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Theory of Mind Abilities in Individuals With Autism, Down Syndrome, and Mental Retardation of Unknown Etiology: The Role of Age and Intelligence
Author(s) -
Yirmiya Nurit,
SolomonicaLevi Daphna,
Shulman Cory,
Pilowsky Tammy
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1996.tb01497.x
Subject(s) - autism , theory of mind , psychology , etiology , deception , mental age , nonverbal communication , developmental psychology , developmental disorder , false belief , cognition , asperger syndrome , mind blindness , psychiatry , social psychology
We examined theory of mind abilities of individuals with autism, mental retardation (MR) of unknown etiology, Down syndrome, and normal children. On false belief and deception tasks, normal children performed better than all clinical groups, while no differences emerged among the clinical groups. The groups with MR performed better than the group with autism on the value task only. For individuals with autism, theory of mind abilities correlated with verbal ability. For individuals with MR nonverbal abilities correlated with deception and false belief scores. Findings are discussed in terms of the specificity of the theory of mind deficit to autism.