Evaluating the Theory-of-Mind Hypothesis of Autism
Abstract
Two decades ago, the theory-of-mind hypothesis of autism was introduced by Baron-Cohen and his colleagues; this theory provided a unified cognitive explanation for the key social and communication symptoms in that disorder. I evaluate the theory-of-mind hypothesis in light of studies that have addressed several key questions: Do children with autism develop theory-of-mind concepts? How can we explain why some children with autism pass theory-of-mind tasks? Do deficits in theory of mind account for the major impairments that characterize autistic disorder? Current research supports the view that autism involves delays and deficits not only in the development of a theory of mind but also in additional aspects of social-affective information processing that extend beyond the traditional boundaries of theory of mind.
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Performance on simplified social cognitive tasks does not always track with the severity of social deficits in ASD.
“Further, performance on simplified social cognitive tasks does not always track with the severity of social deficits in ASD (37, 38), and interventions teaching people with ASD to recognize emotions from simplified stimuli often improve performance on simplified tasks but not in real-world social interactions (39, 40).”
From The neural bases of empathic accuracy (2009) · cites this paper as [38]
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The neural bases of empathic accuracy
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- Authors
- Tager-Flusberg, H.
- Affiliations
- Boston University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Tager-Flusberg, Helen
- Venue
- Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2007-12
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 311-315
- ISSN
- 0963-7214 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8721
- OpenAlex
- W2151344616
- Cited by
- 329
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 4.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Directions in Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Keywords
- theory of mind, autism spectrum disorder, social cognition, social communication deficits, developmental delay, false belief understanding
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