Computer Games Developed by Psychologists Aid Autism Research
by Chris Bryant
Computer games developed by a pair of University of Alabama psychology professors are giving researchers a clearer understanding of the learning problems children with autism face and could lead to development of the first performance-based test to diagnose the neurological disability.
The National Institutes of Health awarded Drs. Laura Klinger and Mark Klinger, both associate professors in UA’s department of psychology, a $400,000 grant to develop tests to examine how children with autism think differently from children with typical development. Laura Klinger is a clinical child psychologist who has worked with autistic children for 20 years, while Mark Klinger is a cognitive psychologist whose research focuses on implicit or automatic thought processes.
“There is no test for autism,” said Laura Klinger, the project’s principal investigator. Currently, experts, such as Klinger, typically rely on direct observation and parental input in diagnosing autism. While professionals receive extensive training in observation techniques, Klinger said the method is still inconsistent, interpretation of results can vary among researchers, and too often evaluations are not conducted early enough in the child’s life. Ideally, these new tests will help psychologists make earlier, more accurate diagnoses.
“The earlier the intervention, the better the outcome,” Laura Klinger said. That’s why the possibility of developing a new, more consistent test that could eventually be used with children during their first year of life has the researchers excited.
The UA researchers said they believe, based on similar smaller-scale studies they have conducted, testing autistic children on these computer games will show they are forced, because of their disabilities, to often use a different type of learning process than do normally developing children.
In one of three experiments that comprise the UA researcher’s overall study, the children sit in front of a computer monitor and are shown black and white drawings of imaginary animals. These animals look similar, but their features (feet, wings, etc.) are distinctive in length, width, thickness, etc.
After viewing the series of animals, the children are then shown an animal whose features are the exact average in width, length, thickness, etc., of the features in the previously viewed animals. This average animal (i.e., the prototype) is paired on the computer monitor alongside a similar animal, but also one not previously viewed by the children.
In an earlier, smaller-scale study done by Laura Klinger, responses by the children with autism indicated the prototype animal looked no more familiar than did the animal with which it was paired. However, responses by children with normal development indicated the prototype animal looked more familiar than the other animal. The ability to learn new categories by automatically averaging or abstracting information across multiple examples to form a prototype typically develops during the first year of life.
An ability to categorize using prototypes is an example of an implicit learning skill, Laura Klinger said. “Implicit learning is the type of learning we do automatically without any conscious effort,” Klinger said. Within the first year of life, typical babies learn to relate similar things to one another, she said. This enables them to store relevant pieces of information in their brains that they automatically recall when needed.
“Without this ability to categorize new information based on previous experience, a child would view each new situation as something completely unique and may become overwhelmed by the complexity of the environment,” Klinger wrote as co-author of a paper published earlier in a scholarly psychological journal.
Indeed, children with autism often experience great difficulties, and sometimes must repeatedly practice, learning things that normally developing children learn effortlessly. Talking, or learning how to relate to other people by picking up on social cues, such as understanding when someone is happy or angry, without having to be told, is difficult for them.
Researchers believe autistic people are born with autism. It’s not something they develop later in life. However, it is difficult to diagnose prior to age 3 and often is not diagnosed until adolescence or later. Researchers looking at home videotapes of children later diagnosed as autistic found signs of autism in the children when they were as young as 12 months of age.
“If that’s true, and the symptoms are there at 12 months, the cognitive impairment that causes those symptoms must be there at 12 months,” said Mark Klinger. “Implicit learning typically develops during the first year of life, and we believe that impaired implicit learning may explain many of the social and language impairments and repetitive behaviors that characterize autism.”
In the three-year study, which began in August, the UA researchers will test 50 autistic children, ranging from ages 6 to 16, along with two control groups of non-autistic children, with 50 in both of those groups.
“Although a person with autism will be autistic for life, the quality of that life can be significantly improved through early detection and early intervention,” Laura Klinger said.