Language and theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder: The relationship between complement syntax and false belief task performance

Bowler, Lind, S.E.,*; M., D.

doi:10.1007/s10803-009-0702-y

Language and theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder: The relationship between complement syntax and false belief task performance

Bowler, Lind, S.E.,*; M., D.

Authors

Lind, S.E.,* Bowler

D. M.

Contributors

S E Lind cjmw18@durham.ac.uk
Other

Abstract

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use their knowledge of complement syntax as a means of “hacking out” solutions to false belief tasks, despite lacking a representational theory of mind (ToM). Participants completed a “memory for complements” task, a measure of receptive vocabulary, and traditional location change and unexpected contents false belief tasks. Consistent with predictions, the correlation between complement syntax score and location change task performance was significantly stronger within the ASD group than within the comparison group. However, contrary to predictions, complement syntax score was not significantly correlated with unexpected contents task performance within either group. Possible explanations for this pattern of results are considered.

Citation

Bowler, L. S., & M., D. (2009). Language and theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder: The relationship between complement syntax and false belief task performance. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(6), 929-937. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0702-y

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Jun 1, 2009
Deposit Date	Sep 8, 2010
Publicly Available Date	Oct 15, 2010
Journal	Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Print ISSN	0162-3257
Electronic ISSN	1573-3432
Publisher	Springer
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	39
Issue	6
Pages	929-937
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0702-y
Keywords	Autism spectrum disorder, Complement syntax, False belief, Language, Theory of mind.
Publisher URL	http://www.springerlink.com/content/d54n2k4541052776/