Probing facilitated communication beyond the state of the art: new scientific approaches to test limits, potentials and underlying mechanisms
Year: 2023
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Little attention has been dedicated to the potential underlying mechanisms of Facilitated Communication (FC) beyond the ideomotor hypothesis. Moreover, few interventions in clinical psychology have resulted in such a polarized controversy. The main aims of this project are to address and disentangle the contradictory results, partially responsible for this controversy, and to study FC with a range of methods, with the hope of stimulating a change of perspective on the technique itself and on the ways it can and should be researched. The programme of research reported in this thesis comprises one study utilizing the traditional paradigm for researching FC (namely, the message passing test), one thematic analysis of texts written via FC, two experimental studies on the effect of touch on attention (in a lexicon decision task) and on writing style in the general population, and one complex data collection using an array of specialist techniques of measurements. All of the results collected through these very different methods suggest that all-or-nothing’ explanations of FC will not likely do justice to the complexity of the matter at hand. On the contrary, a hypothesis of FC as a fluid phenomenon, functioning through co-acting processes, in a perspective of joint action, appears to be consistent with the research carried out. FC-user-Facilitator partnerships might then move on a continuum between independent typing, typing with a “simple touch” and typing with facilitation, which might include a number of added supports, influence, and priming.
Author: Pavon, G
Language: English
Subfield: Occupational Therapy
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7052261448