Both traditionally and currently, autism has been defined in terms of a ‘triad of impairments’, namely, social relationships/behaviour, language/communication and stereotyped/repetitive behaviour.
A challenge faced by researchers is trying to explain how one syndrome (now referred to as autistic spectrum disorder/ASD) can lead to this triad of impairments. One study that provided a partial explanation is that of Baron-Cohen et al. (1997). This was designed to meet criticism of an earlier study, the ‘Sally-Anne marbles’ experiment (Baron-Cohen et al. 1985), which claimed to have supported the theory of mind (ToM) hypothesis but was not suitable as a test of adult ToM. See Box 1.
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