Recognition of Faux Pas by Normally Developing Children & Children with Asperger's Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism

by Simon Baron-Cohen, Michelle O’Riordan, Valerie Stone, Rosie Jones and Kate Plaisted. (1999). Jr. Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29, 407-418.

“Most theory of mind (ToM) tests are designed for subjects with a mental age of 4-6 years. There are very few ToM tests for subjects who are older or more able than this. We report a new test of ToM, designed for children 7-11 years old. The task involves recognising faux pas.”

“Results indicated that whereas normal 9-to 11-year old children were skilled at detecting faux pas, children with AS or HFA were impaired on this task.”

“Some patients with AS or HFA were able to recognise faux pas but still produced them.” (p. 407)

“The children were given 1 point for each faux pas they identified correctly. To detect a faux pas the child had to answer all the questions correctly, that is, identify that someone had said something that they should not have, identify what it was that they should not have said, or some approximation of it, answer a comprehension question, and recognise that the faux pas was a consequence of a false belief.”

“We have recently applied an adult version of this test to patients with orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala lesions, and demonstrated similar impairments to those reported in the patients with Asperger Syndrome.” (p. 415).