Publications and outputs
For the most up-to-date list of academic publications and citations, visit my Google Scholar page.
Peer-reviewed journal and conference papers
NB: In human-computer interaction, educational technology and related fields, conference papers are considered on par with journal papers and are the main means of disseminating work.
Zahir, R., Alcorn, A. M., McGeown, S., Mandy, W., Aitken, D., Murray, F., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2023). Short report: Evaluation of wider community support for a neurodiversity teaching programme designed using participatory methods. Autism, 0(0) [OnlineFirst]. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231211046
Milling, M., Baird, A., Bartl-Pokorny, K. D., Liu, S., Alcorn, A. M., Shen, J., ... & Schuller, B. W. (2022). Evaluating the Impact of Voice Activity Detection on Speech Emotion Recognition for Autistic Children. Front. Comput. Sci. 4: 837269. doi: 10.3389/fcomp.
Schadenberg, B. R., Reidsma, D., Evers, V., Davison, D. P., Li, J. J., Heylen, D. K., ... Alcorn, A M. & Pellicano, E. (2021). Predictable Robots for Autistic Children—Variance in Robot Behaviour, Idiosyncrasies in Autistic Children’s Characteristics, and Child–Robot Engagement. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 28(5), 1-42.
Alcorn, A.M., Ainger, E., Charisi, V., Mantinioti, S., Petrovic, S., Schadenberg, B. R., Tavassoli, T., Pellicano, E. (2019). Educators’ views on using humanoid robots with autistic learners in special education settings in England. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 6, 107.
Porayska-Pomsta, K., Alcorn, A. M., Avramides, K., Beale, S., Bernardini, S., Foster, M. E., ... & Smith, T. J. (2018). Blending human and artificial intelligence to support autistic children’s social communication skills. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 25(6), 1-35. http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/23812/
Charisi, V., Alcorn, A. M., Kennedy, J., Johal, W., Baxter, P., & Kynigos, C. (2018). The near future of children's robotics. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children, Trondheim, Norway. (pp. 720-727). ACM. https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3205868
Amiriparian, S., Baird, A., Julka, S., Alcorn, A., Ottl, S., Petrović, S., Ainger, E., Cummins, N. & Schuller, B. (2018). Recognition of Echolalic Autistic Child Vocalisations Utilising Convolutional Recurrent Neural Networks. Proc. Interspeech 2018, 2334-2338. https://www.isca-speech.org/archive/Interspeech_2018/pdfs/1772.pdf
P Chevalier, JJ Li, E Ainger, AM Alcorn, S Babovic, V Charisi, S Petrovic, BR Schadenberg, E Pellicano, V Evers. (2017). Dialogue Design for a Robot-Based Face-Mirroring Game to Engage Autistic Children with Emotional Expressions. In In: Kheddar A. et al. (eds) Social Robotics. International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR) 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10652, 546-555. Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-70022-9_54
Baird, A., Amiriparian, S., Cummins, N., Alcorn A.M., Pugachevskiy, S., Freitag, M. Gerczuk, M., Batliner, A., Schuller, B., (2017). Automatic Classification of Autistic Child Vocalisations: A Novel Database and Results. In Proceedings INTERSPEECH 2017, 18th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association. ISCA, Stockholm, Sweden. DOI: 10.21437/Interspeech.2017-730
Alcorn, A.M., Pain, H., & Good, J. (2014). Motivating children’s initiations with novelty and surprise: Initial design recommendations for autism. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '14, Aarhus, Denmark). DOI:10.1145/2593968.2610458
Frauenberger, C., Good J., Alcorn A., & Pain H. (2013). Conversing Through and About Technologies: Design Critique as an Opportunity to Engage Children with Autism and Broaden Research(er) Perspectives. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction. Volume 1, Issue 2, May 2013, Pages 38–49. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcci.2013.02.001
Alcorn, A.M., Pain, H., Good, J. (2013). Discrepancies in a Virtual Learning Environment: Something “Worth Communicating About” for Young Children with ASC? In the Proceedings of the 13th annual International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '13, New York). PDF of author version here.
Alcorn, A.M. (2013). Deliberate Discrepancies as a Design Strategy for Motivating Social Communication in Virtual Environments for Young Children with Autism. Doctoral Consortium short paper, In the Proceedings of the 13th annual International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '13, New York). PDF of pre-print (author) version available here. Note that the author version corrects an error in paragraph 2 of section 3.2. The version that appears in the official proceedings reports the wrong number of secondary initiations. This is entirely my fault!
Alcorn, A.M., Good, J., & Pain, H. (2013). Deliberate System-Side Errors as a Potential Pedagogic Strategy for Exploratory Virtual Learning Environments. In H. C. Lane et al (Eds.): AIED 2013, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 7926, 2013, pp 483-49. Author version available as soon as I fix some unfortunate typos.
Alcorn A. M. (2013). Discrepancy-detection in Virtual Learning Environments for Young Children with ASC. Doctoral Consortium short paper, In H. C. Lane et al (Eds.): AIED 2013, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 7926, 2013,pp 884-887. PDF of author version available here. See a poster version of this DC paper here
Frauenberger, C., Good J., & Alcorn A. (2012). Challenges, Opportunities and Future Perspectives in Including Children with Disabilities in the Design of Interactive Technology. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, Interactive Technologies for Children with Special Needs Workshop.
Frauenberger, C., Good J., Alcorn A., & Pain H. (2012). Supporting the Design Contributions of Children With Autism Spectrum Conditions. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children.
K. Porayska-Pomsta, C. Frauenberger, H. Pain, G. Rajendran, T. Smith, R. Menzies, M. E. Foster, A. Alcorn, S. Wass, S. Bernardini, K. Avramides, W. Keay-Bright, J. Chen, A. Waller, K. Guldberg, J. Good, and O. Lemon. (2012). Developing technology for autism: an interdisciplinary approach. Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Volume 16, Number 2, Pages 117-127.
Alcorn, A., Pain, H., Rajendran, G., Smith, T., Lemon, O., Porayska-Pomsta, K., Foster, M. E., Avramides, K., Frauenberger, C., Bernardini, S.. Social Communication between Virtual Characters and Children with Autism. G. Biswas et al. (Eds.): AIED 2011, LNAI 6738, pp. 7–14, 2011.
Pre-prints
Alcorn, A. M., McGeown, S. P., Mandy, W., Aitken, D., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2023, September 1). Learning About Neurodiversity at School (LEANS): Evaluation of the LEANS resource pack in mainstream primary schools. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/fhc2k
Book chapters
Alcorn, A.M., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2022). Choosing and using technologies to support autistic children and young people. In J. Gainsborough (Ed.), Effective Support and Education of Autistic Young People, Jessica Kingsley Press, London. https://uk.jkp.com/products/educational-psychology-perspectives-on-supporting-young-autistic-people
Resources for educators
Alcorn, A.M., Zdorovtsova, N., & Astle, D.E. (September 2023). Belonging in School Part 1: An Introduction to School-level Approaches for Developing Inclusive Policy. Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge. https://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/inclusion/sites/8/2023/09/Belonging-in-School-Part-1-v1.0.pdf
Alcorn, A.M., Zdorovtsova, N., & Astle, D.E. (September 2023). Belonging in School Part 2: A Practical Guide to Inclusive Policy Planning. Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge. https://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/inclusion/sites/8/2023/09/Belonging-in-School-Part-2-v1.0.pdf
Alcorn, A.M., Fletcher-Watson, S., McGeown, S., Murray, F., Aitken, D., Peacock, L.J.J., & Mandy, W. (2022). Learning About Neurodiversity at School: A resource pack for primary school teachers and pupils. University of Edinburgh. https://salvesen-research.ed.ac.uk/leans
Policy briefs
Scottish Government Education Research Seminar Series: Seminar and policy briefing about the LEANS project and neurodiversity education (November, 2023)
Other outputs
Peer-reviewed conference posters
Zahir, R., Alcorn, A. M., McGeown, S., Mandy, W., Aitken, D., Murray, F., Peacock, L.J.J., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (October, 2022). Evaluation of wider community support for a neurodiversity teaching programme designed using participatory methods. 13th Autism-Europe International Congress, Krakow, Poland. View poster. View mini-presentation video.
Alcorn, A. M., McGeown, S., Mandy, W., Zahir, R., Aitken, D., Murray, F., Peacock, L.J.J., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (October, 2022). A school-based evaluation study of a teacher-delivered, whole-class neurodiversity teaching programme to promote accepting and inclusive environments. 13th Autism-Europe International Congress, Krakow, Poland. View poster. View mini-presentation video.
Alcorn, A.M., McGeown, S., Aitken, D., Murray, F., Mandy, W., Fletcher-Watson, S. (May, 2021). Learning about Neurodiversity at School: Key Concepts for Communicating Neurodiversity to Primary School Children, from the Leans Project Co-Design Process”. International Society for Autism Research annual meeting (online). View poster copy and abstract.
Alcorn, A. M., Girard, D., Ainger, E., Tavassoli, T. T., Babovic Dimitrijevic S., Skendzic S., Petrović S., Petrović V., Pellicano, E., and the DE-ENIGMA project consortium (May 2018). Autism characteristics, adaptive skills, and performance in an emotion-recognition teaching programme with a humanoid robot. INSAR Annual Meeting, May 09 - 12, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
E. Ainger, Y. Shek., A. M. Alcorn, E. Pellicano (May 2018). Observing interactions between teaching staff and autistic children: Who communicates, how often, and why? A cross-cultural comparison between UK and Serbia. INSAR Annual Meeting, May 09 - 12, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
S. Mantinioti, E. Ainger, A. M. Alcorn, E. Pellicano (May 2018). Educator practices and perspectives on social and emotional skills teaching in UK and Serbian autism education. INSAR Annual Meeting, May 09 - 12, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
D. Girard, A. M. Alcorn, E. Ainger, T. T. Tavassoli, S. Babović Dimitrijevic, S. Skendžić, S. Petrović, V. Petrović, E. Pellicano, and DE-ENIGMA consortium (May 2018). Are Some Emotions Harder Than Others? A Study of Autistic Children Recognizing Human and Robot Facial Emotion Expressions in the UK and Serbia. INSAR Annual Meeting, May 09 - 12, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
DE-ENIGMA Consortium. (May 2018). Autism data goes BIG: A publicly-accessible multi-modal database of child interactions for behavioural and machine learning research. INSAR Annual Meeting, May 09 - 12, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Alcorn, AM, Ainger, E., Mintinioti, S., Sealy, R., Pellicano, E. (June, 2017). Robots in the classroom? Special education teachers’ views on using humanoid robots as teaching tools for social and emotional skills. Peer-reviewed poster at the 3rd International Conference on Innovative Technologies for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Valencia, Spain. See abstract book here: bit.ly/2u4QUZm
Alcorn, AM. (June, 2017). Novel and surprising touchscreen game elements can motivate spontaneous communication from children with autism. Peer-reviewed poster at the 3rd International Conference on Innovative Technologies for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Valencia, Spain. See abstract book here: bit.ly/2u4QUZm
A. M. Alcorn, T. Tavassoli, S. Babović Dimitrijevic, S. Petrović, S. Skendzic, V. Petrović, E. Pellicano (May, 2017). Robots Teaching Autistic Children to Mind Read: A Feasibility Study of Child-Robot Interaction during Emotion-Recognition Training. Poster presented at the Innovative Technologies Demonstration Session, International Meeting for Autism Research, San Francisco, CA. See abstract here.
Fletcher-Watson, S., Alcorn, A., & Pain, H. (2014). Parent attitudes to using technology with children with autism in the home: a comparison of the UK and Spain. Poster presented at the 2nd International Conference on Innovative Technologies for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Paris.
Alcorn, A.M., Pain, H., Good, J., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2014). A Video Analysis of Children with ASD Spontaneously Initiating about Discrepancies in a Virtual Environment: Interaction Profiles and General Trends. Poster presented at the Innovative Technologies Demonstration Session, International Meeting for Autism Research, Atlanta, GA. See abstract here.
Alcorn, A., Pain, H., & Good, J. (June, 2012). Using surprising events in a virtual environment to trigger spontaneous social interactions from children on the autism spectrum. Poster presented at the SICSA PhD student conference, Glasgow, UK. This poster is a modified version of the 2012 IMFAR poster, adjusted for a computer science audience and a smaller format. This poster won a prize at the SICSA PhD conference. It is available here.
Alcorn, A. Pain, H., Good, J., & Rajendran, G. (May, 2012). Surprising Events within a Virtual Environment: A Catalyst for the Initiation of Spontaneous Social Interactions by Children with ASD. Poster presented at the Innovative Technologies Demonstration Session, International Meeting for Autism Research, Toronto, Canada. Poster available as PDF here.
Rajendran, G., Alcorn, A., Pain, H., Lemon, O., Porayska-Pomsta, K., Foster, M. E., Frauenberger, C. (May, 2011). Exploring Responses of Children with ASD to a Virtual Character In the ECHOES Technology Enhanced Learning Environment. Poster presented at the Innovative Technologies Demonstration Session, International Meeting for Autism Research, San Diego CA
Workshop and special interest group (SIG) organisation
Keep calm and robot on: practical tips from DE-ENIGMA for working with robots and autistic children
Co-organiser
12th Autism-Europe International Congress, Nice, France, 2019
The Near Future of Children's Robotics, 2018
Co-organiser
IDC '18: Interaction Design and Children Trondheim Norway June 19 - 22
Autism and Technology SIG, INSAR 2013-2015
Co-organiser
"Technology and Autism: Developing a Framework for Best Practice in Design, Development, Evaluation and Dissemination of Autism-Specific Technologies."
Unpublished workshop papers
Alcorn, A.M. (2016). Direct Design Participation Of Young Children with Autism, And Alternatives. Presented at the 16th annual International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC), workshop on "Roles and Values of Children in Design". PDF copy.
Alcorn, A.M., Pain, H., Good, J. (2014). Child Participation as a “Scarce Resource” in Designing Technologies for Autism. Presented at the 14th annual International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC), workshop on “Interaction Design with Children with Disabilities”. PDF copy.
Alcorn, A.M., Pain, H. (2014). Sorry, There Is No Algorithm For That: Orienting Computer Science Students To IDC Issues And Processes. Presented at the 14th annual International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC), workshop on “Curriculum or Not– Show Us How You Teach Interaction Design and Children!”. PDF copy.
PhD Thesis
Alcorn, A.M. (2016). Embedding novel and surprising elements in touch-screen games for children with autism: Creating experiences “worth communicating about”. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Edinburgh, UK https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/22862