**5.2. Theory of mind**

112 Current Topics in Children's Learning and Cognition

accumulate as more data is being collected.

mind (i.e., the understanding of others' intentions).

**5. Social reasoning** 

**5.1. Joint attention** 

Ozonoff, 1997), the generation of novel ideas (Turner, 1999), and self-monitoring (e.g.,

However, there are findings that undermine a straightforward ASD theory surrounding EF differences. For example, participants with ASD do not have more difficulty with the Stroop task than control participants (e.g., Ozonoff & Jensen, 1999; Eskes, Bryson, & McCormick, 1990): participants with ASD were found to show a typical slowing in reaction time when naming the ink of a word that spells a different color. Similarly, context effects were found with planning task that involves keeping in mind a certain set of rules to produce an outcome (e.g., Tower of Hanoi task, Stockings of Cambridge task). ASD performance was equivalent to typically developing performance on trials with only a small number of required steps for completion. Performance only differentiated between groups on longer, more complex trials. Further, performance appeared modulated by each individual child's

It appears that a claim about EF differences between typical development and ASD is not supported in all instances (for further review, see Hill, 2004). Performance seems instead dependent on specifics of the tasks and individual differences among children. Of course, it is always possible to interpret discrepant results consistent with a reductionist viewpoint. For example, one could argue that EF differences between typical and atypical development are most pronounced in so-called "hot" EF task, those that involve an emotional component (cf., Hongwanishkul, Happaney, Lee, & Zelazo, 2005). The differences might disappear in "cool" EF tasks, those that lack immediate rewards. These claims, though plausibly incorporating currently existing data, might not be able to capture context effects likely to

Adaptive functioning includes social reasoning, or a child's ability to engage in social interactions. ASD is characterized by major difficulties in this domain, ranging from attending to irrelevant features of social situations (e.g., Dawson, Meltzoff, Osterling, Rinaldi, & Brown, 1998; Klin, Jones, Schultz, Volkmar & Cohen 2002), giving atypical responses to social cues (e.g., Kjelgaard & Tager-Flusberg, 2001; Mottron, 2004; Mundy, Sigman & Kasari, 1990; Parish-Morris et al., 2007; Sigman & Ruskin, 1999; Stone, Ousley, Yoder, Hogan, & Hepburn 1997), having difficulty understanding the intentions of others (e.g., Baron-Cohen, 1995; Preissler & Carey, 2005; Warreyn, Roeyers, Oelbrandt, & De Groote 2005), and poor imitation skills (e.g., Hobson & Lee, 1999; Loveland, Tunali-Kotoski, Pearson, Brelsford, Ortegon, & Chen 1994). Here we describe findings for two of these areas, namely joint attention (i.e., the act of sharing another's attentional focus) and of theory of

The ability to share somebody else's focus of attention, known as joint attention, is critical for successful social interactions, setting up a context in which a child can learn from others.

Hughes, 1996; Phillips, Baron-Cohen, & Rutter 1998; Russell & Jarrold, 1998, 1999).

nonverbal IQ, rather than symptomology (Hughes, Russell, & Robbins, 1994).

Another aspect of social reasoning is the ability to understand someone else's mental state, including their desires, motivation or beliefs. This kind of understanding is coined as theory of mind, with numerous studies investigating it and its development (Perner, 1991; Wellman, 1990). In a traditional theory of mind task, children are presented with two hiding

locations, a basket and a box and two dolls, Sally and Anne. The story involves Sally placing a marble in a basket, which is then moved into the box by Anne – without Sally being present. The critical task is to determine the location where Sally would search for her marble upon her return. If children understand Sally's mental state, they should pick the basket, because that is the marble's location known to Sally. If, on the other hand, children go by their own beliefs, they should pick the box, because they know that Anne has moved the marble into the box.

Beyond the Black-and-White of Autism: How Cognitive Performance Varies with Context 115

Shattuck, & Greenberg, 2004). In addition to this high prevalence of the disorder, there is a high heterogeneity, high co-morbidity, and the possibility of several subgroups of ASD. Together, these factors make it imperative to better understand the disorder and develop effective interventions. However, as more research accumulates, so do inconsistent findings and unexpected differences in patterns of performance on tasks that were designed to

In the current chapter, we have reviewed some context effects taken from the domains of perception, learning, executive functioning, and social reasoning. On the one hand, while there are robust differences in performance in all of these domains, these differences can disappear under certain task contexts – rendering them less robust than initially thought. Specifically, while ASD is characterized by a focus on local details (vs. on an overall Gestalt), by difficulty with implicit learning, executive functioning, and social reasoning, these differences disappear as the variability in tasks increases. It is plausible that more context effects accumulate as ASD research expands in cognitive development, further exasperated

Context effects are nothing new in the literature of cognitive development (e.g., Kloos & Van Orden, 2009). A plausible reaction is to dismiss them as isolated instances, leaving an existing hypothesis intact, or refining it to incorporate the context effects. The problem, however, is that both these solutions can only address context effects locally. Yet, context effects are not a local phenomenon. And they are not likely to disappear with more participants, more precise methods, or simply more data. In fact, if research with typically developing participants is any guide for predicting the patterns of findings, context effects are a necessary feature of the enterprise. And with more research we are likely to find more context effects (e.g., see Shanks, Rowland & Ranger, 2005, for a discussion on implicit learning in neuro-typical adults). An expanding of a reductionist theory of ASD to incorporate them all is unlikely to retain its usefulness. Instead, context effects undermine a

Rather than focusing on a binary interpretation of patterns of performance, context effects hint at the possibility of a complex interplay between factors that make a black-and-white approach to understanding performance insufficient. By shifting attention away from searching for a "smoking gun" of ASD, it may be possible to better understand the emergence of how the components are coordinated. It is possible that the coordination among components is compromised in individuals with ASD, reverberating through all areas of functioning, and amplifying itself with development. It gives rise to atypical perception patterns, implicit learning, planning, and social interactions – at least when the immediate task context does not support an adaptive coordination of interdependent components. This approach, while failing to reduce ASD to a single deficit, has important implications for training and teaching strategies. In particular, this approach makes it possible to map out how changes in support of coordination exist in the environment to

measure the same cognitive process or factor.

by a focus on individual children.

reductionist theory altogether.

bring about improved task performance.

Many studies have sought to identify general deficits in theory of mind reasoning in individuals with ASD, as a means of better understanding their social deficits (for reviews see Rajendran & Mitchell, 2007). For example, Baron-Cohen et al. (1985) found that 80% of children with ASD failed the Sally-and-Anne test, compared to only 20% of matched controls. This difference cannot be attributed to general difficulties understanding the task instructions, given that children with ASD were able to answer control questions about the various locations of the marbles. Taken alone, these data appear to highlight a pathology specific impairment to theory of mind reasoning in individuals with ASD.

However, highly variable performance between similar theory of mind tasks has been observed (Grant, Grayson and Boucher, 2001; Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith 1985; Yirmiya, Solomonica-Levi, Shulman & Pilowsky, 1996; Zelazo, Burack, Benedetto, & Frye 1996). Consider, for example, findings with the so-called deceptive-box task, a task in which the content of a box does not match with the label on the box (Grant, Grayson & Boucher, 2001). After being shown the content of the box, participants are asked about what another participant would predict about the contents of the box (without having seen inside the box). To answer accurately, the participant must understand that their knowledge of the contents of the box is not accessible to the other participant. Comparison of performance on the deceptive-box and Sally-and-Anne tasks revealed important differences in ASD: Performance was better on the deceptive-box task than the Sally-and-Anne task, despite the conceptual similarity.

In defense of a reductionist framework for ASD, one could go about dissecting the tasks in order to find the stable factor that could explain ASD. For example, one could argue that the two tasks differ in whether they involve real people (the deceptive box task) or puppets (the Salley-and-Anne task). Variable performance between these tasks may therefore reflect a difference in the perception of behavior associated with living versus inanimate actors. However, this explanation falls apart when the larger body of theory of mind research is considered: The inconsistent findings in theory of mind tasks (for a review, see Rajendran & Mitchell, 2007) to do separate on the fault line of inanimate vs. animate stimuli.
