1. Autism Research: Lessons from the Past and Prospects for the Future.
- Author
-
Rutter, Michael
- Subjects
AUTISM ,DEVELOPMENTAL disabilities ,MEDICAL research ,RESEARCH - Abstract
The paper uses both the author’s experience of research training, and the empirical studies of autism in which he participated over the last 40-plus years, to derive research lessons and to consider the needs and prospects for future research. Attention is drawn to: the importance of mentors; the need to use technologies in a hypothesis-testing fashion; the important of possible creative/innovative leaps and of recognition of the unexpected; the need to ask challenging questions and to recognize when the original ideas were mistaken. There is great value in broadening the scientific strategies used to investigate a particular condition and much is to be gained by deliberately seeking parallels with other conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
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