Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41053291›Full record

ArticleJournal of autism and developmental disorders2025

Comparative Effectiveness of Human- and Robot-Based Interventions in Increasing Empathy Among Autistic Children.

Xiao-Han Li, Ming Lui, Xue-Ke Song, Yu-Ru Li, Xuan-Yu Liu, Renee Pi, Wing-Chee So

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Article in Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Xiao-Han LiDepartment of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, S.A.R., China.
Ming LuiSchool of Psychology, University of Roehampton, London, UK.
Xue-Ke SongDepartment of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, S.A.R., China.
Yu-Ru LiSchool of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
Xuan-Yu LiuSchool of Information, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, USA.
Renee PiDepartment of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
Wing-Chee SoDepartment of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, S.A.R., China. wingchee@cuhk.edu.hk.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6538-1663

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

methodsA total of 82 Chinese-speaking children with autism aged 4-9 years were assigned to an HBI or an RBI group through stratified randomization. Before the intervention, the children's autism severity, verbal comprehension, and Theory of Mind skills were assessed. Each child received four 30-min training sessions over 4 weeks, during which they watched four dramas performed by human or robot actors, in which one character shared an event with another character, who then displayed an empathic response. Parents completed a questionnaire before, immediately after, and 1 month after the intervention, and children's cognitive empathy (CE), affective empathy (AE), and prosocial behavior (PB) were evaluated in an experimental task.

resultsBoth RBI and HBI training promote empathy skills, specifically CE, AE, and PB, as evaluated through children's verbal responses in story tasks.

conclusionRBI empathy training demonstrates comparable reliability and effectiveness to human teaching, suggesting that RBIs can assist human therapists in promoting empathy in children with autism. Our randomized controlled trial was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (no. ChiCTR2300077745, https://www.chictr.org.cn ).

Indexed as

AutismChildhoodEmpathyInterventionSocial robots

Identifiers

PMID41053291

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.