Enhancement of group perception via a collaborative brain-computer interface

Objective: We aimed at improving group performance in a challenging visual search task via a hybrid collaborative brain-computer interface (cBCI). Methods: Ten participants individually undertook a visual search task where a display was presented for 250 ms, and they had to decide whether a target was present or not. Local temporal correlation common spatial pattern (LTCCSP) was used to extract neural features from response-and stimulus-locked EEG epochs. The resulting feature vectorswere extended by including response times and features extracted from eye movements. A classifier was trained to estimate the confidence of each group member. cBCI-assisted group decisions were then obtained using a confidence-weighted majority vote. Results: Participants were combined in groups of different sizes to assess the performance of the cBCI. Results show that LTCCSP neural features, response times, and eye movement features significantly improve the accuracy of the cBCI over what we achieved with previous systems. For most group sizes, our hybrid cBCI yields group decisions that are significantly better than majority-based group decisions. Conclusion: The visual task considered here was much harder than a task we used in previous research. However, thanks to a range of technological enhancements, our cBCI has delivered a significant improvement over group decisions made by a standard majority vote. Significance: With previous cBCIs, groups may perform better than single non-BCI users. Here, cBCI-assisted groups are more accurate than identically sized non-BCI groups. This paves the way to a variety of real-world applications of cBCIs where reducing decision errors is vital

Detect the unexpected: a science for surveillance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline a strategy for research development focused on addressing the neglected role of visual perception in real life tasks such as policing surveillance and command and control settings. Approach – The scale of surveillance task in modern control room is expanding as technology increases input capacity at an accelerating rate. The authors review recent literature highlighting the difficulties that apply to modern surveillance and give examples of how poor detection of the unexpected can be, and how surprising this deficit can be. Perceptual phenomena such as change blindness are linked to the perceptual processes undertaken by law-enforcement personnel. Findings – A scientific programme is outlined for how detection deficits can best be addressed in the context of a multidisciplinary collaborative agenda between researchers and practitioners. The development of a cognitive research field specifically examining the occurrence of perceptual “failures” provides an opportunity for policing agencies to relate laboratory findings in psychology to their own fields of day-to-day enquiry. Originality/value – The paper shows, with examples, where interdisciplinary research may best be focussed on evaluating practical solutions and on generating useable guidelines on procedure and practice. It also argues that these processes should be investigated in real and simulated context-specific studies to confirm the validity of the findings in these new applied scenarios

Minds Online: The Interface between Web Science, Cognitive Science, and the Philosophy of Mind

Alongside existing research into the social, political and economic impacts of the Web, there is a need to study the Web from a cognitive and epistemic perspective. This is particularly so as new and emerging technologies alter the nature of our interactive engagements with the Web, transforming the extent to which our thoughts and actions are shaped by the online environment. Situated and ecological approaches to cognition are relevant to understanding the cognitive significance of the Web because of the emphasis they place on forces and factors that reside at the level of agent–world interactions. In particular, by adopting a situated or ecological approach to cognition, we are able to assess the significance of the Web from the perspective of research into embodied, extended, embedded, social and collective cognition. The results of this analysis help to reshape the interdisciplinary configuration of Web Science, expanding its theoretical and empirical remit to include the disciplines of both cognitive science and the philosophy of mind

A Collaborative BCI Trained to Aid Group Decisions in a Visual Search Task Works Well with Similar Tasks

This study tests the possibility of using collaborative brain-computer interfaces (cBCIs) trained with EEG data collected during a decision task to enhance group performance in similar tasks

Memories for Life: A Review of the Science and Technology

This paper discusses scientific, social and technological aspects of memory. Recent developments in our understanding of memory processes and mechanisms, and their digital implementation, have placed the encoding, storage, management and retrieval of information at the forefront of several fields of research. At the same time, the divisions between the biological, physical and the digital worlds seem to be dissolving. Hence opportunities for interdisciplinary research into memory are being created, between the life sciences, social sciences and physical sciences. Such research may benefit from immediate application into information management technology as a testbed. The paper describes one initiative, Memories for Life, as a potential common problem space for the various interested disciplines