Gaze following, gaze reading, and word learning in children at-risk for autism

We investigated gaze following abilities as a prerequisite for word learning, in a population expected to manifest a wide range of individual variability – children with a family history of autism. Three-year-olds with or without a family history of autism took part in a word-learning task that required following gaze to find the correct referent of a novel word. Using an eye-tracker to monitor children’s gaze behavior we show that the ability to follow an adult’s gaze was necessary but not sufficient for successful word learning. Those children that had poor social and communicative skills could follow gaze to the correct object, but did not then learn the word associated with that object. These findings shed light on the conditions that lead to successful or less successful word learning in typical and atypical populations

Visual complexity, player experience, performance and physical exertion in motion-based games for older adults

Motion-based video games can have a variety of benefits for the players and are increasingly applied in physical therapy, rehabilitation and prevention for older adults. However, little is known about how this audience experiences playing such games, how the player experience affects the way older adults interact with motion-based games, and how this can relate to therapy goals. In our work, we decompose the player experience of older adults engaging with motion-based games, focusing on the effects of manipulations of the game representation through the visual channel (visual complexity), since it is the primary interaction modality of most games and since vision impairments are common amongst older adults. We examine the effects of different levels of visual complexity on player experience, performance, and exertion in a study with fifteen participants. Our results show that visual complexity affects the way games are perceived in two ways: First, while older adults do have preferences in terms of visual complexity of video games, notable effects were only measurable following drastic variations. Second, perceived exertion shifts depending on the degree of visual complexity. These findings can help inform the design of motion-based games for therapy and rehabilitation for older adults

Effect of methamphetamine dependence on inhibitory deficits in a novel human open-field paradigm.

RationaleMethamphetamine (MA) is an addictive psychostimulant associated with neurocognitive impairment, including inhibitory deficits characterized by a reduced ability to control responses to stimuli. While various domains of inhibition such as exaggerated novelty seeking and perseveration have been assessed in rodents by quantifying activity in open-field tests, similar models have not been utilized in human substance abusers. We recently developed a cross-species translational human open-field paradigm, the human behavior pattern monitor (hBPM), consisting of an unfamiliar room containing novel and engaging objects. Previous work demonstrated that manic bipolar subjects exhibit a disinhibited pattern of behavior in the hBPM characterized by increased object interactions.ObjectivesIn the current study, we examined the effect of MA dependence on inhibitory deficits using this paradigm. hBPM activity and object interactions were quantified in 16 abstinent MA-dependent individuals and 18 matched drug-free comparison subjects. The Wisconsin card sorting task (WCST) and the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) were administered to assess executive function and psychopathology.ResultsMA-dependent participants exhibited a significant increase in total object interactions, time spent with objects, and perseverative object interactions relative to comparison subjects. Greater object interaction was associated with impaired performance on the WCST, higher PANSS scores, and more frequent MA use in the past year.ConclusionsAbstinent MA-dependent individuals exhibited impaired inhibition in the hBPM, displaying increased interaction with novel stimuli. Utilization of this measure may enable assessment of inhibitory deficits relevant to drug-seeking behavior and facilitate development of intervention methods to reduce high-risk conduct in this population

Visual object tracking performance measures revisited

The problem of visual tracking evaluation is sporting a large variety of performance measures, and largely suffers from lack of consensus about which measures should be used in experiments. This makes the cross-paper tracker comparison difficult. Furthermore, as some measures may be less effective than others, the tracking results may be skewed or biased towards particular tracking aspects. In this paper we revisit the popular performance measures and tracker performance visualizations and analyze them theoretically and experimentally. We show that several measures are equivalent from the point of information they provide for tracker comparison and, crucially, that some are more brittle than the others. Based on our analysis we narrow down the set of potential measures to only two complementary ones, describing accuracy and robustness, thus pushing towards homogenization of the tracker evaluation methodology. These two measures can be intuitively interpreted and visualized and have been employed by the recent Visual Object Tracking (VOT) challenges as the foundation for the evaluation methodology

Object knowledge modulates colour appearance

We investigated the memory colour effect for colour diagnostic artificial objects. Since knowledge about these objects and their colours has been learned in everyday life, these stimuli allow the investigation of the influence of acquired object knowledge on colour appearance. These investigations are relevant for questions about how object and colour information in high-level vision interact as well as for research about the influence of learning and experience on perception in general. In order to identify suitable artificial objects, we developed a reaction time paradigm that measures (subjective) colour diagnosticity. In the main experiment, participants adjusted sixteen such objects to their typical colour as well as to grey. If the achromatic object appears in its typical colour, then participants should adjust it to the opponent colour in order to subjectively perceive it as grey. We found that knowledge about the typical colour influences the colour appearance of artificial objects. This effect was particularly strong along the daylight axis

Value-oriented process modeling - towards a financial perspective on business process redesign

To date, typical process modeling approaches put a strong emphasis on describing behavioral aspects of business operations. However, they often neglect value-related information. Yet, such information is of key importance to strategic decisionmaking, for instance in the context of process improvement or business engineering. In this paper we propose a valueoriented approach to business process modeling based on key concepts and metrics from operations and financial management. A simple case study suggests that our approach facilitates managerial decision-making in the context of process re-design