Abstract: There is an increasing concern about the research of adults’ theory of mind since the 1990s’. For the differences between adults’ and children’s theory of mind in developmental pattern and level, advanced theory of mind tasks have been widely used. However, the validity of various research paradigms has been questioned. The trend that the theory of mind of normal adults descends along with individual aging has been verified by most researches , thus closer attention has been paid to the development of special adults’ theory of mind. Moreover, adults’ theory of mind and executive function, language, social capacity are closely related. In addition to improving the validity of adults’ theory of mind tasks, future researchers need to expand the age range, emphasize on the practical value of studies on special adults’ theory of mind and widen research fields from the views of intervening and curing.

Key words: adults’ theory of mind, mental state, special adults, executive function