This research looked at the ability of children with autism to understand theory of mind.
This is the ability to attribute mental states (e.g. believing, thinking, knowing etc.) to
oneself and to others. The main aim of the study was to provide evidence, contrary to a
large body of previous research, that individuals with autism can exhibit a theory of mind,
when the standard tests used in the past are simplified for this population. A further aim of
the study was to show that language ability is significant in terms of theory of mind task
performance. It was hypothesised, because of the nature of the theory of mind tasks, that
matching participants in terms of their understanding of grammar, rather than single word
understanding (as in past research), would be more appropriate. Three groups took part in
the study; autistic, learning disabled and normally developing children. The learning
disabled and normally developing participants were selected to match the subjects with
autism, in terms of receptive verbal age, on either the British Picture Vocabulary Scale
(BPVS) or the Test for Reception of Grammar (TROG) or both. All the participants were
given two first order theory of mind tasks; the standard 'Sally-Anne' task, which has been
used in past research, and a simplified cartoon version of this task designed by the author.
These first order tasks test the ability to consider another person's thoughts about an
objective event. Those participants who passed one of the first order tasks were then given
three second order theory of mind tasks. These test the ability to consider another person's
thoughts about a third person's thoughts regarding an objective event. The second order
tasks consisted of the standard 'Ice-Cream Man task' (used in past research), Sullivan,
Zaitchik and Tager-Flusberg's (1994) simplified 'Puppy task' and a simplified cartoon
version of the task designed by the author. A significant difference in performance was
found between the three participant groups (matched on the BPVS) on the standard first
order task, but not on the simplified first order task. A significant difference in
performance was found between the participant groups on the standard Ice-Cream Man
task and the Puppy task, when matched on the BPVS, but not when matched on the TROG.
In addition no significant difference in performance was found between the autistic and
learning disabled participants on any of the theory of mind tasks. These findings are
discussed in relation to other explanations of autism such as the salient object hypothesis
and executive function.
Date of Award | 1999 |
---|
Original language | English |
---|
Awarding Institution | |
---|
THEORY OF MIND IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: IS THERE A NEED FOR BETTER TESTS OF WHAT THEY KNOW?
PROTO, A. K. (Author). 1999
Student thesis: PhD