Albert is investigating autism. He plans to obtain a sample of people with autism and a control group. He will compare how well these participants judge the feelings of dolls which are either dancing, crying, waving or smiling.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2018). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] (a) Type of participants: autistic and control/normal/mentally healthy participants
2. [2] (b) by choosing a descriptive word for the doll's feelings from a list
3. [2] (b) by asking them to describe how the doll is feeling
4. [1] (b) ask them to choose between happy and sad
5. [2] (c) they are more easily controlled than people; dolls will always do the same thing / people might display emotions differently for some participants than others
6. [2] (c) because people are more complex / varied than dolls
7. [2] (d) they are different from real life / unlike people / lack ecological validity / low mundane realism
8. [2] (d) people have facial expressions/movements/gestures that make deducing emotions easier
9. [2] (d) dolls may make people feel uncomfortable/embarrassed/afraid
10. [2] (e) independent measures; autistic and normal participants are separate groups