Anatomical and behavioural correlates of emotion-induced social decision-making

2Abstract This thesis explored the behavioural and neural processes associated with the effect of sympathy and anger on socio-economic decision-making. Experiment 1 showed the defection rate decrease in sympathy and increase in anger compared to the neutral condition in the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Trust Game. Experiment 2 revealed that block and event-related designs have the same effect on defection over the three emotion conditions in the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Experiment 3 indicated that direct, but not displaced, emotion group participants’ defection rate replicated the finding of Experiment 1. Additionally, cognitive inhibition showed a consistent pattern over three experiments; while in the Prisoner’s Dilemma low cognitive inhibition participants’ defection decreased in sympathy and increased in anger compared to neutral, high cognitive inhibitors’ defection was similar across conditions. Yet, cognitive flexibility (Experiment 3) did not affect participants’ defection rate. Similarly, Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 found that defection rate in the Prisoner’s Dilemma was modulated by expressive suppression, but not cognitive reappraisal; low expressive suppression participants were defecting more in the anger and less in the sympathy compared to the neutral condition. The fMRI analysis in Experiment 4 showed increased left amygdala activation while defecting in the sympathy condition and decreased putamen activation while cooperating in the anger condition. These areas are possibly necessary to overcome the emotion driven impulses to cooperate in the sympathy and defect in the anger conditions. Finally, Experiment 5 revealed that vmPFC patients’ accuracy decreased from neutral to emotional exclusive disjunction trials, while parietal lobe and normal controls showed a reversed pattern signifying vmPFC’s role while making decisions under emotion. The combination of these findings highlights the importance of individual difference and the role of the amygdala, putamen and prefrontal cortex in socio-economic decision-making under emotion. However, alternative interpretations cannot be ruled out without further investigation

Differential modulation of performance in insight and divergent thinking tasks with tDCS

While both insight and divergent thinking tasks are used to study creativity, there are reasons to believe that the two may call upon very different mechanisms. To explore this hypothesis, we administered a verbal insight task (riddles) and a divergent thinking task (verbal fluency) to 16 native English speakers and 16 non-native English speakers after they underwent Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of the left middle temporal gyrus and right temporo- parietal junction. We found that, in the case of the insight task the depolarization of right temporo-parietal junction and hyperpolarization of left middle temporal gyrus resulted in increased performance, relative to both the control condition and the reverse stimulation condition in both groups (non-native > native speakers). However, in the case of the divergent thinking task, the same pattern of stimulation resulted in a decrease in performance, compared to the reverse stimulation condition, in the non-native speakers. We explain this dissociation in terms of differing task demands of divergent thinking and insight tasks and speculate that the greater sensitivity of non-native speakers to tDCS stimulation may be a function of less entrenched neural networks for non-native languages

The effect of partner-directed emotion in social exchange decision-making

Despite the prevalence of studies examining economic decision-making as a purely rational phenomenon, common sense suggests that emotions affect our decision-making particularly in a social context. To explore the influence of emotions on economic decision-making, we manipulated opponent-directed emotions prior to engaging participants in two social exchange decision-making games (the Trust Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma). Participants played both games with three different (fictional) partners and their tendency to defect was measured. Prior to playing each game, participants exchanged handwritten “essays” with their partners, and subsequently exchanged evaluations of each essay. The essays and evaluations, read by the participant, were designed to induce either anger, sympathy, or a neutral emotional response toward the confederate with whom they would then play the social exchange games. Galvanic skin conductance level (SCL) showed enhanced physiological arousal during anger induction compared to both the neutral and sympathy conditions. In both social exchange games, participants were most likely to defect against their partner after anger induction and least likely to defect after sympathy induction, with the neutral condition eliciting intermediate defection rates. This pattern was found to be strongest in participants exhibiting low cognitive control (as measured by a Go/no-Go task). The findings indicate that emotions felt toward another individual alter how one chooses to interact with them, and that this influence depends both on the specific emotion induced and the cognitive control of the individual

Method Stacking

Method Stacking is a new approach to data gathering that is based on a non-hierarchical, interdisciplinary collaboration between design researchers and the social sciences. It brings insider and outsider perspectives to the study of human-machine interactions in a design context via the iterative evaluation of data with participants. Method Stacking focuses on these human-machine interactions and investigates workflows by assessing and reflecting on the output of data collection methods to co-construct knowledge with participants. In short, this approach shifts the focus from capturing the most ‘truthful’ data. Instead, it uses visual output generated by physiological methods as a jumping-off point to generate discussions with the participants who become active agents in the study. This slowly builds up nuanced evidence of participants’ cognitive processes and task handling. As such, Method Stacking is useful as a vehicle for discussion, learning and generating feedback, as well as carrying out a research project in a creative environment. It was developed to combine principles of Fashion Practice Research and Human Factors Research, namely the research of fashion fabrication processes while considering improvements to the physical, cognitive, and socio-cultural aspects of human-machine interactions. It is used most effectively in a Futuring context which involves analysing emerging technologies as well as social, economic, and environmental factors to forecast and envision possible technology solutions. In Method Stacking, objective and subjective measures are stacked, which means that once completed, a method’s output is probed by the same participants, forming the first layer of an iterative process. This allows the findings to gradually stack up by challenging and critiquing the outputs of the different methods, rather than seeing individual methods as conclusive collection points. A task, such as sewing an element of a garment, is set to be carried out by a sample of experts in a work environment that is only loosely controlled; for example, in their home studio or workplace. The research team first conducts the physiological data collection (i.e., biometric data, eye tracking). Then, they actively engage the same participants in the data analysis using qualitative methods (i.e., reflective interviews, hierarchical and cognitive task analysis) to capture subjective experiences, collect evidence of individual decision-making and receive feedback on the effectiveness of the capture devices used in the first step. This leads to a verification or reevaluation of the first visual data set, which is then followed by another iteration of testing and evaluation

Fear, anger, and risk preference reversals: An experimental study on a Chinese sample

Fear and anger are basic emotions of the same valence which differ in terms of their certainty and control dimensions according to the Appraisal Tendency Framework, a theory addressing the relationship between specific emotions, and judgments and choices. Past research based on the Appraisal Theory revealed contradictory results for risky choice decision-making. However, these conclusions were drawn from Western samples (e.g., North American). Considering potential cultural differences, the present study aims to investigate whether the Appraisal Tendency hypothesis yields the same results in a Chinese sample. Our first study explores how dispositional fear and anger influence risk preferences through a classic virtual “Asia Disease Problem” task and the second study investigates how induced fear and anger influence risk preferences through an incentive-compatible task. Consistent with previous research, our results reveal that induced fear and anger have differential effects on risky decisions: angry participants prefer the risk-seeking option, whereas fearful participants prefer a risk-averse option. However, we find no associations between dispositional fear (or anger) and risky decisions

Differential roles of polar orbital prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes in logical reasoning with neutral and negative emotional content

© 2018 The Authors To answer the question of how brain pathology affects reasoning about negative emotional content, we administered a disjunctive logical reasoning task involving arguments with neutral content (e.g. Either there are tigers or women in NYC, but not both; There are no tigers in NYC; There are women in NYC) and emotionally laden content (e.g. Either there are pedophiles or politicians in Texas, but not both; There are politicians in Texas; There are no pedophiles in Texas) to 92 neurological patients with focal lesions to various parts of the brain. A Voxel Lesion Symptom Mapping (VLSM) analysis identified 16 patients, all with lesions to the orbital polar prefrontal cortex (BA 10 & 11), as being selectively impaired in the emotional reasoning condition. Another 17 patients, all with lesions to the parietal cortex, were identified as being impaired in the neutral content condition. The reasoning scores of these two patient groups, along with 23 matched normal controls, underwent additional analysis to explore the effect of belief bias. This analysis revealed that the differences identified above were largely driven by trials where there was an incongruency between the believability of the conclusion and the validity of the argument (i.e. valid argument/false conclusion or invalid argument/true conclusion). Patients with lesions to polar orbital prefrontal cortex underperformed in incongruent emotional content trials and over performed in incongruent neutral content trials (compared to both normal controls and patients with parietal lobe lesions). Patients with lesions to parietal lobes underperformed normal controls (at a trend level) in neutral trials where there was a congruency between the believability of the conclusion and the validity of the argument (i.e. valid argument/true conclusion or invalid argument/false conclusion). We conclude that lesions to the polar orbital prefrontal cortex (i) prevent these patients from enjoying any emotionally induced cognitive boost, and (ii) block the belief bias processing route in the neutral condition. Lesions to parietal lobes result in a generalized impairment in logical reasoning with neutral content

Dual arm co-manipulation architecture with enhanced human–robot communication for large part manipulation

The emergence of collaborative robotics has had a great impact on the development of robotic solutions for cooperative tasks nowadays carried out by humans, especially in industrial environments where robots can act as assistants to operators. Even so, the coordinated manipulation of large parts between robots and humans gives rise to many technical challenges, ranging from the coordination of both robotic arms to the human–robot information exchange. This paper presents a novel architecture for the execution of trajectory driven collaborative tasks, combining impedance control and trajectory coordination in the control loop, as well as adding mechanisms to provide effective robot-to-human feedback for a successful and satisfactory task completion. The obtained results demonstrate the validity of the proposed architecture as well as its suitability for the implementation of collaborative robotic systems

Assessing the Role of Gaze Tracking in Optimizing Humans-In-The-Loop Telerobotic Operation Using Multimodal Feedback

A key challenge in achieving effective robot teleoperation is minimizing teleoperators’ cognitive workload and fatigue. We set out to investigate the extent to which gaze tracking data can reveal how teleoperators interact with a system. In this study, we present an analysis of gaze tracking, captured as participants completed a multi-stage task: grasping and emptying the contents of a jar into a container. The task was repeated with different combinations of visual, haptic, and verbal feedback. Our aim was to determine if teleoperation workload can be inferred by combining the gaze duration, fixation count, task completion time, and complexity of robot motion (measured as the sum of robot joint steps) at different stages of the task. Visual information of the robot workspace was captured using four cameras, positioned to capture the robot workspace from different angles. These camera views (aerial, right, eye-level, and left) were displayed through four quadrants (top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right quadrants) of participants’ video feedback computer screen, respectively. We found that the gaze duration and the fixation count were highly dependent on the stage of the task and the feedback scenario utilized. The results revealed that combining feedback modalities reduced the cognitive workload (inferred by investigating the correlation between gaze duration, fixation count, task completion time, success or failure of task completion, and robot gripper trajectories), particularly in the task stages that require more precision. There was a significant positive correlation between gaze duration and complexity of robot joint movements. Participants’ gaze outside the areas of interest (distractions) was not influenced by feedback scenarios. A learning effect was observed in the use of the controller for all participants as they repeated the task with different feedback combination scenarios. To design a system for teleoperation, applicable in healthcare, we found that the analysis of teleoperators’ gaze can help understand how teleoperators interact with the system, hence making it possible to develop the system from the teleoperators’ stand point

Workplace 4.0: exploring the implications of technology adoption in digital manufacturing on a sustainable workforce

As part of the Industry 4.0 movement, the introduction of digital manufacturing technologies (DMTs) poses various concerns, particularly the impact of technology adoption on the workforce. In consideration of adoption challenges and implications, various studies explore the topic from the perspective of safety, socio-economic impact, technical readiness, and risk assessment. This paper presents mixed methods research to explore the challenges and acceptance factors of the adoption of human-robot collaboration (HRC) applications and other digital manufacturing technologies from the perspective of different stakeholders: from manufacturing employees at all levels to legal experts to consultants to ethicists. We found that some of the prominent challenges and tensions inherent in technology adoption are job displacement, employee’s acceptance, trust, and privacy. This paper argues that it is crucial to understand the wider human factors implications to better strategize technology adoption; therefore, it recommends interventions targeted at individual employees and at the organisational level. This paper contributes to the roadmap of responsible DMT and HRC implementation to encourage a sustainable workforce in digital manufacturing.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC): EP/L015463/1 and EP/R032718/1

A head mounted augmented reality design practice for maintenance assembly: toward meeting perceptual and cognitive needs of AR users

Head Mounted Display (HMD) based Augmented Reality (AR) is being increasingly used in manufacturing and maintenance. However, limited research has been done to understand user interaction with AR interfaces, which may lead to poor usability, risk of occupational hazards, and low acceptance of AR systems. This paper uses a theoretically-driven approach to interaction design to investigate the impact of different AR modalities in terms of information mode (i.e. video vs. 3D animation) and interaction modality (i.e. hand-gesture vs. voice command) on user performance, workload, eye gaze behaviours, and usability during a maintenance assembly task. The results show that different information modes have distinct impacts compared to paper-based maintenance, in particular, 3D animation led to a 14% improvement over the video instructions in task completion time. Moreover, insights from eye gaze behaviours such as number of fixations and transition between Areas of Interest (AOIs) revealed the differences in attention switching and task comprehension difficulty with the choice of AR modalities. While, subjective user perceptions highlight some ergonomic issues such as misguidance and overreliance, which must be considered and addressed from the joint cognitive systems’ (JCSs) perspective and in line with the predictions derived from the Multiple Resources Model