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Affective Social Quest 137tion is the same for both modes until the correct doll is selected. Working withresearchers at the Dan Marino Center, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, we designed thesystem to track performance information requested by the therapists. For eachsession, it recorded the child profiles, system configuration, clip configuration,and child response times 1 .3. Evaluation and ResultsA pilot study was conducted to determine whether ASQ was engaging tochildren with autism and whether this type of application may potentially helpchildren learn emotion recognition.Subjects were recruited as volunteers through advertisements posted at theDan Marino Center. Standardized assessment tools, as well as direct observationby trained psychologists and neurologists, were used to identify childrenwhose primary deficits are related to social-emotional responding and appropriateaffect. To participate in the pilot study, children needed to come to thecenter to play with ASQ for at least three days of sessions, each day’s sessionlasting up to one hour. Nineteen children with deficits along the pervasive developmentdisorder (PDD) or autism spectrum were exposed to ASQ. Six ofthese nineteen children were observed over three days. The therapy room waseight by eight feet, with one outside window and one window to another office.A laptop ran the ASQ application. The four dwarf dolls were the child’s inputdevices to the application. Each toy doll was loosely positioned on the tableon a reclining board adhered to the table with Velcro pads. The dolls couldbe picked up easily by the child, but were intended to remain on their standbecause it was found to be easier for the child to press the belt-buckle of thechosen doll when the doll was on a hard surface (figure 16.3).Figure 16.3.Child Testing.The goal was to see if children can correctly match the emotion presentedon the child-screen to the emotion represented by each doll. For experimentalcontrol the same dolls were used with each child, and all children were tested