Social Attention in a Virtual Public Speaking Task in Higher Functioning Children With Autism

Abstract

Background Impairments in social attention play a major role in autism, but little is known about their role in development after preschool. In this study a public speaking task was used to study social attention, its moderators, and its association with classroom learning in elementary and secondary students with higher functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD). Method Thirty-seven students with HFASD and 54 age and IQ-matched peers without symptoms of ASD were assessed in a virtual classroom public speaking paradigm. This paradigm assessed the ability to attend to 9 avatar peers seated at a table, while simultaneously answering self-referenced questions. Results Students with HFASD looked less frequently to avatar peers in the classroom while talking. However, social attention was moderated in the HFASD sample such that students with lower IQ, and/or more symptoms of social anxiety, and/or more ADHD Inattentive symptoms, displayed more atypical social attention. Group differences were more pronounced when the classroom contained social avatars versus non-social targets. Moreover, measures of social attention rather than non-social attention were significantly associated with parent report and objective measures of learning in the classroom. Conclusions The data in this study supports the hypothesis of the Social Attention Model of ASD that social attention disturbance remains part of the school-aged phenotype of autism that is related to syndrome specific problems in social learning. More research of this kind would likely contribute to advances in the understanding of the development of autism and educational intervention approaches for affected school-aged children.

Technology-Facilitated Diagnosis and Treatment of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Engineering Perspective

“…Some studies did use such virtual reality systems/devices [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. However, many studies used conventional computer monitors to display virtual reality scenes with one or more avatars [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47].…”

“…In [28], a head-mounted display (eMagin Z800 3DVisor from eMagin Corporation at Bellevue, WA, USA) was used to present a virtual classroom containing multiple avatars to a participant. Different from virtual reality scenes provided by a conventional computer monitor, head-mounted display is capable of rendering the scenes in 3-dimension using stereoscopic images [50].…”

“…In [28,37,[39][40][41]57], the Vizard Virtual Reality Toolkit, a commercial product from WorldViz (http://www.worldviz.com/vizard-virtual-reality-software/) was used to produce the avatars in the study. The toolkit contains a PeopleMaker program, which users can use to custom design morphable 3D heads for avatars for different emotion expressions.…”

“…In [28], the Vizard Virtual Reality Toolkit is used to develop a virtual 360-degree classroom that is delivered to a participant via a head-mounted display. Due to the 360-degree virtual environment, a participant would have to turn his/her head up to 60 degrees left or right to see all avatars in the scene.…”

“…In [37,40,41], real 2D pictures of social environments were used for building the scenes. In other works, the scene is often designed using virtual 3D objects, such as [28], where a virtual classroom with multiple avatars is used in the study.…”