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A Virtual Joy-Stick Study of Emotional Responses and Social Motivation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Kim, K; Rosenthal, MZ; Gwaltney, M; Jarrold, W; Hatt, N; McIntyre, N; Swain, L; Solomon, M; Mundy, P
Published in: J Autism Dev Disord
December 2015

A new virtual reality task was employed which uses preference for interpersonal distance to social stimuli to examine social motivation and emotion perception in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Nineteen high function children with higher functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD) and 23 age, gender, and IQ matched children with typical development (TD) used a joy stick to position themselves closer or further from virtual avatars while attempting to identify six emotions expressed by the avatars, happiness, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and surprise that were expressed at different levels of intensity. The results indicated that children with HFASD displayed significantly less approach behavior to the positive happy expression than did children with TD, who displayed increases in approach behavior to higher intensities of happy expressions. Alternatively, all groups tended to withdraw from negative emotions to the same extent and there were no diagnostic group differences in accuracy of recognition of any of the six emotions. This pattern of results is consistent with theory that suggests that some children with HFASD display atypical social-approach motivation, or sensitivity to the positive reward value of positive social-emotional events. Conversely, there was little evidence that a tendency to withdraw from social-emotional stimuli, or a failure to process social emotional stimuli, was a component of social behavior task performance in this sample of children with HFASD.

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Published In

J Autism Dev Disord

DOI

EISSN

1573-3432

Publication Date

December 2015

Volume

45

Issue

12

Start / End Page

3891 / 3899

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • User-Computer Interface
  • Social Behavior
  • Motivation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Emotions
  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • Child
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
 

Citation

APA
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ICMJE
MLA
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Kim, K., Rosenthal, M. Z., Gwaltney, M., Jarrold, W., Hatt, N., McIntyre, N., … Mundy, P. (2015). A Virtual Joy-Stick Study of Emotional Responses and Social Motivation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord, 45(12), 3891–3899. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2036-7
Kim, Kwanguk, M Zachary Rosenthal, Mary Gwaltney, William Jarrold, Naomi Hatt, Nancy McIntyre, Lindsay Swain, Marjorie Solomon, and Peter Mundy. “A Virtual Joy-Stick Study of Emotional Responses and Social Motivation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.J Autism Dev Disord 45, no. 12 (December 2015): 3891–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2036-7.
Kim K, Rosenthal MZ, Gwaltney M, Jarrold W, Hatt N, McIntyre N, et al. A Virtual Joy-Stick Study of Emotional Responses and Social Motivation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord. 2015 Dec;45(12):3891–9.
Kim, Kwanguk, et al. “A Virtual Joy-Stick Study of Emotional Responses and Social Motivation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.J Autism Dev Disord, vol. 45, no. 12, Dec. 2015, pp. 3891–99. Pubmed, doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2036-7.
Kim K, Rosenthal MZ, Gwaltney M, Jarrold W, Hatt N, McIntyre N, Swain L, Solomon M, Mundy P. A Virtual Joy-Stick Study of Emotional Responses and Social Motivation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord. 2015 Dec;45(12):3891–3899.
Journal cover image

Published In

J Autism Dev Disord

DOI

EISSN

1573-3432

Publication Date

December 2015

Volume

45

Issue

12

Start / End Page

3891 / 3899

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • User-Computer Interface
  • Social Behavior
  • Motivation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Emotions
  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • Child
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder