The Sally-Anne False Belief Task

### Introduction

This activity complements the discussion of theory of mind and false belief in Week 4.

The theory of mind explanation of autism proposes that people on the autism spectrum have difficulty understanding other people's thoughts, beliefs, intentions and emotions, and perhaps even their own. They are said to lack a 'theory of mind' (often abbreviated to ToM).

A test of theory of mind is whether someone can understand that another person's belief about a situation can be different from their own, and also from reality - a false belief. A classic version of this test was devised by Simon Baron-Cohen et al. (1985) and is called the Sally-Anne false belief task. In Baron-Cohen's test the child who is being tested sits at a table on which two dolls (Anne and Sally) are positioned facing lidded containers (a box and a basket). The experimenter enacts a scenario with the dolls.

This activity will demonstrate the task using an animation instead of dolls. You will watch as if you were a participant and then consider some key questions about how one of the story characters - Sally - will respond to the situation.
Alternative scenario.