ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief review of the literature on theory of mind (ToM) and executive functions (EFs) in autism. It presents the initial findings from a longitudinal investigation that was designed specifically to address the relationship between ToM and EF in autism from a developmental perspective. The ToM hypothesis proposes that autism involves a primary impairment in the ability to understand and use mental states concepts to predict and explain human behavior. An important perspective on primary neuropsychological impairments in autism has been the EF hypothesis, which focuses on deficits in executive control over information processing and the regulation of behavior. EFs are typically required in nonroutinized, problem-solving tasks and include mental operations such as planning, working memory, maintenance and shifting of attention and mental set, and inhibition of automatic or prepotent responses. The executive dysfunction account of autism has been proposed as an alternative to the ToM hypothesis.
