Definition
A multitude of theories have attempted to explain certain cognitive characteristics of autism. Although adherents of some of these theories (such as theory of mind) may once have contended that their particular theory could fully explain autism, it is generally considered nowadays that an explanation of autism requires a synthesis of theory. Three theories – theory of mind, executive (dys)functioning, and central coherence – assume a special place in the pantheon of cognitive autism theory. In the limited space available, we provide a brief introduction to these three “mainstream” theories together with various other “alternative” theories including the single attention/monotropism hypothesis of Murray et al. (2005) which, arguably, explains more characteristics of autism than any other theory.
More than 70 years after Asperger and Kanner first wrote about autism, there is still no definitive autism theory. We doubt there will ever be a full theoretical explanation of any...
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Chown, N., Beardon, L. (2017). Autism Theory. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102224-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102224-1
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