suppression
D) Simulation theory

Question 25

The IRI and the EQ are what kinds of measures of empathy?

A) Expression recognition tasks
B) Questionnaires
C) Measures of imitation
D) Measures of bodily reactions (linked to distress)

Question 26

The studies of mirror neurons by Fogassi et al. (2005) and Umilta et al. (2008) show what?

A) The firing of the neurons depends more on the motor similarity of the actions than the similarity of the goals.
B) The firing of the neurons depends on whether the action is rewarded or not.
C) The firing of the neurons depends on whether the observed action is in the animal's motor repertoire.
D) The firing of the neurons depends more on the similarity of the goals than the motor similarity of the actions.

Question 27

The study of Shamay-Tsoory et al. (2006) examined the performance on theory-of-mind tests of patients with damage to the orbito-frontal and ventro-medial frontal cortex. What did they find?

A) Impaired on theory-of-mind tests involving non-affective information, but not affective information
B) No impairment on tests of theory-of-mind
C) Impaired on theory-of-mind tests involving affective information, but not non-affective information
D) Impaired on both theory-of-mind tests involving affective and non-affective information

Question 28

What evidence from Hadjikhani et al. (2006) supports the broken mirror theory of autism?

A) Autistic people have reduced grey matter in regions linked to the mirror system.
B) Autistic people show enhanced mu suppression when watching actions.
C) Autistic people imitate the actions rather than the goals.
D) Autistic people show reduced activity in mirror regions when asked to imitate.

Question 29

What evidence suggests that people with autism don't have a general failure of meta-representation?

A) They perform well on tests of embedded figures.
B) They show abnormal eye-movements on false belief tasks.
C) They perform normally on many tests of executive function.
D) They can understand false photographs.

Question 30

Why do many people believe that accurate performance on false belief tasks is a good predictor of a 'theory of mind'?

A) Because false belief tasks require thinking about mental states that differ from the current state of reality
B) Because autistic people fail these tasks
C) Because false belief tasks are more reliant on executive functions
D) Because false belief tasks are harder than true belief tasks