Empathic accuracy in adults with a pervasive developmental disorder during an unstructured conversation with a typically developing stranger.

The present paper consists of two parts. In the first part, eleven high-functioning adults with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) participated and were videotaped with a concealed camera while having an initial conversation with a typically developing stranger. Analyses revealed some significant differences with regard to the dyad members' overt behaviours. Contrary to our main hypothesis, analyses of the covert behaviour revealed that the participants with PDD did not differ from the typically developing participants in the ability to infer the thoughts and feelings of their interaction partner. The second part indicated that the inference ability of both groups was independent of the dyad members' behavioural characteristics and the content of the dyad members' thoughts and feelings. Issues addressed in this paper include the relation of scriptal knowledge to social functioning, and the advantage participants with PDD take from more structured interactions compared with less structured interactions.