Do children with autism find it difficult to offer alternative interpretations to ambiguous figures?
Authors: Ropar D.; Mitchell P.; Ackroyd K.
Source: British Journal of Developmental Psychology, Volume 21, Number 3, September 2003 , pp. 387-395(9)
Publisher: British Psychological Society
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Abstract:
Previous research suggests that the ability to reverse ambiguous figures may be related to an understanding of one's own and others' mental states. We can infer from these findings that individuals who have difficulty representing mental states, such as those with autism, may also have difficulty reversing ambiguous figures. The results from our study, however, showed that a majority of those with autism easily succeeded in making alternative interpretations despite many making errors in tests of false belief. Many also had difficulty acknowledging that a less informed person would interpret a non-descript portion of a drawing differently than themselves. Comparison participants with moderate learning disabilities, who had a similar intellectual profile, generally performed well on the theory of mind tests and a majority made alternative interpretations of ambiguous figures. Typically developing children aged 7 and 8 years performed well on all tests. The ambiguity test does not require participants to understand that representations are open to revision, unlike theory of mind tests, and this might explain their good performance.Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.1348/026151003322277766
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