Precursors to a theory of mind in infancy: perspectives for research on autism.
There is ample evidence for a conceptual deficit in normally developing 3-year-olds' and autistic children's understanding of the mind. Recent research using nonverbal tasks has challenged this view since even 15-month-old infants appear to base their action predictions on a representation of the agent's beliefs (Onishi & Baillargeon, 2005). Our own findings from looking-time experiments indicate, however, that 16-month-olds' action predictions depend on behavioural and situational cues, rather than on a person's access to information. Further research is reviewed that indicates that 14-month-olds understand what another person can and cannot see, and that 18-month-olds predict a person's action from what she previously saw, when supported by behavioural cues. These findings support a constructivist view of a gradual understanding of conditions for knowing during the second year. The relevance of such findings for research on autism is discussed.
Sodian
Beate
B
Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany. sodian@edupsy.uni-muenchen.de
Thoermer
Claudia
C
D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003210:Concept Formation; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends*; D014706:Verbal Learning