Dziobek, I.

Enk, L.

Lucke, U.

Möbert, T.

Schneider, J.

Weigand, A.

Zörner, D.

English

MPG.PuRe

Usability Evaluation  v  Sample: 10 autistic (36±7 years) and 21 neurotypical participants (33±7 years).  v  Usability was assessed with a combination of techniques (standard questionnaires, think-aloud protocol, qualitative feedback) after participants performed the different E.V.A. modules for 20min. v  Both user groups reported high usability ratings across measures. Mean scores of the meCUE and System Usability Scale (SUS) showed no significant differences between the autistic (meCUE=2.7±2.4; SUS=76±22) and neurotypical (meCUE=2.5±1.7; SUS=82±11) users. v  Autistic as compared to neurotypical subjects reported significantly higher levels of effort (NASA Task Load Index; p<.01).           v  In the group of autistic subjects, mental demands (NASA Task Load Index) increased with symptom severity as assessed with the AQ-k (r=.53, p=.06). v  Overall, participants highlighted that E.V.A. was visually appealing, easy to use, with well-integrated tasks, and felt confident using the different features of the app.  v  Qualitative feedback revealed that many subjects experienced technical issues (e.g. low sound volume, program crashes) and wished for higher task variation. 1 Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany  2 Department of Computer Science, University of Potsdam, Germany Introducing E.V.A. – A New Training App for Social Cognition Design, Development, and First Acceptance and Usability Evaluation for Autistic Users  12th Scientific Meeting for Autism Spectrum Conditions, Augsburg, Germany, February 21-22 2019                 contact: anne.weigand@hu-berlin.de Anne Weigand1, Lioba Enk1, Tobias Moebert2, Dietmar Zoerner2, Jan Schneider1,2, Ulrike Lucke2, Isabel Dziobek1 Introduction v  The main characteristics of autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are impairments in social cognition, including understanding emotional facial expressions, speech prosody, body language and the mental state of others.  v  To date, only a limited amount of therapeutic tools exist targeting social cognitive dysfunctions.  v  Computer-based interventions adapted to user-specific deficits are a promising therapeutic approach to overcome this treatment gap in ASC. Methods E.V.A.  (Emotionen Verstehen und  Ausdrücken)    v  We developed E.V.A., a new social cognition training app, based on our previous game-like training software SCOTT (Social Cognition Training Tool).  v  The innovative design of E.V.A. and its higher diversity of improved tasks were especially developed to meet the needs of individuals with ASC.  v  Users can train facial affect recognition (Face Module), emotional prosody recognition (Voice Module), and theory of mind abilities (Film Module). They are instructed to either match (implicit part) or label (explicit part) the presented emotions.    v  Stimuli consist of 40 emotions, displayed by >50 actors of varying gender, age, and ethnicity. v  An additional module is the Emotion Library (Emotions-schatz), providing structured information about emotions, including a definition, synonyms, valence and arousal level, description of the facial expression and voice with sample pictures and recordings.  Figure 1: Example items for the Face, Voice and Film Modules (implicit parts)  and for the Emotion Library. 	 		 	Results Discussion v  E.V.A. has the potential to be an effective and easy accessible tool to enhance social cognition in a new era of personalized, computer-based ASC interventions. v  Next steps of development include improving technical aspects, implementing additional tasks and assessing social-cognitive gains after several weeks of training in a large sample. Figure 2: Subscales of the meCUE and NASA Task Load Index. 

Introducing E.V.A. – A new training app for social cognition: Design, development, and first acceptance and usability evaluation for autistic users

https://pure.mpg.de/pubman/item/item_3475363_1/component/file_3475364/Weigand%20et%20al_Poster_WTAS_2019.pdf

Introducing E.V.A. – A new training app for social cognition: Design, development, and first acceptance and usability evaluation for autistic users

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

MPG.PuRe