One difficulty with the theory-of-mind explanation is that it fails to accountfor cognitive strengths as well as weaknesses. One popular notion of autisticpeople is that they have unusual gifts or “savant” skills, as in the film Rain Man.In reality, these skills are found only in around 10 percent of the autistic population(Hill & Frith, 2003). Nevertheless, some account of them is needed for a fullexplanation of autism. The unusual skills of some autistic people may be partlyan outcome of their limited range of interests. Perhaps one reason why someindividuals are good at memorizing dates is that they practice it almost all thetime. However, there is also evidence for more basic differences in processingstyle. For example, people on the autistic spectrum are superior at detectingembedded figures (Shah & Frith, 1983).