INFORMATION

Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos del Principado de Asturias).
We currently publish four issues per year, which accounts for some 100 articles annually. We admit work from both the basic and applied research fields, and from all areas of Psychology, all manuscripts being anonymously reviewed prior to publication.

PSICOTHEMA
  • Director: Laura E. Gómez Sánchez
  • Frequency:
         February | May | August | November
  • ISSN: 0214-9915
  • Digital Edition:: 1886-144X
CONTACT US
  • Address: Ildelfonso Sánchez del Río, 4, 1º B
    33001 Oviedo (Spain)
  • Phone: 985 285 778
  • Fax: 985 281 374
  • Email:psicothema@cop.es

Psicothema, 2012. Vol. Vol. 24 (nº 4). 542-547




Teoría de la Mente en un caso de autismo: ¿cómo entrenarla?

María Jesús Martín García1, Inmaculada Gómez Becerra2 y María José Garro Espín3

1 Centro de Psicología MG,
2 Universidad de Almería y
3 COI-Autismo

La Teoría de la Mente es una habilidad metacognitiva que en muchos casos se supone deficitaria en el autismo. Se presenta un estudio clínico con un niño diagnosticado de autismo, en el que se comprueba la efectividad de un protocolo de entrenamiento de las pruebas de falsas creencias, que se considera miden la Teoría de la Mente. Básicamente, el protocolo incorpora una serie de ayudas verbales (como enfatizar los elementos de las narraciones que indican cambios situacionales o temporales), se entrenan múltiples ejemplos, se amplían las pruebas incorporando objetos o juegos más cercanos a la vida cotidiana del niño, se aplican consecuencias diferenciales que permitan discriminar lo correcto de lo incorrecto y se proporciona feedback descriptivo. Los resultados reflejan cómo el protocolo de entrenamiento consigue el máximo nivel de correctos en las pruebas y el niño generaliza la habilidad de tomar perspectiva a su contexto natural.

Theory of Mind in a child with autism: How to train her? Theory of Mind is a metacognitive skill that, in many cases, is deficient in autism. In this paper, we present a clinical study conducted with a child diagnosed with autism, which verifies the effectiveness of a training protocol testing false beliefs, which has been considered to measure the Theory of Mind. Basically, the protocol incorporates a number of verbal prompts (such as emphasizing the elements of the narratives that indicate situational or temporary changes), trains many examples, extending the tests incorporating some games with more familiar objects from the child’s daily life, applies differential contingencies to discriminate right from wrong in each child’s responses and provides descriptive feedback. The results show that the training protocol achieved the highest level of correct trials and the child generalizes the ability to take the perspective of her natural context.

PDF

Impact factor 2022:  JCR WOS 2022:  FI = 3.6 (Q2);  JCI = 1.21 (Q1) / SCOPUS 2022:  SJR = 1.097;  CiteScore = 6.4 (Q1)