Theory of mind (ToM) is key to the development of one's social skills. Without ToM, children (or adults) cannot understand or infer the thoughts, feelings, or intentions of others. A lack of ToM skills is considered by some to be a core deficit in autism. ToM affects all interpersonal interactions as well as academics, daily living, following…

The author believes that effective communication is an essential factor in overcoming differences and creating an environment where people can come together to learn, work, or play. Communication on the surface seems a straightforward endeavour. In practice, it is fraught with a multitude of issues that are dependent on the parties involved, who…

Patterns of development of ToM belief abilities in intellectually disabled (ID) children and typically developing (TD) children matched on their developmental age were investigated. The links between cognition, language, social understanding and ToM belief abilities were examined. EDEI-R [Perron-Borelli M. (1996). "Echelles Differentielles…

According to an influential view, empathy has, and should have, a role in ethics, but it is by no means clear what is meant by "empathy", and why exactly it is supposed to be morally good. Recently, Peter Goldie has challenged that view. He shows how problematic empathy is, and argues that taking an external perspective is morally…

Perspective-taking is an ability that requires a child to emit a selection response of informational states in himself or herself and in others. This study used an extended version of the Barnes-Holmes protocol developed in a series of studies by McHugh, Barnes-Holmes, and Barnes-Holmes (2004) to teach typically developing children between the…

Investigated the relationship of aggression to several social cognitive variables in delinquent adolescent males. The findings indicated that only perspective-taking ability was significantly related to aggressive behavior in delinquents. High-aggressive delinquents were less able to perceive others' viewpoints than were low-aggressive…

Individuals with either high-functioning autism (N=17) or Asperger Syndrome (N=17) were tested with Happe's Strange Stories Test, which assesses the ability to interpret a nonliteral statement. Compared to normal controls, both groups had greater difficulty providing contextually appropriate mental state answers, with the autistic group having the…

Outlines how levels of the interpretation of reality and categories of a naive theory of action that constitute these levels are differentiated and coordinated in a specific developmental sequence. Subsumed within this theoretical framework are the distinction between action on physical objects and social interaction and the distinction between…

Three experiments examined assumption that children attribute human properties to nonhuman agents. Two- to 8-year-olds participated in false-belief tests concerning human and various nonhuman agents, including animals and God, and in a modified perspective-taking task including nonhuman agents. Results suggested that children do not consistently…

The development of two types of interpersonal understanding, reflecting an increasing ability to take others' perspectives, negotiations, and shared experiences, is examined as a basis for classroom assessment of children's interpersonal understanding. A classroom conflict is used to illustrate how knowledge of this development helps teachers to…

The study examined the development of perspective taking skills in 44 learning disabled (LD) and 44 nonLD children (9 to 12 years old). Each child was administered three tasks designed to assess the ability to judge the affective, perceptual, and cognitive perspective of others. Results indicated that LD children scored significantly lower than…

Assesses the extent to which certain key behaviors said to involve perspective-taking (specifically, cognitive and affective perspective-taking, and altruism) were related to friendship as opposed to popularity. (Author/MP)

This study compared children (n=68) with either autism or general delay on false belief tasks and tasks to test for an understanding of interpretive diversity. Findings partially support the view that tasks of understanding interpretive diversity are more difficult than false belief tasks. Between-group differences in the consistency and quality…

Findings suggest that cognitive complexity plays an influential role in the development of children's ability to provide accounts for conversational deviance, as well as their ability to provide alternative strategies for the completion of conversations disrupted by improper turn-taking. Social perspective-taking and communication adaptation…

In this article, the authors state that liberal education depends upon--presupposes--unfettered thought, inquiry, and expression. This is necessary not only for the production of knowledge but also for the preparation of citizens in a diverse democracy. A vital campus is one where ideas meet, mix, conflict, engage, and emerge changed by the…