Assessing Advanced Theory of Mind in Children and Adolescents with High-Functioning Autism: The Spanish Version of the Stories of Everyday Life.

Most individuals with autism spectrum disorders often fail in tasks of theory of mind (ToM). However, those with normal intellectual functioning known as high functioning ASD (HF-ASD) sometimes succeed in mentalizing inferences. Some tools have been developed to more accurately test their ToM abilities.

Performance of children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism on advanced theory of mind tasks.

Although a number of advanced theory of mind tasks have been developed, there is a dearth of information on whether performances on different tasks are associated. The present study examined the performance of 21 children and adolescents with diagnoses of Asperger syndrome (AS) and 20 typically developing controls on three advanced theory of mind tasks: The Eyes Task, the Strange Stories, and the Stories from Everyday Life. The participants in the clinical group demonstrated lower performance than the controls on all the three tasks.

Brief report: cognitive flexibility and focused attention in children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism as measured on the computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

The aim of the present study was to assess mental flexibility and set maintenance of a group of individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA) (N = 13; mean age 16,4), as compared with a matched group of typically developing children and adolescents (N = 13; mean age 15,6) on the computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The participants in the AS/HFA group performed less well than the controls on all categories of the WCST, but the differences did not reach conventional statistical significance on most categories of the WCST. On the category failure to maintain set, however, the AS/HFA participants performed significantly less well than the controls, suggesting a deficit of focused attention.

Disembedding performance in children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism.

The aim of the present study was to assess the findings, reported in earlier studies, that individuals with autism spectrum disorders process visuo-spatial tasks faster than typically developing control persons. The participants in the present study were children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome (AS) or high-functioning autism (HFA) (N = 13), and a matched group of typically developing children and adolescents (N = 13). The results showed that the participants in the clinical group performed marginally less well than those in the control group on both the Block Design Test and the Embedded Figures Test, but the differences were not statistically significant.

Response times of children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome on an 'advanced' test of theory of mind.

In the present study the response times of 10- to 20-year-old participants with Asperger syndrome (AS) (N=21) of normal intelligence and a control group of typically developing individuals (N=20) were recorded on a new 'advanced' test of theory of mind. This test taps the ability to make mental-state inferences versus physical-state inferences in a story context. The participants with AS were significantly slower than the controls on both tasks.

The Strange Stories test--a replication study of children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome.

The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of 21 children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome (AS) of normal intelligence to infer mental states in a story context using Happe's Strange Stories test. The participants in the AS group were compared with an age-matched control group (N=20) of normally developing children and adolescents on a test of social understanding. The test material comprised social communication such as Pretence, Joke, Lie, White Lie, Figure of Speech, Misunderstanding, Persuasion, Irony, Double Bluff and Contrary Emotions, Appearance/Reality and Forgetting.

A new 'advanced' test of theory of mind: evidence from children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome.

Background: The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome (AS) (N = 21) to infer physical versus mental states on a new 'advanced' test of theory-of-mind - Stories from Everyday Life. The participants in the AS group were of normal intelligence and were compared with an age-matched control group (N = 20) of normally developing children and adolescents.

Method: The test materials comprised 26 short stories or 13 pairs of different types of stories.