Theory of Mind Page |1
Theory of Mind
Do you know anyone who does the following?

Walking into the classroom Johnny says to his teacher, “Your tie is ugly!”

Chris can't seem to explain how he is feeling. He is either doing “awesome” or he is
“awful”; there is no middle ground.

When asked why she ran from her parents, Maria says, “I don't know” and is unable to
explain her behavior.

You are talking with a teenager who does not notice that you have looked at your watch
several times and yawned. He continues to ramble on, oblivious that you are giving clear
signals that you would like the conversation to end.

When a fellow student asks Judy, “Could you talk any louder?” she says “Yes,” and talks
even louder than she already was doing.

Hector pushes another child and does not seem to care that he has hurt someone else. Nor
can he understand why he is being punished.

Linda just can’t seem to tell a white lie, even when it is appropriate to avoid hurting
another’s feeling. “Do you like my cake,” asked Grandma. “No it is very dry,” replied
Linda.

Desean is an easy target for being taken advantage of by others. Mean-spirited peers
often tell him outlandish lies that he believes.
These scenarios or ones similar to them may be familiar to you. All of us have occasional
difficulties regulating our behavior, understanding others’ perspective and using correct social
skills. However, individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit the above challenges
much more often. These difficulties across domains (cognitive, behavioral, social, and
emotional) may manifest in many different ways. This may include being naive and a target for
bullying or teasing, not understanding emotions, being extremely literal and missing abstract
content, having a limited ability to regulate behavior based on what others are doing or saying,
and having difficulty understanding nonverbal behavior.
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As toddlers, typically developing children begin to develop the ability to take another person’s
perspective, to understand that others have separate thoughts, desires and beliefs, and to modify
their own behavior by taking into account what others might be thinking or feeling. In the field
of special education and psychology these skills and abilities have been called “theory of mind.”
What Is Mind blindness?
Simon Baron-Cohen is a researcher from the University of Cambridge who has done
significant work in the field of theory of mind. The majority of his work has centered on
children with ASD. Baron-Cohen (1995) uses the term mind blindness to explain why
individuals with ASD have an impaired ability to read minds. Most typically developing
youngsters develop mind reading skills easily and without any formal instruction. The
skills are automatic as the brain is programmed to interpret this information from birth.
Baron-Cohen postulates that a specific part of the brain that is typically responsible for
mind reading is impaired in children with ASD. This impairment likely has a genetic
basis, and several regions of the brain have been suggested as connected to this
impairment.
Powers (2003) interprets mind blindness as “an inability to put oneself in the place of
another and to see things from another person's perspective” (p. 11-12). He adds that
developing a theory of mind “enables the child to perceive reality from another's
perspective … to feel empathy, to identify with another's feelings and point of view, and
to understand that others don't know everything that the child knows. It also makes it
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possible for the child to understand pretense, sarcasm, deceit, and certain kinds of
humor” (p. 11-12).
Those who don't have the ability to apply theory of mind or who have an impaired ability
to mind read must use other means to explain behavior in themselves and others.
Unfortunately these other ways are often slow and/or wrong, leading to drastic
consequences in some instances.
Example:
A student named Johnny is walking down the street. He sees a group of
four older boys on the other side of the street. They are staring at Johnny,
pointing as well as talking to each other. After a few moments the boys
begin to cross the street towards Johnny.
Now, many people would have turned and gone in the other direction
before the four thugs crossed the street and possibly hurt them. But it
would take some mind reading ability to infer that since the boys were
talking and looking at you that they might want to do something to you.
Otherwise Johnny could just interpret the goings-on as a description: Four
boys are walking down the street. They are looking at me. They are
pointing at me. They are crossing the street and getting closer to me—
without interpreting the possible intent of the four boys.
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Quiz
1. A simple definition of theory of mind might be
your brain working
a way of regulating body temperature
understanding how others think and feel
understanding how to use a computer
2. Which of the following is/are possible experiences of individuals who have an
impaired theory of mind? Difficulties:
perspective taking
explaining the behavior of others
predicting the future behavior of self or others
all of the above
3. Mind blindness is a term that describes individuals who have difficulty
seeing
understanding the thoughts and feelings of others
breathing
doing puzzles
4. By age four, typically developing children can…
solve first-order theory of mind tests
solve very abstract problems
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solve higher-order theory of mind tests
understand irony
5. Simon Baron-Cohen believes that an impaired theory of mind may be the core
cognitive reason for social skills deficits in ASD.
True
False
6. Which of the following has not been used to help teach TOM skills?
social stories
addition lessons
TV and videos
computers
7. Acting lessons and role-playing can be used to teach theory of mind skills.
True
False