Customer Reviews

Individual Differences in Theory of Mind: Implications for Typical and Atypical Development (Macquarie Monographs in Cognitive Science)

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This a compendium of papers arising out of a research meeting. The collection provides a good snapshot of empirical research of ToM testing but is less reflective than Understanding Other Minds for instance. This, in my opinion, is the main downside of the collection - little reflection on foundational issues. Perhaps too philosophical?

There many interesting papers but I was particularly caught by the tension between a Tager-Flusberg paper and one by Dissamanyke (spelling may be off). Both papers reach divergent conclusions on a crucial question: is there a relationship between better ToM skills and better social functioning? Working off slightly difference bases, the papers reach opposite conclusions. Tager-Flusberg concludes that better ToM is correlated with social functioning, a result that runs counter to other studies. However, since much of her data is derived from child-parent interactions a question is begged. Provocative stuff and well worth reading.