Department of Psychology, University of the Pacific.
J Appl Behav Anal. 2022 Jun;55(3):799-813. doi: 10.1002/jaba.916. Epub 2022 Mar 23.
Listener behavior has been shown to influence speaker behavior. However, little is known about the extent to which listener behavior can influence countertherapeutic outcomes. This study evaluated the influence of listener interest on the topics presented by adult participants conversing with an experimenter acting as an individual who exhibited restricted interests. Each session consisted of a 5-min conversation, during which the participant was instructed to talk about 3 topics. We compared the duration of topic presentation across phases in which the experimenter behaved as an interested listener for 1 topic or for all 3 topics. Results showed that topic presentation was controlled by listener interest and all participants reported that the simulation was believable, acceptable, and useful. Although preliminary, these findings have implications for understanding possible undesirable interactions between individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder who exhibit restricted interests and their peers or caregivers.
倾听者的行为已被证明会影响说话者的行为。然而，对于倾听者的行为在多大程度上会影响反治疗效果，我们知之甚少。本研究评估了倾听者兴趣对与表现出兴趣受限的个体进行对话的成年参与者所呈现主题的影响。每个会话包括 5 分钟的对话，期间参与者被指示谈论 3 个主题。我们比较了在实验者表现出对 1 个或 3 个主题感兴趣的情况下，每个阶段主题呈现的持续时间。结果表明，主题呈现受到倾听者兴趣的控制，所有参与者都报告说模拟是可信的、可接受的和有用的。尽管这些发现还初步，但它们对于理解自闭症谱系障碍患者表现出的兴趣受限与他们的同龄人或照顾者之间可能出现的不良互动具有重要意义。
