Autism - A Theory of Mind (COGNITIVE EXPL.) Flashcards
What is theory of mind?
A cognitive skill which is a person’s ability to understand other people’s mental states and to see the world from the perspective of other people.
What happens when a child has theory of mind?
They recognise that each person they meet has their own set of beliefs, emotions, likes and dislikes that may be different from their own.
When does theory of mind develop?
In early life, around 5 months of age where you begin to recognise facial expressions
When do children begin to use non verbal information to guide their behaviour?
When they can reliably interpret the facial expressions of others
When do children without autism, even with learning difficulties, fully develop a theory of mind?
Age 4
What did Baron Cohen believe about autistic children?
That they lacked theory of mind and demonstrated mind blindness - the inability to read others’ intentions
Why did Baron Cohen believe that autistic children displayed mind blindness?
Because they do not use the eye direction of others to guide their behaviour as they fail to consider the mental state of others, explains lack of social skills
Who took part in the Sally-Anne experiment?
A group of autistic children, children with down’s syndrome and some with no disability
What did the researchers do with the Sally-Anne dolls?
They manipulated the two dolls in a pretend situation while the child watched
What is the first step of the SA experiment?
The researcher explains that Sally has a basket and Anne has a box
What is the second step of the SA experiment?
Sally puts a marble in the basket and then leaves the scene
What is the third step of the SA experiment?
Anne moves the marble from the basket into the box
Sally then returns for the fourth stage and the child is asked a belief question which is…
‘Where will sally look for her marble?’
How do children pass the test?
They say Sally will look in the basket
How do children fail the test?
They say Sally will look in the box as they know the marble is in the box, they don’t understand that Sally doesn’t know this
What did the findings show in the SA test?
That only autistic children didn’t have theory of mind as they weren’t able to understand that Sally didn’t know what they knew
What does it mean if you are low empathising?
It means you do not have a good understanding of the emotions and feelings of others
What does it mean if you are high systemising?
It means you have the ability to use internal rules to organise, plan and build structures and to work out patterns
What are autistic people in terms of empathisers and systemisers?
High systemisers and low empathisers
What is an issue with the research supporting theory of mind?
It is typically focussed on preschool children because this is when it develops, this limits the generalisability as there is little known about TOM in older children
What is an issue with cause and effect?
It may be that an absence of theory of mind is a characteristic rather than the cause of autism, it could be that due to autism, TOM doesn’t develop
What does TOM fail to explain?
All the difficulties faced by the autistic: e.g verbalisation of words as it does not require empathy, or why they can’t use eye contact or use non verbal communication
What weakness does Pellicano (2010) offer who looked at 37 children with high functioning ASD?
He found that HF ASD doesn’t correspond with TOM as they found executive functioning predicted how well chidren did with false belief tasks rather than TOM
What is an issue with the Sally Anne task?
Children might not understand what they were supposed to do in the study
Why does Hutchins (2012) argue that the theory of mind inventory test is better than the sally/anne test?
Because it had more test retest reliability and he included children up to the age of 17 so it is more generalisable, also provides a score rather than a pass or fail
What did Hutchins et al (2012) find in his theory of mind inventory test?
Ages 4-5; 5.97 ASD
Ages 4-5; 14.61 Typical
Shows a significant difference in TOM
How does Hutchins et al (2012) show how TOM develops?
He found at age 6 they got 8.80 which is higher than 5.97
What did Sheeran et al (2013) conclude?
That school age children and adolescents with ASD can do mind state reasoning, found that the severity of autism did not link to how well tasks were done
What is a strength of the sally anne study (Baron-Cohen et al 1985)?
They used autistic children, typical children and downs syndrome children which means they had different groups to compare the children with autism to
