1. Identifying Autism: From Discrete Entity to Multidimensional Spectrum.

Early conceptions: the ‘autistic child’.

From discrete entity to spectrum of related conditions.

Diagnostic systems and instruments.

Dimensions versus entities: ‘lumping’ versus ‘splitting’.

Early detection.

Conclusion.

2. Understanding Other Minds: Cognitive Approaches.

Understanding false belief: a specific mental module?

Understanding minds: a specific process or something else?

Provisional conclusions.

3. Understanding Other People: Emotion and Interaction.

Appraisal of emotion in others.

Understanding the directedness of behaviour.

Understanding others in autism: final conclusions.

4. Beyond Social Impairment: Difficulties with Executive Functions.

Implications of the executive dysfunction account for our understanding of ASD.

Conclusion.

5. Building a Coherent Picture of the World.

Alternative explanations of WCC phenomena.

Conclusion.

6. Attention and Perception.

Attention.

Accounting for attentional difficulties.

Conclusion.

7. Specific Aspects of Understanding: Faces, Concepts and Memory.

Face processing.

Concept formation.

Memory.

Conclusion.

8. Psychology, Autism and the Brain.

Studies of brain size and structure.

Lesion-based models of autistic behaviour.

Theories of global brain dysfunction.

Brain impairments inferred from more basic psychological processes.

Conclusion.

9. Development.

Assumptions about development in ASD: psychometrics, matching and developmental delay.

Developmental trajectories in ASD.

Developmental change in two psychological domains: theory of mind and executive functions.

Developmental theory and ASD.

Conclusion.

10. Whence and Whither: Glimpses of the Tapestry, Paths Through the Jungle.

How far have we really come?

Stepping back to move forward? Emerging themes.

Final thoughts.

References.

Index.