Elicitation of First-Order 'Theory of Mind in Children with Autism

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Abstract
Failure to pass certain kinds of false belief task is a characteristic both of preschool children and of children with autism. In the present study normally developing children, children with autism and children with learning difficulties, all of whom had failed a standard first-order false belief task, were given five replications of the standard false belief task with the inclusion of enhanced behavioural and emotional cues to the protagonist's false belief on the four repetitions. The results showed that the children with autism as well as some of the normally developing subjects benefited to a significant extent from the enhanced cues but not when the task was repeated without enhancement. The children with learning difficulties, by contrast, showed no improvement. The implications of the results for current cognitive theories of autistic dysfunction are discussed.