Theory of Mind in Autism: How Comparisons with Down Syndrome Have Changed

Premack and Woodruff's article, provocatively titled ‘Does the chimpanzee have a “Theory of Mind”?’, posed a fascinating question that inspired decades of research into the development of theory of mind in humans.

Baron-Cohen, Leslie, and Frith (1985) extended this line of inquiry by reframing Premack and Woodruff’s question to focus on autistic children: ‘Does the autistic child have a “Theory of Mind”?’ Using a model of metarepresentational development, they hypothesised that autistic children lack this capacity, preventing them from attributing beliefs to others or predicting others’ behaviour… Read more: https://www.olgabogdashina.com/post/theory-of-mind-in-autism