Investigating visual perspective taking and belief reasoning in autistic adults: A pre-registered online study.
Rachel Lara Green, Sarah Joanne Carrington, Daniel Joel Shaw and 1 others
PMID 39533155WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults were not slower or less accurate than non-autistic adults when reasoning about others' beliefs.
They showed a steeper slowdown when switching visual perspectives but made fewer errors when ignoring irrelevant beliefs. This points to differences in self-other control, not mentalizing deficits.
Key findings
01There was no significant difference in overall reaction times or error rates between autistic and non-autistic groups for belief reasoning tasks.
02Autistic adults made fewer errors than non-autistic adults when asked to judge what a character sees, even if the character held a false belief about the object.
03Autistic adults showed a significantly larger increase in reaction times when the visual perspective changed from 0 to 90 degrees compared to non-autistic adults.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Participants were recruited online via Prolific and self-reported their autism diagnosis; while AQ scores were used to screen, diagnoses were not clinically verified. The study did not involve autism community members in its design or interpretation. Socioeconomic status and educational attainment were not recorded, which could influence performance on cognitive tasks. The sample was limited to adults aged 18-40 with typical intelligence, so findings may not generalize to children, adolescents, or those with intellectual disabilities.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by Aston University.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that autistic adults have a general deficit in social cognition or Theory of Mind. The study found no significant difference in belief reasoning performance between groups, and autistic participants actually made fewer errors in specific conditions. The observed differences in reaction time during perspective shifts reflect processing style and self-other control, not an inability to understand others' minds.