Mindblindness Theory of Autism Flashcards

Flashcards about Mindblindness Theory of Autism

Mindblindness Theory of Autism

Argues that difficulties with mindreading explain perceived differences in autistic behaviour.

Delay in Theory of Mind (ToM)

Leads to mindblindness, explaining social communication differences in autism diagnostic criteria.

Sally Anne False Belief Task

Demonstrates that autistic children had a lower pass rate (20%) compared to children with down syndrome and non-autistic children (86% and 85% respectively).

Yuk et al. (2018) MEG Study

Found that autistic children experienced different areas of brain activation when completing false belief tasks.

Frith-Happe Animations Test

Interprets the intentions of geometric shapes as a test of mentalising abilities; autistic people perform lower on average.

Gernsbacher and Yergeu (2019) Critique

Argues that the mindblindness theory is empirically questionable and societally harmful, framing autism as a deficit and blaming autistic people for communication breakdowns.

Lovaas (1973) - ABA therapy

Punishes autistic behaviors through lack of attention/removal of food and electric shocks and then rewards neurotypical behaviors with food.

Double Empathy Problem

Argues that social difficulties in autism arise from a mutual misunderstanding between autistic and neurotypical individuals.

Crompton et al. (2020) Study

Found that communication breakdowns occurred in mixed neurotype groups, suggesting a mutual communication difficulty.

Bayesian Alternatives - Pellicano and Burr (2012)

Suggests autistic people may be less influenced by priors, explaining sensory overload.

Schuwerk et al. (2016) Study

Demonstrated that autistic children did not build social priors about intentions and desires in a turtle maze task.

Maurer et al. (2018) Study

Showed that autistic people use prior information more than NTs but do not update their behavior when faced with inconsistent information.