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Employing Virtual Reality to Teach Face-Based Emotion Recognition to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Handbook of Mobile Teaching and Learning

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Abstract

Students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulty recognizing emotion in facial expressions. This ability is important, as it supports students’ skills in empathy and socialization, so they may have more natural interactions with peers and adults. Multiple methods have been utilized to improve facial emotion recognition (ER), including sessions with trained therapists, actors, and facial stimuli. The latter, the NimStim (a 2D photographic battery of 646 facial expressions), has been used to help students identify emotions. However, emotion is a dynamic and nuanced process, hence not readily captured and examined in static, single frame images. Other practices for improving ER are less reliable, sustainable, and technologically advanced in providing low-cost, naturalistic, and effective treatment. This chapter promotes the concept of leveraging 3D virtual reality (VR), using the valid and reliable data from the NimStim, to aid in facial ER for students with ASD. A case using the virtual social reality (VSR) of Second Life for ER training is presented and critiqued. The unique affordances of VR technology in apparent realism, zooming and rotation, without social and safety issues of VSR, may provide users a socially vetted and personalized interaction with facial images to build their skills of facial ER.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curriculum & Instruction, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Rebecca Hite

  2. Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Wesley Dotson & Rebecca Beights

Authors
  1. Rebecca Hite
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  2. Wesley Dotson
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  3. Rebecca Beights
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Correspondence to Rebecca Hite .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CEO, WEMOSOFT, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Yu (Aimee) Zhang

  2. Teaching and Learning, The Ohio State University, Upper Arlington, OH, USA

    Dean Cristol

Section Editor information

  1. Coventry University, Coventry, UK

    Yanguo Jing

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Hite, R., Dotson, W., Beights, R. (2019). Employing Virtual Reality to Teach Face-Based Emotion Recognition to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In: Zhang, Y., Cristol, D. (eds) Handbook of Mobile Teaching and Learning. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41981-2_124-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41981-2_124-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-41981-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-41981-2

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