Virtual environments and autism: A developmental psychopathological approach

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 334-347

  Rajendran, G ^a  

^a HERIOT WATT UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

ASD; Autism; Autism spectrum disorders; Developmental psychopathology; Virtual environments

Indexed keywords

EID: 84879800079     PISSN: 02664909     EISSN: 13652729     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12006     Document Type: Article

References (100)

1. Alcorn, A., Pain, H., Rajendran, G., Smith, T., Lemon, O., Porayska-Pomsta, K. Bernardini, S. (2011). Social communication between virtual characters and children with autism. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 6738, 7-14. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-21869-9_4
2. Anderson, A., Cheyne, W., Foot, H., Howe, C., Low, J., & Tolmie, A. (2000). Computer support for peer-based methodology tutorials. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 16(1), 41-53. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2729.2000.00114.x
3. APA. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th text revised ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
4. Baron-Cohen, S. (1989). Perceptual role-taking and protodeclarative pointing in autism. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 7, 113-127.
5. Behne, T., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2005). One-year-olds comprehend the communicative intentions behind gestures in a hiding game. Developmental Science, 8, 492-499.
6. Benson, J. B., & Uzgiris, I. C. (1985). Effect of self-initiated locomotion on infant search activity. Developmental Psychology, 21, 923-931. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.21.6.923
7. Bishop, D. V. M. (2011). An open letter to Baroness Susan Greenfield 12:34. Retrieved from http://deevybee.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/open-letter-to-baroness-susan.html
8. Borghi, A. M., & Cimatti, F. (2010). Embodied cognition and beyond: Acting and sensing the body. Neuropsychologia, 48, 763-773. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.10.029
9. Charman, T. (2003). Why is joint attention a pivotal skill in autism? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 358(1430), 315-324.
10. Cheng, Y., & Ye, J. (2010). Exploring the social competence of students with autism spectrum conditions in a collaborative virtual learning environment - The pilot study. Computers and Education, 54, 1068-1077. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.10.011
11. Cicchetti, D. (1984). The emergence of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55(1), 1-7.
12. Clark, A. (1999). An embodied cognitive science? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 345-351. doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(99)01361-3
13. Clark, A. (2003). Natural-born cyborgs: Minds, technologies, and the future of human intelligence. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
14. Cook, S. W., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (2009). Embodied communication: Speakers' gestures affect listeners' actions. Cognition, 113, 98-104. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2009.06.006
15. Curry, P. (2012). Enchantment and modernity. PAN: Philosophy, Activism, Nature, (12), 76-89.
16. Dingfelder, H. E., & Mandell, D. S. (2011). Bridging the research-to-practice gap in autism intervention: An application of diffusion of innovation theory. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41, 597-609. doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1081-0
17. Donaldson, M. (1978). Children's minds. London, England: Fontana Press.
18. Durkin, K. (2010). Videogames and young people with developmental disorders. Review of General Psychology, 14, 122-140. doi:10.1037/a0019438
19. Ehrlich, J. A., & Miller, J. R. (2009). A virtual environment for teaching social skills: AViSSS. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 29(4), 10-16.
20. Farrant, B. M., Maybery, M. T., & Fletcher, J. (2011). Socio-emotional engagement, joint attention, imitation, and conversation skill: Analysis in typical development and specific language impairment. First Language, 31(1), 23-46.
21. Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
22. Garib-Penna, S., & Parsons, S. (2011). Collaboration and perspective-taking in collaborative virtual environments by young people with autism spectrum conditions: A pilot study. Paper presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research, San Diego, CA.
23. Gernsbacher, M. A., Sauer, E. A., Geye, H. M., Schweigert, E. K., & Goldsmith, H. H. (2008). Infant and toddler oral- and manual-motor skills predict later speech fluency in autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 49, 43-50. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01820.x. ISSN 0021-9630.
24. Gillberg, C., & Coleman, M. (2000). The biology of the autistic syndromes (3rd ed.). London, England: Mac Keith.
25. Glenberg, A. M. (2006). Naturalizing cognition: The integration of cognitive science and biology. Current Biology, 16, R802-R804. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.08.044
26. Glenberg, A. M. (2010). Embodiment as a unifying perspective for psychology. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 1, 586-596. doi:10.1002/wcs.55
27. Goldman, A., & de Vignemont, F. (2009). Is social cognition embodied? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(4), 154-159. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2009.01.007
28. Goodwin, M. S. (2008). Enhancing and accelerating the pace of autism research and treatment the promise of developing innovative technology. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 23, 125-128. doi:10.1177/1088357608316678
29. Grandjean, E. (1980). Fitting the task to the man: An ergonomic approach. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
30. Gray, K., & Wegner, D. M. (2012). Feeling robots and human zombies: Mind perception and the uncanny valley. Cognition, 125, 125-130. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2012.06.007
31. Green, J., Charman, T., McConachie, H., Aldred, C., Slonims, V., Howlin, P. Consortium, P. (2010). Parent-mediated communication-focused treatment in children with autism (PACT): A randomised controlled trial. Lancet, 375(9732), 2152-2160. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)60587-9
32. Grynszpan, O., Nadel, J., Martin, J.-C., Simonin, J., Bailleul, P., Wang, Y. Constant, J. (2012). Self-monitoring of gaze in high functioning autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 1642-1650.
33. Hadwin, J., BaronCohen, S., Howlin, P., & Hill, K. (1996). Can we teach children with autism to understand emotions, belief, or pretence? Development and Psychopathology, 8, 345-365.
34. Happé, F., Ronald, A., & Plomin, R. (2006). Time to give up on a single explanation for autism. Nature Neuroscience, 9, 1218-1220.
35. Heider, F., & Simmel, M. (1944). An experimental study of apparent behavior. The American Journal of Psychology, 57, 243-259.
36. Hill, E. L. (2004). Evaluating the theory of executive dysfunction in autism. Developmental Review, 24, 189-233.
37. Howlin, P. (1998). Practitioner review: Psychological and educational treatments for autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 39, 307-322. doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00327
38. Izawa, J., Pekny, S. E., Marko, M. K., Haswell, C. C., Shadmehr, R., & Mostofsky, S. H. (2012). Motor learning relies on integrated sensory inputs in ADHD, but over-selectively on proprioception in autism spectrum conditions. Autism Research, 5(2), 124-136. doi:10.1002/aur.1222
39. Jarrold, W., Gwaltney, M., Hatt, N., McIntyre, N., Kim, W., Solomon, M. Mundy, P. (2011). A virtual reality study of complex social-attention in autism. Paper presented at the International Meeting For Autism Research, San Diego, CA.
40. Jones, A. (2010). Affective issues in learning technologies: Emotional responses to technology and technology's role in supporting socio-emotional skills. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1-22.
41. Kim, K., & Mundy, P. (2012). Joint attention, social-cognition, and recognition memory in adults. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 1-11. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2012.00172
42. Klin, A. (2000). Attributing social meaning to ambiguous visual stimuli in higher-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome: The social attribution task. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 41, 831-846.
43. Klin, A., Jones, W., Schultz, R., & Volkmar, F. (2003). The enactive mind, or from actions to cognition: Lessons from autism. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 358(1430), 345-360.
44. Klin, A., Jones, W., Schultz, R., Volkmar, F., & Cohen, D. (2002). Defining and quantifying the social phenotype in autism. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 895-908.
45. Krauss, R. M., & Glucksberg, S. (1969). The development of communication: Competence as a function of age. Child Development, 40, 255-266.
46. Latash, M. L. (1998). Virtual reality: A fascinating tool for motor rehabilitation (to be used with caution). Disability and Rehabilitation, 20(3), 104-105.
47. Lillard, A. S. (2007). Montessori: The science behind the genius. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
48. Lord, C., & Jones, R. M. (2012). Annual research review: Re-thinking the classification of autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 53, 490-509. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02547.x
49. Low, J., & Perner, J. (2012). Implicit and explicit theory of mind: State of the art. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 30(1), 1-13. doi:10.1111/j.2044-835X.2011.02074.x
50. McCracken, H. (1990). Luxo Sr. An Interview with John Lasseter. Animato.
51. McDonnell, A. A. (2010). Managing aggressive behaviour in care settings: Understanding and applying low arousal approaches. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
52. McDuffie, A., Yoder, P., & Stone, W. (2006). Fast-mapping in young children with autism spectrum disorders. First Language, 26, 421-438.
53. McGeorge, P., Phillips, L. H., Crawford, J. R., Garden, S. E., Della Sala, S., Milne, A. B. Callender, J. S. (2001). Using virtual environments in the assessment of executive dysfunction. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 10, 375-383.
54. Mitchell, P., Parsons, S., & Leonard, A. (2007). Using virtual environments for teaching social understanding to 6 adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 589-600.
55. Mori, M. (1970). The uncanny valley. Energy, 7(4), 33-35.
56. Mostofsky, S. H., & Ewen, J. B. (2011). Altered connectivity and action model formation in autism is autism. Neuroscientist, 17, 437-448. doi:10.1177/1073858410392381
57. Mottron, L., & Belleville, S. (1993). A study of perceptual analysis in a high-level autistic subject with exceptional graphic abilities. Brain and Cognition, 23, 279-309.
58. Mottron, L., Dawson, M., Soulieres, I., Hubert, B., & Burack, J. (2006). Enhanced perceptual functioning in autism: An update, and eight principles of autistic perception. Journal Of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1), 27-43.
59. Mundy, P., & Newell, L. (2007). Attention, joint attention, and social cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 269-274. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00518.x
60. Norbury, C. F., Brock, J., Cragg, L., Einav, S., Griffiths, H., & Nation, K. (2009). Eye-movement patterns are associated with communicative competence in autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 50, 834-842. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02073.x
61. Parsons, S. (2007). Virtual environments for social skills intervention: Current findings and future challenges. In D. García-Villamisar (Ed.), El autismo en personas adultas. Nuevas perspectivas de futuro (pp. 47-63). Madrid: Edit Real Patronato sobre Discapacidad. Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales. Gobierno de España. Depósito legal: M-35365-2007.
62. Parsons, S., & Cobb, S. (2011). State-of-the-art of virtual reality technologies for children on the autism spectrum. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 26, 355-366.
63. Parsons, S., Leonard, A., & Mitchell, P. (2006). Virtual environments for social skills training: Comments from two adolescents with autistic spectrum disorder. Computers and Education, 47, 186-206.
64. Parsons, S., Millen, L., Garib-Penna, S., & Cobb, S. (2011). Participatory design in the development of innovative technologies for children and young people on the autism spectrum: The COSPATIAL project. Journal of Assistive Technologies, 5, 29-34.
65. Parsons, S., & Mitchell, P. (2002). The potential of virtual reality in social skills training for people with autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 46, 430-443.
66. Pellicano, E. (2010). The development of core cognitive skills in autism: A 3-year prospective study. Child Development, 81, 1400-1416.
67. Pellicano, E., & Macrae, C. N. (2009). Mutual eye gaze facilitates person categorization for typically developing children, but not for children with autism. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 1094-1099. doi:10.3758/pbr.16.6.1094
68. Pellicano, E., Maybery, M., Durkin, K., & Maley, A. (2006). Multiple cognitive capabilities/deficits in children with an autism spectrum disorder: 'Weak' central coherence and its relationship to theory of mind and executive control. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 77-98.
69. Pennington, B. F. (2006). From single to multiple deficit models of developmental disorders. Cognition, 101, 385-413.
70. Piaget, J. (1926). The language and thought of the child. London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
71. Plaisted, K. C. (2001). Reduced generalization in autism: An alternative to weak central coherence. In J. A. Burack, T. Charman, N. Yirmiya, & P. R. Zelazo (Eds.), The development of autism: Perspectives from theory and research (pp. 149-172). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
72. Pollick, F. E. (2010). In search of the uncanny valley. In P. Daras & O. Mayora (Eds.), User centric media (pp. 69-78). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer.
73. Porayska-Pomsta, K., Bernardini, S., & Rajendran, G. (2009). Embodiment as a means for scaffolding young children's social skill acquisition. Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (ICD'09), Como, Italy.
74. Porayska-Pomsta, K., Frauenberger, C., Pain, H., Rajendran, G., Smith, T., Menzies, R. Lemon, O. (2012). Developing technology for autism: An interdisciplinary approach. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 16, 117-127. doi:10.1007/s00779-011-0384-2
75. Premack, D., & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 4, 515-526.
76. Rajendran, G., Law, A. S., Logie, R. H., van der Meulen, M., Fraser, D., & Corley, M. (2011). Investigating multitasking in high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders using the virtual errands task. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41, 1445-1454. doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1151-3
77. Rajendran, G., & Mitchell, P. (2000). Computer mediated interaction in Asperger's syndrome: The Bubble Dialogue program. Computers and Education, 35, 189-207.
78. Rajendran, G., & Mitchell, P. (2006). Text chat as a tool for referential questioning in Asperger syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49, 102-112.
79. Rajendran, G., & Mitchell, P. (2007). Cognitive theories of autism. Developmental Review, 27, 224-260.
80. Rajendran, G., Mitchell, P., & Rickards, H. (2005). How do individuals with Asperger syndrome respond to nonliteral language and inappropriate requests in computer-mediated communication? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35, 187-207.
81. Rao, P. A., Beidel, D. C., & Murray, M. J. (2008). Social skills interventions for children with Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning autism: A review and recommendations. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 353-361. doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0402-4
82. Rieser, J. J., Garing, A. E., & Young, M. F. (1994). Imagery, action, and young children's spatial orientation - It's not being there that counts, it's what one has in mind. Child Development, 65, 1262-1278. doi:10.2307/1131498
83. Robinson, E., & Whittaker, S. (1987). Children's conception of relations between messages meanings and reality. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 81-90.
84. Rogers, S., & Williams, J. G. (2006). Imitation in autism: Findings and controversies. In S. Rogers & J. G. Williams (Eds.), Imitation and the social mind: Autism and typical development (pp. 277-303). New York, NY: Guildford.
85. Ropar, D., & Mitchell, P. (2002). Shape constancy in autism: The role of prior knowledge and perspective cues. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 43, 647-653.
86. Russell, J. (1996). Agency. Its role in mental development. Hove, England: Erlbaum.
87. Sayers, N., Oliver, C., Ruddick, L., & Wallis, B. (2011). Stereotyped behaviour in children with autism and intellectual disability: An examination of the executive dysfunction hypothesis. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 55, 699-709. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01370.x
88. Shallice, T., & Burgess, P. W. (1991). Deficits in strategy application following frontal-lobe damage in man. Brain, 114, 727-741.
89. Sharpe, D. L., & Lee Baker, D. (2007). Financial issues associated with having a child with autism. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 28, 247-264. doi:10.1007/s10834-007-9059-6
90. Skuse, D. H. (2012). DSM-5's conceptualization of autistic disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 51, 344-346. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2012.02.009
91. Slater, M. (2009). Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 364(1535), 3549-3557. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0138
92. Spence, S. J., & Thurm, A. (2010). Testing autism interventions: Trials and tribulations. Lancet, 375(9732), 2124-2125. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(10)60757-x
93. Stieglitz Ham, H., Bartolo, A., Corley, M., Rajendran, G., Szabo, A., & Swanson, S. (2011). Exploring the relationship between gestural recognition and imitation: Evidence of dyspraxia in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(1), 1-12. doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1011-1
94. Swain, F. (2011). Susan Greenfield: Living online is changing our brains. New Scientist.
95. Swettenham, J. (1996). Can children with autism be taught to understand false belief using computers? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 37, 157-165.
96. Tomasello, M. (2008). Origins of human communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
97. Trepagnier, C. G. (1999). Virtual environments for the investigation and rehabilitation of cognitive and perceptual impairments. NeuroRehabilitation, 12, 63-72.
98. Tversky, B., & Hard, B. M. (2009). Embodied and disembodied cognition: Spatial perspective-taking. Cognition, 110, 124-129. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.10.008
99. Wallace, S., Parsons, S., Westbury, A., White, K., White, K., & Bailey, A. (2010). Sense of presence and atypical social judgments in immersive virtual environments. Responses of adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Autism, 14, 199-213. doi:10.1177/1362361310363283
100. Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 625-636. doi:10.3758/bf03196322