Performance of autistic and control subjects on three cognitive perspective-taking tasks.

One explanation for the persistent social disabilities of individuals with autism is based on the nature of social stimuli, being transient, complex and very difficult to predict. It was suggested that autistic people's performance on cognitive perspective-taking tasks (a measure of understanding of other people) would be enhanced with increased predictability and reduced transience of stimulus materials. Thus autistic and control subjects were tested on Baron-Cohen, Leslie, and Frith's (1985) "Sally/Anne" task and on two other perspective-taking tasks that involved more predictable interactions and nontransient cues. Autistic subjects differed significantly from the control subjects in their ability to perform Baron-Cohen's task but not the other tasks. As well the autistic subjects performed significantly differently on the two types of tasks. Failure of the autistic subjects on the Sally/Anne task with their concurrent success on the other tasks can best be attributed to the nontransient nature of the stimuli used and the predictability of the protagonists' reactions in the two tasks on which they succeeded.