The relationship between theory of mind and autobiographical memory in high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome (original) (raw)
Advanced theory of mind in high-functioning adults with autism
… Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2001
Twenty-four high-functioning adults with autism (16 men) who passed a first-order theoryof-mind task and 24 nonautistic adults (10 men) attributed mental states to recordings of various verbal intonations and to photos of people's eyes to assess advanced theory of mind. Participants with autism performed significantly worse than nonautistic participants on both tasks. Thus, the previously described inattention to others' eyes exhibited by adults with autism is not solely responsible for their inability to attribute mental states from eyes, as they also did not correctly attribute mental states from voices. These findings support the view that a core deficit for people with autism lies in their theory of mind, that is, their inability to attribute mental states to others.
Theory of Mind Abilities and Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Topics in Language Disorders, 2014
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurobiological disorder that significantly impairs children's social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and behaviors. Questions about theory of mind (ToM) deficits in ASD have generated a large number of empirical studies. This article reviews current studies of the relationship between ToM and ASD, including contributions to the understanding of social and academic manifestations of ASD. Several themes emerge: Enhanced language and verbal abilities facilitate better ToM understanding; implicit ToM elements that incorporate parallel processing pose more difficulties than explicit ones; and general and multimodal interventions are more effective than specific interventions. A brief overview is followed by a review of emerging research on the role of domain-general cognitive skills (executive function) and central coherence in the development of ToM. Next, a summary of studies addressing ToM across the development and social and academic manifestations is presented. The article ends with a critical review of ToM intervention studies, which suggests that generalization may be more likely to occur when ToM is targeted as part of broader sociocognitive interventions rather than as an isolated skill.
Theory of mind and verbal working memory deficits in parents of autistic children
Psychiatry Research, 2009
The objective of this study was to investigate the potential values of executive function and social cognition deficits as endophenotypes of autism. While theory of mind (ToM) is generally accepted as a unitary concept, some have suggested that ToM may be separated into two components (mental state reasoning and decoding). In this study, both aspects of ToM and verbal working memory abilities were investigated with relatively demanding tasks. The authors used a neurocognitive battery to compare the executive function and social cognition skills of 76 parents of autistic probands with 41 parents of healthy children. Both groups were matched for IQ, age and gender. Index parents had verbal working memory deficits. They had also low performance on a mental state reasoning task. Index parents had difficulties in reasoning about others' emotions. In contrast to findings in the control group, low performance of mental state reasoning ability was not associated with working memory deficit in index parents. Social cognition and working memory impairments may represent potential endophenotypes, related to an underlying vulnerability for autistic spectrum disorders.
Evaluation of the theory of mind in autism spectrum disorders with the Strange Stories test
Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria, 2013
Objective To evaluate the theory of mind in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and control individuals by applying the Strange Stories test that was translated and adapted to the Portuguese language. Method Twenty-eight children with ASD and 56 controls who were all male and aged between 6 and 12 years participated in the study. Results There were significant differences between the median scores of the groups for each of the 12 stories of the test and for the sum total of all the median scores. The median scores for all stories were significantly greater in the control group than those in the experimental group (children with ASD). In addition, the protocol had excellent internal consistency. Conclusion The theory of mind skills assessed with the Strange Stories test indicated alterations in children with ASD compared with children in the control group.
Psychiatry Research, 2012
This study addresses the theory of mind (ToM) ability of Asperger's syndrome/high-functioning autism (AS/HFA) children and their parents and the severity of the autistic symptoms. Fifty-three families, each consisting of a mother, father and a child, participated in this study (N = 159). The 53 children in the sample included 25 children diagnosed with AS/HFA and 28 typically developing (TD) children. The Social Attribution Task (SAT) and tests assessing autistic symptoms were used. AS/HFA children had lower scores than TD children on three of the SAT indices (Person, ToM Affective, and Salience). Fathers of AS/HFA children did not have lower scores than fathers of TD children on the SAT task, whereas mothers of AS/HFA children had lower scores on the Person index, a pattern similar to seen in their children, suggesting a possible genetic contribution of mothers to ToM deficit in AS/HFA children.
European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2010
The literature suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are deficient in their Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities. They sometimes do not seem to appreciate that behaviour is motivated by underlying mental states. If this is true, then individuals with ASD should also be deficient when they use their ToM to represent and take part in dyadic interactions. In the current study we compared the performance of normally intelligent adolescents and adults with ASD to typically developing controls. In one task they heard a narrative about an interaction and then retold it. In a second task they played a communication game that required them to take into account another person's perspective. We found that when they described people's behaviour the ASD individuals used fewer mental terms in their story narration, suggesting a lower tendency to represent interactions in mentalistic terms. Surprisingly, ASD individuals and control participants showed the same level of performance in the communication game that required them to distinguish between their beliefs and the other's beliefs. Given that ASD individuals show no deficiency in using their ToM in real interaction, it is unlikely that they have a systematically deficient ToM.
Correlation of the Theory of Mind and the Level of Cognitive Functioning in Autistic Children
2010
Introduction. A deficit in "theory of mind" (ToM), i.e. an inability to conceive what others may be thinking or feeling, has often been posited as an essential feature of childhood autism. Our research goal was to search for correlation between ToM-related tasks and the overall level of cognitive performance in autistic children. Material and methods. The study included 25 autistic children under treat ment at the Specialised Clinic of Diagnosis and Rehabilitation in Lublin, Poland. Each child had been under the care of the clinics for at least three years, and three consecutive series of examinations were administered to each child. We assessed the subjects' ability to initiate interpersonal contact and to make a parent look at an object presented by the subject (task ToM1), as well as their ability to simulate a given action with the use of symbolic objects (task ToM2). The ability to imitate others and the level of cognitive performance was assessed with the Psychoe...