Functional Graph Contrastive Learning of Hyperscanning EEG Reveals Emotional Contagion Evoked by Stereotype-Based Stressors

This study delves into the intricacies of emotional contagion and its impact on performance within dyadic interactions. Specifically, it focuses on the context of stereotype-based stress (SBS) during collaborative problem-solving tasks among female pairs. Through an exploration of emotional contagion, this study seeks to unveil its underlying mechanisms and effects. Leveraging EEG-based hyperscanning technology, we introduced an innovative approach known as the functional Graph Contrastive Learning (fGCL), which extracts subject-invariant representations of neural activity patterns from feedback trials. These representations are further subjected to analysis using the Dynamic Graph Classification (DGC) model, aimed at dissecting the process of emotional contagion along three independent temporal stages. The results underscore the substantial role of emotional contagion in shaping the trajectories of participants' performance during collaborative tasks in the presence of SBS conditions. Overall, our research contributes invaluable insights into the neural underpinnings of emotional contagion, thereby enriching our comprehension of the complexities underlying social interactions and emotional dynamics.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, 5 table

Psychophysiological measurements in programming task:guidelines for conducting EMG research

Abstract. Programming languages have been studied and developed throughout history of programming. There are lots of different programming languages that are being used in software development, but only core languages are taught in Universities. Programming languages usually have their own syntax, which may differ greatly from each other. Using different programming languages for same task may provoke different emotions in programmers, depending their knowledge on the language. Research on programming and programming languages have generally focused on technical and exterior aspects. More recently, there has been some research on the programmers and their emotions during the programming tasks. This master’s thesis focuses on latter and aims to provide new information of programmers experienced emotions during the programming tasks by using EMG-recordings. This master thesis’ main study focus is in psychophysiology, which combines psychology to physiological research, by finding correlation between physiological activity and emotional phenomenon. This study assessed university students experienced emotions when conducting programming tasks with C and Python programming languages. EMG measurement device was used on the test participants to record signal data from facial based muscles for smiling and frowning activity, which are linked to positive and negative emotions. This study’s results showed small differences with emotional experiences during the programming tasks, but the overall results were not statistically significant. Therefore, more research on this topic is needed for more consistent results. Additionally, this research has provided guidelines on how EMG studies are conducted on laboratory setting and suggestions for future studies

Applied Cognitive Sciences

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field in the study of the mind and intelligence. The term cognition refers to a variety of mental processes, including perception, problem solving, learning, decision making, language use, and emotional experience. The basis of the cognitive sciences is the contribution of philosophy and computing to the study of cognition. Computing is very important in the study of cognition because computer-aided research helps to develop mental processes, and computers are used to test scientific hypotheses about mental organization and functioning. This book provides a platform for reviewing these disciplines and presenting cognitive research as a separate discipline

A Comparative Analysis of EEG-based Stress Detection Utilizing Machine Learning and Deep Learning Classifiers with a Critical Literature Review

Background: Mental stress is considered to be a major contributor to different psychological and physical diseases. Different socio-economic issues, competition in the workplace and amongst the students, and a high level of expectations are the major causes of stress. This in turn transforms into several diseases and may extend to dangerous stages if not treated properly and timely, causing the situations such as depression, heart attack, and suicide. This stress is considered to be a very serious health abnormality. Stress is to be recognized and managed before it ruins the health of a person. This has motivated the researchers to explore the techniques for stress detection. Advanced machine learning and deep learning techniques are to be investigated for stress detection.  Methodology: A survey of different techniques used for stress detection is done here. Different stages of detection including pre-processing, feature extraction, and classification are explored and critically reviewed. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is the main parameter considered in this study for stress detection. After reviewing the state-of-the-art methods for stress detection, a typical methodology is implemented, where feature extraction is done by using principal component analysis (PCA), ICA, and discrete cosine transform. After the feature extraction, some state-of-art machine learning classifiers are employed for classification including support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), NB, and CT. In addition to these classifiers, a typical deep-learning classifier is also utilized for detection purposes. The dataset used for the study is the Database for Emotion Analysis using Physiological Signals (DEAP) dataset. Results: Different performance measures are considered including precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy. PCA with KNN, CT, SVM and NB have given accuracies of 65.7534%, 58.9041%, 61.6438%, and 57.5342% respectively. With ICA as feature extractor accuracies obtained are 58.9041%, 61.64384%, 57.5342%, and 54.79452% for the classifiers KNN, CT, SVM, and NB respectively. DCT is also considered a feature extractor with classical machine learning algorithms giving the accuracies of 56.16438%, 50.6849%, 54.7945%, and 45.2055% for the classifiers KNN, CT, SVM, and NB respectively. A conventional DCNN classification is performed given an accuracy of 76% and precision, recall, and F1-score of 0.66, 0.77, and 0.64 respectively. Conclusion: For EEG-based stress detection, different state-of-the-art machine learning and deep learning methods are used along with different feature extractors such as PCA, ICA, and DCT. Results show that the deep learning classifier gives an overall accuracy of 76%, which is a significant improvement over classical machine learning techniques with the accuracies as PCA+ KNN (65.75%), DCT+KNN (56.16%), and ICA+CT (61.64%)

Affective recognition from EEG signals: an integrated data-mining approach

Emotions play an important role in human communication, interaction, and decision making processes. Therefore, considerable efforts have been made towards the automatic identification of human emotions, in particular electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and Data Mining (DM) techniques have been then used to create models recognizing the affective states of users. However, most previous works have used clinical grade EEG systems with at least 32 electrodes. These systems are expensive and cumbersome, and therefore unsuitable for usage during normal daily activities. Smaller EEG headsets such as the Emotiv are now available and can be used during daily activities. This paper investigates the accuracy and applicability of previous affective recognition methods on data collected with an Emotiv headset while participants used a personal computer to fulfill several tasks. Several features were extracted from four channels only (AF3, AF4, F3 and F4 in accordance with the 10–20 system). Both Support Vector Machine and Naïve Bayes were used for emotion classification. Results demonstrate that such methods can be used to accurately detect emotions using a small EEG headset during a normal daily activity

Classification and Regression of Learner’s Scores in Logic Environment

This paper presents the possibility of classifying and regressing learner’s scores according to different cognitive tasks which are grouped with difficulty level, type and category. This environment is namely, Logic environment. It is mainly divided into three main categories: memory, concentration and reasoning. To classify and regress learner’s scores according to the category and the type of cognitive task acquired, we trained and tested different machine learning algorithms such as linear regression, support vector machines, random forests and gradient boosting. Primary results shows that a random forest algorithm is the most suitable model for classifying and regressing the learners’ scores in cognitive tasks, where the features most important for the model are, in descending order: the task difficulty and the task category in the case of regression, the task difficulty, the time taken by the participant before completing it, and his electroencephalogram mental metrics in the case of classification

Cooperative Success Under Shared Cognitive States and Valuations

A mental model of the another person’s state of mind including their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, otherwise known as Theory of Mind (ToM), can be created to better predict their behavior and optimize our own decisions. These representations can be explicitly modeled during both the development and presence of stable cooperation via communication outcomes, allowing us to understand the sophistication or depth of mental coordination, involved in an individual’s social perception and reasoning. Almost all current scientific studies of ToM take a spectatorial approach, relying on observation followed by evaluation (e.g., the Sally-Anne Task). However given evidence that social cognition fundamentally shifts during valuationally significant social encounters with others, this study adopts a second-person approach. Each participant’s actions under dynamic uncertainty influence the joint reward probabilities of both, favoring cooperation and coordination. Only Teachers have knowledge of the correct action-reward contingencies, while Learners must ascertain the Teacher’s directive and correctly adjust their actions to obtain the optimal reward. The complexity of cooperative behaviors cannot be captured with simple reinforcement learning models, however a similarity in valuation exists, probing further investigation

A review on data fusion in multimodal learning analytics and educational data mining

The new educational models such as smart learning environments use of digital and context-aware devices to facilitate the learning process. In this new educational scenario, a huge quantity of multimodal students' data from a variety of different sources can be captured, fused, and analyze. It offers to researchers and educators a unique opportunity of being able to discover new knowledge to better understand the learning process and to intervene if necessary. However, it is necessary to apply correctly data fusion approaches and techniques in order to combine various sources of multimodal learning analytics (MLA). These sources or modalities in MLA include audio, video, electrodermal activity data, eye-tracking, user logs, and click-stream data, but also learning artifacts and more natural human signals such as gestures, gaze, speech, or writing. This survey introduces data fusion in learning analytics (LA) and educational data mining (EDM) and how these data fusion techniques have been applied in smart learning. It shows the current state of the art by reviewing the main publications, the main type of fused educational data, and the data fusion approaches and techniques used in EDM/LA, as well as the main open problems, trends, and challenges in this specific research area