A second-person model to anomalous social cognition

Reports of patients with schizophrenia show a fragmented and anomalous subjective experience. This pathological subjective experience, we suggest, can be related to the fact that disembodiment inhibits the possibility of intersubjective experience, and more importantly of common sense. In this paper, we ask how to investigate the anomalous experience both from qualitative and quantitative viewpoints. To our knowledge, few studies have focused on a clinical combination of both first- phenomenological assessment and third-person biological methods, especially for Schizophrenia, or ASD therapeutics and diagnosis. We will thus attempt to bring forward a second-person scientific design, accounting for both the first-person subjective experiential aspects, and respective third-person neurobiological correlates of embodied aesthetics in anomalous experience. From this proposal, we further explore the consequences to clinical and research practice

We can work it out: an enactive look at cooperation

The past years have seen an increasing debate on cooperation and its unique human character. Philosophers and psychologists have proposed that cooperative activities are characterized by shared goals to which participants are committed through the ability to understand each other’s intentions. Despite its popularity, some serious issues arise with this approach to cooperation. First, one may challenge the assumption that high-level mental processes are necessary for engaging in acting cooperatively. If they are, then how do agents that do not possess such ability (preverbal children, or children with autism who are often claimed to be mind-blind) engage in cooperative exchanges, as the evidence suggests? Secondly, to define cooperation as the result of two de-contextualized minds reading each other’s intentions may fail to fully acknowledge the complexity of situated, interactional dynamics and the interplay of variables such as the participants’ relational and personal history and experience. In this paper we challenge such accounts of cooperation, calling for an embodied approach that sees cooperation not only as an individual attitude toward the other, but also as a property of interaction processes. Taking an enactive perspective, we argue that cooperation is an intrinsic part of any interaction, and that there can be cooperative interaction before complex communicative abilities are achieved. The issue then is not whether one is able or not to read the other’s intentions, but what it takes to participate in joint action. From this basic account, it should be possible to build up more complex forms of cooperation as needed. Addressing the study of cooperation in these terms may enhance our understanding of human social development, and foster our knowledge of different ways of engaging with others, as in the case of autism

Beyond The ‘Untold’ Encountering Autism: Situated Insights On Ways To Enable Participation In Design

The number of people who experience autism is constantly increasing. In 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention determined that, every year, approximately 1 out of 54 children is diagnosed with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the last years, the number of research and studies dedicated to children with autism has increased; however, scarce attention was paid to research on adults with autism, particularly those on the severe end of the spectrum (low-functioning autism), who have limited verbal abilities and non-normative communication. Consequences of this include issues of social inclusion, lack of services, work opportunities, social and civil rights, to mention a few, which are not yet sufficiently explored nor implemented for this specific group of people. This thesis employs Participatory Design to explore novel ways to engage with people on the autistic spectrum, in the attempt to understand what processes and participatory dynamics become enacted in acknowledging them as equal, valuable presences in the constitution of our collective existence and society. In particular, the research looks at processes and activities that can lead to a collaboration between designers and adults with severe autism and non-normative communication abilities, and their active participation within the research process. By theoretically drawing from traditions of Feminist Theory and Participatory Design, this thesis considers one single case study, where collaboration with the participant is achieved by means of a situated approach to design research. My standpoint and philosophical positioning here are to acknowledge that there are multiple realities through which one can make sense of the world: this research envisions that each person constructs her or his own reality through their personal experiences. Such philosophical perspective aims at emphasising and valuing subjectivity, and the consequent, intrinsic partiality that constitute our human experience. Personalised and situated research objects are also used across the thesis as methodological elements, oriented to explore the potential of triggering participation, crossing the boundaries between different communication abilities and achieving mutual understanding between designer and participant. The contribution to knowledge provided from this research is three fold: first, it provides new insights about the creation of research objects that result from a situated and process-oriented approach to Participatory Design; second, it extends knowledge concerning design practices that involve the collaborative participation of people experiencing the severe 4 end of the autistic spectrum; third, it contributes to provide new narratives concerning peoplewith non-normative communication abilities and autism

Design and wellbeing: Bridging the empathy gap between neurotypical designers and autistic adults

This paper is focused on the wellbeing of people with autism spectrum disorders, who are often excluded from design research. Drawing upon on-going design research collaboration between The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and the autism charity The Kingwood Trust, this paper reflects upon a neurotypical (i.e. not on the autism spectrum) designer’s experience of working with adults with autism who have limited verbal speech and additional learning disabilities. The hypothesis under investigation is that, by interacting with and observing a person in conjunction with his or her physical environment, the designer can unravel clues and insights to develop empathy and better understanding of a person with autism’s everyday experiences, which can thereby inform empathic designs that enhance and sustain a state of wellbeing. The conclusion explores how the inclusion of autistic people within the design process creates a shared experience, which helps to develop trust and empathy between the designer and the person with autism, enabling the designer to understand and appreciate different ways of being in the world

Reflections on the role of the ‘users’: challenges in a multi-disciplinary context of learner-centred design for children on the autism spectrum

Technology design in the field of human–computer interaction has developed a continuum of participatory research methods, closely mirroring methodological approaches and epistemological discussions in other fields. This paper positions such approaches as examples of inclusive research (to varying degrees) within education, and illustrates the complexity of navigating and involving different user groups in the context of multi-disciplinary research projects. We illustrate this complexity with examples from our recent work, involving children on the autism spectrum and their teachers. Both groups were involved in learner-centred design processes to develop technologies to support social conversation and collaboration. We conceptualize this complexity as a triple-decker ‘sandwich’ representing Theory, Technologies and Thoughts and argue that all three layers need to be appropriately aligned for a good quality ‘product’ or outcome. However, the challenge lies in navigating and negotiating all three layers at the same time, including the views and experiences of the learners. We question the extent to which it may be possible to combine co-operative, empowering approaches to participatory design with an outcome-focused agenda that seeks to develop a robust learning technology for use in real classrooms

Widening participation in technology design: A review of the involvement of children with special educational needs and disabilities

This article presents a review of the design methods and techniques that have been used to involve children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in the technology design process. Situating the work within the established child–computer interaction research sub-field of participatory design, we examine the progress that has been made in relation to the participation of this specific child population. An extensive review of the literature in this area has been undertaken and we describe the different roles, responsibilities and activities that have been undertaken by both the child and adult participants within previous technology design projects. We also highlight the different types of outcome from this previous work involving children with SEND, exploring the impact the children’s participation has had on both the resulting technology as well as the impact on the child participants themselves. Finally we conclude this review with a set of reporting recommendations for technology designers and researchers aiming to involve this population in future technology design projects

Widening participation in technology design: A review of the involvement of children with special educational needs and disabilities

This article presents a review of the design methods and techniques that have been used to involve children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in the technology design process. Situating the work within the established child–computer interaction research sub-field of participatory design, we examine the progress that has been made in relation to the participation of this specific child population. An extensive review of the literature in this area has been undertaken and we describe the different roles, responsibilities and activities that have been undertaken by both the child and adult participants within previous technology design projects. We also highlight the different types of outcome from this previous work involving children with SEND, exploring the impact the children’s participation has had on both the resulting technology as well as the impact on the child participants themselves. Finally we conclude this review with a set of reporting recommendations for technology designers and researchers aiming to involve this population in future technology design projects

Enabling autistic sociality: unrealised potentials in two-sided social interaction

Research on autism, which is defined as a life-long developmental disability affecting social interaction, has focussed predominantly on how autistic individuals perceive and interact with others with less emphasis on the perspectives of their interactional partners. Yet autistic viewpoints have highlighted how other people are part of a two-way breakdown in interaction originating from differences between people rather than the deficit of any one individual, a phenomenon known as the double empathy problem. A gap therefore exists in the literature in terms of understanding how autistic sociality (i.e. the range of social opportunities possible for a given individual on the spectrum) is shaped by different interactional partners. This thesis examines the double empathy problem in three interactional contexts. Study 1 examines relationships between autistic people and their family members through focussing on perspective-taking, the ability to impute mental states to others. In light of prior research where autistic abilities have been assessed using abstract scenarios, Study 1 implements a two-way measure of perspective-taking which considers both sides of 22 real-life relationships (n=44) consisting of autistic adults and their family members, to understand how autistic people are seen by familiar others as well as vice versa. It uses a mixed-methods approach, where members of each dyad were individually asked about 12 topics, providing quantitative scores and qualitative explanation of their rating of Self, their rating of their partner, and their predicted rating by their partner. Comparison of perspectives provided a means for detecting misunderstandings and their underlying rationale. The contribution of Study 1 is that it shows perspective-taking is two-sided: family members can be biased in underestimating the perspective-taking of their autistic relatives, while autistic adults are aware of being negatively viewed despite disagreeing with such views. Study 2 examines interactions between autistic adults (n=30) partaking in a naturally occurring activity of video-gaming at a charity. It is a qualitative study using participant observation, with each conversational turn systematically rated in terms of coherence, affect and symmetry to identify the key features of neurodivergent intersubjectivity, the process through which autistic people build shared understanding in their own non-normative ways. The contribution of Study 2 is to identify two forms of neurodivergent intersubjectivity which enable shared understanding to be achieved, but which have traditionally been viewed as undesirable from a normative social viewpoint: a generous assumption of common ground that, when understood, lead to rapid rapport, and, when not understood, resulted in potentially disruptive utterances; and a low demand for coordination that ameliorated many challenges associated with disruptive turns. Study 3 examines interactions involving lay people (n=256) who believe they are interacting with an autistic partner through an online collaborative game, when in fact they are playing with an intelligent virtual agent (IVA) who behaves the same way for all participants. Its contribution is methodological as it develops a new application for simulating interactions in experimental research called Dyad3D. Study 3 uses Dyad3D to explore how disclosure of an autism diagnosis by the IVA affects social perception and social behaviour in comparison to a disclosure of dyslexia and a condition where there is no diagnostic disclosure. Combined with a post-game questionnaire, Study 3 triangulates self-reported (quantitative rating scales and qualitative explanation) and behavioural measures (quantitative scores of actions within the game) to understand the interplay of positive and negative discrimination elicited through using the label of autism. It highlights that diagnostic disclosure of autism leads to significant positive bias in social perception when compared to a disclosure of dyslexia or a no disclosure condition; yet participants are not as helpful towards the autistic IVA as they think they are, indicating a potential bias in helping behaviour. The thesis takes an abductive methodological approach which integrates with a wider call for a more participatory model of research in the study of autism. Abduction is a form of reasoning which involves the iterative development of a hypothesis that holds the best explanatory scope for the underlying phenomena observed. It is inherently aligned with a participatory model of research because abduction involves the ongoing exploration of ideas that may originate from multiple sources (i.e. interactions with autistic people as well as research outputs). Taking a more holistic approach to the development of knowledge with autistic people which recognises the legitimacy of different claims to knowledge is important, because prior research in the field has often failed to critically reflect on researcherparticipant positionality and the principals underlying the development of research agenda. For this reason, the thesis details the participatory activities which surround and interconnect with the development of the three empirical studies. Overall the thesis contributes to understanding autistic sociality as a dynamic, interactionally shaped process. It reasons that autistic people have unrealised social potential, both in terms of imagining other perspectives (Study 1) and coordinating with others (Study 2). However, such social potential may not be easily recognised by other non-autistic people who may be biased in their assumptions about autism (Study 1 and Study 3). Consequently, the evidence presented in this thesis helps to explain some of the processes that underscore the double empathy problems reported in literature, including poor mental health (because autistic people are aware that they are misunderstood by others, see Study 1), employment prospects (because autistic social potential is under-recognised by others, see Study 1 and 3), and quality of life (because neurotypical standards of communication are not compatible with neurodivergent forms of intersubjectivity, see Study 2). The thesis therefore makes suggestions for how we design enabling environments which are sensitive to the dynamic factors that can enable autistic sociality to flourish