Tom's Effect On Social Interaction

At this point we can begin to understand the limitations of body language, facial expression and gesture when language is not available. Although they allow for instant communication they cannot help a child to understand what is being seen or provide a way in which afterwards the child can communicate what she has seen. This means that children who only have the basic communication skills of body language, gesture and facial

The brain is considered the most complex organ in the body. It is responsible for controlling motor function, the body’s ability to balance and the ability to translate information sent to the brain by sensory organs. The mind is described as the faculty of consciousness and thought. It’s where our feeling and emotions originate from and defines who we are as a person. The brain is composed of the visual cortex, which is responsible for processing visual information. In blind individuals the feature that makes up visions still exists in the visual cortex. These features are now used to process information received from the other senses. However, blind individuals are able to view the images because what’s in their mind.

1) According to Dillard, lovers and the knowledgeable can see well. Yet she also suggests that those who are knowledgeable on a topic, such as people who have been blind from birth and can suddenly see (due to an opperation), can perhaps view more objectively the world around them, and see it in a way that those with vision from birth cannot. Infants, she says, can see very clearly, for they are viewing the world for the first time, and can observe the colors and the light with no prejudgments, but we forget this experience as we grow older, and only occasionally catch glimpses of this phenomenon.

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.

People with Autism experience different perceptions in response to the same stimulus than people without a disability.

Theory of mind (ToM) is “the specific ability to attribute mental states to oneself and to others” (Pellicano, 2007, p. 974). Attributing mental states essentially allows one to read another’s body language and therefore predicts their behavior. This is important in the socialization of a child, something that an autistic child struggles with. Baron-Cohen et al. (2000) believe the term ToM is synonymous with social intelligence. The executive function (EF) is “a set of functions thought to be necessary for flexible, future-oriented behavior, especially in novel circumstances” (Pellicano, 2007, p. 974). The executive function is involved in many aspects of development, including working memory, the ability to plan effectively, and flexibility in focusing one’s attention to different people and objects. In a young child’s development, EF and ToM play a significant role. There are contradicting theories about which aspect affects the other, but it appears that the general belief is that together, they have an affect and that the two functions feed off of each (Pellicano, 2007). Pellicano (2007) found that in autistic children, when the EF is impaired, ToM is not intact. In other words, autistic children cannot read other’s body language if they have an impairment in their EF. Additionally, because of this impairment, they show an inability to be flexible, use their working memory, or plan for the future (Pellicano, 2007). One of the

blind people have the ability of mental imagery. John Hull, a professor of religious education in

The cognitive development work currently focuses on how cognition operates in infants and children and how the cognitive abilities arise. Usually these studies occur in controlled lab environments, where the formation of mental representations can be observed when the children confront specific objects and events. Typically research focuses on the analyses of mental processes and looks closely at mental representations (Olson and Dweck, 2008). While cognitive developmentalists have shown some interest in social phenomenon, they often do not look at the social representations. Usually research does not focus on child differences, different mental representation, and the implications for children’s well-being. This perspective could benefit from a social cognitive perspective.

Theory of mind in children with Autism concerns the ability to understand conceptions of others and their action. Research on theory of mind addresses theoretically complex questions of human action while exploring theory of mind based on social cues and is this in part of one’s neuropsychological?

It is well established the children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) fail the false belief task in Theory of Mind (ToM), which could be due to the nature of the task (Chang & Cheung, 2016;Peterson et al., 2013). A potential reason could be due to children having a lack of competition to motivate them to pass the ToM tasks (Peterson et al., 2013).

There are two major cognitive theories as to the cause of Autism, the mind blindness theory and empathizing-systemizing theory. The mind blindness theory states that their are defects in the normal process of empathizing, respective to mental age. This means that although the child may biologically be a certain age, their mental age is much younger. The term ‘empathizing’ involves two major elements-(a) the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, as a natural way to make sense of other people; and (b) having an emotional reaction that is appropriate to the other person’s mental state(Baron-Cohen). An example of this is when young children are playing with one another, a child with autism may not be able to understand when the other child is upset. The majority in more than thirty tests have revealed immense impairments in the empathizing ability in autistic people. Systemizing is the ability to analyze and build systems, in order to understand and predict the behavior of events that does not involve outside help(Baron-Cohen). The empathizing-systemizing theory states that autistic people have deficits in the ability to empathize, however the ability to systemize is intact or superior to those who do not have autism. This helps explain why many people with autism have a strong ability in music, math, or

Harris (2006) stated that theory of mind is ability to understand that others have different mental states to us. This theory allows people to infer mental states (desires, beliefs, imagination, emotions, intentions, etc.). In brief, this theory is the ability to reflect on the contents of one’s own and others’ mind. Some people who have Autism lack almost all signs of a theory of mind. Other people with Autism have some of the basics of a theory of mind.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience different aspects of theory of mind (ToM) and in a different order when compared with typically developing children (Kimhi, 2014). ToM influences social functioning and understanding of others (Peterson et al., 2016) Studies have shown that individuals with ASD perform lower on ToM tasks than typically developing individuals (Kimhi, 2014). Children with ASD may have a disadvantage because research has shown that ToM is influenced by other factors such as age, IQ, and language abilities (Kimhi, 2014; Peterson et al., 2016). Children with ASD are developmentally behind in age-appropriate milestones, IQ can be low, and language abilities are limited. ToM is stunted due to the affected

Philosophy of the mind is an extremely interesting topic that has been speculated for years and still is able to leave researchers without a complete answer. Its complex origins and explanations to how the mind operates and behaves is one of the, if not the, most confusing aspects to humans and other species. Several researchers have taken various stances in order to attempt at rectifying how it all works and what is controlled by their definitions, but many answers have yet to be accepted as concrete. Two of the more popular theories that analyze cognition, the mind, and folk psychology overall include Dennett’s intentional stance and Churchland’s eliminativism stance.

Additionally, such students are not able to effectively use gestures (Fan & Cheung, 2005). Most of the developmental steps of such chilren are delayed due to lack of vison. In emotional context, they may feel helplessness while interacting with others. These children can develop congnitive impairment because they they lack the integrating experience of association and classification and the understaning of these experiences. The other challenge faced with such children to develop their vocabulary. Sighted children can easily acquire these skills by reading, watching facial expressions and movements, but visually impaired children are unable to expereince this and it hinders their capability to improve their vocabulary. Physically, a visually impaired student is constantly rubbing their eyes and is always blinking. Frowning, squinting and holding books at close range are other characteristics of visually impaired individuals. Lastly, visually impaired learners are constantly complaining of dizziness, nausea, itchy eyes as well as blurred vision (Fan & Cheung, 2005).