"A simple experiment developed by Simon Baron-Cohen goes like this. You show this to three- and four-year-olds. There's four candies there, and you say, "This is Charlie in the middle. Which chocolate will Charlie take?" For most children and most of you, I hope, the answer's pretty clear: This one. Autistic children will often just shrug, say, "How could I know?" because they don't instinctively appreciate that people's interests and desires tend to be attuned to where they're looking.
Another sort of task, which is a task that's been done hundreds, perhaps thousands of times, is known as "the false-belief task" and here's the idea. You show the child the following situation.There's a doll named Maxie and Maxie puts the ball in the cupboard. Maxie leaves and a second doll enters. The second doll takes the ball out of the cupboard and puts it under the bed. Maxie comes back and the question is, "Where will Maxie look for the ball?" Now, this is a question about your understanding about minds. The question of where is the ball really is a question about the physical world. Everyone can solve it, but this question is hard. The right answer is — Maxie will look in the cupboard, even though it's not really there because Maxie has a false belief about the world.
Three-year-olds find this difficult.
Two-year-olds find this difficult.
Four-year-olds and five-year-olds are able to pass this task.
Normal adults are able to pass this task.
Children with autism have serious problems.
And often, people with autism who are otherwise very high functioning will fail this task. They'll say, "Oh, he must think it's not — He'll — He's going to check under the bed.""
© Paul Bloom
Yale Lectures on Introduction to Psychology, 2007
Another sort of task, which is a task that's been done hundreds, perhaps thousands of times, is known as "the false-belief task" and here's the idea. You show the child the following situation.There's a doll named Maxie and Maxie puts the ball in the cupboard. Maxie leaves and a second doll enters. The second doll takes the ball out of the cupboard and puts it under the bed. Maxie comes back and the question is, "Where will Maxie look for the ball?" Now, this is a question about your understanding about minds. The question of where is the ball really is a question about the physical world. Everyone can solve it, but this question is hard. The right answer is — Maxie will look in the cupboard, even though it's not really there because Maxie has a false belief about the world.
Three-year-olds find this difficult.
Two-year-olds find this difficult.
Four-year-olds and five-year-olds are able to pass this task.
Normal adults are able to pass this task.
Children with autism have serious problems.
And often, people with autism who are otherwise very high functioning will fail this task. They'll say, "Oh, he must think it's not — He'll — He's going to check under the bed.""
© Paul Bloom
Yale Lectures on Introduction to Psychology, 2007
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