Peterson C C, Siegal M
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1995 Mar;36(3):459-74. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1995.tb01303.x.
The child's developing theory of the mind as an interconnected network of beliefs, desires and feelings that govern behaviour provides a cornerstone for social and intellectual life. Recent research has suggested that autistic children have difficulty acquiring such a theory. Although it is speculated that a specific neurological deficit may be responsible for autistic children's difficulties on false belief tasks devised to test a theory of mind, these may also be due to a lack of exposure to conversation about mental states. In this study we explored the development of a theory of mind in a group of 26 signing, prelingually-deaf Australian children of normal intelligence, aged 8-13 years. Results revealed that 65% of these deaf children failed a simple test of false belief which normal preschoolers, mentally retarded children, and other handicapped groups--apart from children with autism--routinely pass at a mental age of 4-5 years. No significant difference emerged between deaf children's performance and that of autistic children tested on the same task in previous research. We discuss the results in terms of a conversational account of the development of a theory of mind in deaf children, and the extent to which this account is applicable to children with autism.
儿童将心智发展为一个由信念、欲望和情感构成的相互关联的网络，用以支配行为，这为社会和智力生活奠定了基石。近期研究表明，自闭症儿童在获取这样一种心智理论方面存在困难。尽管有人推测，特定的神经缺陷可能是自闭症儿童在为测试心智理论而设计的错误信念任务中表现不佳的原因，但这也可能是由于缺乏关于心理状态的对话交流。在本研究中，我们对一组26名有手语能力、智力正常、年龄在8至13岁的澳大利亚先天性失聪儿童的心智理论发展情况进行了探究。结果显示，这些失聪儿童中有65%未能通过一项简单的错误信念测试，而正常的学龄前儿童、智力发育迟缓儿童以及其他残疾群体（自闭症儿童除外）在4至5岁的心理年龄时通常都能通过该测试。在之前的研究中，对相同任务进行测试时，失聪儿童的表现与自闭症儿童的表现之间没有显著差异。我们从关于失聪儿童心智理论发展的对话解释角度讨论了这些结果，以及这一解释在多大程度上适用于自闭症儿童。
