A progressive model for teaching children with autism to follow gaze shift

Gunby, Rapp, Bottoni, Marchese and Wu (2017) taught three children with autism spectrum disorder to follow an instructor's gaze shift to select a specific item; however, Gunby et al. used different types of prompts with each participant. To address this limitation, we used a progressive training model for increasing gaze shift for three children with autism spectrum disorder. Results show that each participant learned to follow an adult's shift in gaze to make a correct selection. In addition, two participants displayed the skill in response to a parent's gaze shift and with only social consequences; however, the third participant required verbal instruction and tangible reinforcement to demonstrate the skill outside of training sessions.     

双通路理论视角下孤独症谱系障碍者的视线加工障碍

临床行为观察发现, 孤独症谱系障碍个体普遍存在不能与他人建立视线接触, 不能追随他人视线看向目标物体等视线加工(gaze processing)障碍。然而已有实验研究发现该群体在实验情境中普遍存在视线接触(eye contact)异常, 但其视线追随行为(gaze following)则存在正常与异常并存的现象。基于视线加工双通路理论的启示, 该障碍可能是由于视线加工皮下通路先天功能异常而皮层通路后天发展异常所致。然而, 该理论尚缺乏皮下通路先天功能异常是视线接触障碍潜在神经机制的直接证据, 还需进一步考察皮下通路先天功能异常对视线追随障碍的影响作用, 以及皮层通路后天发展异常即其补偿机制的神经回路及早期形成过程。     

The evil eye: Eye gaze and competitiveness in social decision making

We demonstrate that a person's eye gaze and his/her competitiveness are closely intertwined in social decision making. In an exploratory examination of this relationship, Study 1 uses field data from a high‐stakes TV game show to demonstrate that the frequency by which contestants gaze at their opponent's eyes predicts their defection in a variant on the prisoner's dilemma. Studies 2 and 3 use experiments to examine the underlying causality and demonstrate that the relationship between gazing and competitive behavior is bi‐directional. In Study 2, fixation on the eyes, compared to the face, increases competitive behavior toward the target in an ultimatum game. In Study 3, we manipulate the framing of a negotiation (cooperative vs. competitive) and use an eye tracker to measure fixation number and time spent fixating on the counterpart's eyes. We find that a competitive negotiation elicits more gazing, which in turn leads to more competitive behavior.     

孤独症儿童潜在早期识别标志——发声异常及原因探析

孤独症谱系障碍(Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD)儿童的早期识别及早期干预对其发育结果至关重要。发声是指儿童学会说话之前发出的声音。已有研究表明, 非类言语和类言语发声异常是ASD儿童2岁前的潜在识别标志。ASD儿童发声异常的理论解释主要有动机导向、神经运动导向、感知觉导向和社会反馈导向理论。未来研究可考虑探讨发声异常作为ASD儿童独特的早期识别标志的可能性, 加强哭声在ASD儿童早期筛查中的研究, 探索基于最具预测性声学参数集的自动学习分类模型, 探究内在动机与社会动机对ASD儿童类言语发声的影响和进一步探究ASD儿童类言语发声异常的神经机制。从而为ASD儿童的早期识别及早期干预提供更加客观的理论依据。     

Perceiving arousal and valence in facial expressions: Differences between children and adults

Arousal and valence have long been studied as the two primary dimensions for the perception of emotional stimuli such as facial expressions. Prior correlational studies that tested emotion perception along these dimensions found broad similarities between adults and children. However, few studies looked for direct differences between children and adults in these dimensions beyond correlation. We tested 9-year-old children and adults on rating positive and negative facial stimuli based on emotional arousal and valence. Despite high significant correlations between children’s and adults’ ratings, our findings also showed significant differences between children and adults in terms of rating values: Children rated all expressions as significantly more positive than adults in valence. Children also rated positive emotions as more arousing than adults. Our results show that although perception of facial emotions along arousal and valence follows similar patterns in children and adults, some differences in ratings persist, and vary by emotion type.     

An evaluation of a multi-component intervention for loud speech among children with autism spectrum disorder

Idiosyncratic patterns of speech are common among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and can greatly affect their ability to participate successfully in various social and educational settings. We evaluated a treatment package with three children with ASD and a history of loud speech. A multiple baseline across participants design and a decibel meter application were used to evaluate whether the multi-component intervention (i.e., a rule, differential reinforcement, and in vivo feedback) would effectively reduce participants' rates of loud speech. The results showed that the intervention decreased rates of loud speech for all participants. Results are discussed in terms of (a) their extension of the literature regarding speech prosody in ASD by demonstrating an effective intervention for loud speech, (b) clinical implications, and (c) potential future research regarding this nuanced, yet crucial aspect of social communication, including appropriate methods for addressing loud speech in individuals with ASD.     

Teaching social play skills to adults and children with autism as an approach to building rapport

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and no intellectual disabilities were taught to increase the social play skills of children with ASD as part of a vocational training program. Participants included 3 adults, aged 21 to 27 years, and 6 children with ASD. Probes conducted throughout the study evaluated whether play skills training affected a measure of rapport between the adult and child. Results demonstrated the effectiveness of behavioral skills training for teaching the adult participants the appropriate play skills. In addition, the children's social engagement increased. Finally, rapport probes showed that play skills training increased levels of proximity, our measure of rapport, between the adults and children.     

ABA-Based Programs for Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Parental and Professional Experiences at School and at Home

Having a child diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) poses a range of challenges to families, many of which can be addressed through appropriate intervention. A study of parental (n = 95) and professional (n = 67) experiences was carried out in relation to two settings: (a) schools that provided intensive interventions based on the science of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), and (b) non-intensive ABA-based home programs. Results show that parents whose children attend ABA-based schools were generally more satisfied with their child's educational provision, monitoring procedures, and level of staff training, than parents who were not offered ABA-based education in schools.     

Demystifying infant vocal imitation: The roles of mouth looking and speaker’s gaze

Vocal imitation plays a fundamental role in human language acquisition from infancy. Little is known, however, about how infants imitate other's sounds. We focused on three factors: (a) whether infants receive information from upright faces, (b) the infant's observation of the speaker's mouth and (c) the speaker directing their gaze towards the infant. We recorded the eye movements of 6‐month‐olds who participated in experiments watching videos of a speaker producing vowel sounds. We found that an infants’ tendency to vocally imitate such videos increased as a function of (a) seeing upright rather than inverted faces, (b) their increased looking towards the speaker's mouth and (c) whether the speaker directed their gaze towards, rather than away from infants. These latter findings are consistent with theories of motor resonance and natural pedagogy respectively. New light has been shed on the cues and underlying mechanisms linking infant speech perception and production.     

Effects of saccadic bilateral eye movements on memory in children and adults: an exploratory study

The effects of saccadic bilateral (horizontal) eye movements on true and false memory in adults and children were investigated. Both adults and children encoded lists of associated words in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm followed by a test of recognition memory. Just prior to retrieval, participants were asked to engage in 30s of bilateral vs. vertical vs. no eye movements. For studied information, the results for adults replicated previous work; bilateral eye movements were demonstrated to increase the accuracy of memory by increasing the hit rate and reducing the false alarm rate for related and unrelated recognition test lures. The results for children also indicated an improvement in memory accuracy, and like adults, was due to both an increase in the hit rate and a reduction in the false alarm rate. In spite of these similarities, the effects of bilateral eye movements differed between adults and children for critical unstudied words; i.e., those associated with the theme of the list. Only in adults did, bilateral eye movements reduce associative false memories; children did not show a reduction in false memory for critical associates. This produced a dissociation between the effects of eye movements on associative false memory as a function of age. The results are discussed from a developmental perspective in terms of potential mechanisms underlying true and false memory.     

注意和记忆对孤独症儿童词汇发展滞后的影响

孤独症语言障碍的表现之一是词汇发展滞后, 可能与其注意和记忆损伤有关。当前研究结果表明, 孤独症儿童在学习词汇时难以利用社会注意提供的有效信息, 且其注意易受到无关刺激干扰, 这可能导致其形成的物体-词汇的联结不稳定, 影响其进一步将这种联结整合到心理词典并保存在记忆中。未来研究应探究联合注意影响孤独症儿童词汇学习的发展轨迹和机制, 儿童的词汇知识对其词汇记忆的影响, 并关注自然场景中孤独症儿童的词汇学习过程和个体差异。     

专家与新手教师对静态课堂教学场景的知觉差异

教师在课堂教学过程中,需要实时监控和加工课堂中的各种信息,以此来调整教学和管理课堂.研究选取9名专家教师和16名师范类研究生,采用专家、新手教师对比的范式,借鉴场景知觉的研究方法,以静态教学场景和非教学场景作为刺激材料,利用眼动技术,探讨了教学经验对课堂教学场景知觉的影响.结果发现,相对于新手,专家对静态课堂教学场景的注视次数更多,总注视时间更长;对于不同的场景类型,非教学场景受到的注视次数更多;专家对于非教学场景的注视次数要多于教学场景,但是平均注视时间少于教学场景;专家对非教学场景的总注视时间长于新手.研究表明,专家对非教学场景采取的是多次注视但每次注视时间短的策略,体现的是一种快速扫描的注视模式,而对教学场景采取的是少量注视但每次注视时间长的策略,体现的是认真观看的注视模式.     

Social competence group intervention (SOCO) for children with autism spectrum disorder: A pilot study

This study aimed to describe concept of social competence as a theoretical background for social skills group intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A model of social competence comprised of three components: social skills, social performance, and social adjustment. We also examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the manualized Social Competence group intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (SOCO) using a variety of outcome measures. The nine-month intervention included children groups, parental support groups and co-operation with teachers. A pilot study involved 23 children aged 7 to 12 years (n = 16 intervention, n = 7 control) and intervention outcomes were measured with questionnaires for parents and teachers, neuropsychological tests, and observations. The parents of the intervention group reported improvements in social skills and social adjustment, whereas the teachers reported increases in social performance. Findings also indicated that affect recognition skills, social overtures, and reactions to peers were improved in the intervention group. Although the evidence of the pilot study should be considered as preliminary, it gives some indication of the feasibility of the SOCO group intervention and supports the usability of the theoretical background and approach for multiple outcome measures.     

Relational property between head and eye regions is the primary determinant of the efficiency in search for a deviant gaze

The human visual system is extremely sensitive to the directions of the gazes of others. However, the mechanism underlying gaze direction perception has yet to be clarified. The primary aim of the present study is to investigate whether the relational property between the local eye region and other facial regions serves as the primary visual system cue in detecting a direct gaze. Our results showed that search efficiency was determined primarily by the gaze direction indicated by the relational property regardless of the direction indicated by the local feature information of the eye region; this was true even when the gaze directions indicated by these two types of information were conflicting. These results bolster the hypothesis that the human visual system primarily accesses socially meaningful information in searching for a deviant gaze.     

Establishing motion control in children with autism and intellectual disability: Applications for anatomical and functional MRI

Excessive motion makes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) extremely challenging among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The medical risks of sedation establish the need for behavioral interventions to promote motion control among children with ASD undergoing MRI scans. We present a series of experiments aimed at establishing both tolerance of the MRI environment and a level of motion control that would be compatible with a successful MRI. During Study 1, we evaluated the effects of prompting and contingent reinforcement on compliance with a sequence of successive approximations to an MRI using a mock MRI. During Study 2, we used prompting and progressive differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO) to promote motion control in a mock MRI for increasing periods of time. Finally, during Study 3, some of the participants underwent a real MRI scan while a detailed in‐session motion analysis informed the quality of the images captured.     

Vulnerability to loneliness among fathers of children with autism spectrum disorder: The role of interpersonal and familial resources

Fathers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might be at increased risk of becoming lonely. In the current study, we explored the differences in loneliness between fathers of children with and without ASD and identified interpersonal and familial resources (social support, family cohesion, and family adaptability) that might be related to levels of loneliness. Using a cross-sectional design, 348 fathers (of 114 children with ASD and 234 without) completed a series of questionnaires. Fathers of children with ASD reported higher levels of loneliness and lower levels of social support and family cohesion. A moderated mediation model indicated that the interaction between social support and family cohesion mediated the association between ASD group (i.e., ASD vs. non-ASD) and fathers' loneliness. Findings suggest the importance of interpersonal and familial resources (e.g., perceived social support and family cohesion) for family members at risk of loneliness.     

Metacognitive monitoring and control processes in children with autism spectrum disorder: Diminished judgement of confidence accuracy

Metacognition consists of monitoring processes (the ability to accurately represent one’s own mental states) and control processes (the ability to control one’s cognitive processes effectively). Both processes play vital roles in self-regulated learning. However, currently it is unclear whether these processes are impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This study aimed to assess metacognition in thirty-two children with ASD, and 30 IQ-/age-matched neurotypical children, using a judgment of confidence task. It was found that children with ASD showed diminished accuracy in their judgments of confidence, indicating metacognitive monitoring impairments in ASD. Children with ASD also used monitoring to influence control processes significantly less than neurotypical children, despite little evidence of impairments in overall control ability.     

幼儿的自我投射能力对情景预见的影响:来自典型发展儿童和孤独症谱系障碍儿童的证据

情景预见是个体将自我投射到未来某个特定时间和地点预先体验可能发生的未来事件的一种能力。为了考察幼儿的自我投射能力在情景预见中的可能作用,本研究通过两个实验比较了从自己的视角和从他人视角完成情景预见任务时幼儿的表现。实验1选取236名3~5.5岁典型发展（Typically Developing,TD）幼儿,采用被试间设计发现,总体而言,幼儿为他人做预见优于为自己做预见。实验2采用被试内设计,在TD儿童身上验证了实验1的结果,同时发现,孤独症谱系障碍（Autism Spectrum Disorder,ASD）儿童为自己做预见与为他人做预见没有差异。综上,幼儿不成熟的自我投射能力会干扰其自我卷入的情景预见,而自我投射能力受损的ASD儿童则没有表现出这种影响。