Lecture 7: Theory of Mind (ToM) in Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)

Introduction to Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC)

• This lecture explores Theory of Mind (ToM) in Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC), and the relationship between ToM, language, and social development.
• Contact: Dr Catherine O’Hanlon (cao15@aber.ac.uk)

Learning Objectives

• ToM in Autism
  • Introduction to Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC)
  • Key Studies:
    • Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith (1985, 1986): Explores what research in theory of mind teaches about social cognition in children with autism.
    • Leekam & Perner (1991): Revisits the False Photograph Task.
    • Happè (1994, 1995): Examines the relationship between Language and ToM.
• ToM, Language, & Social Development
  • Anticipatory looking in autism; Senju et al. (2010)
  • Special cases: language in the deaf & blind; Isobelle & Genie.
  • Contemporary applications: Interaction between ToM, language and social development

Introductory Comments

• Neurodiversity of development is relevant to ToM and Language research, but not the main focus.
• Reasoning for studying ToM in Autism:
  • ToM plays a role in children’s difficulties in socialization.

What are ASCs?

• Diagnostic traits: Socialisation, Communication, Behaviour (special interests/intense focus).
• Non-diagnostic traits: Atypical perception / Unique cognitive & sensory abilities.
  • Difficulties with socialization are intrinsically related to ToM.
  • Mostly Talents; some interference with daily life

Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith 1985: Sally-Ann Task

• Participants:
  • 20 children with autism
  • 20 children with Down’s syndrome (matched on verbal IQ)
  • 20 typically developing 4-year-olds
• Results:
  • Only a handful of ASD children passed.
  • The majority of Down’s children passed.
  • The majority of 4-year-olds passed.

False Belief Task: ASD

• Video demonstration with a 7-year-old.

Considerations Regarding Baron-Cohen et al.’s (1985, 1986) Results

• Relevance: Isolated difficulties with ToM tasks to the autism group.
• Why some children with ASD passed ToM tasks:
  • Related to language abilities, which vary greatly in ASD.
  • The samples in Baron-Cohen et al. (1985, 1986) were not well matched on Verbal IQ.
• Question: Might children with ASD be able to form mental representations, independently of their ToM abilities?
  • If the ability to form representations is independent of ToM abilities, failure on ToM tasks cannot be due to the more global ability to form mental representations

Leekam & Perner, 1991: False Photograph Task

• Method:
  • Replicated Zaitchik’s (1990) false photograph task.
  • RQ: Do children understand that a picture, as a representation of a scene, can misrepresent it?
• Participants:
  • 3- and 4-year-olds developing typically
  • Children with autism spectrum conditions, matched on IQ, CA 10-19 years.
• Control:
  • What would the control condition have to be?

Leekam & Perner, 1991: Results

• Contingency between correct answers on false belief and photograph tasks.
• Table of Results:
  • Breakdown of performance on both tasks across autistic, non-autistic diagnosed, and non-diagnosed groups, as well as by age (3 and 4 years).

Anticipatory Looking in Children with ASC

• Focus on anticipatory looking in children with ASC.

Senju et al., 2010: Anticipatory Looking in Autism

• Participant Profiles:

  • Table 1: Mean (standard deviation) scores for CA, VMA, RCPM, and ASQ-J for children with ASD and TD children.
  • CA = chronological age
  • VMA = verbal mental age
  • RCPM = Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices
  • ASQ-J = Japanese version of the Autism Screening Questionnaire
  • ASD = autism spectrum disorder
  • TD = typically developing

  Group	CA	VMA	RCPM	ASQ-J
  ASD	7;9(1;0)	6;3(2;5)	25.1(6.8)	22.1(5.0)
  TD	7;6(0;11)	9;4(2;2)	29.5(5.1)	2.7(3.2)

• Procedure: Familiarisation

Senju et al., 2010: Anticipatory Looking in Autism

• Procedure: TEST
  • False Belief 1 (FB1)
  • False Belief 2 (FB2)

Senju et al., 2010: Anticipatory Looking in Autism

• VIDEO: Familiarisation

Senju et al., 2010: Anticipatory Looking in Autism

• VIDEO: False Belief 2 (FB2; higher memory load)

Senju et al., 2010: Anticipatory Looking in Autism

• Results & Conclusions:
  • Although typically developing children correctly anticipated the action, children with ASC failed to show such action anticipation.
  • The results suggest that children with ASC have an impairment in false belief attribution, which is independent of their verbal ability.

ToM and Language

• Converging evidence from ToM and Language research.