Asperger Syndrome (AS) is considered to belong to the spectrum of
autistic disorders. Although people with AS are more cognitively able than
many others with autism, they share a number of traits including the social
impairments identified by Wing and Gould ( 1979). Problems with
processing emotional information may underlie some of these social
impairments. Reported difficulties in this area include perceptual deficits
which interfere with processing visual cues offered by others, difficulties in
matching emotional signals across modalities (e.g. visual, auditory, and
contextual), and lack of comprehension about affective information.
The present study aimed to investigate the above emotional
impairments, and to determine whether an intervention which developed
the cognitive skills of adults with AS could compensate for some of these
difficulties. Four participants, diagnosed as having AS by a psychiatrist,
took part in the study. Each was assessed on emotion-processing tasks
before and after finishing a six session intervention focusing on the use of
cognitive and behavioural strategies to decipher affective information.
Prior to the intervention, the difficulties reported by other studies on
matching visual and cross-modal signals of emotional information were
generally found, but results for comprehension of verbal terms and
recounting emotional experiences were not clearly replicated. Following
the intervention, all participants improved on or performed at ceiling level
for the visual and cross-modal tasks. Predicted improvement on the
comprehension tasks was not always found. It is suggested that although
linguistic ability is obviously important in such tasks, exposure to social
situations is required if connections are to be made between verbal labels,
affective behaviours, and social contexts.
Strengths and weaknesses of the overall design are discussed. It is
argued that the single-case study approach was useful for revealing
operational problems in an efficient manner. However, the small number of
participants make it difficult to generalise the findings, and the materials
used can be criticised in terms of their reliability and validity. Questions
are raised about the potential to generalise improvement found in a
controlled environment to more natural settings.
It is concluded that although the design can be criticised on a
number of counts, the results suggest it is possible to train adults with AS
to systematically decipher visual and cross-modal emotional cues using
their cognitive abilities. Recommendations for improving the intervention
include concentrating on one aspect of emotional processing at a time. In
view of the clearer findings for visual and cross-modal processing tasks it
is proposed that these areas should be the starting point of an intervention.
Further research could determine whether people with AS who have been
taught to categorise visual cues in a systematic way can then be taught to
link other forms of affective information to these physical images.
Date of Award | 1995 |
---|
Original language | English |
---|
Awarding Institution | |
---|
PILOT STUDY FOR AN "EMOTION" TRAINING PACKAGE FOR ADULTS WITH ASPERGER SYNDROME
SOLVEIG HOBRO, N. (Author). 1995
Student thesis: PhD