Reach out to one and you reach out to many: Social touch affects third‐party observers

Casual social touch influences emotional perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours of interaction partners. We asked whether these influences extend to third‐party observers. To this end, we developed the Social Touch Picture Set comprising line drawings of dyadic interactions, half of which entailed publicly acceptable casual touch and half of which served as no‐touch controls. In Experiment 1, participants provided basic image norms by rating how frequently they observed a displayed touch gesture in everyday life and how comfortable they were observing it. Results implied that some touch gestures were observed more frequently and with greater comfort than others (e.g., handshake vs. hug). All gestures, however, obtained rating scores suitable for inclusion in Experiments 2 and 3. In Experiment 2, participants rated perceived valence, arousal, and likeability of randomly presented touch and no‐touch images without being explicitly informed about touch. Image characters seemed more positive, aroused, and likeable when they touched as compared to when they did not touch. Image characters seemed more negative and aroused, but were equally likeable, when they received touch as compared to when there was no physical contact. In Experiment 3, participants passively viewed touch and no‐touch images while their eye movements were recorded. Differential gazing at touch as compared to no‐touch images emerged within the first 500 ms following image exposure and was largely restricted to the characters' upper body. Gazing at the touching body parts (e.g., hands) was minimal and largely unaffected by touch, suggesting that touch processing occurred outside the focus of visual attention. Together, these findings establish touch as an important visual cue and provide novel insights into how this cue modulates socio‐emotional processing in third‐party observers.     

Rapid serial visual presentation display on a small screen: reading Chinese while walking

This study examined the effects of presentation unit (word-by-word or single line) and presentation duration [171, 213, 240, and 308 msec. per character (msec./C)] on the comprehension of Chinese rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) displays read from the small screen of a mobile phone in three different contexts (seated, walking on a treadmill, and walking through an outdoor course). 30 native Chinese readers ages 19 to 26 were recruited as participants. Scores on reading comprehension showed that presentation unit and presentation duration significantly affected reading comprehension, and interactions between factors were also significant. When the presentation unit was word-by-word, no significant difference in reading comprehension was observed under different presentation durations. However, when the presentation unit was a single line, reading comprehension deteriorated with the shortest presentation duration of 171 msec./C. With regard to context, participants had a higher mean reading comprehension score in the seated context than in walking contexts, but the difference was not significant.     

Learning HMM-based cognitive load models for supporting human-agent teamwork

Cognitive studies indicate that members of a high performing team often develop shared mental models to predict others’ needs and coordinate their behaviors. The concept of shared mental models is especially useful in the study of human-centered collaborative systems that require humans to team with autonomous agents in complex activities. We take the position that in a mixed human-agent team, agents empowered with cognitive load models of human team members can help humans develop better shared mental models to enhance team performance. Inspired by human information processing system, we here propose a HMM-based load model for members of human-agent teams, and investigate the development of realistic cognitive load models. A cognitive experiment was conducted in team contexts to collect data about the observable secondary task performance of human participants. The data were used to train hidden Markov models (HMM) with varied numbers of hypothetical hidden states. The result indicates that the model spaces have a three-layer structure. Statistical analysis also reveals some characteristics of the models at the top-layer. This study can be used in guiding the selection of HMM-based cognitive load models for agents in human-centered multi-agent systems.     

The ethical implications of Sengzhao’s concept of the Sage

This paper is an exploration of the ethical significance of Sengzhao’s concept of the sage as exhibited through a Buddhist practitioner’s expanded understanding and cognition of reality. From a philosophical point of view, I aim to show that the ethical significance of his concept of the sage comprises a shift first from ontology to epistemology, and then from epistemology to ethics. I firstly define Sengzhao’s concept of the sage and present a preliminary account of this concept before elaborating on its philosophical aspects. Next, I attempt to illustrate how ethical implications can be derived from Sengzhao’s ethical shift, and lastly, I shed light on the value and significance of this philosophical standpoint within Buddhist philosophy.     

A behavioral approach to substance abuse prevention in the correctional setting: A preliminary report

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a substance abuse program in a correctional institution using social skills training for secondary prevention. Forty-four male inmates with a history of substance use participated in the pilot program. Program topics included drug, alcohol, and substance abuse treatment knowledge and development of anger and stress management skills. A pretest-posttest analysis revealed significant improvement in overall knowledge of program topics and within specific areas. Areas of greatest improvement were drugs and alcohol. Clients and group leaders reported that the program was effective in facilitating attitude and behavior change regarding substance abuse. Results suggest a social competence approach to substance abuse rehabilitation in correctional institutions holds promise for both increasing knowledge and teaching effective skills to resist future substance abuse.     

Independence of hand preference and sex-linked genetic effects on spatial performance.

The paper-and-pencil spatial performance of right- and left-handed high school students was compared separately for 1236 males and 1241 females. Handedness differences in favor of right-handed subjects were found among males only. Analysis of data for a subgroup of 555 subjects indicated that handedness and sex-linked genetic effects acted independently and additively on spatial performance.     

Unintended consequences of Ze Ren Zhi reforms in China: interplay of agricultural reform and population control policy

The aim of the discussion of unintended consequences of Ze Ren Zhi policy reforms in China is to show how isolating problems and developing solutions in isolation can lead to serious consequences. The Ze Ren Zhi reforms in 1978 were intended to increase agricultural productivity by changing from the collective system to an individual responsibility system, but the unintended and undesirable consequences were a growth in family size and discouragement of some environmentally sound land use practices. The prior system gave an equal share of collective income for an equal number of days worked. Under the new reform, "Baochan Daohu," each household had responsibility for a contracted quantity of grain production. Within 2-4 years, economic conditions improved considerably. A discussion is provided of the transition from rights and duties of the collectives to the new responsibility system and the experimentation with different systems. Specific attention is directed to land reforms, mutual aid teams, cooperatives, communes, variations of Ze Ren Zhi, contracting output to individual laborers, contracting jobs to households, and contracting output quotas to households. During the reforms, beginning in the 1950s and lasting until 1978, other changes were taking place. Death rates were declining and birth rates were increasing, such that in 1971 a campaign was established to promote the Late, Sparse, and Few policy for marrying and giving birth later, increasing birth intervals, and having fewer children. This voluntary program eventually took on a more universally mandatory nature. The 1950 Marriage Law stipulated 20 years as the legal age for marriage (18 years for females), and family planning (FP) workers during the 1970s were encouraging even later marriage, and by 1980 a system of rewards and penalties was established to reinforce small family size. After 1978 and a period of birth declines, the crude birth rate increased to 3.06 in 1983. The new responsibility system changed the reward and penalty system, led to a loss of FP workers, created conditions that gave advantages to large families, promoted early marriage and pregnancy, and created a migrant labor surplus. Chemical fertilizers were used and there was little incentive to get involved in reclamation or reforestation efforts that have longterm gain. Integrated planning and programming is needed for the short and long run.