Stretching the Social: Broadening the Behavioral Indicators of Sociality

Akhtar, Nameera; Jaswal, Vikram K.

doi:10.1111/cdep.12351

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The implications of our findings are particularly profound with regard to cross-cultural differences in infants’ everyday learning environments (Akhtar & Jaswal, 2020). Children across cultural contexts participate to highly variable extents in direct face-to-face interactions (e.g., Mesman et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Observing others’ joint attention increases 9-month-old infants’ object encoding.

Thiele

Hepach

Michel

et al. 2021

Developmental Psychology

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In direct interactions with others, 9-month-old infants' learning about objects is facilitated when the interaction partner addresses the infant through eye contact before looking toward an object. In this study we investigated whether similar factors promote infants' observational learning from third-party interactions. In Experiment 1, 9-month-old typically developing infants from mixed socioeconomic backgrounds from urban Germany (N = 32, 13 female) were presented with four types of videos showing one object and two adults. The scenarios varied systematically regarding the eye contact between the adults (eye contact or no eye contact), and the adults' object-directed gaze (looking toward or away from the object). To assess infants' encoding performance we measured their looking times when seeing the familiarized object subsequently next to a novel object, interpreting an enhanced novelty preference as reversely indicating greater encoding of the familiarized object. Infants showed an increased novelty preference, but only after observing a joint attentional setting during which two adults attended to the familiarized object together (following eye contact). In Experiment 2, we found an identical pattern of results in a matched first-party design in which 9-month-old infants (N = 32, 16 female) were directly addressed by one single adult on screen. Infants' encoding was only enhanced when the adult made eye contact with the infant before looking at an object. Together, this suggests that the capacity to learn through observing others' interactions emerges already in the first postnatal year, and that it may depend on similar factors as infants' learning through direct social engagement.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Observing others’ joint attention increases 9-month-old infants’ object encoding.

Thiele

Hepach

Michel

et al. 2021

Developmental Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This finding adds to a growing body of research, which has showed altered mimicry of facial expressions presented to ASC participants on computer screens (Helt et al, 2020;Oberman et al, 2009;Senju et al, 2007) and of gestures performed during live interactions (Helt et al, 2010). Importantly, our interaction task was designed to be naturalistic, and yet, not biased towards NT interactions, which are characterised by coordinated exchanges such as mutual eye gaze and turn-taking (Akhtar & Jaswal, 2020). A naturalistic environment was attained for both ASC and NT participants by making the video as lifelike as possible and introducing the interaction task as a semi-structured memory game, while any potential experimenter bias and performance demands were eliminated through presenting the partner's actions via a pre-recorded video.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Mimicry is associated with procedural learning, not social bonding, neural systems in autism

Tunçgenç

Koch

Herstic

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Mimicry facilitates social bonding throughout the lifespan. Mimicry impairments in autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are widely reported, including differentiation of the brain networks associated with its social bonding and learning functions. This study examined associations between volumes of brain regions associated with social bonding versus procedural skill learning, and mimicry of gestures during a naturalistic interaction in ASC and neurotypical (NT) children. Consistent with predictions, results revealed reduced mimicry in ASC relative to the NT children. Mimicry frequency was negatively associated with autism symptom severity. Mimicry was predicted predominantly by the volume of procedural skill learning regions in ASC, and by bonding regions in NT. Further, bonding regions contributed significantly less to mimicry in ASC than in NT, while the contribution of learning regions was not different across groups. These findings suggest that associating mimicry with skill learning, rather than social bonding, may partially explain observed communication difficulties in ASC.

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“…We would argue that these data are too often skewed by biased frames (of presumed incompetence) that distort and misrepresent individuals with CCN and exclude their perspectives. This argument is sustained by research that shows conventional measures for intelligence (e.g., WISC test batteries) generally underestimate the ability of nonspeaking autistics ( Courchesne et al, 2015 ; Nadar et al, 2016 ; Akhtar and Jaswal, 2019 ). When individuals with CCN, who were identified as having Intellectual Disability using language-based measures, were reassessed using more appropriate non-language-based instruments that employ visual spatial tasks, a significant proportion were found to be within or above the expected IQ range ( Dawson et al, 2007 ; Barbeau et al, 2013 ; Courchesne et al, 2015 ; Crossley and Zimmerman, 2019 ).…”

Section: Discussion: Presumption Of Communication Incompetencementioning

confidence: 99%

Perspective: Presuming Autistic Communication Competence and Reframing Facilitated Communication

2022

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Debate surrounding the validity of the method of supported typing known as facilitated communication (FC) has been continuous since its inception in the 1990s. Views are polarized on whether FC can be considered an authenticated method for use by people with complex communication needs (CCN) or significant challenges in speech, language, and communication. This perspective article presents an analysis of the research arguing for—and against—the use of FC, combined with the lived experience knowledge of autistic adults who utilize FC, to rehabilitate its current standing as discredited and unevidenced. By considering extant qualitative and quantitative studies, as well as personal accounts of the use of this particular Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) method, the authors argue that the current dismissal of FC is rooted in ableist and outdated approaches. FC research should be reconsidered and reconducted using current best practice autism research approaches, including coproduction and a presumption of autistic communication competence, to assess its validity as a potential AAC method for autistic individuals.

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Stretching the Social: Broadening the Behavioral Indicators of Sociality

Cited by 18 publications

References 34 publications

Observing others’ joint attention increases 9-month-old infants’ object encoding.

Observing others’ joint attention increases 9-month-old infants’ object encoding.

Mimicry is associated with procedural learning, not social bonding, neural systems in autism

Perspective: Presuming Autistic Communication Competence and Reframing Facilitated Communication

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