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The theory of mind made me think of an experiment I read about a while ago.

Simon Baron-Cohen (1985) used the Sally–Anne task to investigate whether neurodivergent children could understand false-belief.

The child who is being tested sits at a table on which two dolls (Anne and Sally) are positioned facing lidded containers (a box and a basket). The experimenter enacts a scenario with the dolls.

In this task, Sally first places a marble into her basket and then leaves the scene. Anne then enters, takes the marble out of the basket, and places it into a closed box. The experimenter then asks the participant where Sally will look for the marble.

Three groups of children were tested (one at a time) - 20 children with autism (experimental group), 14 children with Down’s syndrome (control group 1), and 27 typically developing children (control group 2).

If the child passes, he or she will point to the basket, understanding that, although this is no longer reality (as the marble is now in the basket), Sally possesses a false-belief that the marble is in the basket because she did not watch Anne move it (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985).

To point to the basket is to understand that Sally has her own set of beliefs about the world that differ from the child’s (he or she knows where the marble actually is).

Findings

85% of the typically developing children and 86% of the children with Down's syndrome answered the false-belief question correctly.

80% of the neurodivergent children fail the false-belief question.

lmbo

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