Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind / Edition 1

by Simon Baron-Cohen, Leda Cosmides, John Tooby

Overview

In Mindblindness, Simon Baron-Cohen presents a model of the evolution and development of "mindreading." He argues that we mindread all the time, effortlessly, automatically, and mostly unconsciously. It is the natural way in which we interpret, predict, and participate in social behavior and communication. We ascribe mental states to people: states such as thoughts, desires, knowledge, and intentions.

Building on many years of research, Baron-Cohen concludes that children with autism, suffer from "mindblindness" as a result of a selective impairment in mindreading. For these children, the world is essentially devoid of mental things.

Baron-Cohen develops a theory that draws on data from comparative psychology, from developmental, and from neuropsychology. He argues that specific neurocognitive mechanisms have evolved that allow us to mindread, to make sense of actions, to interpret gazes as meaningful, and to decode "the language of the eyes."

A Bradford Book

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262522250
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	01/22/1997
Series:	Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	198
Sales rank:	388,158
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.42(d)
Age Range:	18 Years