Title: Theory of Mind: Autism as Mindblindness?
1Theory of Mind Autism as Mindblindness?
- Dr Jason Low
- School of Psychology
- Victoria University of Wellington
2Georges de la Tour, The Fortune Teller
3ToM and the full range of mental states
- Theory of mind is one quintessential ability that
makes us human - Test of Tom have been found to be effective as
markers of pervasive developmental disorders
(e.g., autism) - Autism as mind-blindness
41. Mental Physical Distinction
- Wellman Estes (1986)
- Listen to two stories
- A is thinking about a dog vs B is holding a dog
- Who can pat the dog?
- Baron-Cohen (1989) 3-4 yr olds vs. children with
autism with vma of 4 yrs
52. Appearance Reality Distinction
- Flavell, Green Flavell (1986)
- Sponge-rock
- Baron-Cohen (1989)
- 3-4 yrs vs cwa (4yrs vma)
- Autism difficult with understanding different
between subjective and objective reality
63. First Order False Belief Tasks
- Inferring one persons mental state
- Unexpected Contents
- Unexpected Transfer
- Sally-Anne Experiment (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985)
- Critical question Where will Sally look for her
marble? - Problems general intellectual understanding?
Memory problems? - Control groups normal downs Where did Sally
put the marble in the beginning? Where is the
marble now?
74. Seeing leads to knowing
- Where does knowledge come from, and who knows
what, and who doesnt know what - 3 year olds grasp principle
- Baron-Cohen Goodhart (1994) autism at chance
level only
85. Production of range of mental state words
- CWA produce fewer mental state words in their
spontaneous description of picture stories (e.g.,
Baron-Cohen et al., 1986)
96. Spontaneous pretend play
- Lower frequency amongst cwa (e.g., Lewis
Boucher, 1988)
107. Understanding how belief causes emotion
- Emotions can be caused by situation (falling over
and crying) - But can also be caused by mental states (desires
and beliefs) - CWA with vma of 3 have difficulty with mental
states as causes of emotion (Baron-Cohen, 1991)
118. Mentalistic interpretation of gaze
- Baron-Cohen et al. (1995)
- Which one is Charlie going to take?
- What is Charlie looking at?
129. Physical sabotage and mental deception
1310. Figurative speech
- Baron-Cohen (1997)
- Metaphor, sarcasm, jokes
1411. Pragmatics
- Sensitivity to speaker and listener mental states
Bleed
Yes
1512. Imagination
- Draw a pretend looking person (e.g., a person
with two heads).
16Components of a Theory of Mind
ID Desires Goals "Mary wants the apple"
EDD Eyes can see things "Mary sees the apple"
SAM Infers desires goals based on eye
direction "I see that Mary wants the apple"
TOMM Allows the full range of mental states "I
think Mary will take and eat the apple after
seeing it"
17Mind-blindness or executive dysfunction?
- Mechanism which enables the normal person to
shift attention flexibly, inhibit stereotypical
responses, generate goal directed behaviour and
solve problems in a planful manner - ToM correlates with tests of executive
functioning (e.g., Tower of Hanoi)
18Problems with a strong EFT account
- Executive dysfunction occurs in a large number of
other clinical disorders (e.g., schizophrenia,
OCD, Tourettes, anxiety disorder, ADHD - A narrower executive dysfunction? in autism
there is a deficit in disengaging from the
salience of reality - But in a number of tests where cwa have to
disengage from reality, the pass! - Leslies False photograph test
19So what of ToM?
- ToM is not reducible to executive function
- EFT deficits may co-occur with mind-blindness
because both share same brain origins (frontal
lobes) - Two cognitive deficits may be separately
responsible for different types of behaviours in
autism - But EFT researchers point to modified false photo
test with strong EFT demands (see Russell,
Saltmarsh, Hill, 1999)