Theory of mind hypothesis Theory of mind hypothesis of autismof autism

Children with autism have difficulty with false beliefBaron-Cohen et al (1985)

Sally puts her ball in the box and then leaves

While Sally is away, Anne puts the ball in the bag

Sally returns for her ball. Where will she look?

• Criticisms: de Gelder (1987) • Why should people with

autism attribute mental states to dolls?

• Why test understanding with a game that involves make-believe when children with autism are known to be weak at that?

?

Responses to deGelder’s criticisms

Leslie & Frith (1988) Perner et al (1989)

Message-desire taskMitchell et al (1997)

Understanding the function of the brainBaron-Cohen (1989)

What about the 24% who give a correct Judgment?Difficulty with second-order attributions (Baron-Cohen, 1989)

What about those who pass 2nd order tasks?Baron-Cohen et al (1997): Advanced ToM task

Happy-Sad Angry-Afraid

Klin et al (2002)– viewing social scenes

Interpreting mental states from facesBack et al

Deciding

Disapproving

Don’t trust

Not interested

Relieved

Surprised

Not sure

Worried

Worried eyes static (neutral)

Worried mouth static (neutral)

Percentage correct

0102030405060708090

100

Full dynamic Eyes frozen Mouth frozen

Autism

Typical