Linking theory of mind and central coherence bias in autism and in the general population

Three experiments investigated whether 2 characteristic aspects of the psyc hological profile of autism, theory-of-mind deficits and weak central coher ence, might be functionally related. Experiment 1 showed that in the genera l population, performance on a proposed test of theory of mind was inversel y related to speed on the Embedded Figures Test, a measure of central coher ence bias. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed that poor theory-of-mind performan ce was linked to weak central coherence among typically developing children and among children with autism; however, the correlations between these me asures were reliable only after accounting for differences in individuals' verbal mental ages. This pattern of results is interpreted in terms of a re lationship between individual differences in theory of mind and central coh erence bias, a relationship that is separate from any developmental differe nces in these domains.