Learning to grasp and extract affordances: the Integrated Learning of Grasps and Affordances (ILGA) model

The activity of certain parietal neurons has been interpreted as encoding affordances (directly perceivable opportunities) for grasping. Separate computational models have been developed for infant grasp learning and affordance learning, but no single model has yet combined these processes in a neurobiologically plausible way. We present the Integrated Learning of Grasps and Affordances (ILGA) model that simultaneously learns grasp affordances from visual object features and motor parameters for planning grasps using trial-and-error reinforcement learning. As in the Infant Learning to Grasp Model, we model a stage of infant development prior to the onset of sophisticated visual processing of hand–object relations, but we assume that certain premotor neurons activate neural populations in primary motor cortex that synergistically control different combinations of fingers. The ILGA model is able to extract affordance representations from visual object features, learn motor parameters for generating stable grasps, and generalize its learned representations to novel objects

Mapping State Cultural Policy: The State of Washington

State-level funding for the arts, humanities, heritage, and allied forms of culture is an important source of financial support, dwarfing the aid provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. This investigation, underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trusts, shows that states support culture through policies and programs scattered across state government and through means that go beyond direct funding

Italian food? Sounds good! Made in Italy and Italian sounding effects on food products' assessment by consumers

Italian Sounding—i. e., the Italian appearance of a product or service brand irrespective of its country of origin—represents a global market phenomenon affecting a wide range of economic sectors, particularly the agro-food sector. Although its economic impact has been repeatedly stressed from different points of view (policy, economy, culture, etc.), systematic scientific knowledge regarding its social–psychological bases is lacking. Three studies carried out in three different countries (Italy, China, and USA) address this literature gap. Different consumer groups (both native and/or non-native) are targeted regarding major product categories pre-selected categories, which are the major Italian food goods within the specific country according to piloting (oil and/or pasta). In each study, the main independent variable (product version) has been manipulated by presenting real product images (previously pre-selected within the tested food category in each country market), whose “Italianness” degree is effectively manipulated by the main study variable (product version) across three or four levels (Protected Designation of Origin Made in Italy, Made in Italy, Italian Sounding, and Generic Foreign). Main hypotheses are tested via a survey with the specific product images administered to samples in Italy (N = 204, 148 Italians and 56 non-Italians), China (N = 191, 100 Chinese and 91 non-Italian expatriates in China), and the USA (N = 237 US citizens). Across the three studies, results show that Made in Italy products, compared to the other ones, are advantaged in terms of the main dependent variables: reputation profile, general reputation, attitude, and willingness to pay (WTP). Moreover, Italian Sounding products are endowed with corresponding significant advantages when compared to the Generic Foreign by non-Italian samples (although to a different degree according to the different sub-samples). Results reveal the specific social–psychological profile of Italian Sounding products in terms of either weaknesses or strengths when compared to both Made in Italy products and Generic Foreign ones, differently in the eyes of Italian and non-Italian consumers across different countries. Finally, consistently across the three studies, the extent to which a food product is perceived to be Italian increases consumers' WTP for that product, and this effect is consistently mediated by the product's reputation

Personality Differences in Perception: The role of Incongruity Intolerance and Mental Schemata on Aesthetic Preferences.

ries of classic and modern artistic paintings was examined. The study uses pictures that trigger in the observer the amodal completion, which involves the application and confirmation of already consolidated mental schemata, or the perceptual contradiction, which highlights their non-confirmation, generating incongruity experience. As in a first preliminary study conducted by Bonaiuto, Biasi, Giannini, & Chiodetti (2001) with advertising images, incongruity intolerance levels were assessed with the Building Inclination Test (BIT). Also in this new study, we apply the BIT tool in order to select sixty young adults, divided into three subgroups: 20 very incongruity intolerant participants, 20 very incongruity tolerant ones, and 20 intermediate participants, both genders equally subdivided. Moreover, we selected eighteen colour laser reproductions of classical and modern artistic paintings on A4 paper sheets: six show the predominant completion phenomena, other six are based on clear incongruous situations and the last six show completion phenomena mixed with incongruity. Each participant individually evaluated each illustration on aesthetic and physiognomic aspects, using 11-point scales. Double-blind experimental conditions were assured. The results show that very incongruity intolerant participants highly aesthetically appreciate the completion pictures, but they do not like the incongruent pictures. Differently the very incongruity tolerant participants are able to appreciate all three types of images presented, and attribute positive aesthetic scores also to the incongruent and thus conflictual pictures. The third group of participants is characterized by intermediate level of incongruity intolerance and obtain intermediate scores. Collected data confirm our research paradigm based on the theoretical model of overloading of conflict, and stress the role of the individual level of intolerance of incongruity in the dynamics of aesthetic preferences. This survey also allows to obtain an effect of generalization of the theoretical model through the empirical verification with different types of images

The Effectiveness of Clinical Colloquium Established by the “Drawing Recall” Technique in University Counselling Services for Student Mental Health

An experimental assessment of the effectiveness of university counselling was conducted through the “Stress Drawing Recall” Technique applied before and after a clinical colloquium with 70 uni- versity students of both genders, aged 18 - 35 years, who had requested this service. Another 70 students waiting to undergo the colloquium were interviewed as a control group. Two parallel se- ries of drawings depicting personal stress situations were collected and, after evaluation by three expert judges in “double-blind” conditions, led to establishing five forms of development of the graphic language from the first to second drawing, defined as follows: a) distension, with a reduc- tion in stress indicators and increase in comfort indicators; b) explicit representation of conflict resolution; c) appearance of new elements, with persisting conflict; d) increase in stress indicators; e) invariant or equivalent repetition of the stress drawing. Results showed that students who un- derwent the clinical colloquium (experimental group) changed their stress drawings mainly in the direction of distension and conflict resolution, while the control group had more invariant or equivalent repetition of the stress situation ( X42 = 62.77; p < 0.001). The events depicted in the stress drawings were divided into three categories: a) limited short-term stressful situations due to mainly external agents; b) externally induced stressful situations with intense emotional reso- nance; c) wide-ranging long-lasting stressful situations with great involvement of the self. The participants were divided into: a) very anxious subjects; b) averagely anxious subjects; c) not very anxious subjects, on the basis of their scores on two questionnaires: the MPI (1959) and the STAI (1970). There is a correspondence between the subjects’ level of conflict and extension of the de- picted stress. This confirms the usefulness of the Stress Drawing Recall Technique in psychological counsellin

Food Reputation and Food Preferences: Application of the Food Reputation Map (FRM) in Italy, USA, and China

Given the food challenges that society is facing, we draw upon recent developments in the study of how food reputation affects food preferences and food choices, providing here a starting standard point for measuring every aspect of food reputation in different cultural contexts across the world. Specifically, while previous attempts focused either on specific aspects of food or on measures of food features validated in one language only, the present research validates the Food Reputation Map (FRM) in Italian, English and Chinese over 2,250 participants worldwide. Here we successfully measure food reputation across 23 specific indicators, further grouped into six synthetic indicators of food reputation. Critically, results show that: (a) the specific measurement tool of food reputation can vary across cultural contexts, and that (b) people's reputation of food products or categories changes significantly across different cultural contexts. Therefore, in order to understand people's food preferences and consumption, it is important to take into account the repertoire of cultural differences that underlies the contexts of analysis: the three context-specific versions of the FRM presented here effectively deal with this issue and provide reliable context-specific insights on stakeholders' interests, perspectives, attitudes and behaviors related to food perceptions, assessment, and consumption, which can be effectively leveraged to foster food sustainability

Building blocks of joint attention: early sensitivity to having one’s own gaze followed

Detecting when one’s own gaze has been followed is a critical component of joint attention, but little is known about its development. To address this issue, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to record infant neural responses at 6.5 and 9.5 months during observation of an adult either turning to look at the same object as the infant (congruent actor), or turning to look at a different object (incongruent actor). We also used a preferential looking paradigm to investigate whether infants would demonstrate a preference for the congruent versus incongruent actor. Greater suppression of alpha band activity in the congruent compared to incongruent condition was revealed at both ages in central and parietal regions. However, the effect of congruency on alpha suppression was stronger at 9.5 months, and only at this age did infants demonstrate a preference towards looking at the congruent actor. Together, these results suggest that although infants are sensitive to others’ gaze following from early on, important neural and behavioural developments occur between 6.5 and 9.5 months

Cerebellar tDCS Dissociates the Timing of Perceptual Decisions from Perceptual Change in Speech

Neuroimaging studies suggest that the cerebellum might play a role in both speech perception and speech perceptual learning. However, it remains unclear what this role is: does the cerebellum directly contribute to the perceptual decision? Or does it contribute to the timing of perceptual decisions? To test this, we applied transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the right cerebellum during a speech perception task. Participants experienced a series of speech perceptual tests designed to measure and then manipulate their perception of a phonetic contrast. One group received cerebellar tDCS during speech perceptual learning and a different group received "sham" tDCS during the same task. Both groups showed similar learning-related changes in speech perception that transferred to a different phonetic contrast. For both trained and untrained speech perceptual decisions, cerebellar tDCS significantly increased the time it took participants to indicate their decisions with a keyboard press. The results suggest that cerebellar tDCS disrupted the timing of perceptual decisions, while leaving the eventual decision unaltered. In support of this conclusion, we use the drift diffusion model to decompose the data into processes that determine the outcome of perceptual decision-making and those that do not. The modeling suggests that cerebellar tDCS disrupted processes unrelated to decision-making. Taken together, the empirical data and modeling demonstrate that right cerebellar tDCS dissociates the timing of perceptual decisions from perceptual change. The results provide initial evidence in healthy humans that the cerebellum critically contributes to speech timing in the perceptual domain

Reasoning on Grasp-Action Affordances

Artificial intelligence is essential to succeed in challenging activities that involve dynamic environments, such as object manipulation tasks in indoor scenes. Most of the state-of-the-art literature explores robotic grasping methods by focusing exclusively on attributes of the target object. When it comes to human perceptual learning approaches, these physical qualities are not only inferred from the object, but also from the characteristics of the surroundings. This work proposes a method that includes environmental context to reason on an object affordance to then deduce its grasping regions. This affordance is reasoned using a ranked association of visual semantic attributes harvested in a knowledge base graph representation. The framework is assessed using standard learning evaluation metrics and the zero-shot affordance prediction scenario. The resulting grasping areas are compared with unseen labelled data to asses their accuracy matching percentage. The outcome of this evaluation suggest the autonomy capabilities of the proposed method for object interaction applications in indoor environments.Comment: Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS19

Flood risk management in Italy: challenges and opportunities for the implementation of the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC)

Abstract. Italy's recent history is punctuated with devastating flood disasters claiming high death toll and causing vast but underestimated economic, social and environmental damage. The responses to major flood and landslide disasters such as the Polesine (1951), Vajont (1963), Firenze (1966), Valtelina (1987), Piedmont (1994), Crotone (1996), Sarno (1998), Soverato (2000), and Piedmont (2000) events have contributed to shaping the country's flood risk governance. Insufficient resources and capacity, slow implementation of the (at that time) novel risk prevention and protection framework, embodied in the law 183/89 of 18 May 1989, increased the reliance on the response and recovery operations of the civil protection. As a result, the importance of the Civil Protection Mechanism and the relative body of norms and regulation developed rapidly in the 1990s. In the aftermath of the Sarno (1998) and Soverato (2000) disasters, the Department for Civil Protection (DCP) installed a network of advanced early warning and alerting centres, the cornerstones of Italy's preparedness for natural hazards and a best practice worth following. However, deep convective clouds, not uncommon in Italy, producing intense rainfall and rapidly developing localised floods still lead to considerable damage and loss of life that can only be reduced by stepping up the risk prevention efforts. The implementation of the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC) provides an opportunity to revise the model of flood risk governance and confront the shortcomings encountered during more than 20 yr of organised flood risk management. This brief communication offers joint recommendations towards this end from three projects funded by the 2nd CRUE ERA-NET (http://www.crue-eranet.net/) Funding Initiative: FREEMAN, IMRA and URFlood