An event-based analysis of the coordination of early infant vocalizations and facial actions

This study used an event-based approach to provide empirical evidence regarding the nature of coordination in 3- and 6-month-old infants. Vocalizations and facial actions of 12 normally developing infants interacting with their caregivers were coded. Coded vocalizations and facial actions were considered coordinated when they temporally overlapped. Results indicate that infants coordinated their vocalizations and facial actions more than expected by chance. Coordinated events were governed by 2 sequence patterns. When 2 communicative events were temporally associated across modalities, 1 event tended to be completely embedded within the other, and vocalizations tended to end before facial actions. This study provides new information about how infant communication is structured, confirms results from other coordination studies, and describes a new method for analysis of event-based data.     

The Influence of Predeployment Training on Coordination in Multinational Headquarters: The Moderating Role of Organizational Obstacles to Information Sharing

Coordination is critical to the success of multinational military operations and may be fostered by predeployment training. We argue that whether such training is related to a high degree of perceived coordination at the individual level is likely to depend on whether individuals experience a low degree of organizational obstacles to information sharing. We examined this using data from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Kosovo Force headquarters (survey: n = 131). We controlled for whether it was the participants’ first deployment, the participants’ background (military or civilian), the amount of time spent in the headquarters by participants, whether differences pertaining to culture and opinions were valued by the organization, the quality of supervisor/subordinate relationships, and the degree of national cultural obstacles to information sharing. The results showed no significant direct effects on coordination from 3 different training configurations: national training, multinational training, and a combination of national and multinational training. However, we found a negative direct effect from organizational obstacles to information sharing on coordination, and support for organizational obstacles to information sharing as negatively moderating the multinational predeployment training and coordination relationship. Qualitative interviews (n = 14) indicated that informal information sharing, and the problems exchanging information from tactical to operational levels could hinder coordination. Interventions to foster coordination could benefit from a focus on multinational training and lowering organizational obstacles to information sharing. Our findings contribute to more precisely pinpointing the types of training that are useful in multinational operations, as well as the factors upon which training transfer is contingent.     

Intelligent digital image firewall system for filtering privacy or sensitive images

As the commonest part of social networks, sharing images in social network not only provides more information, but also gives more intuitive view than text. However, images also can leak out information more easily than text, so the audit of image content is particularly essential. The disclosure of a tiny image, which involves sensitive information about individual, society even the state, may trigger a series of serious problems. In this paper, we design a kind of intelligent image firewall to detect and filter sensitive or privacy images. Two different approaches of the firewall are proposed. In the first approach, we propose an image firewall based on joint sparse representation, which can provide accurate and robust privacy prediction, and also can provide rich spatial relationship information. In the second approach, we propose a method based on the deep learning (Faster RCNN), which can predict the privacy relationships or actions (like kiss, hug and hand in hand) among the persons of an image. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the two kinds of approaches.     

Representation and Reasoning about Evolutions of the World in the Context of Reasoning about Actions

The first step in reasoning about actions and change involves reasoning about how the world would evolve if a certain action is executed in a certain state. Most research on this assumes the evolution to be only a single step and focus on formulating the transition function that defines changes between states due to actions. In this paper we consider cases where the evolution is more than just a single change between one state and another. This is manifested when the execution of an action may trigger execution of other actions, or when multiple agents act on the environment following certain strategies.     

A program for parsing mouse movements into component submovements

Most current movement control theories include the idea that movement toward a target can be broken into several submovements. The complexity of analyzing a movement into its constituent submovement structure and the additional complexity imposed by the problem of noise in the data and hand tremor seem to be daunting to researchers. This paper discusses a program that can ameliorate both of these problems and parse movements into their constituent submovements. It also contains a graphing feature that is useful as a visual tool for analyzing submovement structure. The programs are easily modifiable, so that researchers can specify their own parsing rules on the basis of different assumptions about movement control and use the parser for data from different experimental tasks.     

Social cognition in simple action coordination: A case for direct perception

In this paper we sketch the outlines of an account of the kind of social cognition involved in simple action coordination that is based on direct social perception (DSP) rather than recursive mindreading. While we recognize the viability of a mindreading-based account such as e.g. Michael Tomasello’s, we present an alternative DSP account that (i) explains simple action coordination in a less cognitively demanding manner, (ii) is better able to explain flexibility and strategy-switching in coordination and crucially (iii) allows for formal modeling. This account of action coordination is based on the notion of an agent’s field of affordances. Coordination ensues, we argue, when, given a shared intention, the actions of and/or affordances for one agent shape the field of affordances for another agent. This a form of social perception since in particular perceiving affordances for another person involves seeing that person as an agent. It is a form of social perception since it involves perceiving affordances for another person and registering how another person’s actions influence one’s own perceived field of affordances.     

Coordinating cognitive information: task effects and individual differences in integrating information from several sources.

In many tasks people have to coordinate the information from several sources. An example would be driving a car while listening to directions. The driver has to establish a correspondence between a visual picture and verbal instructions. This paper addresses two questions concerning information coordination. Is there an ability to coordinate information received from several sources that is different from the ability to deal with information from each source, alone? Does coordination simply involve allocating resources to deal with the component tasks, or does the act of coordination itself constitute a separate task? Four experiments examined the coordination of a verbal component task with a visual-spatial and with an auditory component task. The results showed that the ability to coordinate perceptual and verbal information is separate from the ability to deal with either perceptual or verbal information, alone. A simple resource sharing model was not adequate in explaining how coordination occurred. We relate our results to a model in which perceptual reasoning occurs independently of verbal processing, but transforming perceptual information into a propositional form is affected by concurrent verbal processing.     

丘脑枕核参与情绪信息加工的多条通路

丘脑枕核参与多条加工情绪信息的神经通路因而在情绪信息加工中具有重要作用。第一：丘脑枕核参与到上丘-丘脑枕核-杏仁核通路。该通路可以在没有初级视觉皮层参与情况下对情绪信息进行快速加工; 第二：丘脑枕核以皮层-丘脑枕核-皮层环路和上丘-丘脑枕核-皮层通路两种形式参与到丘脑枕核-皮层通路。该通路通过控制皮层间同步化水平促进信息传递的效率; 同时通过整合皮层和皮层下情绪信号扩大其在行为输出方面的影响力。     

Idea Generation in Groups: A Basis for Creativity in Organizations

Knowledge or idea exchange is an important function of groups in organizations. Much research has demonstrated that idea sharing in groups involves relatively inefficient processes. Some of these processes are briefly summarized. It is proposed that there are conditions under which idea sharing in groups can be productive. One important factor is the extent to which group members carefully process the ideas exchanged in the group (attention). Another is the opportunity for group members to reflect on the ideas after the exchange process (incubation). These factors were examined by using a “brainwriting” paradigm. Evidence was obtained for enhanced performance of sharing groups in comparison to nonsharing or nominal groups both during the idea-generation session and in a second individual idea-generation session. This study suggests that, under the right conditions, the idea exchange process in groups may be an important means for enhancing creativity and innovation in organizations.     

Linking form and motion in the primate brain

Understanding dynamic events entails the integration of information about form and motion that is crucial for fast and successful interactions in complex environments. A striking example of our sensitivity to dynamic information is our ability to recognize animate figures by the way they move and infer motion from still images. Accumulating evidence for form and motion interactions contrasts with the traditional dissociation between shape and motion-related processes in the ventral and dorsal visual pathways. By combining findings from physiology and brain imaging it can be demonstrated that the primate brain converts information about spatiotemporal sequences into meaningful actions through interactions between early and higher visual areas processing form and motion and frontal-parietal circuits involved in the understanding of actions.     

Time delays prior to movement alter the drawing kinematics of elderly adults

Position sense has been found to decay as a function of the time delay the limb remains in a static position prior to movement onset. Position sense has also been found to deteriorate as a function of aging, with increased reliance on vision by the elderly. This study investigated whether the pointing kinematics of elderly adults were differentially affected by delay compared to young adults, and whether visual information could compensate for the effects of delay. Young and elderly adults kept the limb in a static position for 1, 6, or 10 s prior to movement onset, both with and without vision of the limb, initial position, and the movement trajectory. Across groups, delay resulted in increased overall movement duration, decreased peak velocity including a shorter relative time to peak velocity, with decreased distance and duration of the primary submovement. Delay and lack of vision differentially decreased distance of the primary submovement for elderly adults. Vision was able to compensate to some degree for the effects of delay across age groups. The findings provide evidence that decays in position sense as a function of time create difficulties in incorporating the initial limb position in motor planning process in elderly adults.     

Learning from within: Therapists' actions in daily clinical practice

The integration of theories and techniques is part of family therapists' daily practice, raising the need to understand which resources are used in this professional's clinical actions. Our aim is to reflect on the use of theoretical and technical resources by family therapists in their daily practice. We developed an inquiry process inspired by collaborative action research and social constructionism. Couple and family therapy sessions were conducted by two family therapists, and we developed subsequent dialogs with them focused on describing theoretical and technical inspirations for their actions. Next, we named four categories of actions in this process: exploratory actions, actions for the construction of relational visions, actions for the construction of communication, and actions for family orientation. The therapists-participants referred to many theoretical and technical resources that inspired their practice. For them, the choice of using one or another resource was based on the demands of the interactive moment, which involves their relational and embodied responses to what was experienced in the sessions. We argue that epistemological coherence is not something that guides the therapist's practice a priori, but something that can be achieved by talking about and reflecting on their actions. This article can contribute to clinical practice and training in family therapy by presenting an interesting reflexive process that can be useful to enhance practice in couple and family therapy (FAPESP, Process n. 2015/21316–1).     

The Intersubjective Psychobiology of Human Meaning: Learning of Culture Depends on Interest for Co-Operative Practical Work–and Affection for the Joyful Art of Good Company

Cultures depend on a ceaseless, highly creative learning process, which is not just an acquiring of information transmitted by instructing the young. It is motivated by an innate human talent for companionship in experience, which is mediated by an intersubjective transfer of intentions, interests, and feeling in conversations of rhythmic motor activity. All achievements of technique and art depend upon the affections and shared enthusiasms of interpersonal relationships. Research on how infants communicate with parents has revealed the natural process by which this learning grows and how it may recover from traumatic events. Brain science confirms that the proprio-ceptive regulations of intentions can be shared by sympathetic “altero-ception,” so that creative actions and experiences may be cooperative. Both language and rational thought rest upon this dynamic intersubjective coordination of conscious activity. Individual personalities and self-consciousness grow in relationships and come to recognize traditional beliefs and practices of the community.     

Online information-sharing: A qualitative analysis of community,trust and social influence amongst commuter cyclists in the UK

Research into the use and behavioural effects of travel information has concentrated on top-down information from transport providers, but little is known about the role of informal information, shared through word-of-mouth, in everyday travel behaviour. Social interactions about travel may exert not only an informational influence, whereby beliefs are updated based on the experience of other individuals, but also a more subtle normative influence: conveying information about norms of behaviour within a particular social milieu. This research aimed to explore, using a qualitative approach, the social processes which occurred when a group of 23 commuter cyclists interacted with one another through a specially designed, map-based website over six weeks, sharing their routes and other cycling-related information. Methods comprised observation of website interactions, participant questionnaires and semi-structured interviews; the analysis drew on the theory of normative and informational social influence, and self-categorisation theory. It was found that the process of sharing information could perform not only a functional role in diffusing instrumental travel information, but also a social one whereby perceived in-group membership and high levels of trust reinforced positive views of cycling as a commuter mode. Both roles were found to offer particular encouragement to those who were new to cycling or new to a particular workplace. This suggests that ‘user-generated’ information may hold potential as one of the tools for promoting sustainable travel within a group setting such as the workplace.     

Subgoals as substitutes or complements: the role of goal accessibility

The self-regulation process often involves breaking an ongoing goal (e.g., keeping in shape) into many individual, constituent subgoals that monitor actual actions (e.g., eating healthy meals, going to the gym). The article examines how pursuing each of these subgoals may influence subsequent goal pursuit. The authors show that when people consider success on a single subgoal, additional actions toward achieving a superordinate goal are seen as substitutes and are less likely to be pursued. In contrast, when people consider their commitment to a superordinate goal on the basis of initial success on a subgoal, additional actions toward achieving that goal may seem to be complementary and more likely to be pursued. These predictions were tested in four studies that explored the conditions under which subgoals attainment have a counterproductive versus favorable effect on further pursuit of similar actions.     

Visual memory for agents and their actions

Humans spend a considerable amount of time remembering other individuals' actions. Nevertheless, it is unclear how the visual system stores information about the identities of agents and their actions. To address this, I used a change detection method where observers were asked to remember agents and the actions they performed. Results show that observers can maintain information about both 2-3 agents and 2-3 actions simultaneously. However, they are highly impaired for remembering which agent performed which action, indicating that agent and action information are retained separately in visual working memory. Further experiments show that agent and action information can be bound together when the visual input contains the appropriate cues. However, this binding process significantly reduces the total amount of information that can be retained. Together, these results show that (1) an additional, resource-demanding process is needed to integrate agent and action information stored in separate working memory stores, and (2) the extent to which these two types of information are bound into integrated units depends largely on the presence of specific cues in the visual input.     

Variability effects on the internal structure of rapid aiming movements

Two experiments are reported in which the effects of different levels of spatial variability of the initial phase of aiming movements were explored. It was found that longer, faster, and more spatially variable initial sub movements were associated with an almost proportional increase in the distance between the average location at which the first submovement ended and the target. The first experiment involved a multisegmental arm motion that required a direction reversal, in which spatial variability could be estimated in all three dimensions. The second was a unidirectional, one-degree-of-freedom wrist supination task. The variability-amplitude relationship for the initial submovement was present in both. It is argued that the variability, or unpredictability, of the initial submovement is a determinant of its average amplitude, such that initial submovements approach the target as closely as is permitted by the level of variability. Such a mechanism allows task constraints such as accuracy requirements and allowable error rates to be met most efficiently, in a manner similar to the recently described optimization of submovement durations. If this mechanism is a general, ubiquitous phenomenon in rapid aiming, certain features of its internal kinematic structure are predictable. A set of five such predictions is outlined.     

Focused memory search in fact retrieval

Several studies of fact retrieval have shown that the more facts a person learns about a concept, the longer it takes him or her to retrieve any of these facts. This result has been interpreted to mean that retrieval of a fact about a concept involves a search of all facts stored in memory with that concept. In the present study, it is suggested that retrieval involves not an unfocused search of all facts stored with a concept, but rather a focused memory search that examines relevant stored facts and ignores irrelevant information. This argument is supported by three experiments in which subjects first learned simple facts (e.g., “The banker likes horses”) and then made speeded true-false decisions for test probes le.g., “The banker likes elephants”). Specifically, results suggest that facts stored with a concept may be organized into subsets. For example, a person’s knowledge about Richard Nixon might be organized into subsets concerning Nixon’s resignation, his trips to China, his family, and so on. The data further suggest that a person attempting to retrieve a fact about a concept (e.g., the name of Nixon’s wife) may simply decide which subset is most likely to contain the desired fact (e.g., the subset concerning Nixon’s family) and search that subset. If the sought-for fact is found in this subset, the search process terminates. If, however, the desired information is not located, other subsets of facts may be searched before the retrieval attempt is given up. The notion that memory search focuses on relevant stored facts and ignores irrelevant information may help to explain why experts (i.e., people who know a large number of facts about a topic) do not experience great difficulty in retrieving facts in their areas of expertise.     

Pursuing Goals with Others

This article explores motivation in a social context: how people pursue goals with others, with information on others, and for the self and others. As people incorporate close others into their extended selves (Aron et al., 1991 ), they begin to treat others' actions and outcomes as partially their own. This tendency, in turn, has implications for coordinating goal pursuits with others and for the preference for actions that maximize the total benefits for the self and others. To demonstrate these principles – coordination and joint‐benefits maximization – we first explore coordination in pursuing goals with others (i.e., working in teams), showing that people respond to others' actions and lack of action similarly to how they respond to their own actions and lack of action. We next explore coordination in pursuing goals with information on others, showing that people conform to others' preferences and attitudes yet choose actions that complement others' actions. Finally, we review research on pursuing goals for the self and others, showing that people wish to maximize the total benefits for the group.     

Partisan Provocation: The Role of Partisan News Use and Emotional Responses in Political Information Sharing in Social Media

Citizens increasingly rely on social media to consume and disseminate news and information about politics, but the factors that drive political information sharing on these sites are not well understood. This study focused on how online partisan news use influences political information sharing in part because of the distinct negative emotions it arouses in its audience. Using panel survey data collected during the 2012 U.S. presidential election, we found that use of proattitudinal partisan news online is associated with increased anger, but not anxiety, directed at the opposing party's presidential candidate and that anger subsequently facilitated information sharing about the election on social media. The results suggest partisan media may drive online information sharing by generating anger in its audience.