2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Is a new advanced test of theory of mind, Japanese version effective as the auxiliary diagnosis of high functioning autism and Asperger's disorder?

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20530896
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Special needs education
Research Institution	Hyogo University of Health Sciences
Principal Investigator	ITOH Masako 兵庫医療大学, 医療福祉学部, 准教授 (10223182)
Research Collaborator	ISHISAKA Yoshiki 京都桂病院, 精神科医・精神科部長
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	軽度発達障害 / 心の理論 / 言外の意味理解 / コンピューター・ソフトウエア開発 / 評価 / 発達 / 高機能自閉症 / アスペルガー障害
Research Abstract	We newly developed an advanced test of theory of mind, Japanese version, which consists of 10 tasks, to create an objective auxiliary diagnosis method for high-functioning pervasive development disorder(high functioning autism and Asperger's disorder). We investigated the ages at which children can understand the contents of the computer software version in 472 normal elementary school students. White lies were understood at the second grade, and jokes, persuasions and sarcasm were understood at the fourth grade. Examinations of the difference of the passage rates between 8 HFPDD adults and 55 normal adults using the workbook version revealed discrimination effectiveness in 5 out of 10 tasks. Examinations on the relationships between the results of the WISC-III and our test in the HFPDD group suggested that the ability to understand implicit meaning was not associated with intelligence. The results suggest the effectiveness of our test as an objective auxiliary diagnosis method for HFPDD.