To further explore the Theory of Mind deficit in autistic individuals we must look further into what theory of mind is. Theory of Mind (ToM) is a persons ability to attribute mental and emotional states to themselves and to others. In autism it has been widely agreed that a fully developed ToM is missing . Autistic children have trouble understanding purpose and emotion in situations. In tests done by Baron-Cohen et al on normally functioning four year old individuals, autistic individuals with a mental state of about four years old, and individuals with down syndrome, they were told a story about two girls. One girl placed a marble into a basket and then leaves the room. Then the other girl takes the marble while the first girl is away and places it into her box. The first girl then comes back. The participants were asked where girl number one would look for her marble. The group of normally functioning individuals answered that the girl would look into her basket for the marble because she did not know it was not in the basket. However 80% of the autistic individuals answered that she would look into the box, even though they answered that the second girl had put the marble in her basket and she did not know it had been moved. Furthermore 86% of the individuals with down syndrome answered correctly. This test shows an obvious deficit in ToM in the autistic individuals. Many theories have been devised concerning the reason for this deficit including but not limited to the mirror neuron theory.
Works cited:
Hill,;Elisabeth L.Frith,Uta "Understanding Autism: Insights from Mind and Brain"
Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, Vol. 358, No. 1430, Autism: Mind and Brain. (Feb. 28, 2003), pp. 281-289.
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