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Apr5
Joint Attention and the Sally-Anne Test
11 CommentsI really enjoyed reading all the responses to my post about the Sally-Anne test. Your comments helped me see a variety of reasons that a child might give one answer or another—reasons that have nothing to do with Theory of Mind (ToM) ability.
I began thinking more about the subject when I came upon an interesting post about joint attention on Quirky Mom’s blog. Her post reinforces my sense that the Sally-Anne test is measuring sensory processing differences, at least in some cases.
To quote Quirky Mom:
“Joint attention is what happens when two people look at something together, each aware of their shared attention on some object. This is a critical social skill that has its foundations in infancy, and it is a skill that is commonly impaired in children and adults with autism spectrum disorders. The ability to follow an adult’s gaze often emerges as early as 6 months in a typically developing child.”
Quirky Mom has been looking at her daughter Apple’s issues with joint attention. When Quirky Mom gazes in the direction of a particular object, and asks Apple the location of that object, Apple does not take any cues from her mother’s gaze. Instead, she looks all around the room for the object. When Quirky Mom describes the object and its location, Apple has no trouble taking the verbal cue and finding the object.
I had never thought about this subject before. I don’t think that I follow another person’s gaze very well at all. I’m too busy orienting myself in space and keeping track of what’s around me. If someone actually points at an object they want me to see, I have no trouble following that cue. It’s as though the person’s pointing finger creates a path through the maze of visual input that lies between me and the object. I can then navigate that path without any trouble
The key question in the Sally-Anne test is “Where will Sally look for the marble?” If you ask that question of a child who does not follow another person’s gaze, and who is used to looking all around to find something, it’s perfectly reasonable for that child to assume that Sally would do the same. When the child says that Sally will think the marble is in the box, it’s a reflection of how that child seeks out objects. It has nothing to do with whether the child understands that people do not always share the same bank of knowledge.
Thanks for posting about this subject, Quirky Mom. I’ll look forward to hearing more.
© 2009 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg
11 Responses to “Joint Attention and the Sally-Anne Test”
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John Dale Lyons April 6th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Why don’t those researchers actually ask us what we think (and how we think)? We’re autistic, but we’re not retards.
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You mean they should use their words and communicate directly with us? You’re SUCH an Aspie.
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Oy. You both sound like my husband. This NT woman feels positively skewered by demands for direct communication.
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Skewered? Why, Erin, I have no idea what you mean. Could you be more direct?
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I know my partner feels the same sometimes, Erin. oy, indeed. at least I don’t feel guilty about it anymore, but i d sometimes cut him some slack
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Huh, this is a twist on my post that I hadn’t expected. This is really fascinating.
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Ben, well I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one. I don’t think any party should feel guilty. It’s interesting how different people think and communicate so differently. Wouldn’t life be boring if we all were the same? I used to tell my husband to stop treating me like an experiment he was trying to dissect under a microscope. He likes to tease me by telling me to use my words and not my psychic sense (which is really non-verbal communication – I’m no psychic!). We’ve learned to cut each other some slack over the years too.
Rachel – skew·er (skyr) n.
1. A long metal or wooden pin used to secure or suspend food during cooking;
Synonyms: lance, impale. A less violent analogy would be…feeling like a deer in the headlights, or a mouse immobilized under the gaze of a hawk. How’s that? Quirky Mom, I’m sorry for hijacking your excellent post. Your Apple sounds like my Anna.
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So, Erin, let me get this straight…You’re feeling, like, uncomfortable by demands for direct communication? I mean, all the visuals you’ve provided just seem so, well, ambiguous to me… Maybe if you threw in some non-verbal…no, that wouldn’t work…
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Stop! Stop skewering me! Seriously, I needed that laugh tonight, Rachel. Oy.
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Me too! Thanks.
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Erin: i think my partner would definitely stay with the skewering analogy, though you are right that deer in the headlights is less….evocative, and still very accurately describes what we do to normal people sometimes.
should we start a list of humorous ways our partners deal with our eccentricities? Rachel, you don’t like lists, i know, but….
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