Audience Design through Social Interaction during Group Discussion

This paper contrasts two accounts of audience design during multiparty communication: audience design as a strategic individual-level message adjustment or as a non-strategic interaction-level message adjustment. Using a non-interactive communication task, Experiment 1 showed that people distinguish between messages designed for oneself and messages designed for another person; consistent with strategic message design, messages designed for another person/s were longer (number of words) than those designed for oneself. However, audience size did not affect message length (messages designed for different sized audiences were similar in length). Using an interactive communication task Experiment 2 showed that as group size increased so too did communicative effort (number of words exchanged between interlocutors). Consistent with a non-strategic account, as group members were added more social interaction was necessary to coordinate the group''s collective situation model. Experiment 3 validates and extends the production measures used in Experiment 1 and 2 using a comprehension task. Taken together, our results indicate that audience design arises as a non-strategic outcome of social interaction during group discussion.     

Social Interaction and Activity

The integrative potential of the theory of activity has been growing considerably, and for good reason: in the last 10-15 years activity has been transformed from an explanatory principle of psychology into an object of study in its own right; and we can reasonably anticipate that the activity of social interaction (or communicative activity) will be dealt with more precisely and thoroughly than in the present work, in which we shall only touch on certain aspects of the problem.     

Dream Sharing as Social Interaction

A survey was administered to 241 individuals whose questionnaire responses were analyzed to determine if they told their dreams to others, to whom they told their dreams, for what purpose, and in what social contexts dreams were shared. Respondents were also asked whether there were types of dreams they would not tell and individuals with whom they would not share dreams. This exploratory study suggests that dream sharing is a part of everyday social interaction, with the primary purpose of entertainment. There are gender differences with regard to dream sharing, and this sharing involves the utilization of social practices whereby individuals may protect themselves and others through deciding whether or not to share a dream. The study describes dream sharing as a social act that is negotiated based on the social rules regarding what topics friends and other intimates share in public or private.     

Rhythm Patterns Interaction - Synchronization Behavior for Human-Robot Joint Action

Interactive behavior among humans is governed by the dynamics of movement synchronization in a variety of repetitive tasks. This requires the interaction partners to perform for example rhythmic limb swinging or even goal-directed arm movements. Inspired by that essential feature of human interaction, we present a novel concept and design methodology to synthesize goal-directed synchronization behavior for robotic agents in repetitive joint action tasks. The agents’ tasks are described by closed movement trajectories and interpreted as limit cycles, for which instantaneous phase variables are derived based on oscillator theory. Events segmenting the trajectories into multiple primitives are introduced as anchoring points for enhanced synchronization modes. Utilizing both continuous phases and discrete events in a unifying view, we design a continuous dynamical process synchronizing the derived modes. Inverse to the derivation of phases, we also address the generation of goal-directed movements from the behavioral dynamics. The developed concept is implemented to an anthropomorphic robot. For evaluation of the concept an experiment is designed and conducted in which the robot performs a prototypical pick-and-place task jointly with human partners. The effectiveness of the designed behavior is successfully evidenced by objective measures of phase and event synchronization. Feedback gathered from the participants of our exploratory study suggests a subjectively pleasant sense of interaction created by the interactive behavior. The results highlight potential applications of the synchronization concept both in motor coordination among robotic agents and in enhanced social interaction between humanoid agents and humans.     

GSK3 Influences Social Preference and Anxiety-Related Behaviors during Social Interaction in a Mouse Model of Fragile X Syndrome and Autism

Background

Nearly 1% of children in the United States exhibit autism spectrum disorders, but causes and treatments remain to be identified. Mice with deletion of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (Fmr1) gene are used to model autism because loss of Fmr1 gene function causes Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) and many people with FXS exhibit autistic-like behaviors. Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) is hyperactive in brains of Fmr1 knockout mice, and inhibition of GSK3 by lithium administration ameliorates some behavioral impairment in these mice. We extended our studies of this association by testing whether GSK3 contributes to socialization behaviors. This used two mouse models with disrupted regulation of GSK3, Fmr1 knockout mice and GSK3 knockin mice, in which inhibitory serines of the two isoforms of GSK3, GSK3α and GSK3β, are mutated to alanines, leaving GSK3 fully active.

Methodology/Principal Findings

To assess sociability, test mice were introduced to a restrained stimulus mouse (S1) for 10 min, followed by introduction of a second restrained stimulus mouse (S2) for 10 min, which assesses social preference. Fmr1 knockout and GSK3 knockin mice displayed no deficit in sociability with the S1 mouse, but unlike wild-type mice neither demonstrated social preference for the novel S2 mouse. Fmr1 knockout mice displayed more anxiety-related behaviors during social interaction (grooming, rearing, and digging) than wild-type mice, which was ameliorated by inhibition of GSK3 with chronic lithium treatment.

Conclusions/Significance

These results indicate that impaired inhibitory regulation of GSK3 in Fmr1 knockout mice may contribute to some socialization deficits and that lithium treatment can ameliorate certain socialization impairments. As discussed in the present work, these results suggest a role for GSK3 in social behaviors and implicate inhibition of GSK3 as a potential therapeutic.     

Fertility and Social Interaction: An Economic Perspective

Fertility and Social Interaction: An Economic Perspective. Hans-Peter Kohler. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. xviii. 211pp.     

Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction

Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children’s social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a “mental model” of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot’s performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot’s bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.     

Synchronization analysis of the uterine magnetic activity during contractions

Background  

Our objective was to quantify and compare the extent of synchronization of the spatial-temporal myometrial activity over the human uterus before and during a contraction using transabdominal magnetomyographic (MMG) recordings. Synchronization can be an important indicator for the quantification of uterine contractions.     

Synchronization effects in the pacemaker during high-frequency atrial stimulation

The succession of intra-impulse intervals in venous sinus of isolated frog heart was studied during suprathreshold atrial stimulation at a frequency exceeding the initial pacemaker rate by l5-200%. Near to the initial and multiple frequency pacemaker synchronization takes place with the stimulator rhythm. With the stimulation of frequency increase atrial impulses begin to conduct retrogradely and regular ectopic rhythm is established. A unilateral pacemaker acceleration with the unilateral frequency drawing together is revealed in intermediate areas. Different effects appear to accompany it including asymptotic and cyclic synchronization proving in the form of arrhythmias.     

Timekeeping Through Social Contacts: Social Synchronization of Circadian Locomotor Activity Rhythm in the Carpenter Ant Camponotus paria

In ant colonies a large proportion of individuals remain inside nests for most of their lives and come out only when necessary. It is not clear how, in a nest of several thousand individuals, information about local time is communicated among members of the colony. Central to this seem to be circadian clocks, which have an intrinsic ability to keep track of local time by entraining to environmental light-dark, temperature, and social cycles. Here, the authors report the results of their study aimed at understanding the role of cyclic social interactions in circadian timekeeping of a day-active species of carpenter ant Camponotus paria. The authors found that daily social interactions with visitors (worker ants) was able to synchronize the circadian locomotor activity rhythm of host worker ants and queens, in one-on-one (pair-wise) and multi-individual (group-wise) interactions. Interestingly, the outcome of cyclic social interactions was context specific; when visitor workers socially interacted with host workers one-on-one, host workers considered the time of interaction as subjective day, but when visitor workers interacted with a group of workers and queens, the hosts considered the time of interaction as subjective night. These results can be taken to suggest that members of the ant species C. paria keep track of local time by socially interacting with workers (foragers) who shuttle in and out of the colony in search of food. (Author correspondence: vsharma@jncasr.ac.in)     

Uniform and Complementary Social Interaction: Distinct Pathways to Solidarity

We examine how different forms of co-action give rise to feelings of solidarity. We propose that (a) coordinated action elicits a sense of solidarity, and (b) the process through which such solidarity emerges differs for different forms of co-action. We suggest that whether solidarity within groups emerges from uniform action (e.g. synchronizing, as when people speak in unison) or from more complementary forms of action (e.g. alternating, when speaking in turns) has important consequences for the emergent position of individuals within the group. Uniform action relies on commonality, leaving little scope for individuality. In complementary action each individual makes a distinctive contribution to the group, thereby increasing a sense of personal value to the group, which should contribute to the emergence of solidarity. The predictions receive support from five studies, in which we study groups in laboratory and field settings. Results show that both complementary and uniform co-action increase a sense of solidarity compared to control conditions. However, in the complementary action condition, but not in the uniform action (or synchrony) condition, the effect on feelings of solidarity is mediated by a sense of personal value to the group.     

Facing Off with Unfair Others: Introducing Proxemic Imaging as an Implicit Measure of Approach and Avoidance during Social Interaction

Nonverbal behavior expresses many of the dynamics underlying face-to-face social interactions, implicitly revealing one’s attitudes, emotions, and social motives. Although research has often described nonverbal behavior as approach versus avoidant (i.e., through the study of proxemics), psychological responses to many social contexts are a mix of these two. Fairness violations are an ideal example, eliciting strong avoidance-related responses such as negative attitudes, as well as strong approach-related responses such as anger and retaliation. As such, nonverbal behavior toward unfair others is difficult to predict in discrete approach versus avoidance terms. Here we address this problem using proxemic imaging, a new method which creates frequency images of dyadic space by combining motion capture data of interpersonal distance and gaze to provide an objective but nuanced analysis of social interactions. Participants first played an economic game with fair and unfair players and then encountered them in an unrelated task in a virtual environment. Afterwards, they could monetarily punish the other players. Proxemic images of the interactions demonstrate that, overall, participants kept the fair player closer. However, participants who actively punished the unfair players were more likely to stand directly in front of those players and even to turn their backs on them. Together these patterns illustrate that fairness violations influence nonverbal behavior in ways that further predict differences in more overt behavior (i.e., financial punishment). Moreover, they demonstrate that proxemic imaging can detect subtle combinations of approach and avoidance behavior during face-to-face social interactions.     

Motor Contagion during Human-Human and Human-Robot Interaction

Motor resonance mechanisms are known to affect humans'' ability to interact with others, yielding the kind of “mutual understanding” that is the basis of social interaction. However, it remains unclear how the partner''s action features combine or compete to promote or prevent motor resonance during interaction. To clarify this point, the present study tested whether and how the nature of the visual stimulus and the properties of the observed actions influence observer''s motor response, being motor contagion one of the behavioral manifestations of motor resonance. Participants observed a humanoid robot and a human agent move their hands into a pre-specified final position or put an object into a container at various velocities. Their movements, both in the object- and non-object- directed conditions, were characterized by either a smooth/curvilinear or a jerky/segmented trajectory. These trajectories were covered with biological or non-biological kinematics (the latter only by the humanoid robot). After action observation, participants were requested to either reach the indicated final position or to transport a similar object into another container. Results showed that motor contagion appeared for both the interactive partner except when the humanoid robot violated the biological laws of motion. These findings suggest that the observer may transiently match his/her own motor repertoire to that of the observed agent. This matching might mediate the activation of motor resonance, and modulate the spontaneity and the pleasantness of the interaction, whatever the nature of the communication partner.     

Interhemispheric Interaction during Memorization of Movement Rhythm

After memorizing a simple periodical movement in the ankle joint, 36 healthy subjects (right-handers) reproduced it from memory. The movement rhythm image that formed during movement in the left ankle joint was memorized better than when the movement was performed by the right extremity. The specific features of interhemispheric interaction at various stages of trace processes, unequal participation of the hemispheres in perception and processing of information, and the physiological expedience of the signal transmission from the right to the left hemisphere are sufficient to assume a basic sequence of hemispheric functional activity redistribution when the brain masters new cognitive actions.     

Genuine and Spurious Phase Synchronization Strengths during Consciousness and General Anesthesia

Spectral content in a physiological dataset of finite size has the potential to produce spurious measures of coherence. This is especially true for electroencephalography (EEG) during general anesthesia because of the significant alteration of the power spectrum. In this study we quantitatively evaluated the genuine and spurious phase synchronization strength (PSS) of EEG during consciousness, general anesthesia, and recovery. A computational approach based on the randomized data method was used for evaluating genuine and spurious PSS. The validity of the method was tested with a simulated dataset. We applied this method to the EEG of normal subjects undergoing general anesthesia and investigated the finite size effects of EEG references, data length and spectral content on phase synchronization. The most influential factor for genuine PSS was the type of EEG reference; the most influential factor for spurious PSS was the spectral content. Genuine and spurious PSS showed characteristic temporal patterns for each frequency band across consciousness and anesthesia. Simultaneous measurement of both genuine and spurious PSS during general anesthesia is necessary in order to avoid incorrect interpretations regarding states of consciousness.