The Role of Eye Gaze in Subjective Decision Making

Shimojo, Simion, Shimojo and Scheier (2003) provided preliminary evidence that eye movements have an active role in preference formation. In their study, subjects were presented with two faces and chose which was more attractive. By manipulating how long subjects were able to look at each face after an eye movement, Shimojo et al. (2003) showed that faces presented for a longer duration were more likely to be chosen as more attractive. However, a recent study from Nittono and Wada (2009) showed that an eye movement may not be necessary for this effect, as novel graphic patterns presented in the centre of the screen (thus requiring no eye movements) for longer durations were also more likely to be preferred. The purpose of the current study was to further investigate whether eye movements do have an active role in preference formation. The present study used the same paradigm as Shimojo et al.’s (2003) study. Subjects in Experiment 1 were presented with images of two real faces, alternatively (one for 900ms, one for 300ms) for six repetitions. There were 3 independent experimental conditions. One group were required to make eye movements to laterally presented faces and judge attractiveness (lateral attractiveness condition), a second were not required to make eye movements to centrally presented faces and judge attractiveness (central attractiveness condition). The third were required to make eye movements to laterally presented faces and judge roundness (lateral roundness condition). The findings indicated that subjects were more likely to choose the longer presented faces in the lateral attractiveness and central attractiveness conditions, but not the lateral roundness conditions. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 with the exception of the type of stimuli, which consisted of computer generated faces (CGFs). Subjects were more likely to choose the longer presented CGF in the lateral attractiveness, central attractiveness and lateral roundness conditions. The findings of the present study were not in line with Shimojo et al.’s (2003) previous findings, who found that faces presented for a longer duration were only preferred in the lateral attractiveness condition of their study. It is possible that the faces that are presented for the longer duration in the current paradigm are preferred due to the increase in exposure duration irrespective of an eye movement (as per the findings from Nittono and Wada, 2009). As it is unclear as to whether eye movements play an active role in preference formation, the findings of the present study have not been able to contribute to computational models of decision making

Study of single muons with the Large Volume Detector at Gran Sasso Laboratory

The present study is based on the sample of about 3 mln single muons observed by LVD at underground Gran Sasso Laboratory during 36500 live hours from June 1992 to February 1998. We have measured the muon intensity at slant depths from 3 km w.e. to 20 km w.e. Most events are high energy downward muons produced by meson decay in the atmosphere. The analysis of these muons has revealed the power index of pion and kaon spectrum: 2.76 \pm 0.05. The reminders are horizontal muons produced by the neutrino interactions in the rock surrounding LVD. The value of this flux is obtained. The results are compared with Monte Carlo simulations and the world data.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in "Physics of Atomic Nuclei

A high resolution, low power time-of-flight system for the space experiment AMS

The system of plastic scintillator counters for the AMS experiment is described. The main characteristics of the detector are: (a) large sensitive area (four 1.6 m2 planes) with small dead space; (b) low-power consumption (150 W for the power and the read-out electronics of 336 PMs); (c) 120 ps time resolution. ( 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Study of Spin and Decay-Plane Correlations of W Bosons in the e+e- -> W+W- Process at LEP

Data collected at LEP at centre-of-mass energies \sqrt(s) = 189 - 209 GeV are used to study correlations of the spin of W bosons using e+e- -> W+W- -> lnqq~ events. Spin correlations are favoured by data, and found to agree with the Standard Model predictions. In addition, correlations between the W-boson decay planes are studied in e+e- -> W+W- -> lnqq~ and e+e- -> W+W- -> qq~qq~ events. Decay-plane correlations, consistent with zero and with the Standard Model predictions, are measured

An NLO QCD analysis of inclusive cross-section and jet-production data from the ZEUS experiment

The ZEUS inclusive differential cross-section data from HERA, for charged and neutral current processes taken with e+ and e- beams, together with differential cross-section data on inclusive jet production in e+ p scattering and dijet production in \gamma p scattering, have been used in a new NLO QCD analysis to extract the parton distribution functions of the proton. The input of jet data constrains the gluon and allows an accurate extraction of \alpha_s(M_Z) at NLO; \alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1183 \pm 0.0028(exp.) \pm 0.0008(model) An additional uncertainty from the choice of scales is estimated as \pm 0.005. This is the first extraction of \alpha_s(M_Z) from HERA data alone.Comment: 37 pages, 14 figures, to be submitted to EPJC. PDFs available at http://durpdg.dur.ac.uk/hepdata in LHAPDFv

Ultrarelativistic sources in nonlinear electrodynamics

The fields of rapidly moving sources are studied within nonlinear electrodynamics by boosting the fields of sources at rest. As a consequence of the ultrarelativistic limit the delta-like electromagnetic shock waves are found. The character of the field within the shock depends on the theory of nonlinear electrodynamics considered. In particular, we obtain the field of an ultrarelativistic charge in the Born-Infeld theory.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure