Joint attention may be a core deficit in autism which underlies the abnormal development of later emerging social-communication behaviors. Given this theory, researchers have suggested that teaching young children with autism to engage in joint attention may lead to collateral increases in other non-targeted social-communication behaviors. In this study, children with autism participated in a 1...

Face-to-face communication is a highly interactive process where participants mutually exchange and interpret verbal and nonverbal messages. Communication dynamics represent the temporal relationship between these communicative messages. Even when only one person speaks at a time, other participants exchange information continuously among themselves and with the speaker through gesture, gaze, p...

The picture exchange communication system (PECS) is an augmentative communication system frequently used with children with autism (Bondy & Frost, 1994; Siegel, 2000; Yamall, 2000). Despite its common clinical use, no well-controlled empirical investigations have been conducted to test the effectiveness of PECS. Using a multiple baseline design, the present study examined the acquisition of PEC...

By providing ultimate explanations for human behaviors, an evolutionary perspective lends itself to understanding why and how mobile communication occupies an ever increasingly critical role in modern life. From the perspective of evolution, human behaviors – in interaction with the environment – are driven by, and can be made understandable through the pursuit of physical and social survival a...

Signals produced during social interactions convey crucial information about the sender's identity, quality, reproductive state and social status. Fishes can detect near-body water movements via the mechanosensory lateral line system, and this sense is used during several common fish behaviors, such as schooling, rheotaxis and predator-prey interactions. In addition, many fish behaviors, such a...

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder with qualitative impairments in reciprocal social interaction and communication as well as a restricted range of interests and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. Though specific motor impairments are not part of the diagnostic criteria, the displays of stereotyped motor behaviors are, such as hand or finger flapping and complex whole-body movement...

Paul MacLean has investigated integrated brain functioning through selected brain lesions in animals that disturb circuits necessary for complex behaviors, such as social displays. MacLean is unique in his comparative neurobehavioral approach that emphasizes the evolutionary origins of parenting and social behaviors and the implications of brain changes in the evolution from reptiles (social di...

Advancements in robot design and supporting technologies such as computer vision and speech recognition increasingly enable robots to interact with humans in a robust and natural manner. These interaction capabilities place new expectations on robots to correctly produce and interpret social behaviors that humans use in face-to-face communication. One of the most salient behaviors that this typ...