Megan Critchlow - Psychology
accentuates the necessity to develop an autistic child’s Theory of Mind and therefore the
importance of finding the correct intervention for this purpose.
Breaking down a normal Theory of Mind
To understand to what extent autistic children can develop their Theory of Mind through
training, I am going to break down a normal Theory of Mind into sections. This will enable
us to understand how far an autistic child’s Theory of Mind needs to be developed, to reach
the same level as normal children.
Whilst Leslie (1994) and Premack (1993) propose alternative models (Baron-Cohen, 1995), I
have decided to focus on the four components Simon Baron-Cohen proposes forms the
human mindreading system. The reason for my choice is due to Simon Baron-Cohen’s
extensive research in the area of autism and the Theory of Mind, along with his choice to
separate the detection of eyes of an organism from shared attention. The four components
consist of the intentionality detector (ID), the eye-direction detector (EDD), the shared-
attention mechanism (SAM) and the Theory of Mind mechanism (ToMM) (Baron-Cohen,
1995, cited by Brooks Jamison, 2010).
Firstly the ID is the mechanism developed that allows us to be able to anticipate how others
may feel. This is the mechanism in our brains that works out what others deliberate mental
states of goals and desires may be, through their motional stimuli. (ibid)
Secondly the EDD detects the presence of eyes or eye-like stimulation, computing whether
the eyes are facing them or an alternative direction and understanding that if eyes are directed
at an object, they view that object. (ibid)
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