Baron-Cohen's (1997) research on autism and mindblindness is most known for its reliance on the Sally-Anne test (p. 70). This experiment, initially described by Baron-Cohen, Alan M Leslie, and Uta Frith in 1985, involved children with autism, Down Syndrome, and neurotypicality. In the test, two dolls (Sally and Anne) each have a basket. A marble is placed in Sally's basket while both dolls are in the room. Sally leaves, and then Anne moves the marble into her own basket. The children tested were then asked the following question: when Sally returns, where will she look for the marble (Baron-Cohen, et al., 1985, p. 42)?

According to the authors' results, 20% of autistic children, as compared to 86% percent of Down Syndrome and 85% of neurotypical children, chose the correct answer: Sally will check her own basket for the marble (p. 42). Overwhelmingly, autistic children claim that Sally will look in Anne's basket. To Baron-Cohen and other autism practitioners—doctors, teachers, researchers—autistics cannot deduce the intentions of others.

Many autistic bloggers have rejected the connections between mindblind theories of autism and the Sally-Anne test. The Autistic Bitch from Hell (2007) claimed that the Sally-Anne test doesn't signal an autistic mindblindness: rather, she argued that researchers should take speech-processing differences into account, the potentially limitless autistic interpretations of the word "look."