The Sally-Anne (Marble) Experiment

Has anyone heard of this? I found it in a book called "Autism" by Uta Frith

Supposedly "normal" children get the answer right, even children who are mildly retarded, but most people with autism get it wrong.

Here is is:

This is Sally.

This is Anne.

Sally has a basket.

Anne has a box.

Sally has a marble. She puts the marble into her basket.

Sally goes out for a walk.

Anne takes the marble out of the basket and puts it into the box.

Now Sally comes back. She wants to play with her marble.

Where will Sally look for her marble?

My answer would be "Sally's Basket". But I suppose the "autistic answer" would be "Annes Box"?

Panic

You are correct.

Not surprised. I suppose it is theory that Autistics lack "common sense". But I believe this could be debated.

Interesting question though. Some people just don't think as such. I can bet that many people without Autistic traits wouldn't get the answer. It really all depends.

Panic

It's about TOM, theory of mind, and the idea that people with autism will guess an answer based on what they know, rather than on what they assume Sally knows. Supposedly, not having a 'theory of mind,' the person with autism can't imagine seeing it from Sally's perspective, only their own.

Blah.

rider waite, I have a deck of tarot cards with that same name.

They are not my favorite, becuase there doesn't seem to be any written work out there describing their symbolism very well. Waite's own book explaining their symbolism is very short and cryptic.

The Haindl cards are very nice looking and they have runes, hebrew letters, and astrological symbols on them. The Marsailles cards look a bit like regular playing cards, but they are supposedly the oldest deck. There are a lot of interesting books written about their symbols.

hmm the first thought in my mind was annes basket but i thought about it and realized that was wrong,i wonder if id of got to the same conclusion if i didnt know the question would be concerning aspergers,give us another test if you find any.

I like tarot cards too; they're interesting, all the different decks and the symbols used.

Does this "test" depend on age? My 3 year old would probably get the answer wrong, but isn't remotely autistic. My son, on the other hand, who's 8 would probably get the problem right if he had visual prompts, but would miss it if he was expected to respond by just listening.