RESUMEN
LAY ABSTRACT: 'Autistic inertia' is a term used by Autistic people to refer to difficulties with starting and stopping tasks. However, there has not been much research on Autistic inertia. The research that is available on Autistic inertia has mostly focused on the negative aspects of inertia, rather than on the possible benefits of needing to continue tasks. In this research, we wanted to understand more about Autistic people's experiences of inertia and to work out what things might influence these experiences. Autistic and non-Autistic researchers spoke in-depth to 24 Autistic adults. We identified four key ideas from people's responses. Autistic people spoke about their inertial 'difficulties moving from one state to another' and described how these challenges affected them 'every single day'. While they experienced inertia as 'the single most disabling part of being Autistic', people also described the positive aspects of inertia, including the joy they felt when completely immersed in a task. Our Autistic participants emphasised that inertial difficulties are experienced by everyone, the intensity of these task-switching difficulties might be especially challenging for Autistic people. Our findings also reveal how Autistic inertia can be seen both as a disabling and as an enabling condition.
RESUMEN
Much of the academic interest surrounding the emergence of new digital technologies has focused on forwarding the engineering literature, concentrating on the potential opportunities (economic, innovation, etc.) and harms (ethics, climate, etc.), with less focus on the foundational and theoretical shifts brought about by these technologies (e.g., what are "digital things"? What is the ontological nature and state of phenomena produced by and expressed in terms of digital products? Are there distinctions between the traditional conceptions of digital and non-digital technologies?. We investigate the question of what value is being expressed by an algorithm, which we conceptualize in terms of a digital asset, defining a digital asset as a valued digital thing that is derived from a particular digital technology (in this case, an algorithmic system). Our main takeaway is to invite the reader to consider artificial intelligence as a representation of the capture of value sui generis and that this may be a step change in the capture of value vis à vis the emergence of digital technologies.
RESUMEN
Evidence from cognitive neuroscience suggests that learning counterintuitive concepts in mathematics and science requires inhibitory control (IC). This prevents interference from misleading perceptual cues and naïve theories children have built from their experiences of the world. Here, we (1) investigate associations between IC, counterintuitive reasoning, and academic achievement and (2) evaluate a classroom-based computerised intervention, called Stop & Think, designed to embed IC training within the learning domain (i.e. mathematics and science content from the school curricula). Cross-sectional analyses of data from 627 children in Years 3 and 5 (7- to 10-year-olds) demonstrated that IC, measured on a Stroop-like task, was associated with counterintuitive reasoning and mathematics and science achievement. A subsample (n = 456) participated either in Stop & Think as a whole-class activity (teacher-led, STT) or using individual computers (pupil-led, STP), or had teaching as usual (TAU). For Year 3 children (but not Year 5), Stop & Think led to better counterintuitive reasoning (i.e. near transfer) in STT (p < .001, ηp 2 = .067) and STP (p < .01, ηp 2 = .041) compared to TAU. Achievement data was not available for Year 3 STP or Year 5 STT. For Year 3, STT led to better science achievement (i.e. far transfer) compared to TAU (p < .05, ηp 2 = .077). There was no transfer to the Stroop-like measure of IC. Overall, these findings support the idea that IC may contribute to counterintuitive reasoning and mathematics and science achievement. Further, we provide preliminary evidence of a domain-specific IC intervention with transferable benefits to academic achievement for Year 3 children.
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In this review, we focus on research that has used technology to provide cognitive training - i.e. to improve performance on some measurable aspect of behaviour - in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. We review technology-enhanced interventions that target three different cognitive domains: (a) emotion and face recognition, (b) language and literacy, and (c) social skills. The interventions reviewed allow for interaction through different modes, including point-and-click and eye-gaze contingent software, and are delivered through diverse implementations, including virtual reality and robotics. In each case, we examine the evidence of the degree of post-training improvement observed following the intervention, including evidence of transfer to altered behaviour in ecologically valid contexts. We conclude that a number of technological interventions have found that observed improvements within the computerised training paradigm fail to generalise to altered behaviour in more naturalistic settings, which may result from problems that people with autism spectrum disorders experience in generalising and extrapolating knowledge. However, we also point to several promising findings in this area. We discuss possible directions for future work.
Asunto(s)
Trastornos Generalizados del Desarrollo Infantil/terapia , Terapia Cognitivo-Conductual/métodos , Educación del Paciente como Asunto/métodos , Tecnología/métodos , Niño , Trastornos Generalizados del Desarrollo Infantil/psicología , Emociones , Cara , Fijación Ocular , Humanos , Desarrollo del Lenguaje , Reconocimiento en Psicología , Robótica , Conducta Social , Programas Informáticos , Terapia Asistida por Computador/métodos , Terapia de Exposición Mediante Realidad Virtual/métodosRESUMEN
Several recent studies have reported that cognitive training in adults does not lead to generalized performance improvements [1, 2], whereas many studies with younger participants (children 4 years and older) have reported distal transfer [3, 4]. This is consistent with convergent evidence [5-8] for greater neural and behavioral plasticity earlier in development. We used gaze-contingent paradigms to train 11-month-old infants on a battery of attentional control tasks. Relative to an active control group, and following only a relatively short training period, posttraining assessments revealed improvements in cognitive control and sustained attention, reduced saccadic reaction times, and reduced latencies to disengage visual attention. Trend changes were also observed in spontaneous looking behavior during free play, but no change was found in working memory. The amount of training correlated with the degree of improvement on some measures. These findings are to our knowledge the first demonstration of distal transfer following attentional control training in infancy. Given the longitudinal relationships identified between early attentional control and learning in academic settings [9, 10], and the causal role that impaired control of attention may play in disrupting learning in several disorders [11-14], the current results open a number of avenues for future work.