Rule‐based reasoning and theory of mind in autism: a commentary on the work of Zelazo, Jacques, Burack and Frye

Abstract

AbstractThis commentary is concerned with the work of Zelazo, Jacques, Burack and Frye (2002) and highlights a number of aspects of the Zelazo et al. (2002) study that raise some concern, most notably the small sample size and lack of control groups. The commentary provides details of our own research (Colvert et al., The rule‐based reasoning and theory of mind abilities of children with autism, poster presented at the biennial meeting, Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2001, Rule‐based reasoning and theory of mind in children with autism, submitted), which used a larger sample and a more carefully controlled design to provide a further examination of the possible links between rule‐based reasoning and theory of mind (ToM) in autism. With these key modifications our study also found evidence of a significant link between these two aspects of development for high‐functioning children with autism. It would seem that there is evidence that the ToM abilities of children with autism may not be a separate aspect of development, but may instead be linked to more general developments in embedded reasoning skills; as stated by the Cognitive Complexity and Control theory. However, the current commentary notes that caution is required when drawing such conclusions, as all evidence thus far is correlational in nature. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.