1. Theory of mind hypothesis of autism

2. Children with autism have difficulty with false belief Baron-Cohen et al (1985) Sally puts her ball in the box and then leaves While Sally is away, Anne puts the ball in the bag Sally returns for her ball. Where will she look? Criticisms: de Gelder (1987) Why should people with autism attribute mental states to dolls? Why test understanding with a game that involves make- believe when children with autism are known to be weak at that?

3. Responses to deGelder’s criticisms Leslie & Frith (1988) Perner et al (1989)

4. Message-desire task Mitchell et al (1997)

5. Understanding the function of the brain Baron-Cohen (1989)

6. What about the 24% who give a correct Judgment? Difficulty with second-order attributions (Baron-Cohen, 1989)

7. What about those who pass 2 nd order tasks? Baron-Cohen et al (1997): Advanced ToM task Happy-Sad Angry-Afraid

8. Klin et al (2002)– viewing social scenes

9. Interpreting mental states from faces Back et al Deciding Disapproving Don’t Trust Not interested Deciding Disapproving Don’t trust Not interested Relieved Surprised Not sure Worried Worried eyes static (neutral) Worried mouth static (neutral)