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Perceptual and cognitive perspective taking in two siblings with callosal agenesis
Author(s) -
Temple Christine M.,
Vilarroya Oscar
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1990.tb00817.x
Subject(s) - psychology , corpus callosum , perception , cognition , perspective (graphical) , agenesis of the corpus callosum , cognitive psychology , theory of mind , developmental psychology , cognitive development , autism , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science
Two children with callosal agenesis, who were born without the 200 million nerve fibres of the corpus callosum, which normally connect the two hemispheres of the brain, were tested on the Piagetian and post‐Piagetian tasks of perceptual perspective taking and a task of cognitive perspective taking. Unlike children with autism and despite the discussions of the relative distributions of cognitive skills which followed the studies of commissurotomy patients, the children with callosal agenesis could accomplish these tasks. There is thus no evidence that absence of the corpus callosum causes a failure to establish a ‘theory of mind’, nor do acallosals display a duality of mind such that deductions relating to belief states and viewpoints are unavailable to conscious perception and logical verbal analysis.