Social Learning in Autism

- Lindsey, Peiyao, Naila, Stephanie, Amanda

Understanding the Levels of A.S.D.

“Autism or A.S.D. is characterized by levels of manifestations with impairments in social behavior, stereotyped movements, difficulty in communication and interaction with people” (Goulart et al., 2013).

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Amanda Gaydosh

Topic #1: Why do social learning issues occur for people with Autism?

Name: Lindsey Cicalese

Probabilistic Reinforcement Learning in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Authors:

Solomon, M., Smith, A. C., Frank, M. J., Ly, S., & Carter, C. S. (2011)

Published in:

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research

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Lindsey

Autism as a Disorder of Learning

• Autism is not commonly categorized as a disorder of learning; studies usually focus on recognition and executive function in ASD
• This is a phenomenon that researchers view as being a possible deficit to understanding the development of social learning in Autistic Children

Lindsey

Experiment

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This experiment tests the reinforcement learning of a group of adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (both high and low functioning), and compares the results to the reinforcement learning of a control group of neurotypical adults. All of the subjects were unfamiliar with Japanese.

The experiment was done on a computer and subjects were presented with three different stimulus pairings of two Japanese characters in a randomized order. Subjects were split into three different groups: one received positive reinforcement for choosing the correct pairing 80% of the time, the second 70%, and the last 60%.

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Lindsey

Results and Conclusions of the Study

Results:

• Both groups were able to learn to distinguish the correct pairs from the incorrect ones after training
• 80% reinforcement: results were comparable between each group
• 70% reinforcement: ASD group recognized correct pairings significantly less than the control group
• 60% reinforcement: ASD group out-performed the control group in recognizing correct pairings

Conclusion:

• There are clear early learning differences between people with ASD and those who are neurotypical, but both groups can achieve similar performance levels as a function of time.

Lindsey

Implications of this Study

This experiment proves the hypothesis that learning and reinforcement have a significant impact on the impairments that occur in persons with ASD, including those of social learning.

Specifically, this study evaluates how the lack of adaptability that is often seen in subjects with ASD can be due to difficulty understanding positive reinforcement.

In conclusion, this study has significant implications for clinical practice. By ensuring that individuals are aware of task cues, and that they are able to focus on “true feedback” social learning may be improved through behavioral learning therapies.

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Lindsey

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#2: Trust and Deception in Children with ASD: A Social Learning Perspective

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Authors:

Yang, Yiying ; Tian, Yuan ; Fang, Jing ; Lu, Haoyang ; Wei, Kunlin ; Yi, Li

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Published in:

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2016-12-16, Vol. 47

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Lindsey

Do abnormal trust behaviors in those with ASD correspond to deficits in social learning?

Research has proved that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder exhibit behaviors that convey a higher sense of abnormal distrust than neurotypical individuals.

This study focuses on determining whether these abnormal behaviors are due to specific deficiencies in social learning and identifying social cues.

The experiment involves 42 high-functioning children with ASD and 38 typically developed children of similar age and ability. Subjects participated in an activity where they were told to attempt to receive the most prizes possible. Of the two experimenters present, one attempted to deceive the participants of where the prize was located. Subjects were divided into either a social cue, or non social cue condition.

Lindsey

Results and Conclusions of the Study

• Children with ASD were more likely to choose that the prize was in the baited box (the one that experimenters mislead them to believe held the prize) then the typically developed group in the social cue condition.
• However, there were equal rates of choosing the baited box among the two groups in the non-social cue condition.
• Overall, children with ASD were much slower to distrust the experimenters who repeatedly deceived them in the experiment than Typically Developing children

Conclusion

These findings demonstrate that abnormal trust and deception behaviors in children with Autism is due to their decreased ability to effectively learn within social contexts.

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Lindsey

Implications of the Study

This study has major implications for the types of interventions that will be most successful in improving social learning in children with ASD. The inability for children with ASD to pick up on social phenomenons such as deception, is evidence that there is in fact a diminished ability to recognize social cues in this population. Therefore social learning training developed for those with ASD should start small with easy situations and social cues and slowly become harder, as beginning with more complex situations and cues will have minimal effect on improving social learning.

Lindsey

Topic #2: How does parenting style and early childhood intervention affect children with autism?

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By: Stephanie Nemeth

Does parenting style affect the autism phenotype?

• Yes! Parenting style does affect the autism phenotype
• Permissive parenting
• Behavior problems of children with autism increased, prosocial behavior of children with autism decreased
• Authoritarian and authoritative parenting
• Decrease in behavioral problems in children with autism, increase in prosocial behavior in children with autism
• Conclusion
• Authoritarian and authoritative parenting is helpful in being a support system for those developing with autism spectrum disorders, compared to permissive parenting

(Mohammadi & Zarafshan, 2014)

Stephanie

Study #1: The effects of intellectual functioning and autism severity on outcome of early behavioral intervention for children with autism

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Authors:

Esther Ben-Itzchak, Ditza A. Zachor (2007)

Published in:

Research in developmental disabilities, 28(3), 287–303.

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Stephanie

Experiment

• Goal:
• Look at early behavioral intervention for children with autism
• Participants
• 25 children with autism (aged 20-32 months) part of an intensive behavioral intervention program
• Method
• Six different developmental behavioral areas looked at pre- and post- one year of intervention
• Behavioral domains looked at: imitation, receptive language, expressive language, nonverbal communication skills, play skills, stereotyped behaviors
• Children are divided into groups based on IQ and on the severity of their social interaction/communication deficits

Stephanie

Results and Conclusion of the Study

• Results
• Statistically significant progress for all of the developmental-behavior areas after 1 year of intervention
• Children with higher IQ and less severe social interaction/communication deficits were better with:
• Receptive language
• Expressive language
• Play skills
• A child’s social abilities was associated with expressive language progress
• Both studied groups improved in
• Receptive language skills
• Conclusion
• Early intensive intervention is very important for children with autism spectrum disorder

Stephanie

Implications of the Study

This study shows that early intervention is very important for children with autism.

Specifically, this study shows that key areas in development such as specifically imitation, receptive language, expressive language, nonverbal communication skills, play skills, and stereotyped behaviors are all improved in children with autism who engage in behavioral intervention. Parents of children with autism should put their children into these programs to help them thrive despite their “adverse” circumstances.

This study shows parents the importance of moving fast with their children with autism in order to get them the care that they need and help them to be successful in future years to come.

Stephanie

Summary of Topic 2

• Parenting style affects children with autism
• Better to have the styles of either authoritarian or authoritative
• Early childhood intervention has positive effects on children with autism

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Stephanie

Topic 3: Theory of mind: the ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others, serving as one of the foundational elements for social interaction.

Naila Emini

Theory of Mind

Topic: What is the Theory of Mind?

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Authors:

Goldman, A. C.

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Published in:

Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Cognitive Science (2012) Edited by Eric Margolis, Richard Samuels, and Stephen Stich

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Naila Emini

Summary of Paper

The Theory of Mind is a person’s ability to attribute mental states to themselves and others. Meaning, as humans we have a set of social skills that allows us to pick up on social cues in our environments. These set of skills are considered the Theory of Mind in psychology.

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Teaching Children with Autism to Identify and Respond Appropriately to the Preferences of Others During Play

Authors:

Najdowski, A. C., St. Clair, M., Persicke, A., Fullen, J. A., Child, A., & Tarbox, J. (2018).

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Published in:

Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis

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Naila Emini

How does Theory of Mind relate to Autism?

Studies have shown that those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, lack the social skill set that is known as the Theory of Mind. A person diagnosed with ASD tends to not be able to pick up on social cues or easily socialize with others. Many that do not have the disorder, assume that those with ASD are anti social, when in reality they simply do not have the cognitive capacity to attribute these mental states to themselves, or others.

However, the following experiment will explain and demonstrate that although persons diagnosed with ASD may lack in these social skills, they may also be learned.

Naila Emini

Experiment

This experiment was conducted to try and teach children with Autism Spectrum Disorder to identify peer preferences (likes and dislikes) and based on these preferences, offer what the peer may like.

The experiment used structured play dates and training packages used in previous experiments as a way to evaluate them. Each child was to attend to, identify, and respond appropriately to their peers’ preferences during play using a treatment model that was similar to one from a previous study.

Ultimately the experiment was to teach these children new skills of socialization through different behavioral skills training that included instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and practice until the children were able to give the appropriate response.

Naila Emini

Results & Conclusion

The results of this experiment ended up being similar to other literature and experiments done such as by Peters and Thompson in 2015. The results showed that individuals with ASD were able to be taught how to discriminate responses from peers and change their behavior for better socialization.

Specifically, this experiment showed that preference questions, rules, and praise all taught children with ASD to be able to identify their peers’ preferences during their play dates. The children were able to discriminate toy offers during play and pick different ones depending on the peers’ preference.

Behavioral intervention can be used to teach complex social skills to children with ASD.

Naila Emini

Implications

A person’s ability to attend to other’s preferences or pick up on social cues given by our peers is what psychology considers the Theory of Mind. Many people who are diagnosed with ASD are deficit in these skills, thus lack a theory of mind.

However, this experiment shows us that for those who have ASD and do not have the adequate social skills or proper socialization these skills can be learned. Through proper behavioral intervention as in this experiment, those diagnosed with ASD can learn to acquire these social skills, which will lead to increased opportunities for social interaction.

Naila Emini

Topic#4, How does technology teach Autistic people social skills?

Name: Peiyao Chen

#1 Feasibility Testing of a Wearable Behavioral Aid for Social Learning in Children with Autism

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• Author: Daniels J., Haber N., Voss C., Schwartz J., Tamura S, Fazel A. Kline A., Washington P., Phillips J., Winograd T., Feinstein C. & Wall DP.

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• Publications: Applied Clinical Informatics

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Peiyao

Experiment

• Objective/Problem:
• To test whether the children who wear the technological device, Google Glass, will improve their emotions recognition or not.
• Methods: Controlled Lab Experiment
• 23 ASD (19 M and 4 F, 11.65 years)and 20 NC (14M and 6F, 11.55 years)
• To identify emotions in the images from 7 emotions:
• Happy, Sad, Angry, Scared, Yuck, Surprised, Calm/neutral
• Images show 3 successive batches:
• 1st: Participants don’t get any information after 6 seconds
• 2nd: Participants can get correct answer from Glass after 3 seconds (total still be 6s)
• 3rd: get trained, and don’t get any information again after 6 seconds.
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Peiyao

Findings and Results

Findings:

• 1st batch: ASD: 85.3% Correctly labeled; NC: 85.1%
• 2nd batch: ASD: 93.9%; NC: 94.8%
• 3rd batch: ASD: 87.9%; NC: 90.3%

Results:

Technological devices, such as Google Glass, can increase the chances for subjects with ASD to correctly recognize emotions presented in images.

Peiyao

Implications

This technology device, Google Glass, can be used to teach children with Autism to learn and better recognize emotions, which can help them to better get along with others. When children with Autism can recognize happiness, fear, anger, etc., they will be better able to interpret social contexts in interacting with peers. Thus, technology can be utilized to improve the social skills of people with Autism.

Peiyao

#2 Using a 3D Immersive Virtual Environment System to Enhance Social Understanding and Social Skills for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

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• Authors:
• Cheng Y., Huang C.L., & Yang C.S.

• Publications:
• Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities

Peiyao

Experiment

• Problem:
• To test whether the 3D-SU system (three-dimensional social understanding) can help children with ASDs learn non-verbal communications (NC), Social Initiations (SIs), and Social Cognition, by examine the performance in target behaviors
• 3D-SU System
• People have two virtual environment can choose- classroom or bus
• Interact with environments and answer true-false questions or multiple-choices.
• Rewards for answer correctly; encourage participants for answer false and provide hints.
• Methods
• 3 boys with ASDs-Adam(12.3 years), Ricky(11.5 years), and Noah(10.6 years)
• Systematic observation; Each participant observed separately
• Use A(baseline)-B(intervention)-C(maintenance) design to evaluate the efficacy of 3D-SU system, over 6 weeks
• Target behaviors were examined in the A and C; In the intervention phase, each participant wear a Head-mounted display(HMD) to use the 3D-SU system.

Peiyao

Methods continued.. & findings and results

Methods:

• Two scales to study the changing behaviors: Social Event Card(SEC) for 12 questions about classroom, and Social Behavior Scale (SBS) for 32 questions (half TF, half multiple-choice)
• Each participant answers 3 event questions in SEC and 12 questions from SBS; to test the scores

Findings

• At baseline (A): Adam scores: 8 to 12; Ricky’s: 10 to 14; Noah’s: 3 to 12.
• Interventions (B): all participants’ scores are increase
• Maintenance (C)- The end of the interventions: Adam: 25; Ricky: 26; Noah: 24

Results

• 3D-SU intervention system was effective in improving behavior of NC, SI, and SC

Peiyao

Implications

This study shows that the 3D-SU system does help children with Autism in improving their social skills; such as social cognition, non-verbal communication, and social initiation. For example, this technological device can help children with ASD in deciding how to act in different social situations, such as whether it is appropriate to run in the classroom. Also, children are able to learn the meaning of signs such as waving and shaking hands, and learn to say “ thank you” when others help them.

Meanwhile, children with ASDs should practice their social skills in many other environments not only in the classroom or the bus.

Peiyao

Topic # 5: Autism and communication skills/self expression in social situations: how social learning leads/connects to a lack of social motivation.

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Amanda Gaydosh

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Social Interaction

Behaviours

Communication

Amanda Gaydosh

Amanda Gaydosh

EEG analysis and mobile robot as tools for emotion characterization in autism

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Authors:

Christiane Goulart, Javier Castillo, Carlos Valadao, Teodiano Bastos, Eliete Caldeira

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Published in:

BMC Proceedings: From 5th Congress of the Brazilian Biotechnology Society (SBBIOTEC)

Autism Spectrum Disorder impairments in social behavior, stereotyped movements, difficulty in communication and interaction with people.

• A system composed of a mobile robot to generate interactive tasks with an autistic child, and an EEG (Electronic phalography) used to record brain activity related to the child and their emotions.
• Laser sensor on the robot detects childs location and distance. EEG located on the autistic child's head to read brain waves during interaction, located on the frontal cortex at Fp1, Fp2, F3, and F4.
• Dog Mode- The robot stays at a safe distance from child, when child has no interest in their surroundings, the robot comes close to the child, then once attention is focused on the robot. The robot goes into follower mode.
• Follower Mode- When the child starts interaction with the robot, the robot then starts follower mode, which moves away from the child once the robot has the child's attention.
• The methods used to evaluate autistic child during the experiment with the robot involves Goal Attainment scale, a behavioral evaluation monitoring the emotional state of child.

Amanda Gaydosh

Results & Conclusion

A safe distance was provided from robot to child to observe interaction with the child. The EEG allows monitoring of the child’s brain signals and making a characterization of emotions linked to aspects of the interaction with robots.

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Amanda Gaydosh

Implications

The robot assists directly with the process of social evaluation of autistic children, as a teaching tool for parents, teachers, carers, therapists and researchers. AFter experiment it is possible to establish the corresponding emotions and analyze the evolution of the interaction between child and the robot efficiently.

Amanda Gaydosh

Summary and Conclusions

This project has allowed us to come to several conclusions, based on the research we evaluated, about social learning in subjects with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The research demonstrates that although people with Autism often struggle in understanding social cues and contexts, it is possible to teach and improve their social learning skills. The research focuses on Autism as a disorder of learning, and recognizes the role that a lack of recognition of social cues, communication issues, and abnormal trust behavior, play in contributing to social learning deficiencies. Studies have revealed, however, that behavioral intervention and therapy techniques are effective in increasing the capacity for social learning among those with ASD. Further, research has identified methods to most effectively foster the improvement of social skills such as the use of technology such as the Google Glass, early childhood intervention, an authoritative parenting style, and utilizing therapies that begin easy and eventually grow in difficulty. This research is important because it identifies the root causes of social learning issues in those with ASD, and serves as a model of how to resolve these problems.

- Lindsey, Peiyao, Naila, Stephanie, Amanda

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Bibliography (APA)

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Ben-Itzchak E.,, Zachor D. A. The effects of intellectual functioning and autism severity on outcome of early behavioral intervention for children with autism. (2007). Research in Developmental Disabilities, 28(3), 287-303.

Cheng, Y., Huang, C.-L., & Yang, C.-S. (2015). Using a 3D Immersive Virtual Environment System to Enhance Social Understanding and Social Skills for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 30(4), 222–236. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088357615583473

Goldman A, I. (2012). Theory of Mind. Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Cognitive Science. https://fas-philosophy.rutgers.edu/goldman/Theory%20of%20Mind%20_Oxford%20Handbook_.pdf.pdf

Goulart, C., Castillo, J., Valadão, C. et al. EEG analysis and mobile robot as tools for emotion characterization in autism. BMC Proc 8, P85 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/1753-6561-8-S4-P85

Greene, R., Damiano-Goodwin, C., Walsh, E., Bizzell, J., & Dichter, G. (2020, March 21). Neural Mechanisms of Vicarious Reward Processing in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Retrieved November 17, 2020, from https://www.hindawi.com/journals/aurt/2020/8014248/

Mohammadi, M., & Zarafshan, H. (2014). Family function, Parenting Style and Broader Autism Phenotype as Predicting Factors of Psychological Adjustment in Typically Developing Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Iranian journal of psychiatry, 9(2), 55–63.

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- Lindsey, Peiyao, Naila, Stephanie, Amanda

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Bibliography (APA) continued

Najdowski, A. C., St. Clair, M., Persicke, A., Fullen, J. A., Child, A., & Tarbox, J. (2018). Teaching children with autism to identify and respond appropriately to the preferences of others during play. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 51(4), 890–898. https://doi-org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/10.1002/jaba.494 https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jaba.494

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Schohl, K.A., Van Hecke, A.V., Carson, A.M. et al. A Replication and Extension of the PEERS Intervention: Examining Effects on Social Skills and Social Anxiety in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 532–545 (2013). https://doi-org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/10.1007/s10803-013-1900-1

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Solomon, M., Smith, A. C., Frank, M. J., Ly, S., & Carter, C. S. (2011). Probabilistic reinforcement learning in adults with autism spectrum disorders. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 4(2), 109–120. https://doi-org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/10.1002/aur.177

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Yang, Y., Tian, Y., Fang, J. et al. Trust and Deception in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Social Learning Perspective. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 615–625 (2017). https://doi-org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/10.1007/s10803-016-2983-2

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- Lindsey, Peiyao, Naila, Stephanie, Amanda

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