Purpose: This study examined the impact of bilingualism on affective theory of mind (ToM) and social prioritization (SP) among autistic adults compared to neurotypical comparison participants. Method: Fifty-two (25 autistic, 27 neurotypical) adult participants (ages 21-35 years) with varying second language (L2) experience, ranging from…

Reports of cybercrime being committed by people on the autism spectrum often imply that autism may be more prevalent among cybercriminals than the general population, although this remains unproven. In an online survey of 302 participants, we found that autistic individuals (n = 25) were more likely to report engagement in cybercrime than…

Learning to write is a complex process involving linguistic, cognitive, and socio-emotional factors. From a developmental perspective, little research has explored the content of young children's writings in terms of specific cognitive skills such as Theory of Mind (TOM). This study explores how young children's writing may foster representations…

Theory-of-mind (ToM) is an integral part of social cognition, but how it develops remains a critical question. There is evidence that children can gain insight into ToM through experience, including language training and explanatory interactions. But this still leaves open the question of "how" children gain these insights--what…

We examined theory of mind (ToM; mental state understanding) and language in children with epilepsy (EP; n = 10; mean age = 9.92, SD = 2.34) and with typical development (TD; n = 20; mean age = 10.05, SD = 2.08). The EP group demonstrated worse ToM compared to the TD group (t(28) = -1.11, p = 0.28, d = 0.44) but differences did not persist when…

The Integrated self-categorization model of autism (ISCA) argues that a self-categorization dysfunction could be the link between some of the disparate features of ASD. To the extent that this is true, any social psychological phenomena arising from self-categorization should be impaired in autistic people. Based on this premise, we investigated…

There is a need for increased understanding of self-report measures for autistic individuals. In this preliminary study, we examine how a theory of mind self-report relates to other self-report measures for groups of autistic and neurotypical individuals, as well as eye tracking outcomes. Expected patterns of relatedness emerged between…

When do children acquire a meta-representational Theory of Mind? False Belief (FB) tasks have become the litmus test to answer this question. In such tasks, subjects must ascribe a non-veridical belief to another agent and predict/explain her actions accordingly. Empirically, children pass explicit verbal versions of FB tasks from around age 4.…

This study examined the relationship between mental state term use in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children engaged in play. Expression of mental state terms was used as an indicator of theory of mind (ToM) skills. Archived data were used to compare mental state term use for five ASD-TD dyads engaged…

This study examined the link between classroom ethnic diversity, cross-ethnic friendships, and children's theory of mind. In total, 730 children in the United Kingdom (54.7% girls, 51.5% White) aged 8 to 13 years completed measures of theory of mind in 2019/2020. Controlling for verbal ability, executive function, peer social preference, and…

This study assessed children's (N = 236) ability to introspect the mental states of "seeing" and "knowing" relative to their ability to attribute each state to others. Children could introspect "seeing" 10 months before they could introspect "knowing." Two- and 3-year-olds correctly reported their own…

Research Findings: The Children's Social Understanding Scale (CSUS) assesses young children's theory of mind (ToM). The current study adapted the parent version of the CSUS-short form to Turkish and examined its utility, for the first time, as an assessment tool for teachers. The associations of parent and teacher reports of the CSUS-short form…

The authors share the results of a research project involving the use of mathematics to develop students' Numeracy General Capabilities. The current article delves into an example of a teacher supporting 'good habits of mind' through focussing on the Critical Learning Disposition of accuracy.

This study describes the development and psychometric evaluation of a new self-report measure of social cognition: the Theory of Mind Inventory:Self-Report--Adult (ToMI:SR-Adult). Adults with autism (or a suspicion of autism; n = 111) and typically developing adults (n = 109) completed a demographic questionnaire and the ToMI:SR-Adult online. Both…

Substantial research indicates that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulties with Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities, but rarely have studies used a comprehensive battery to measure both the cognitive and affective aspects of ToM. The present study tested this ability in 24 Greek-speaking children with ASD (ages 7-14), and…