Autistic Spectrum Behaviours; Individual differences; Theory of Mind

Question 1

The Theory of Mind (ToM) intro?

Answer 1

• The Theory of Mind (ToM) account is a cognitive explanation that tries to explain ASD in terms of the problems that people with ASD have in understanding the world from the perspectives of others.
• The ability to do this is something that all benefit from, because it allows social interaction to run smoothly.

Question 2

What is a Theory of Mind?

Answer 2

• Much social interaction and communicative behaviour requires us to be aware that other people have their own ways of representing the world in their minds.
• By understanding other people’s internal mental states we can interpret and predict their behaviour.
• if we possess this understanding, we have developed a theory of mind,
• We recognise that other people have minds like we do, that they have thoughts, feelings, desires, emotions of their own, and we can learn to infer from their behaviour.
• Simon Baron-Cohen (1995) argues that this understanding is impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), so that people with ASD do not have a fully functioning ToM.
• They either have a reduced of delayed ability to recognise and understand the internal mental states of other people.
• Sometimes called ‘mindblindness’ this is the core deficit of ASD and can account for the social and communicative impairments found in people with the disorder.

Question 3

Precursors to a theory of mind?

Answer 3

• A key skill is the ability to establish joint attention. in a social interaction, an adult will draw the child’s attention to an object using gestures (pointing) and eye gaze.
• To do this successfully, the child needs to understand the adult’s intentions.
• Doing so is an early recognition that other people have their own goals and internal states.
• Michael Schaife and Jerome Bruner (1975) found that typically developing children can do this by 14 months.
• However, this and other skills are impaired or delayed in children with ASD.
• This results in a ToM deficit that may underlie the social and communication problems central to ASD.

Question 4

How do deficits in understanding of mental versus physical manifest?

Answer 4

Mental Versus Physical;

• Baron Cohen, 1995, illustrates this distinction. A child is told a story involving two characters. One is holding a glass of pop (a physical experience). The other is thinking about a glass of pop (a mental experience). The child then responds to various questions about what characters can do (which one can drink the pop?)
• a correct answer indicates that the child understands the difference between what is physical and what is mental.
• This is a fairly easy task for a typically developing three or four year old child, but is very difficult for a child with ASD.

Question 5

How do deficits in understanding of appearances versus reality manifest?

Answer 5

• Typically developing children from about four years of age can usually understand that objects are sometimes not all they seem.
• For instance, they know that a bath bomb ( a scented mixture of dry ingredients that dissolves in the bath) that looks like a cake is really a bath bomb.
• But children with ASD have difficulty understanding this.
• They might describe the object as really a bath bomb or really a cake but fail to grasp its appearance and its real nature are not the same thing.