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Updated: Jun 21, 2026
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Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Published on: April 22, 2015
Visual perspective taking impairment in children with autistic spectrum disorder
Antonia F de C Hamilton1, Rachel Brindley, Uta Frith
1School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, Notts NG7 2RD, United Kingdom. antonia.hamilton@nottingham.ac.uk
Cognition
|August 18, 2009
Summary
Children with autism struggle with level 2 visual perspective taking, a key mentalizing skill. This study confirms it
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
Background:
- Level 2 visual perspective taking involves understanding differing viewpoints.
- Autistic children often show deficits in mentalizing tasks, but prior research on visual perspective taking is inconsistent.
- This study addresses the inconclusive evidence regarding visual perspective taking in autism.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether level 2 visual perspective taking is impaired in autistic children.
- To clarify the relationship between visual perspective taking and mentalizing abilities in autism.
- To resolve discrepancies in previous findings on this topic.
Main Methods:
- A level 2 visual perspective taking task was administered to 23 autistic children (mean age 8 years) and 60 typically developing children (ages 4-8).
- A matched mental rotation task was used as a control.
- Performance was compared between groups and correlated with theory of mind measures.
Main Results:
- Autistic children demonstrated significant difficulties with level 2 visual perspective taking compared to a mental rotation task.
- Performance on visual perspective taking correlated with theory of mind abilities.
- Findings suggest level 2 visual perspective taking is indeed a mentalizing task.
Conclusions:
- Level 2 visual perspective taking is a mentalizing task, as evidenced by autistic children's performance deficits.
- This study resolves prior inconsistencies in the literature regarding visual perspective taking in autism.
- Impaired visual perspective taking in autism is linked to broader difficulties with understanding others' mental states.
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