Beyond fixation durations: Recurrence quantification analysis reveals spatiotemporal dynamics of infant visual scanning

Standard looking-duration measures in eye-tracking data provide only general quantitative indices, while details of the spatiotemporal structuring of fixation sequences are lost. To overcome this, various tools have been developed to measure the dynamics of fixations. However, these analyses are only useful when stimuli have high perceptual similarity and they require the previous definition of areas of interest (AOIs). Although these methods have been widely applied in adult studies, relatively little is known about the temporal structuring of infant gaze-foraging behaviors such as variability of scanning over time or individual scanning patterns. Thus, to shed more light on the spatiotemporal characteristics of infant fixation sequences we apply for the first time a new methodology for nonlinear time-series analysis—the recurrence quantification analysis (RQA). We present how the dynamics of infant scanning varies depending on the scene content during a "pop-out" search task. Moreover, we show how the normalization of RQA measures with average fixation durations provides a more detailed account of the dynamics of fixation sequences. Finally, we link the RQA measures of temporal dynamics of scanning with the spatial information about the stimuli using heat maps of recurrences without the need for defining a priori AOIs and present how infants’ foraging strategies are driven by the image content. We conclude from our findings that the RQA methodology has potential applications in the analysis of the temporal dynamics of infant visual foraging offering advantages over existing methods

Grammatical gender influence on the conceptualization of objects: Comparison between Polish and Italian

Results show different patterns of the grammatical gender effects depending on the conceptual domain of nouns. Further analyses concern the effects of the mode of object presentation (word or picture) as well as possible semantic underpinnings of neutral category in Polish. Results are compared with those of earlier studies (Boroditsky, et al., 2003, Vigliocco et al, 2003) and on their basis possible mechanisms of grammatical gender effects on the conceptualization of nouns are discussed

Three time-scales of influence between linguistic and conceptual processing: grammatical gender effects in Polish and Italian

An increasing number of studies show that syntactic features of language influence processing of information about objects and events, although the issues of universality and depth of such influences continue to fuel debates. This study compared effects of grammatical gender on the description of objects in two languages, Polish and Italian, that differ in the number of grammatical gender categories and in the systematicity of mapping between grammatical gender and natural gender of human referents. Combining two methods previously employed by research on this topic, we used an adjective description task followed by an Osgood-type rating of the collected adjectives. Grammatical gender effects were found in both languages. Previous findings, suggesting that semantic effects are weaker for languages with 3 genders, were not confirmed, prompting a search for other decisive factors. Importantly, the effects of grammatical features probed by our task can be understood as acting on different time-scales: the on-line influence of the processing of linguistic material, the ontogenetic time-scale of concept formation in the presence of linguistic input, and, finally, the time-scale of cultural language evolution. Depending on the experimental task adopted, effects from different time-scales may interact which is rarely taken into account by existing explanatory models

Dynamics of Joint-Action, Social Coordination and Multi-Agent Activity

Coordinating one’s behavior with the behavior of other individuals is a fundamental feature of everyday social interaction. A defining feature of such behavior is that it is dynamic, that is, it evolves over time. This is true whether one considers the linguistic, gestural and non-verbal coordination that occurs between two or more individuals engaged in a conversation or the physical movement coordination that occurs when two or more people clear a dinner table or load a dishwasher together. Such behavior is also emergent and robust to sudden changes in task context or unexpected environmental or social perturbations. Accordingly, robust social action and multi-agent coordination is synergistic, with co-acting individuals adapting to each other and the environment around them in a mutual and reciprocal manner. Research investigating the behavioral dynamics of joint-action and multi-agent coordination has steadily increased over the last several decades. Spurred by several factors, including (i) the increased accessibility of technologies for recording and extracting the time-evolution of multi-agent behavior (e.g., motion tracking, eye-tracking, EEG), (ii) the development of new nonlinear techniques for analyzing behavioral and linguistic time-series data, and (iii) a growing appreciation that social cognition, perception, and action are interdependent, embodied and embedded processes, this research has not only been directed towards measuring and identifying the stable patterns of coordinated social and multi-agent activity that emerge over time, but also how these stable pattern are activated, dissolved, transformed, and exchanged over time. Not surprisingly, researchers have begun to investigate the implications of this behavioral dynamics perspective for understanding social cognitive processes as well as clinical disorders with social deficits such as autism and schizophrenia. Attempts at modeling the dynamics of social action and multi-agent behavior using various nonlinear and complex systems methods has also increased over the last several years, with many researchers demonstrating how simple low-dimensional dynamical or computational models can be employed to capture and explain the dynamics of ongoing joint-action and multi-agent behavior. A characteristic feature of these dynamical models is that they reveal how stable social action and multi-agent coordination arises naturally from the interaction of the physical, biomechanical, neural, informational, and social cognitive properties of a joint-action task context and goal, and cannot be ascribed to any one singular processes, agent, or level of analysis. The implications of these modeling endeavors for the design of robust and adaptive human-machine systems and robotic agents has not gone unnoticed, with a growing body of work now devoted to such joint-action, (bio)-inspired human-robotic interaction initiatives

Mapping hospice patients' perception and verbal communication of end-of-life needs: an exploratory mixed methods inquiry

Abstract Background Comprehensive "Total Pain" assessments of patients' end-of-life needs are critical for providing improved patient-clinician communication, assessing needs, and offering high quality palliative care. However, patients' needs-based research methodologies and findings remain highly diverse with their lack of consensus preventing optimum needs assessments and care planning. Mixed-methods is an underused yet robust "patient-based" approach for reported lived experiences to map both the incidence and prevalence of what patients perceive as important end of life needs. Methods Findings often include methodological artifacts and their own selection bias. Moving beyond diverse findings therefore requires revisiting methodological choices. A mixed methods research cross-sectional design is therefore used to reduce limitations inherent in both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Audio-taped phenomenological "thinking aloud" interviews of a purposive sample of 30 hospice patients are used to identify their vocabulary for communicating perceptions of end-of-life needs. Grounded theory procedures assisted by QSR-NVivo software is then used for discovering domains of needs embedded in the interview narratives. Summary findings are translated into quantified format for presentation and analytical purposes. Results Findings from this mixed-methods feasibility study indicate patients' narratives represent 7 core domains of end-of-life needs. These are (1) time, (2) social, (3) physiological, (4) death and dying, (5) safety, (6) spirituality, (7) change & adaptation. The prevalence, rather than just the occurrence, of patients' reported needs provides further insight into their relative importance. Conclusion Patients' perceptions of end-of-life needs are multidimensional, often ambiguous and uncertain. Mixed methodology appears to hold considerable promise for unpacking both the occurrence and prevalence of cognitive structures represented by verbal encoding that constitute patients' narratives. Communication is a key currency for delivering optimal palliative care. Therefore understanding the domains of needs that emerge from patient-based vocabularies indicate potential for: (1) developing more comprehensive clinical-patient needs assessment tools; (2) improved patient-clinician communication; and (3) moving toward a theoretical model of human needs that can emerge at the end of life.</p