The basis of shared intentions in human and robot cognition

There is a fundamental difference between robots that are equipped with sensory, motor and cognitive capabilities, vs. simulations or non-embodied cognitive systems. Via their perceptual and motor capabilities, these robotic systems can interact with humans in an increasingly more “natural” way, physically interacting with shared objects in cooperative action settings. Indeed, such cognitive robotic systems provide a unique opportunity to developmental psychologists for implementing their theories and testing their hypotheses on systems that are becoming increasingly “at home” in the sensory--motor and social worlds, where such hypotheses are relevant. The current research is the result of interaction between research in computational neuroscience and robotics on the one hand, and developmental psychology on the other. One of the key findings in the developmental psychology context is that with respect to other primates, humans appear to have a unique ability and motivation to share goals and intentions with others. This ability is expressed in cooperative behavior very early in life, and appears to be the basis for subsequent development of social cognition. Here we attempt to identify a set of core functional elements of cooperative behavior and the corresponding shared intentional representations. We then begin to specify how these capabilities can be implemented in a robotic system, the Cooperator, and tested in human–robot interaction experiments. Based on the results of these experiments we discuss the mutual benefit for both fields of the interaction between robotics and developmental psychology.     

A year in the college life: Evidence for the social investment hypothesis via trait self-control and alcohol consumption

The present study examined 12-month prospective relations among trait self-control, subjective role investment, and alcohol consumption in a sample of university students (N = 129). Using neo-socioanalytic theory and the social investment hypothesis as guiding frameworks, it was expected that greater initial role investment would predict greater self-control and less alcohol consumption at follow-up. Path analyses showed higher initial levels of subjective college student role investment predicted greater subsequent self-control and lower drinking amounts, controlling for initial standing on self-control and alcohol consumption. Greater initial trait self-control also predicted subsequent lower alcohol consumption. The discussion emphasizes the importance of incorporating subjective role investment, in addition to nominal role participation, in developmental accounts of personality traits, social identity, and behavior.     

A sensitive period for language in the visual cortex: distinct patterns of plasticity in congenitally versus late blind adults

Recent evidence suggests that blindness enables visual circuits to contribute to language processing. We examined whether this dramatic functional plasticity has a sensitive period. BOLD fMRI signal was measured in congenitally blind, late blind (blindness onset 9-years-old or later) and sighted participants while they performed a sentence comprehension task. In a control condition, participants listened to backwards speech and made match/non-match to sample judgments. In both congenitally and late blind participants BOLD signal increased in bilateral foveal-pericalcarine cortex during response preparation, irrespective of whether the stimulus was a sentence or backwards speech. However, left occipital areas (pericalcarine, extrastriate, fusiform and lateral) responded more to sentences than backwards speech only in congenitally blind people. We conclude that age of blindness onset constrains the non-visual functions of occipital cortex: while plasticity is present in both congenitally and late blind individuals, recruitment of visual circuits for language depends on blindness during childhood.     

Are Causal Structure and Intervention Judgments Inextricably Linked? A Developmental Study

The application of the formal framework of causal Bayesian Networks to children’s causal learning provides the motivation to examine the link between judgments about the causal structure of a system, and the ability to make inferences about interventions on components of the system. Three experiments examined whether children are able to make correct inferences about interventions on different causal structures. The first two experiments examined whether children’s causal structure and intervention judgments were consistent with one another. In Experiment 1, children aged between 4 and 8 years made causal structure judgments on a three‐component causal system followed by counterfactual intervention judgments. In Experiment 2, children’s causal structure judgments were followed by intervention judgments phrased as future hypotheticals. In Experiment 3, we explicitly told children what the correct causal structure was and asked them to make intervention judgments. The results of the three experiments suggest that the representations that support causal structure judgments do not easily support simple judgments about interventions in children. We discuss our findings in light of strong interventionist claims that the two types of judgments should be closely linked.     

Response inhibition in adults and teenagers: spatiotemporal differences in the prefrontal cortex

Inhibition is a core executive function reliant on the frontal lobes that shows protracted maturation through to adulthood. We investigated the spatiotemporal characteristics of response inhibition during a visual go/no-go task in 14 teenagers and 14 adults using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and a contrast between two no-go experimental conditions designed to eliminate a common confound in earlier studies comparing go with no-go trials. Source analyses were performed using an event-related beamformer algorithm with co-registered individual structural MRIs. Performance was controlled to be similar across subjects. Analyses of MEG data revealed bilateral prefrontal activity in the inhibitory condition for both age groups, but with different spatiotemporal patterns: around 300ms after stimulus onset in middle frontal gyri in teenagers vs. around 260ms in inferior frontal gyri in adults. Moreover, the inhibition of a prepotent motor response showed a stronger recruitment of the left hemisphere in teenagers than in adults and of the right hemisphere in adults than in teenagers. These findings provide high-resolution temporal and spatial information regarding response inhibition in adolescents compared to adults, independent of motor components and performance differences.     

Constructs of physical activity behaviour in children: The usefulness of Social Cognitive Theory

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among several Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 2004) constructs (e.g., self-efficacy) and children’s physical activity behaviours.

Design

Children from six elementary schools (N = 479) in grades 4th to 6th from five different school districts in the Southwestern USA participated in this study by completing a sociocognitive instrument as well as wearing a pedometer for five school days.

Methods

Previously validated scales were combined and administered to all children in order to examine the relationships among five constructs (self-efficacy, outcome expectations, social support, barriers, and goals) and physical activity participation was measured via pedometer. Data analyses included a two-step approach with confirmatory factor analysis followed by structural equation modelling.

Results

The confirmatory factor analyses indicated an adequate fit of the specified model. The structural model fit statistics also suggested that the data fit the specified model: χ² (8, N = 476) = 24.44, p = 0.00, χ²/df = 3.06, GFI = 0.98, AGFI = 0.96, CFI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.07. The model explained 15% of the variance in social support, 11% of the variance in goals, 11% of the variance in barriers, 9% of the variance in outcome expectations, and 2% of the variance in physical activity. Self-efficacy was a strong predictor of total social support, total number of barriers, and outcome expectations.

Conclusions

This study supports the use of Social Cognitive Theory in understanding the constructs of physical activity behaviour in children, however, very little variance in behaviours was explained. There is a need to also investigate environmental influences on children’s decisions to be physically active.     

The developmental activities engaged in by elite youth soccer players who progressed to professional status compared to those who did not

Objectives

We examined differences in the development pathways of elite youth soccer players in England who progressed to professional status in adulthood compared to those who did not.

Design

Comparative research design.

Method

Participants were elite youth soccer players (n = 32, 15 years of age). They completed the Participation History Questionnaire (PHQ; Ford, Low, McRobert, & Williams, 2010) under supervision.

Results

The participation history profiles of professional players followed the early engagement pathway in which they engaged in significantly more soccer play and practice compared to elite youth players who did not become professional, supporting previous work (e.g., Ford, Ward, Hodges, & Williams, 2009). The two groups of players engaged in four other sports, suggesting greater diversification than previously reported for soccer players, but less than that found in studies of team sport athletes in Australia and North America.

Conclusions

Professional soccer players in England follow an early engagement pathway during childhood and early adolescence.     

Adapting the Career Development Inventory-Australia for cross-cultural research

This paper describes the adaptation of the Career Planning and Career Exploration scales of the Career Development Inventory-Australia for use in a Thai cultural context. One hundred and fifty-nine Thai high school students participated in the study. The results were compared with data from Australian students collected in earlier studies and from a group of Australian students participating in a career education program. The results indicate that only the Career Planning scale minus one biased item was found to be equivalent across Thai and Australian cultural contexts. The Career Exploration scale was found to be an unreliable measure of career exploration of Thai Year 11 males and its structure was found to be incongruent across Thai and Australian cultural contexts.     

Beyond Vicary’s fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice

With his claim to have increased sales of Coca Cola and popcorn in a movie theatre through subliminal messages flashed on the screen, James Vicary raised the possibility of subliminal advertising. Nobody has ever replicated Vicary’s findings and his study was a hoax. This article reports two experiments, which assessed whether subliminal priming of a brand name of a drink can affect people’s choices for the primed brand, and whether this effect is moderated by individuals’ feelings of thirst. Both studies demonstrated that subliminal priming of a brand name of drink (i.e., Lipton Ice) positively affected participants’ choice for, and their intention to, drink the primed brand, but only for participants who were thirsty. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Defining the Nature and Impact of Goals in Children and Adolescents with a Chronic Health Condition: A Review of Research and a Theoretical Framework

This paper presents a review of research related to goals in youth with a chronic health condition (CHC) and a related framework to inform theory and research. Performed literature review using PsychINFO and Medline with a combination of many key words related to health, goals, and youth. Sixteen studies related to goals in youth with a CHC were identified. An integrative framework to inform research on goals in pediatric CHCs was presented based on studies reviewed. The impact of a CHC on goals and related behaviors, impact of goal conflict and collaboration, interventions with goal-setting components, and impact of developmental, disease, socioeconomic, and cultural factors were described. Recommendations for future research were discussed. The application of theory related to the nature and impact of goals in youth with a CHC will advance the field from a research and clinical standpoint.