Gnanathusharan Rajendran

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.

Developing technology for autism: an interdisciplinary approach

We present an interdisciplinary methodology for designing interactive multi-modal technology for young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In line with many other researchers in the field, we believe that the key to developing technology in this context is to embrace perspectives from diverse disciplines to arrive at a methodology that delivers satisfactory outcomes for all stakeholders. The ECHOES project provided us with the opportunity to develop a technology-enhanced learning (TEL) environment that facilitates acquisition and exploration of social skills by typically developing (TD) children and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). ECHOES’ methodology and the learning environment rely crucially on multi-disciplinary expertise including developmental psychology, visual arts, human–computer interaction, artificial intelligence, education, and several other cognate disciplines. In this article, we reflect on the methods needed to develop a TEL environment for young users with ASDs by identifying key features, benefits, and challenges of this approach.

Exploring the Relationship Between Gestural Recognition and Imitation: Evidence of Dyspraxia in Autism Spectrum Disorders

In this study, the relationship between gesture recognition and imitation was explored. Nineteen individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were compared to a control group of 23 typically developing children on their ability to imitate and recognize three gesture types (transitive, intransitive, and pantomimes). The ASD group performed more poorly than controls on all tasks of recognition and imitation. Higher performance on tests of working memory was associated with increased odds of successful imitation in both groups. Group differences remained even when working memory was statistically controlled for. An association was revealed in the ASD group between pantomime recognition and imitation but a similar association was not identified for intransitive gestures suggesting that recognition alone is not sufficient for imitation success.

How Perception Impacts on Drawings.

In 3 experiments the authors investigate how errors in perception produce errors in drawings. In Experiment 1, when Shepard stimuli were shown as a pair of tables, participants made severe errors in trying to adjust 1 part of the stimulus to match the other. When the table legs were removed, revealing a pair of parallelograms with minimal perspective cues, the illusion was weaker. The authors predicted that participants would err when drawing the table but not the parallelogram stimuli. The results of Experiment 2 support the prediction and establish a direct link between degree of perceptual distortion of the table stimuli and the severity of error in drawing. When drawing only the right-hand part of the figure, participants also erred to a greater degree in drawing the table than the parallelogram (Experiment 3). Collectively, the results suggest that perceptual distortion is linked with errors in drawing the table stimuli.

Social communication between virtual characters and children with autism

Children with ASD have difficulty with social communication, particularly joint attention. Interaction in a virtual environment (VE) may be a means for both understanding these difficulties and addressing them. It is first necessary to discover how this population interacts with virtual characters, and whether they can follow joint attention cues in a VE. This paper describes a study in which 32 children with ASD used the ECHOES VE to assist a virtual character in selecting objects by following the characters gaze and/or pointing. Both accuracy and reaction time data suggest that children were able to successfully complete the task, and qualitative data further suggests that most children perceived the character as an intentional being with relevant, mutually directed behaviour.

Computer mediated interaction in Asperger's syndrome: the Bubble Dialogue program

An automatic exposure control device for a camera capable of aperture preferred (ES), shutter preferred (EE), and programmed (ES-EE) operation. Transducers and log compression electronic devices develop voltages dependent upon the Bv, Sv, Av and Tv values either manually or automatically set in the camera. Other circuit means adds and subtracts the voltages to satisfy the equation Bv + Sv = Av + Tv, and to thereby generate either Av, Tv or both, depending on the mode of operation. A diaphragm control apparatus is connected to respond to the circuit in dependence upon the values Tv, Bv and Sv during the EE and ES-EE modes. During the latter mode the Tv set into the circuit will not necessarily be the same Tv satisfying the equation above. During the ES mode the shutter speed is controlled in dependence upon the values Bv, Sv and Av.

Virtual Environments and Autism: A Developmental Psychopathological Approach.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders supposedly have an affinity with information and communication technology (ICT), making it an ideally suited media for this population. Virtual environments (VEs) ‐ both two-dimensional and immersive ‐ represent a particular kind of ICT that might be of special benefit. Specifically, this paper discusses the importance of psychological theory for VE designed for this population. I describe the contribution that different theories of autism (e.g., theory of mind, executive function, weak central coherence theory) have made and can make, as well as the potential of other non-autism-specific theories (e.g., embodied cognition). These technologies not only illuminate our understanding of autism, but they can also be used to develop new technologies for people without autism. So, as well as being an area of specialism, I argue that VE research in autism has extended ‐ and will go onto ‐ the boundaries of human‐computer interaction more generally. This is because autism provides a unique window into human social communication and learning. Further, this field offers a chance for better inclusivity for individuals with autism within a digital society.

Evidence for syntactic alignment in children with autism

We report an experiment that examined whether children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) spontaneously converge, or align, syntactic structure with a conversational partner. Children with ASD were more likely to produce a passive structure to describe a picture after hearing their interlocutor use a passive structure to describe an unrelated picture when playing a card game. Furthermore, they converged syntactic structure with their interlocutor to the same extent as did both chronological and verbal age-matched controls. These results suggest that the linguistic impairment that is characteristic of children with ASD, and in particular their difficulty with interactive language usage, cannot be explained in terms of a general deficit in linguistic imitation.

Investigating Multitasking in High-Functioning Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders Using the Virtual Errands Task

Using a modified version of the Virtual Errands Task (VET; McGeorge et al. in Presence-Teleop Virtual Environ 10(4):375–383, 2001), we investigated the executive ability of multitasking in 18 high-functioning adolescents with ASD and 18 typically developing adolescents. The VET requires multitasking (Law et al. in Acta Psychol 122(1):27–44, 2006) because there is a limited amount of time in which to complete the errands. ANCOVA revealed that the ASD group completed fewer tasks, broke more rules and rigidly followed the task list in the order of presentation. Our findings suggest that executive problems of planning inflexibility, inhibition, as well as difficulties with prospective memory (remembering to carry out intentions) may lie behind multitasking difficulties in ASD.

Case report: selective deficit in the production of intransitive gestures in an individual with autism

Left-hemisphere brain damage may result in limb apraxia, a deficit in the processing of gestures ([Rothi et al., 1991] and Cubelli et al., 2000 R. Cubelli, C. Marchetti, G. Boscolo and S. Della Sala, Cognition in action: Testing a model of limb apraxia, Brain and Cognition 44 (2000), pp. 144-165. Abstract | PDF (353 K) | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (53)[Cubelli et al., 2000]) which may be transitive (i.e., actual object use), intransitive (i.e., communicative), pantomime (i.e., a gestures that describe the object use), or meaningless gestures (i.e., arbitrary gestures that have no semantics).