Bioinspired decision-making for a socially interactive robot

Nowadays, robots and humans coexist in real settings where robots need to interact autonomously making their own decisions. Many applications require that robots adapt their behavior to different users and remember each user’s preferences to engage them in the interaction. To this end, we propose a decision making system for social robots that drives their actions taking into account the user and the robot’s state. This system is based on bio-inspired concepts, such as motivations, drives and wellbeing, that facilitate the rise of natural behaviors to ease the acceptance of the robot by the users. The system has been designed to promote the human-robot interaction by using drives and motivations related with social aspects, such as the users’ satisfaction or the need of social interaction. Furthermore, the changes of state produced by the users’ exogenous actions have been modeled as transitional states that are considered when the next robot’s action has to be selected. Our system has been evaluated considering two different user profiles. In the proposed system, user’s preferences are considered and alter the homeostatic process that controls the decision making system. As a result, using reinforcement learning algorithms and considering the robot’s wellbeing as the reward function, the social robot Mini has learned from scratch two different policies of action, one for each user, that fit the users’ preferences. The robot learned behaviors that maximize its wellbeing as well as keep the users engaged in the interactions.     

On the blessing of abstraction

The “blessing of abstraction” refers to the observation that acquiring abstract knowledge sometimes proceeds more quickly than acquiring more speci?c knowledge. This observation can be formalized and reproduced by hierarchical Bayesian models. The key notion is that more abstract layers of the hierarchy have a larger “effective” sample size, because they combine information across multiple speci?c instances lower in the hierarchy. This notion relies on speci?c variables being relatively concentrated around the abstract “overhypothesis”. If the variables are highly dispersed, then the effective sample size for the abstract layers will not be appreciably larger than for the speci?c layers. Moreover, the blessing of abstraction is counterbalanced by the fact that data are more informative about lower levels of the hierarchy, because there is necessarily less stochasticity intervening between speci?c variables and the data. Thus, in certain cases abstract knowledge will be acquired more slowly than speci?c knowledge. This paper reports an experiment that shows how manipulating dispersion can produce both fast and slow acquisition of abstract knowledge in the same paradigm.     

Adapting the Unique Minds Program: Exploring the Feasibility of a Multiple Family Intervention for Children with Learning Disabilities in the Context of Spain

The Unique Minds Program (Stern, Unique Minds Program, 1999) addresses the socio‐emotional needs of children with learning disabilities (LD) and their families. Children and their parents work together in a multiple family group to learn more about LD and themselves as people with the capacity to solve problems in a collaborative way, including problems in family school relationships. This article reports the cultural adaptation of the program for use in Spain and findings from a feasibility study involving three multiple family groups and a total of 15 children and 15 mothers, using a pre‐post design. This Spanish adaptation of the program is called “Mentes Únicas”. Standardized outcome measures indicated an overall statistically significant decrease in children's self‐rated maladjustment and relationship difficulties by the end of the program. Improvements were endorsed by most mothers, although they were not always recognized by the children's teachers. The program had a high level of acceptability: Mothers and children felt safe, understood, and helped throughout the sessions. The efficacy of the adapted intervention for the context of Spain remains to be tested in a more rigorous study.     

The design of the MBT‐G adherence and quality scale

Few group psychotherapy studies focus on therapists' interventions, and instruments that can measure group psychotherapy treatment fidelity are scarce. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the reliability of the Mentalization‐based Group Therapy Adherence and Quality Scale (MBT‐G‐AQS), which is a 19‐item scale developed to measure adherence and quality in mentalization‐based group therapy (MBT‐G). Eight MBT groups and eight psychodynamic groups (a total of 16 videotaped therapy sessions) were rated independently by five raters. All groups were long‐term, outpatient psychotherapy groups with 1.5 hours weekly sessions. Data were analysed by a Generalizability Study (G‐study and D‐study). The generalizability models included analyses of reliability for different numbers of raters. The global (overall) ratings for adherence and quality showed high to excellent reliability for all numbers of raters (the reliability by use of five raters was 0.97 for adherence and 0.96 for quality). The mean reliability for all 19 items for a single rater was 0.57 (item range 0.26–0.86) for adherence, and 0.62 (item range 0.26–0.83) for quality. The reliability for two raters obtained mean absolute G‐coefficients on 0.71 (item range 0.41–0.92 for the different items) for adherence and 0.76 (item range 0.42–0.91) for quality. With all five raters the mean absolute G‐coefficient for adherence was 0.86 (item range 0.63–0.97) and 0.88 for quality (item range 0.64–0.96). The study demonstrates high reliability of ratings of MBT‐G‐AQS. In models differentiating between different numbers of raters, reliability was particularly high when including several raters, but was also acceptable for two raters. For practical purposes, the MBT‐G‐AQS can be used for training, supervision and psychotherapy research.     

An Examination of Alcohol Use Disorder Symptoms and Neighborhood Disorganization from Age 21 to 39

Living in disorganized neighborhoods characterized by high levels of poverty, crime, violence, and deteriorating buildings has been associated with increased alcohol consumption and mental health problems. Data drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project (N = 790), a theory‐driven longitudinal study originating in Seattle, WA, were used to estimate trajectories of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) symptoms from age 21 to 39. Time‐varying measures of neighborhood disorganization, psychological distress, and sociodemographic factors were associated with deviations from average AUD symptoms at each wave. Results indicated that, on average, AUD symptoms decreased as individuals got older. Living in more disorganized neighborhoods and experiencing psychological distress was associated with increased AUD symptoms after accounting for average reductions from AUD symptoms over time and time‐varying measures of relevant sociodemographic factors. Results of mediation analysis suggested that psychological distress is a mechanism by which disorganized neighborhoods increased risk of AUD from age 21 to 39.     

The Moro reaction: More than a reflex,a ritualized behavior of nonverbal communication

ObjectiveTo propose a phylogenetic significance to the Moro reflex which remains unexplained since its publication in 1918 because both hands are free at the end of the gesture.MethodAmong the 75 videos of healthy term newborns we have filmed in a research project on antenatal education to parenthood, we describe a sequence that clearly showed the successive movements of the Moro reflex and we report the occurrence of this reflex in the videos that were recorded from Time 0 of birth defined as the moment that lies between the birth of the thorax and the pelvis of the infant.ResultsThe selected sequence showed the following succession of the newborn’s actions: quick extension-adduction of both arms, the orientation of the body, head and eyes towards a human person, and full extension-abduction of both arms with spreading of the fingers, crying and a distressed face. There were 13 Moro reflexes between 2 and 14 s from Time 0 of birth. We found a significant association between the occurrence of the Moro reflex and the placement of the newborn at birth in supine position on the mother’s abdomen (p = 0.002).DiscussionThe quick extension-adduction of both arms which started the sequence may be considered as a startle reflex controlled by the neural fear system and the arm extension-adduction which followed as a Moro reflex. The characteristics of all Moro reflexes were those of ritualization: amplitude, duration, stereotype of the gestures. This evolutionary process turns a physiological behavior, grasping in this case, to a non-verbal communicative behavior whose meaning is a request to be picked up in the arms. The gestures associated with the Moro reflex: crying and orientation of the body, head, and eyes towards a human person, are gestures of intention to communicate which support our hypothesis. The neural mechanism of the Moro reaction probably involves both the fear and the separation-distress systems.ConclusionThis paper proposes for the first time a phylogenetic significance to the Moro reflex: a ritualized behavior of nonverbal communication. Professionals should avoid stimulating the newborns’ fear system by unnecessarily triggering Moro reflexes. Antenatal education should teach parents to respond to the Moro reflexes of their newborn infant by picking her up in their arms with mother talk.     

Open-Trial Pilot of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

In this pilot study, the effectiveness and feasibility of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for decreasing disruptive behavior was evaluated in 17 young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). PCIT is a behaviorally based play therapy which targets the parent-child relationship through live coaching of play interactions and the implementation of consistent discipline techniques. Following an average of 19 sessions, disruptive behavior as measured by multiple indices significantly decreased. Congruently, parents increased positive parental following skills and decreased negative parental leading skills across the course of treatment. In addition, parents reported increased levels of child functional communication and prosocial behavior. High levels of parent acceptability of the intervention were also noted. Effect sizes were medium to large across measured dependent variables, including parent report and behavioral observations. Implications for the clinical use of PCIT within an ASD population and future research with controlled outcome studies are discussed.     

Effects of Group Functional Behavior-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior in a Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often present with comorbid Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors (OCBs), but little research exists on effective intervention for OCBs. Using a single-case experimental design, this study highlights the efficacy of a Group Functional Behavior-based Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (Fb-CBT) to reduce OCBs in an 11-year-old youth with ASD. Tailored to the individual needs of this youth, Fb-CBT included traditional CBT components (e.g., psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral skills training, and exposure and response prevention) coupled with functional behavior assessment and intervention. Time-series parent report data and standardized measures showed clinically significant decreases in OCBs, an increase in psychosocial functioning, and high consumer satisfaction.     

Learning in the brain–computer interface: insights about degrees of freedom and degeneracy from a landscape model of motor learning

In this paper, we examine the role of degrees of freedom and their degeneracy in learning in the brain–computer interface paradigm. Though the traditional notion of degrees of freedom in motor learning gave emphasis to muscle and joint activity, the broader concept of dimensions of behavior is relevant to brain–computer interface learning where there is no muscle activity. The role of degeneracy in the dimensions of brain activity is proposed to enhance learning through robustness to stability loss and adaptability in the search for new stable states. Principles for the application of augmented information for learning to coordinate and control the degenerate degrees of freedom in the brain–computer interface are outlined.