For more IT stories at Penn State, visit news. To learn more about COIL, visit coil. Credit: Heather Harter. Elisabeth Whyte is a postdoctoral research assistant and psychology lecturer at Penn State.
Val, one of the game's two detectives, directs players to the underground sewers to catch a pet thief. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons. One of the game's tunnel people gives a directional clue to help the player catch a criminal on the run.
Research Computer game could help adolescents with autism improve their social skills. September 25, By Lauren Ingram. Last Updated July 29, For more than a year, Belmonte, an assistant professor at Cornell University, and a team of student computer scientists had been designing a dynamic video game to test the social, sensory and attentional abilities of children with autism.
Belmonte had set up a website explaining the project and the game, called Astropolis , in which children act as pilots of their own spaceships. The site attracted a lot of online traffic. That led Cronin and Wyman, in late , to launch Project Spectrum.
Word spread quickly about the software, and now many people with autism, from all over the world, have downloaded it and built floor plans, buildings and landscapes of their own design. In addition to teaching adolescents how to work cooperatively they tend to get irritated and obstinate when programmers make even small modifications to their designs , Astropolis allows for the unprecedented testing of children with autism on a variety of cognitive skills, all at once, without the artificial, boring and anxiety-ridden setup of a typical psychology lab.
Gaming technology is more sophisticated, and more accessible, than ever before, and Belmonte is part of a burgeoning wave of researchers using it to test or train people with autism. The first video and virtual reality games made for children with autism, developed about a decade ago, looked too simple and unrealistic, says Sarah Parsons , one of the leaders of these initial efforts and a senior research fellow in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK.
In several studies over the years, Parsons has shown that children with autism usually recognize that virtual environments are meant to simulate reality 1. Using this technology is a particularly attractive method for studying autism because people with the disorder tend to have a knack for visual learning; some studies have even reported that they have superior visual acuity.
To win the game, the children will need to work together with another player. The project is still in the development phase, which has included significant input from autism teachers. The team plans to start testing this and similar technologies in early in mainstream and specialty schools in the UK and Israel.
Typical psychological experiments present two big problems for testing children with autism. Children with autism tend to have an increased ability to focus, and can repeat certain tasks over and over without a fuss. Children come to an unfamiliar space, surrounded by strangers, and perform tasks that may have no relevance to their daily life.
In the classic lab paradigm, children are taught to press a button, as quickly as possible, when they see certain cues, but to refrain from pressing the button in response to other cues. Learn how to read Schedules by describing everyday activities with 3D representations of objects, then introducing pictures and finally symbols. Introduces schedules and the Picture Exchange Communication System through the social script of a birthday party. Help Spot put out the fire by Finding a Route.
Listen to and obey commands to determine the most direct route through the Fire Station to his truck. Finding a Route by listening to directions. Help Florence across the pond to eat a delicious fly. Demonstrates how Making Eye Contact can help when communicating with others.
The game does not insist on making but suggests when it is appropriate. This game helps teach autistic children when it is appropriate to make eye contact. Travel with Bob the work train carting rocks to port station. Welcome to Autism Games.
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