Mathew Quon
Theory of Mind and Mental Disorders
Introduction
This paper explores two published articles that propose similar answers to whether or not children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) employ the theory of mind (ToM). The more recent article by Iao and Leekam (2014) uses and adds to the methodology taken in the older article by Baron-Cohen, Leslie, and Frith (1985). However, both suggest that there is a ToM deficit in children with ASD. Iao and Leekam arrive at their conclusion by extending the false belief tasks previously used in the other article and creating a domain-general hypothesis that accounts for both mental and non-mental representations made by children. Baron-Cohen and colleagues concluded that children with ASD …show more content…
There is an ongoing debate in understanding the main causes of the social impairments associated with ASD. False belief tasks have been used in efforts to understand mental-related processing in children. Many scholars have concluded that conditions caused by autism are results of deficits in executive function and language and or of deficits in ToM. Executive functions are coined as the regulation of our cognitive processes. These abilities include memory, reasoning, and problem solving. Without executive functions, people would not be able to do things like make decisions or correct errors. Theory of mind, as stated before, involves the acknowledgement of mental states. Without this, communication skills would certainly be weak. The decision between these two as the root causes of ASD symptoms has been up for …show more content…
Again, a child would observe an object, in this case a marble, in location A and understand that a doll, Sally, witnessed this as well. Sally would leave the room and the child would watch as another doll, Anne, would move the marble and hide it in location B. If the child correctly knew where Sally would look for the marble when she returned, he or she passed the Belief Question and understood the false belief of another being. This conclusion was only justified if the child was able to correctly answer the Naming Question, the Reality Question, and the Memory Question. The first ensured that the child knew the names specific to Sally and Anne while the second and third confirmed that the child had knowledge of both the real-time location of the object and an accurate memory of the previous
Theory of Mind and Mental Disorders
Introduction
This paper explores two published articles that propose similar answers to whether or not children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) employ the theory of mind (ToM). The more recent article by Iao and Leekam (2014) uses and adds to the methodology taken in the older article by Baron-Cohen, Leslie, and Frith (1985). However, both suggest that there is a ToM deficit in children with ASD. Iao and Leekam arrive at their conclusion by extending the false belief tasks previously used in the other article and creating a domain-general hypothesis that accounts for both mental and non-mental representations made by children. Baron-Cohen and colleagues concluded that children with ASD …show more content…
There is an ongoing debate in understanding the main causes of the social impairments associated with ASD. False belief tasks have been used in efforts to understand mental-related processing in children. Many scholars have concluded that conditions caused by autism are results of deficits in executive function and language and or of deficits in ToM. Executive functions are coined as the regulation of our cognitive processes. These abilities include memory, reasoning, and problem solving. Without executive functions, people would not be able to do things like make decisions or correct errors. Theory of mind, as stated before, involves the acknowledgement of mental states. Without this, communication skills would certainly be weak. The decision between these two as the root causes of ASD symptoms has been up for …show more content…
Again, a child would observe an object, in this case a marble, in location A and understand that a doll, Sally, witnessed this as well. Sally would leave the room and the child would watch as another doll, Anne, would move the marble and hide it in location B. If the child correctly knew where Sally would look for the marble when she returned, he or she passed the Belief Question and understood the false belief of another being. This conclusion was only justified if the child was able to correctly answer the Naming Question, the Reality Question, and the Memory Question. The first ensured that the child knew the names specific to Sally and Anne while the second and third confirmed that the child had knowledge of both the real-time location of the object and an accurate memory of the previous