Exploring the role of theory of mind in moral judgment: The case of children with autism spectrum disorder

This paper adds to the growing research on moral judgment (MJ) by considering whether theory of mind (ToM) might foster children's autonomous MJ achievement. A group of 30 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was compared in MJ and ToM with 30 typically developing (TD) children. Participants were tested for MJ with a classical Piaget's task and for ToM with a second order False Belief task. In the moral task, children were told two versions of a story: in one version the protagonist acted according to a moral intention but the action resulted in a harmful consequence; in the other version the protagonist acted according to an immoral intention, but the action resulted in a harmless consequence. Children were asked which of the two protagonists was the "naughtier." In line with previous studies, the results indicated that, while the majority of TD participants succeeded in the second order False Belief task, only few individuals with ASD showed intact perspective taking abilities. The analysis of the MJ in relation to ToM showed that children with ASD lacking ToM abilities judged guilty the protagonists of the two versions of the story in the moral task because both of them violated a moral rule or because they considered the consequences of the actions, ignoring any psychological information. These results indicate a heteronomous morality in individuals with ASD, based on the respect of learned moral rules and outcomes rather than others' subjective states

Predictive control of an activated sludge process for long term operation

The application of a multivariable predictive controller to an activated sludge process is discussed in this work. Emphasis is given to the model identification and the long term assessment of the controller efficiency in terms of economical and environmental performances. A recurrent neural network model is developed for the identification problem and the dynamic matrix control is chosen as suitable predictive control algorithm for controlling the nitrogen compounds in the bioreactor. Using the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 1 as virtual platform, different predictive controller configurations are tested and further improvements are achieved by controlling the suspended solids at the end of the bioreactor. Based on the simulation results, this work shows the potentiality of the dynamic matrix control that together with a careful identification of the process, is able to decrease the energy consumption costs and, at the same time, reduce the ammonia peaks and nitrate concentration in the effluent

Optimization methodology for high COD nutrient-limited wastewaters treatment using BAS process

Optimization of biofilm activated sludge (BAS) process via mathematical modelling is an entangle activity since economic, environmental objective and technical decision must be considered. This paper presents a methodology to optimize the operational conditions of BAS process in four steps by combining dynamic simulation techniques with non-linear optimization methods and with operative decision-making criteria. Two set of variables are separately prioritized in the methodology: essential variables related to physical operation to enforce established process performance, and refinement variables related to biological processes that can generate risks of bulking, pin-point floc and rising sludge. The proposed optimization strategy is applied for the treatment of high COD wastewater under nutrient limitation using an integrated mathematical model for COD removal that include predation, hydrolysis and a simplified approach to the limiting solids flux theory in the secondary clarifier in order to facilitate the convergence of the optimization solver. The methodology is implemented in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant for a cellulose and viscose fibre mill obtaining (i) improvement of the effluent quality index (Kg pollution/m3) up to 62% and, (ii) decrease the operating cost index (€/m3) of the process up to 30% respect the regular working operational conditions of the plant. The proposed procedure can be also applied to other biological treatments treating high COD nutrient-limited industrial wastewater such as from textile and winery production among others

Understanding others' mind: a longitudinal-sequential study in typically developing and ASD toddlers

A possible way to investigate the roots of social cognition in infancy may be to consider the early socio-cognitive competences which appears before 24 months in the light of Perners’ theory of children’s developing representational skills. According to this theory, children’s understanding of mind reflects their level of understanding representation in general. Thus, declarative pointing might be considered as an early manifestation of the meta-representation abilities necessary for the later development of a first-order Theory of Mind (ToM). If this is true, this ability should: a) correlate with other early representational abilities, like mirror-self recognition (MSR) and symbolic play, before 24 months; b) correlate with later mentalistic abilities, like for example internal state talk. Moreover, the emergence of such abilities should be impaired in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), who are known to be impoverished in Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen, 1989). This study aimed to investigate the concurrent relationship between declarative pointing, MSR and symbolic play before 24 months and their sequential relationship with internal state talk at 30 months in TD and ASD toddlers. Two groups of TD children were evaluated by means of a sequential-longitudinal study. The first group was tested from 16 to 24 months, every month, for the production of declarative pointing (procedure described in Perucchini et al., 1997), mirror recognition of self, a familiar adult and a desired object (procedure adapted from Gouin-Décarie, Pouliot, Poulin-Dubois, 1983) and symbolic play (procedure described in Ungerer e Sigman, 1981). The second group was tested at 22 and 24 months with the same procedure of group one and at 30 months for internal state talk with the story-book “Frog, where are you?” (Mayer et al., 1969). The children of the two groups which resulted homogenous at the age of their overlapping (22-24 months) in the abilities considered were merged into an unique sample. The same design was applied to ASD children, matched with TD children for developmental age. The results indicated that MSR emerged first in TD children (17 months), followed by declarative pointing (18 months) and symbolic play (20 months). Declarative pointing correlated with MSR at 20 months (r=0.385; p≤0.05) in TD. MSR was the only ability found in children with ASD (18 months of developmental age). In children with ASD the mirror recognition of a familiar adult was absent but not the mirror object-recognition. Moreover, while in TD children MRS was strongly associated at 18 months with mirror object-recognition (r=0.517; p≤0.05) and with the recognition of a familiar adult (r=0.502; p≤0.05), no correlations were found in children with ASD. In TDs, internal states talk at 30 months correlated with declarative pointing at 17 months (r=0,825; p≤0.05) and MSR at 17 months (r=0,917; p≤0.05). No correlations were found in ASD children, despite comparable abilities to TDs to talk about internal states. These results seem to confirm Perner’s representational theory, according to which the emergence of a ToM might be grounded on representational abilities emerging before 24 months. The nature of MSR in ASD will be specifically discussed

Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: proposal of a supplementary scoring method

To assess categorizing ability, we propose a new scoring criterion for the MCST, the “categorizing efficiency”, taking into account the number of cards used by the subject to complete a maximum of six categories. The advantage of adding that parameter to traditional ones is evaluated in a small population of normal children and adults and those affected with pathologies