Showing papers by "Marc M. Sebrechts published in 2002"

Atypical face gaze in autism.

Abstract: An eye-tracking study of face and object recognition was conducted to clarify the character of face gaze in autistic spectrum disorders. Experimental participants were a group of individuals diagnosed with Asperger's disorder or high-functioning autistic disorder according to their medical records and confirmed by the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). Controls were selected on the basis of age, gender, and educational level to be comparable to the experimental group. In order to maintain attentional focus, stereoscopic images were presented in a virtual reality (VR) headset in which the eye-tracking system was installed. Preliminary analyses show impairment in face recognition, in contrast with equivalent and even superior performance in object recognition among participants with autism-related diagnoses, relative to controls. Experimental participants displayed less fixation on the central face than did control-group participants. The findings, within the limitations of the small number of subjects and technical difficulties encountered in utilizing the helmet-mounted display, suggest an impairment in face processing on the part of the individuals in the experimental group. This is consistent with the hypothesis of disruption in the first months of life, a period that may be critical to typical social and cognitive development, and has important implications for selection of appropriate targets of intervention.

Using Virtual Environments as Training Simulators: Measuring Transfer

Abstract: Skills are generally acquired by learning a set of facts about a task and developing appropriate procedures. For example, to learn to fly a plane, you first might learn the function of the flight controls and their locations and then practice manipulating the controls in appropriate sequences for a flight procedure. The practice part of training often cannot be done in the actual situation; a plane may not be available or the cost of the plane and an instructor on a regular basis may be prohibitive. In these situations, training is provided in alternative environments, or simulators, that mimic the target task. Designing simulators that will produce effective training has been a long-standing goal for those involved in skill acquisition, and the success of such simulations is generally measured by the effectiveness of subsequent performance on the actual task-the degree of “transfer” from the simulated to the real environment.