Theory of mind AO3

• -Reliance on false belief task to test the theory. Bloom and German suggest that false belief tasks require other cognitive abilities (eg visual memory) as well as ToM, so failure may be due to a memory deficit and not ToM. Furthermore, children who cannot perform well on false belief tasks still enjoy pretend-play, which requires a ToM. This means that false belief tasks may not really measure ToM, meaning ToM lacks evidence.
• -Difficult to distinguish ToM from perspective-taking. Perspective-taking and ToM are different cognitive abilities. It can be very difficult to be sure we are measuring one and not the other. In intentional reasoning tasks a child might be visualising the beads task from the adult perspective rather than expressing a conscious understanding of their intention. This means that tasks designed to measure ToM may actually measure perspective-taking.
• +Application to understanding ASD. People with ASD find ToM tests difficult which shows they do have problems understanding what others think. This in turn explains why people with ASD find social interaction difficult - because they don't pick up cues for what others are thinking and feeling. This means that ToM research has real-world relevance.
• +-ToM does not provide a complete explanation for ASD. Not everyone with ASD experiences ToM problems, and ToM problems are not limited to people with ASD (Tager-Flusberg). This means that there must be other factors that are involved in ASD, and the association between ASD and ToM is not as strong as first believed.
• Nature v Nurture

  Perner suggests that ToM develops alongside other cognitive abilities, largely as a result of maturity. Research shows same development of ToM cross-culturally (Liu). Astington suggests ToM develops from interactions with others, supported by Liu who also found that ToM appeared at different ages in different cultures. This means that the rate of development is modified by the social environment - nature and nurture.