Starting research in interaction design with visuals for low-functioning children in the autistic spectrum: a protocol.

On starting to think about interaction design for low-functioning persons in the autistic spectrum (PAS), especially children, one finds a number of questions that are difficult to answer: Can we typify the PAS user? Can we engage the user in interactive communication without generating frustrating or obsessive situations? What sort of visual stimuli can we provide? Will they prefer representational or abstract visual stimuli? Will they understand three-dimensional (3D) graphic representation? What sort of interfaces will they accept? Can we set ambitious goals such as education or therapy? Unfortunately, most of these questions have no answer yet. Hence, we decided to set an apparently simple goal: to design a "fun application," with no intention to reach the level of education or therapy. The goal was to be attained by giving the users a sense of agency--by providing first a sense of control in the interaction dialogue. Our approach to visual stimuli design has been based on the use of geometric, abstract, two-dimensional (2D), real-time computer graphics in a full-body, non-invasive, interactive space. The results obtained within the European-funded project MultiSensory Environment Design for an Interface between Autistic and Typical Expressiveness (MEDIATE) have been extremely encouraging.     

Exogenous influences on task set activation in task switching

To explore the effect of exogenous processes on cognitive control, we used a cueing task-switching paradigm with two spatial judgement tasks and added an irrelevant colour attribute to the task-relevant spatial attribute of the target. The colour was not related to any specific Stimulus-Response relation in the tasks. A correlation was created between stimulus colour and task identity. This correlation was strong but imperfect in Experiment 1 and perfect in Experiment 2. As a result of the colour-task correlation, stimuli contained redundant information about task identity. By changing the correlation pattern every few blocks we caused this information to be sometimes invalid. In both experiments, performance was worse when the information carried by the target was invalid than when it was valid. However, this effect was exclusive to conditions with short task preparation time. By comparing performance with a control group, which had no colour-task correlation (in Experiment 2) we established that the colour manipulation did not cause a qualitative change in preparation strategy, and that the exogenous effect was stronger in switch trials than in repetition trials. We conclude that exogenous processes that are related to task set affect performance primarily if they are presented before endogenous processes of task set preparation have been launched.     

Research in a Shared Traumatic Reality: Researchers in a Disaster Context

Shared traumatic reality (STR) is a situation in which helping professionals and clients are exposed to the same traumatic, life-threatening circumstances in the course of the therapeutic relationship. Based on the findings of studies conducted in a shared traumatic reality, the present article will examine the complex and unique aspects of conducting research in these contexts, and raise questions about the ability of researchers to conduct studies in STR situations. Practical recommendations for dealing with these situations will be offered.     

Evaluation of multiple‐alternative prompts during tact training

This study compared 2 methods of fading prompts while teaching tacts to 3 individuals who had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The 1st method involved use of an echoic prompt and prompt fading. The 2nd method involved providing multiple‐alternative answers and fading by increasing the difficulty of the discrimination. An adapted alternating‐treatments design showed that both procedures were more effective than a no‐intervention control condition. Providing multiple alternatives did not increase error rates or teaching time, and better maintenance was shown for tacts taught with the multiple‐alternative prompt.     

The important role of the context in which achievement goals are adopted: an experimental test

Two experimental studies using Elliot, Murayama, and Pekrun’s (Journal of Educational Psychology 103(3):632–648, 2011) differentiation between self-goals and task-goals, were conducted to examine the relative influence of achievement goals and motivational contexts on behavioral and emotional engagement. In Study 1, 133 college students were prompted to adopt self-goals (intrapersonal standards) or other-goals (performance standards) in one of two motivational contexts (autonomy-supportive or autonomy-suppressive) while playing a computer game. In Study 2, 129 college students performed the same assignment, this time adopting either other-goals or task-goals (absolute standards). Study 1 indicated that autonomy-support facilitated behavioral and emotional engagement in autonomy suppressive contexts, but self-goals merely promoted emotional engagement relative to other-goals. Study 2 replicated Study 1’s findings by showing that autonomy support promoted self-reported behavioral engagement and task-goals promoted emotional engagement but further revealed that only when task-goals were adopted in an autonomy-supportive context did they promote better behavioral engagement than other-goals. Thus, Study 2 highlighted the importance of the context in which the achievement goals were adopted (i.e., autonomy-supportive versus suppressive) as an important determinant of the outcome.     

Is that a “No”? The Interpretation of Responses to Unwanted Sexual Attention

In this study, we used an interactive perspective to address the issue of responses to sexual harassment. We examined the effect of the consistency across time, consistency across types of advances, and assertiveness of a rejecting response on its perceived effectiveness. Participants were presented with scenarios that described responses to unwanted sexual attention and were required to rate the effectiveness of the responses for their clarity, content, and estimated effect on the future behavior of the perpetrator. The results show significant effects of consistency across time, consistency across types of advances, and assertiveness on perceived effectiveness of the response. As expected, an assertive response that was consistent across time and types of advances was perceived to be the most effective. This effect was found to be stronger for women than for men.     

What It Means to (Mis)Trust: Forced Migration,Ontological (In)Security,and the Unrecognized Political Psychology of the Israeli-Lebanese Conflict

What does it mean to search for trust—the constitutive element of feeling ontologically secure—in the context of protracted conflict, trauma, and forced migration? This article addresses this key question in ontological security (OS) studies in International Relations (IR) by analyzing an unrecognized consequence of the Israeli-Lebanese conflict: a Lebanese community of forced migrants created overnight on Israeli premises due to Israel's unilateral withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000. Relying on 60 in-depth interviews with Lebanese migrants in Israel, the article demonstrates how forced migrants engage in various OS-seeking strategies in relentless efforts to reconstitute trust. These strategies range from self-justification and securitizing identity through religious and communal practices, to a search for recognition from statist institutions and boundary-work vis-à-vis “sibling” disempowered “others” in the host state. However, the article shows how under political circumstances of protracted conflict and repeated perceived betrayal by the state, forced migrants are unable to reconstitute the routinized relations of trust on which OS is based. By exposing the particularistic, dynamic, and highly political character of the migrants' quest for trust, the article sheds new light on the political psychology of an “old” conflict and on the multiple meanings of ontological (in)security in migration.     

The Effect of Reminders of Death on Reckless Driving: A TerrorManagement Perspective

Why do young people, especially young men, engage in reckless driving despite the fact that this behavior contradicts the basic biological imperative of self-preservation? Answering this interesting and crucial question may lead to effective interventions. A series of studies, based on terror management theory, examined the effects of reminders of death on risk taking while driving. The dependent measures were either self-reported behavioral intentions of risky driving or driving speed in a car simulator. Findings showed that mortality-salience inductions led to more risky driving than the control condition only among individuals who perceived driving as relevant to their self-esteem. The introduction of positive feedback about driving eliminated this effect. The complex role of self-esteem in the process of risk taking is discussed.     

Purdue pegboard performance of disabled and normal readers: Unimanual versus bimanual differences

Differences between dyslexics and controls in the unimanual and bimanual conditions of the peg placement section of the Purdue Pegboard Test were examined. Twenty-three disabled and twenty-three normal readers were studied. The groups were carefully screened on a neuropsychological battery. The disabled readers were comprised of a relatively homogeneous language-disordered subgroup exhibiting deficits in naming. Significant Group X Condition interactions were obtained for both raw and percentile scores and indicated that disabled readers performed worse than controls in the unimanual compared to bimanual conditions. The dyslexics performed particularly poorly compared with controls on the left hand condition. The implications of these data for hypotheses which argue for left hemisphere dysfunction, as well as those which posit interhemispheric transfer deficits in reading disabled children, are discussed.     

Academic performance as a perceived function of ability and effort

Subjects made predictions of the grade point averages of hypothetical students who varied over complete continua of scholastic ability and effort. Subjects in Study 1 made their predictions on the implicit assumption that target students were drawn from a student body chosen via selective admissions criteria. Study 2 subjects assumed that the ability range was one resulting from a first-come, first-served open-admissions policy. Although the ability assumption inductions, as intended, led to performance level predictions that were differently dispersed, the basic patterns of subjects' predictions were essentially the same in both studies: For the overwhelming majority of subjects, ability and effort were perceived to affect scholastic performance additively rather than multiplicatively, thus contradicting the suggestions of previous theory. In addition, students with high ability were anticipated to perform reasonably well even when exerting practically no effort. Theoretical interpretations and practical implications of these results are introduced and discussed.This research was supported by Grant MH 27000 from the National Institute of Mental Health. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the capable assistance of Philip Johnson in the running of subjects and analysis of data for the reported studies.