The Perceived Social Context Modulates Rule Learning in Autism.
Believing a person is present slows rule learning for kids with autism, so present new skills through non-social tech first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lu et al. (2019) asked kids to learn simple rules on a computer. Some kids had autism, some were typical peers.
Half the kids thought the computer game was just a machine. The other half thought a real person was watching them through the screen.
What they found
When kids believed only the computer was present, both groups learned the rules at the same speed.
When they believed a person was watching, the autism group slowed down. Typical kids kept the same speed.
How this fits with other research
Mount et al. (2011) seems to disagree. They found no autism gap when kids hunted for social changes in pictures. The gap only shows up when kids must actively learn new rules, not just spot changes.
Adkins et al. (1997) set the stage. They showed that adding many social cues at once hurts autism performance. Haoyang updates that idea: even the belief of one unseen person is enough to slow learning.
Barton et al. (2019) widen the picture. They added kids with intellectual disability and still found autism-specific trouble. Together the 2019 papers say: autism learning is fragile when the setting feels social.
Why it matters
You can speed up teaching by cutting the social noise. Run new programs on a tablet without a webcam. Tell the learner, "It's just you and the computer." Save face-to-face practice for after the rule is firm. This small tweak can buy extra trials and lower frustration for both of you.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study examines how the awareness of social situation affects rule learning in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using computer-based distrust and deception games. Twenty-eight 4- to 7-year-old children with ASD and 28 age- and IQ-matched typically developing (TD) peers learned the distrusting and deceptive rules in a non-social condition, in which they were playing with a computer, or a social condition with another person pretending to interact via a computer. Results showed intact rule-learning ability in the ASDs in the non-social condition, but poorer overall performance and slower learning process than TD children when they thought that they interacted with a human opponent. Rule learning in ASD was affected by their beliefs about the social context.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2019 · doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04174-y