TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION Running Head: TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION to CHILDREN with AUTISM: E
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION Running head: TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION TO CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: EFFECTS OF TWO COMPUTER DISPLAYED INTERVENTIONS by Janet Ruth MacFarlane B.A., (First Class Honors), Simon Fraser University, 2004 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the Faculty of Education © Janet Ruth MacFarlane 2010 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2010 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for Fair Dealing. Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. Declaration of Partial Copyright Licence The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection (currently available to the public at the “Institutional Repository” link of the SFU Library website <www.lib.sfu.ca> at: <http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/handle/1892/112>) and, without changing the content, to translate the thesis/project or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. While licensing SFU to permit the above uses, the author retains copyright in the thesis, project or extended essays, including the right to change the work for subsequent purposes, including editing and publishing the work in whole or in part, and licensing other parties, as the author may desire. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada Last revision: Spring 09 TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION III Abstract This study was conducted to determine if a computer-based intervention would be effective for increasing the emotion recognition ability of twin adolescents with autism and severe communication deficits. In the first experiment, the participants viewed The Transporters, with and without prompting, and they did not demonstrate increased emotion recognition ability. In the second experiment, the intervention included the Applied Behaviour Analysis teaching technique, general case analysis. Prompting and reinforcement was used to teach the twin participants multiple examples of emotional expressions demonstrated by videotaped actors. Examples of facial actions were also taught in an attempt to enhance the participants’ discrimination ability. In the second experiment, the scores for one of the participants increased for recognition of happy, sad, and surprised, and he demonstrated generalization ability. The second participant mastered one emotional expression, surprised, and he was able to generalize to a novel set of stimuli. Keywords: autism; emotion recognition; computer intervention; discrete trial; communication; language TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION IV Aknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr. Maureen Hoskyn, and Dr. Paul Neufeld, for their assistance with this extensive project. I appreciated their patience and support. TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION V Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................................. ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Aknowledgements.............................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents .................................................................................................................v List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Literature Review.................................................................................................................9 Background ......................................................................................................................9 Characteristics of Autism .................................................................................................9 Emotion Recognition Research ......................................................................................12 Face Processing Research ..............................................................................................15 Basis of Social Deficits ...............................................................................................15 Development of Face Processing Skills .....................................................................16 Face Processing Strategies ..........................................................................................17 Teaching Children with Autism Using Video-Presented Stimuli ..................................19 Teaching Children with Autism with Applied Behaviour Analysis ..............................22 Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) ...................................................................................22 Generalization of Behaviour Change Techniques ......................................................24 Intervention Research Designs .......................................................................................26 Single-Case Research Design .....................................................................................26 Multiple Baseline Research Design ............................................................................27 TEACHING EMOTION RECOGNITION VI Experiment 1: The Transporters Intervention ...................................................................29 Rationale .........................................................................................................................29 Research Question ..........................................................................................................29 Method ...........................................................................................................................31 Participants .................................................................................................................31 Single-Case Research Design .....................................................................................35 Setting .......................................................................................................................35 Independent Variable ..................................................................................................35 Dependent Variables ...................................................................................................36 Procedures ...................................................................................................................37 Intervention .................................................................................................................37 Treatment Integrity .....................................................................................................38 Inter-observer Reliability ............................................................................................39 Results ............................................................................................................................40 Myles .......................................................................................................................40 Ben .......................................................................................................................41 Discussion ......................................................................................................................48 Experiment 2: General Case Analysis Intervention ..........................................................50 Rationale .........................................................................................................................50 Research Question ..........................................................................................................51