The Theory Of Mind : A Research Study Into Autism Spectrum Disorder ( Asd )

complex in its entirety. During development, the most critical period is within the first 6 years of life; at the age of 7, our brain is nearly developed to the average adult size. During this time, myelination, synaptogenesis and synaptic pruning are occurring and contribute significantly to the development of the brain. If disruption occurs in brain development, it is possible that autism could be the ending result. Autism normally appears in the first 3 years of life. Although, it is still unknown as to what exactly causes these abnormalities. In Kathleen M. Galottis book, Cogitive Psychology: In and Out of the Laboratory, 2014. She asks how we come to obtain cognitive capacities, skills and strategies (Galotti, 2014, p. 321). Galotti focuses on 2 major theoretical approaches to cognitive development. The Stage and Nonstage theories are developmental theories that organize ways of explaining phenomena, including assumptions and predictions that are testable hypothesis (Galotti, 2014, p. 321). The Stage Theory that Galloti focuses on is Piagets Theory of Development, also known as the Piagetian Theory.

Autism spectrum disorder has become the most common neurological and developmental disorder diagnosed in children today. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012) estimate that 1 out of every 88 American children have been properly diagnosed. There is no known cure for autism, and the inconsistencies of the symptoms of autism in each case make it difficult to target a particular set of effective treatments. However some behavior management therapies, specifically physical therapy, may help to significantly control the unwanted symptoms in young children with autism spectrum disorder.

People understand each other using cognitive skills, an example of this is mindreading. Mindreading abilities also referred to as the theory of mind (ToM) is acknowledging that other people have mental states, such as understanding that others have desires, motives, beliefs and intentions (Hewson, 2015a). This is generally an essential, undemanding skill for social interaction. Thereby, this essay will evaluate how psychology has helped to explain how people understand each other by firstly, explaining how different aspects of ToM have been studied. Additionally, Heider and Simmel’s (1944) study of geometric shapes will be explored to demonstrate how people interpret other people’s behaviour, even in animation. Subsequently, Autism

Theory of mind refers to the ability to make full mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions, imagination, emotions, etc.) that trigger action. Child with autism has difficulty to understand others thoughts which consider, according to the theory of mind, as the core cognitive deficit in autism.

Autism Spectrum Disorder. ASD. Autism. When people hear any of these, it’s either “avoid that person at all costs”, “be super sympathetic”, “pretend to be their friend” or “I have no idea what that is”. My best friend and illustrator of my second book, has no idea what autism is. I tried explaining it to her. It’s very hard to explain how you feel, first of all. To put the fact that you are autistic makes it even more difficult. It doesn’t bother me too much that she doesn’t know. As long as she knows that I truly am a good person, we’re good.

ociety often has a misunderstood perception of individuals that carry autism. People infer that these autistic individuals are ignorant or sometimes even refer to them as retarded, they treat them as if they’re completely oblivious to what is actually going on around them, and they put these individuals at a lower ranking than ourselves. People that have this disorder are often mocked or called names. The world looks at them as ignorant, incapable vegetables, when in reality, they’re actually geniuses and masterminds. Autism does not make people that carry it stupid or even retarded, it doesn’t deprive them of intelligence, and it doesn’t make them any dumber than you and I. Carriers of autism usually only lack in their social skills rather than their intellectual skills. Autism is a severe disorder that hinders carriers of it to be able to communicate and socially interact with others

Mindreading is defined as the ability to “make sense of other people and to coordinate our behavior with theirs” (Bermudez, 354). Many cognitive scientists believe the theory of mind mechanism (TOMM) is important to mindreading. These scientists contend that autistic individuals suffer from an impairment to this theory of mind module. However, others have argued that theory of mind, which is “the ability to form beliefs about the mental states of others”, is not a modular ability, but instead the result of the interaction of many different cognitive skills. In their paper “Generous or Parsimonious Cognitive Architecture? Cognitive Neuroscience and Theory of Mind,” Philip Gerrans and Valerie E. Stone take this view of theory of mind. I will review this paper and its arguments, then address the response to Gerrans and Stone made by Carl Hildebrand.

According to research a difficulty developing Theory of Mind is central to the social deficits associated with autism (Sivaratnam, Cornish, Gray, Howlin, and Rinehart 2012). Theory of Mind is the ability to infer, understand and predict the beliefs, intentions, emotions of oneself and others. In typically developing children the understanding of intention as an “internal goal-oriented internal state is evident around 4-5 years of age (Sivaratnam, Cornish, Gray, Howlin, and Rinehart 2012). It is often the more subtle aspects of Theory of Mind, such as the ability to recognize complex emotions and facial expressions, and the interpretation of social-emotional cues in naturalistic settings, are where cognitively more able groups of individuals with ASD struggle (Sivaratnam, Cornish, Gray, Howlin, and Rinehart 2012). Those children with ASD that are of low IQ are most likely to struggle with Theory of Mind because they are not fully able to utilize cognitive reasoning to compensate for their social deficits (Sivaratnam, Cornish, Gray, Howlin,

Autism is a disorder that has to do with developmental issues that lead to communication and interaction impairments.Fifty years ago people would be clueless as to how to help people with Autism, fortunately medical technology has improved greatly since then and we are much more successful at understanding and treating Autism. Although a cure has not been found for Autism yet scientists are still working 24/7 to make this happen. In the meanwhile, it would greatly benefit us all to have some essential information about it so that if one ever does come to meet a person with Autism he or she can be respectful and helpful. Autism Spectrum Disorders are difficult to live with and around but with proper knowledge of the neurological disorder life can be made easier for everyone.

False belief can best be explained by putting it into a wider context of the ‘Theory of Mind’. Theory of Mind was first proposed in a study observing the behaviour of chimpanzees by Premack and Woodruff (1978). Soon after, Theory of Mind became a well-known concept in the field of psychology. Simon Baron-Cohen (e.g. 1989, 2001) used it to conceptualize autism. He defines ToM, often abbreviated ToM and often referred to as ‘mindreading’ (Whiten, 1991), or ‘mentalizing’ (Frith, Morton, & Leslie, 1991), as being able to understand that other people have beliefs, intentions, emotions, and desires which drive their actions and which are different to the ones we have. When describing ASD children, he then refers to them as

A time when I was challenged was when I spoke at my schools wellness conference and addressed my feelings about autism. When I first received my diagnosis, I was afraid to tell anyone because I knew about the stereotypes and I thought I would become a joke. However, as I became more comfortable in my own skin and I came to terms with my diagnosis, I slowly began to tell my closest friends about Asperger’s syndrome. Alongside school, I would attend appointments with a speech language pathologist who taught me how to cope and self-regulate when I started to have panic attacks. Eventually, I was able to educate other autistic children the techniques that help me. Moreover, I taught them how to self-declare.

Scientists coined this evolved mental adaptation for understanding behaviour as indicative of mental states “mind reading” or “Theory of Mind (ToM)” (Zunshine 847). Although it is used towards social interactions, the human mind cannot distinguish between real or fictional minds. Zunshine deems that “default interpretation of behaviour reflects a character's state of mind” and that “every fictional story that we read reinforces our tendency to make that kind of interpretation first” (Zunshine 850). As readers practice their mind-reading through fictional characters, the observable behaviour is often connected with readers' assumptions, beliefs, and ideas.

This study by Gray et al. explored how a 2D framework of mind perception could be used to further our understanding of psychopathology. They have done so by examining the interaction between the two dimensions of mind perception: agency (e.g. capacity for conscious control) and experience (e.g. capacity for feelings), with three subclinical syndromes: autism-spectrum disorder, schizotypy, and psychopathy. By reviewing current literatures, a distinct profile of under- and overperception of agency and/or experience was speculated for each syndrome. Specifically, Gray et al. hypothesized that people high in autism spectrum would be characterized by underperception of agency in adult human, people high in schizotypy would overperceive mind in non-human targets, and people with psychopathic tendencies would underperceive experience in living beings. The Mind survey was adopted to assess participants ' mind ascription profiles, in which they have rate their perception of nine targeted entities. It could be inferred from the study that beside the rather miscellaneous target Superman, a typical individual without tendency for disorders would perceive those entities according to 4 categories: being capable of both agency and experience (man and woman), being capable of mainly experience (baby and dog), being capable of mainly agency (God and robot) and being capable of neither (tree and dead woman). Moreover, participants were required to complete web versions of the Autism-spectrum

The article presented by Gray et al (2010), thoroughly examines the relations of specific psychopathology with social perception. Autism spectrum disorder, schizotypy and psychopathy will be further inspected and researched through a transdiagnostic approach – treating these disorders as impairments of the underlying cognitive system instead of as a difference in entity. Gray et al (2010), tries to define the aforementioned disorders with both an agency (cognitive abilities and control) and an experience (primitive or animalistic behaviours) score which are underlying aspects of mind perception. Mind perception can either be defined as overperception, perceiving a nonexistent mind, or underperception, failing to perceive those with an

People with autism have a lifelong developmental condition that not only affects the way they relate to their environment and interaction with others, but also non-verbal interactions may be misread. (Autism Spectrum