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Grammar and Theory of Mind in Autism

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Formal Models in the Study of Language

Abstract

The ability to attribute mental states to others and to reason on the basis of this knowledge is referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM) and is known to be impaired in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Recent work has identified links between ToM and language skills in this population, and the aim of the current contribution is to explore these links more closely. We report the findings of three studies experimentally investigating the relationship in ASD between (1) first person accusative pronoun mastery and ToM (2) complementation, executive functions and ToM, as well as (3) complementation and ToM when the ToM task is nonverbal. Results show that pronominal mastery correlates with ToM performance; that complementation, unlike EF, correlates with ToM performance; and that the complement-ToM correlation persists even when the ToM task is itself nonverbal. These findings provide novel empirical support for the view that specific grammatical skills, including mastery of sentential complements and pronouns, are closely linked to ToM abilities in ASD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’éducation, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Stephanie Durrleman

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  1. Stephanie Durrleman
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Correspondence to Stephanie Durrleman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Linguistics, University of Geneva, Genève, Geneve, Switzerland

    Joanna Blochowiak

  2. Batiment Landolt, 7th Floor, Univ of Geneva, Dept of Linguistics, Geneva, Switzerland

    Cristina Grisot

  3. Dept. of Psycholinguistics, University of Geneva Dept. of Psycholinguistics, Geneva, Switzerland

    Stephanie Durrleman

  4. Department of Linguistics, University of Geneva, Genève, Geneve, Switzerland

    Christopher Laenzlinger

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Durrleman, S. (2017). Grammar and Theory of Mind in Autism. In: Blochowiak, J., Grisot, C., Durrleman, S., Laenzlinger, C. (eds) Formal Models in the Study of Language. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48832-5_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48832-5_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48831-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48832-5

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