Theory Of Mind

Question 1

what is theory of mind?

Answer 1

the ability to understand other people’s mental states and to see the world from the perspective of the other person

Question 2

how does theory of mind relate to people with autism?

Answer 2

autistic people have an impaired theory of mind

impaired development of ToM

Question 3

what type of skill is theory of mind?

Answer 3

cognitive skill

Question 4

what is a developed theory of mind?

Answer 4

the ability to decentre- to know that your point of view is not the same as others

Question 5

at what age does theory of mind normally develop?

Answer 5

2 to 3 years

Question 6

at what age do normal children have a full understanding of theory of mind?

Answer 6

4 years

Question 7

what is an autistic child’s impairment of theory of mind referred to?

Answer 7

mindblindness

Question 8

how do we test theory of mind?

Answer 8

Sally-Anne test

Advanced theory of mind test

Question 9

what are the stages of the sally-Anne test?

Answer 9

1-Sally has a basket and Anne has a box
2-Sally puts her marble into the basket
3- Sally walks away
4-Anne takes the marble out of the basket and puts it into her box
5-Sally comes back to look for her marble
where does sally look for the marble?

Question 10

how would autistic children answer the Sally-Anne test?

Answer 10

they would say to look in the box

-they have seen the marble be put in the box-can’t empathise with Sally

Question 11

what were the results of the sally-Anne test?

Answer 11

clinically normal- 85%
downs syndrome- 86%
autistic- 20%

Question 12

what hypothesise were made for the advanced theory of mind test?

Answer 12

adults with autism will be impaired on theory of mind test

-within normal population females will do better theory of mind test compared to males

Question 13

what was the procedure of the advanced theory of mind test?

Answer 13

1-each ppt tested on 4 tasks including eye task (presented in random order)
2-ppts were tested in a quiet room either in researchers clinic, own home or lab at Cambridge university-depended on severity of autism

Question 14

what were the results of the advanced theory of mind test-eye task?

Answer 14

autistic adults- 16.3/25
normal adults-20.3/25
adults with Tourettes-23.7/25
normal male-18.8/25
normale female-28.8

Question 15

what were the conclusions of the advanced theory of mind test?

Answer 15

people with autism can’t read facial expressions showing lack of empathy

Question 16

what characteristics ToM can explain?

Answer 16

• problems with social interaction-autistic people struggle with different point of view-struggle to make friends
• problems with pretend play-cannot understand their reality is not the same for everyone
• delays in language-lot of language taught through association between stimuli and language corrected-autism can’t make associations

Question 17

what characteristics can ToM not explain?

Answer 17

• sensory overload/deficits
• gender differences in diagnosis at least not as well as GMB
• repetition/rigid routine
• autism spectrum
• autistic savant with islet of ability

Question 18

AO3-SUPPORTING

Answer 18

• Sally-Anne test+demonstrates inability to decentre-lack empathy-simplistic methodology-especially high0functioning autistic
• Baron-Cohen test(eye test)-those with autism less able to identify emotions of others+inability to direct body lang/facial expression(social skills) -methodology isn’t scientific-difficult to test and measures only 1 characteristic
• Osterling&Dawson studied babes at 1st bday party those not paying attention to others later diagnosed with ASD +inability to recognise emotions from others(social interaction lacking) -observation/uncontrolled setting subjective
• babies may have individual differences

Question 19

AO3-CONFLICTING

Answer 19

• Schick et al delay on tom tasks in deaf children of haring parents demonstrate language delays - no cause&effect established just correlational
• Sheeran et al using tom not sufficient explanation for autism study carried out on high functioning ASD found ver little difference in performance on tom tasks compared to normally developing children could do mental state reasoning -goes against tom explaining ASD spectrum low in mundane realism

Question 20

AO3-OTHER EVIDENCE

Answer 20

extreme male brain

Question 21

AO3-USEFULNESS

Answer 21

extreme male brain-explains routines-how and why they like them
-better than tom-explains more aspects of autism-systematic
TOM-better at explaining some characteristics-social interaction
Need both theories to explore holistically
-neither explain- sensory sensitivity or ways to cope with autism
-doesn’t explain male to female ration

Question 22

AO3-TESTABILITY

Answer 22

• difficult to test directly -not empirical-measuring mental processes
• cause and effect issues- do not know if impaired t causes autism or just another feature of autism