David A Gonzalez

Publications (3)2.19 Total impact

• Article: Motor interactions with another person: Do individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder plan ahead?

  David A Gonzalez, Cheryl M Glazebrook, Breanna Studenka, James Lyons
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  ABSTRACT: Interpersonal motor interactions (joint-action) occur on a daily basis. In joint-action situations, typically developing (TD) individuals consider the end-goal of their partner and adjust their own movements to accommodate the other person. The movement planning processes required for joint-action may, however, be difficult for individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) given documented difficulties in performance on theory of mind (ToM) and motor tasks. The goal of this experiment was to determine if individuals with ASD exhibit end-state comfort behaviours similar to their typically developing peers in joint-action situations. Participants were asked to either pass, place, or use three common tools: a wooden toy hammer, a stick, or a calculator. These tools were selected because the degree of affordance they offer (i.e., the physical characteristics they posses to prompt proper use) ranges from direct (hammer) to indirect (calculator). Participants were asked to pass the tool to a confederate who intended to place the tool down, or use the tool. Variables of interest included beginning and end-state grip orientations of the participant and confederate (comfortable or uncomfortable) as a function of task goal, and the side to which the tool was placed or passed. Similar to Gonzalez et al., 2011, where TD young adults maximized their partner’s beginning-state comfort by adopting personally uncomfortable postures, individuals with ASD, although more variable, also passed tools in a manner that facilitated comfortable use by the confederate. The results of this experiment suggest that the movement planning processes used to prepare to pass a tool are not stereotypical across all individuals with ASD. We propose that performance of the joint-action tasks reported here represent an important link between motor performance and more complex social and communication behaviours.
  Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 01/2013;
• Article: Motor interactions with another person: do individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder plan ahead?

  David A Gonzalez, Cheryl M Glazebrook, Breanna E Studenka, Jim Lyons
  [show abstract] [hide abstract]
  ABSTRACT: Interpersonal motor interactions (joint-actions) occur on a daily basis. In joint-action situations, typically developing (TD) individuals consider the end-goal of their partner and adjust their own movements to accommodate the other person. The movement planning processes required for joint-action may, however, be difficult for individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) given documented difficulties in performance on theory of mind (ToM) and motor tasks. The goal of this experiment was to determine if individuals with ASD exhibit end-state comfort behaviors similar to their TD peers in joint-action situations. Participants were asked to either pass, place, or use three common tools: a wooden toy hammer, a stick, or a calculator. These tools were selected because the degree of affordance they offer (i.e., the physical characteristics they posses to prompt proper use) ranges from direct (hammer) to indirect (calculator). Participants were asked to pass the tool to a confederate who intended to place the tool down, or use the tool. Variables of interest included beginning and end-state grip orientations of the participant and confederate (comfortable or uncomfortable) as a function of task goal, and the side to which the tool was placed or passed. Similar to Gonzalez et al. (2011), some individuals with ASD maximized their partner's beginning-state comfort by adopting personally uncomfortable postures. That said, their performance was more variable than their TD peers who consistently passed tools in a manner that facilitated comfortable use by the confederate. Therefore, the movement planning processes used to prepare to pass a tool are not stereotypical across all individuals with ASD. We propose that the novel joint-action task described herein provides the basis for testing an important link between motor performance and more complex social and communication behaviors.
  Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 01/2013; 7:23.
• Article: Extending end-state comfort effect: do we consider the beginning state comfort of another?

  David A Gonzalez, Breanna E Studenka, Cheryl M Glazebrook, Jim L Lyons
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  ABSTRACT: Sharing a drink or passing a tool to another person is frequently done in our daily lives. However, a second thought is rarely given about how the object should be handed; instead we pay attention to other factors (e.g., the company). This interaction (handing a tool to someone) is interesting, since it may give insight to how motor intentions are predicted. Research has demonstrated that individuals exhibit an end-state comfort effect when manipulating objects, and it is of interest to determine how this is applied to a joint-action paradigm. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if participants would anticipate the confederate's postural requirements and pass tools in a manner that allowed the confederate to have beginning state comfort and thus facilitate the motion sequence as a whole. That is, would the participant incur the cost of the movement by adopting an awkward posture to facilitate the use of the tool by the confederate? The results demonstrated that participants allowed the confederate to adopt a comfortable beginning state comfort on 100% of the trials for all the tools. However, the participants did not sacrifice end-state comfort, demonstrating that the participants were able to plan ahead to both maximize their own end-state comfort and the beginning state comfort of the confederate.
  Acta psychologica 01/2011; 136(3):347-53. · 2.19 Impact Factor