The development and evaluation of a computer-based program to test and to teach the recognition of facial affect

Bölte, S; Feineis-Matthews, S; Leber, S; Dierks, T; Hubl, D; Poustka, F (2002). The development and evaluation of a computer-based program to test and to teach the recognition of facial affect. International journal of circumpolar health, 2(61), pp. 61-8. Oulu, Finland: International Association of Circumpolar Health Publishers

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Autism is a chronic pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by the early onset of social and communicative impairments as well as restricted, ritualized, stereotypic behavior. The endophenotype of autism includes neuropsychological deficits, for instance a lack of "Theory of Mind" and problems recognizing facial affect. In this study, we report the development and evaluation of a computer-based program to teach and test the ability to identify basic facially expressed emotions. 10 adolescent or adult subjects with high-functioning autism or Asperger-syndrome were included in the investigation. A priori the facial affect recognition test had shown good psychometric properties in a normative sample (internal consistency: rtt=.91-.95; retest reliability: rtt=.89-.92). In a prepost design, one half of the sample was randomly assigned to receive computer treatment while the other half of the sample served as control group. The training was conducted for five weeks, consisting of two hours training a week. The trained individuals improved significantly on the affect recognition task, but not on any other measure. Results support the usefulness of the program to teach the detection of facial affect. However, the improvement found is limited to a circumscribed area of social-communicative function and generalization is not ensured.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > UPD Murtenstrasse
UniBE Contributor:	Hubl, Daniela
ISSN:	1239-9736
ISBN:	12585821
Publisher:	International Association of Circumpolar Health Publishers
Language:	English
Submitter:	Factscience Import
Date Deposited:	04 Oct 2013 14:55
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:17
PubMed ID:	12585821
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/23468 (FactScience: 41927)