The relationship between theory of mind, language, and executive function in children with autism spectrum disorder

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26381311
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Special needs education
• Research Institution: Tokyo Gakugei University
• Principal Investigator: Fujino Hiroshi 東京学芸大学, 教育学部, 教授 (00248270)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): Matsui TOMOKO 東京学芸大学, 国際教育センター, 教授 (20296792) ; MORIWAKI Aiko 東京学芸大学, 障がい学生支援室, 講師 (50573557)
• Research Collaborator: HAKARINO Koichiro 武蔵野東教育センター, 所長
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 自閉症スペクトラム障害 / 心の理論 / 言語 / 実行機能 / 発達

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the first study, we investigated the relationship among theory of mind, language and executive function in school-aged children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It was found that a significant predictor of passing was verbal age for the ‘Sally-Anne’ type false-belief task, and the planning score for the ‘Smarties’ type task and the second order false-belief task. These findings suggest that theory of mind at a higher level requires executive function. In the second study, we investigated the effect of verbal proposition cues related to the basic principle of false-belief. The ‘seeing leads to knowing’ principle was provided verbally before the belief question. It was found that verbal proposition cues facilitate false-belief reasoning in ASD children with a verbal age of 10 years who can understand the false-belief principle and generalize from it.

Free Research Field

社会科学