Working memory in children with developmental disorders

The aim of the present study was to directly compare working memory skills across students with different developmental disorders to investigate whether the uniqueness of their diagnosis would impact memory skills. The authors report findings confirming differential memory profiles on the basis of the following developmental disorders: Specific Language Impairment, Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Asperger syndrome(AS). Specifically, language impairments were associated with selective deficits in verbal short-term and working memory, whereas motor impairments (DCD) were associated with selective deficits in visuospatial short-term and working memory. Children with attention problems were impaired in working memory in both verbal and visuospatial domains, whereas the children with AS had deficits in verbal short-term memory but not in any other memory component. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of support for learning

Computer-mediated communication in autism

The aim of this thesis was to examine linguistic and social processing in autism and Asperger syndrome (AS), through computer-mediated communication. The first investigation used conversational analysis, on a corpus of computer-mediated dialogue, generated by two adults with AS. The results revealed that one of the two individuals had problems asking questions. Hence, an inability to ask questions may be one aspect of AS communication, though it may be not universal in this population. The second study used a computer program called Bubble Dialogue (Gray, Creighton, McMahon & Cunningham, 1991) to investigate the working understanding of nonliteral language and responses to inappropriate requests in individuals with AS and high-functioning autism (HFA). The AS/HFA group showed poorer understanding of a figure of speech and were more likely to consent to socially inappropriate requests compared to their typically developing peers. In contrast, understanding of sarcasm was predicted neither by verbal ability, executive ability nor clinical diagnosis. The results suggest that having AS/HFA does not, a priori, dispose someone to having problems with communication and socialisation, and that verbal ability protects the individual to a certain extent. Additionally, executive ability also seems important in mediating socialisation and communication ability. The third experiment tested the hypothesis that an autistic preference for internet-based communication may be due to the absence of verbal and non verbal cues, physical distance, and slower rate of information exchange through that medium. To test this, participants worked out predetermined map routes by asking the experimenter closed questions either via text chat, or through telephone conversations. An initial examination of the results suggested that AS performance may in fact have been better via the telephone. However, a detailed look at the strategies employed by some individuals with AS suggests that their executive problems may have resulted in their use of a less than systematic way to solve the task in both media. The results of this study also indicate a relation between executive and mentalising ability because both are required to solve the task. Interestingly, many of the participants with AS could generate novel closed questions to successfully solve the map task in both media, though they were slower than controls. Using computer mediated communication has therefore given us greater detail into the nature of, and the factors that influence, communication in autism

Helping adults with Asperger's syndrome acquire interpersonal understanding: the bubble dialogue computer program

The aim of this study was to assess if the experience of role-taking improved the interpersonal understanding of two young male adults with Asperger’s syndrome. The research methodology involved the use of the computer program called ‘Bubble Dialogue’1 which presents the beginning of a dialogue between two on-screen protagonists. The participants and I progressed through six theory of mind inspired scenarios in which we continued the dialogues by assuming the characters’ roles. The characters we played communicated through the text we typed into speech and thought bubbles above our characters’ heads. The research aims were to improve the social understanding of adults with Asperger’s syndrome and investigate and describe the nature of autistic thought and speech. Before and after the Bubble Dialogue experience, the participants were tested with the Wisconsin Card Sort Test and the British Picture Vocabulary Scale. Additionally, their carers were interviewed using Frith, Happé and Siddons (1994) supplementary items for the Vineland Adaptive behavioural Scales to assess if the Bubble Dialogue experience improved the participants’ understanding of mental states in their everyday lives. Two male adolescents with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (EBD) also completed all six scenarios. Thirty three raters, who were blind to the identities of the four participants, rated their and my (the experimenter’s) scripts along three dimensions: 1) emotionally charged to emotionally flat 2) polite to coarse and 3) pursuing a topic too little to pursing a topic too much. Analysis revealed that the one of the adults with Asperger’s syndrome’s scripts were rated significantly more emotionally flat and the characters he played were rated as pursing a topic too little (relative to the characters I played) from the other three participants. And on the dimension polite to coarse, all the scripts were rated significantly different from each other apart from the two adolescents with EDB. These findings suggest that although both individuals with Asperger’s syndrome had the same diagnosis, one of them expressed speech and thought which was rated more similar to the two adolescents with EBD, at least on dimensions 1 and 3. The findings from the battery of tests pre and post the Bubble Dialogue suggest that after the experience of the program there was i) no detectable improvement in the autistic participants’ interpersonal understanding ii) there was no increase in their in their overall cognitive function, but iii) there was improvement in their executive function. The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the theory of mind and executive function hypotheses of autism. Keywords : Autism, Asperger’s syndrome, Theory of Mind, Computer, Bubble Dialogue

Brief report : imitation of meaningless gestures in individuals with Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism

Nineteen people with Asperger syndrome (AS)/High-Functioning Autism (HFA) (ages 7-15) were tested on imitation of two types of meaningless gesture: hand postures and finger positions. The individuals with AS/HFA achieved lower scores in the imitation of both hand and finger positions relative to a matched neurotypical group. The between-group difference was primarily accounted for by performance on a test of visual motor integration, together with a hand imitation deficit which was specifically due to errors in body part orientation. Our findings implicate both visuomotor processes (Damasio and Maurer, 1978) and self-other mapping (Rogers and Pennington, 1991) in ASD imitation deficits. Following Goldenberg (1999), we propose that difficulties with body part orientation may underlie problems in meaningless gesture imitation

Investigating social vulnerability in children using computer mediated role-play

Here, we report a study using computer role-play to investigate Disinhibited Social Engagement in 54 typically developing children aged 6, 8 and 10 years. Children completed 22 (theme-matched) vignettes and computerised scenarios that captured the themes of the specific symptoms of Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSM V, APA, 2013). Our newly created 22 "Paper pencil" vignettes and computer role-play scenarios were used in conjunction with the Strange Stories (O'Hare, Bremner, Nash, Happé & Pettigrew, 2009) and Parents and Teachers completed versions of the Relationship Problems Questionnaire (RPQ: Minnis et al., 2007). Our findings revealed the developmental (age) differences of social vulnerability/indiscriminate friendliness and potential advantages of computermediated role-play in comparison to “paper pencil” tasks. We argue that using a method of children role playing characters gives a better insight into children's true vulnerabilities. We discuss our findings in relation to using this methodology for clinicians and researchers to improve social skills in the most socially vulnerable children

Social Impact of Recharging Activity in Long-Term HRI and Verbal Strategies to Manage User Expectations During Recharge

Social robots perform tasks to help humans in their daily activities. However, if they fail to fulfill expectations this may affect their acceptance. This work investigates the service degradation caused by recharging, during which the robot is socially inactive. We describe two studies conducted in an ecologically valid office environment. In the first long-term study (3 weeks), we investigated the service degradation caused by the recharging behavior of a social robot. In the second study, we explored the social strategies used to manage users’ expectations during recharge. Our findings suggest that the use of verbal strategies (transparency, apology, and politeness) can make robots more acceptable to users during recharge

ADVANCES IN BALANCE AND BIOFEEDBACK MEASUREMENT: THE CASE FOR HEALTH-BASED, POSTURAL SERIOUS GAMES

Health games are increasingly seen as a means to address issues from therapy and rehabilitation. Yet, as a transformative technology, rarely have such games been explored or exploited to assist research into pathologies. Serious games for research (SGR) to uncover pathologies would allow clinicians to develop new differential diagnostics while providing a positive experience for the subject. This paper is not about game design; nevertheless it presents an outlook to considerations that could be taken forward when developing health-based SGRs for pathomechanics, etiopathogenesis and biofeedback. This work relates to preliminary studies on balance challenges manifested in pathologies of the central nervous system. As technology advancements seek to augment human sensory contact between virtual and real worlds this may impact on how virtual environments are used and designed in future. As a consequence heightened sensory (or lack of thereof) may result in falls, for example users with vestibular disorder – because postural stability is a key aspect of motor ability that allows individuals to sustain and maintain the desired physical position of their body Here, our investigation is specific to functional correspondence of the incidental properties in human body sway between healthy subjects and subjects with dyslexia. Our early results suggest postural sway between healthy subjects and those with mild disorders can be distinguished