34,707 research outputs found
Emerging Linguistic Functions in Early Infancy
This paper presents results from experimental
studies on early language acquisition in infants and
attempts to interpret the experimental results within
the framework of the Ecological Theory of
Language Acquisition (ETLA) recently proposed
by (Lacerda et al., 2004a). From this perspective,
the infant’s first steps in the acquisition of the
ambient language are seen as a consequence of the
infant’s general capacity to represent sensory input
and the infant’s interaction with other actors in its
immediate ecological environment. On the basis of
available experimental evidence, it will be argued
that ETLA offers a productive alternative to
traditional descriptive views of the language
acquisition process by presenting an operative
model of how early linguistic function may emerge
through interaction
Methods and Tools for Objective Assessment of Psychomotor Skills in Laparoscopic Surgery
Training and assessment paradigms for laparoscopic surgical skills are evolving from traditional mentor–trainee tutorship towards structured, more objective and safer programs. Accreditation of surgeons requires reaching a consensus on metrics and tasks used to assess surgeons’ psychomotor skills. Ongoing development of tracking systems and software solutions has allowed for the expansion of novel training and assessment means in laparoscopy. The current challenge is to adapt and include these systems within training programs, and to exploit their possibilities for evaluation purposes. This paper describes the state of the art in research on measuring and assessing psychomotor laparoscopic skills. It gives an overview on tracking systems as well as on metrics and advanced statistical and machine learning techniques employed for evaluation purposes. The later ones have a potential to be used as an aid in deciding on the surgical competence level, which is an important aspect when accreditation of the surgeons in particular, and patient safety in general, are considered. The prospective of these methods and tools make them complementary means for surgical assessment of motor skills, especially in the early stages of training. Successful examples such as the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery should help drive a paradigm change to structured curricula based on objective parameters. These may improve the accreditation of new surgeons, as well as optimize their already overloaded training schedules
Towards a human eye behavior model by applying Data Mining Techniques on Gaze Information from IEC
In this paper, we firstly present what is Interactive Evolutionary
Computation (IEC) and rapidly how we have combined this artificial intelligence
technique with an eye-tracker for visual optimization. Next, in order to
correctly parameterize our application, we present results from applying data
mining techniques on gaze information coming from experiments conducted on
about 80 human individuals
Eye-movements in implicit artificial grammar learning
Artificial grammar learning (AGL) has been probed with forced-choice behavioral tests (active tests). Recent attempts to probe the outcomes of learning (implicitly acquired knowledge) with eye-movement responses (passive tests) have shown null results. However, these latter studies have not tested for sensitivity effects, for example, increased eye movements on a printed violation. In this study, we tested for sensitivity effects in AGL tests with (Experiment 1) and without (Experiment 2) concurrent active tests (preference- and grammaticality classification) in an eye-tracking experiment. Eye movements discriminated between sequence types in passive tests and more so in active tests. The eye-movement profile did not differ between preference and grammaticality classification, and it resembled sensitivity effects commonly observed in natural syntax processing. Our findings show that the outcomes of implicit structured sequence learning can be characterized in eye tracking. More specifically, whole trial measures (dwell time, number of fixations) showed robust AGL effects, whereas first-pass measures (first-fixation duration) did not. Furthermore, our findings strengthen the link between artificial and natural syntax processing, and they shed light on the factors that determine performance differences in preference and grammaticality classification tests.Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsDonders Institute for Brain, Cognition and BehaviorVetenskapsradetSwedish Dyslexia Foundatio
Visual motion processing and human tracking behavior
The accurate visual tracking of a moving object is a human fundamental skill
that allows to reduce the relative slip and instability of the object's image
on the retina, thus granting a stable, high-quality vision. In order to
optimize tracking performance across time, a quick estimate of the object's
global motion properties needs to be fed to the oculomotor system and
dynamically updated. Concurrently, performance can be greatly improved in terms
of latency and accuracy by taking into account predictive cues, especially
under variable conditions of visibility and in presence of ambiguous retinal
information. Here, we review several recent studies focusing on the integration
of retinal and extra-retinal information for the control of human smooth
pursuit.By dynamically probing the tracking performance with well established
paradigms in the visual perception and oculomotor literature we provide the
basis to test theoretical hypotheses within the framework of dynamic
probabilistic inference. We will in particular present the applications of
these results in light of state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms
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