Corrigendum: Where's Wally: the influence of visual salience on referring expression generation.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00329.].

Corrigendum: Giving good directions: order of mention reflects visual salience.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01793.].

A real-world test of artificial intelligence infiltration of a university examinations system: A "Turing Test" case study.

The recent rise in artificial intelligence systems, such as ChatGPT, poses a fundamental problem for the educational sector. In universities and schools, many forms of assessment, such as coursework, are completed without invigilation. Therefore, students could hand in work as their own which is in fact completed by AI. Since the COVID pandemic, the sector has additionally accelerated its reliance on unsupervised 'take home exams'. If students cheat using AI and this is undetected, the integrity of the way in which students are assessed is threatened. We report a rigorous, blind study in which we injected 100% AI written submissions into the examinations system in five undergraduate modules, across all years of study, for a BSc degree in Psychology at a reputable UK university. We found that 94% of our AI submissions were undetected. The grades awarded to our AI submissions were on average half a grade boundary higher than that achieved by real students. Across modules there was an 83.4% chance that the AI submissions on a module would outperform a random selection of the same number of real student submissions.

Does precrastination explain why some observers are suboptimal in a visual search task?

How do we decide where to search for a target? Optimal search relies on first considering the relative informational value of different locations and then executing eye movements to the best options. However, many participants consistently move their eyes to locations that can be easily ascertained to neither contain the target nor provide new information about the target's location. Here, we asked whether this suboptimal search behaviour represents a specific example of a general tendency towards precrastination: starting sub-goals of a task before they are needed, and in so doing, spending longer time on doing the task than is necessary. To test this hypothesis, we asked 200 participants to do two tasks: retrieve two heavy buckets (one close and one far) and search for a line segment. Precrastination is defined as consistently picking up the closer bucket first, versus the more efficient strategy of picking up the farther bucket first. Search efficiency is the proportion of fixations directed to more cluttered regions of the search array. Based on the pilot data, we predicted an association of precrastination with inefficient search strategies. Personality inventories were also administered to identify stable characteristics associated with these strategies. In the final dataset, there was no clear association between search strategy and precrastination, nor did these correlate strongly with any of the personality measures collected. This article received in-principle acceptance (IPA) at Royal Society Open Science on 29 January 2020. The accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript, not including results and discussion, may be found at https://osf.io/p2sjx. This preregistration was performed prior to data collection and analysis.

Zygomaticus activation through facial neuromuscular electrical stimulation (fNMES) induces happiness perception in ambiguous facial expressions and affects neural correlates of face processing.

The role of facial feedback in facial emotion recognition remains controversial, partly due to limitations of the existing methods to manipulate the activation of facial muscles, such as voluntary posing of facial expressions or holding a pen in the mouth. These procedures are indeed limited in their control over which muscles are (de)activated when and to what degree. To overcome these limitations and investigate in a more controlled way if facial emotion recognition is modulated by one's facial muscle activity, we used computer-controlled facial neuromuscular electrical stimulation (fNMES). In a pre-registered EEG experiment, ambiguous facial expressions were categorised as happy or sad by 47 participants. In half of the trials, weak smiling was induced through fNMES delivered to the bilateral Zygomaticus Major muscle for 500 ms. The likelihood of categorising ambiguous facial expressions as happy was significantly increased with fNMES, as shown with frequentist and Bayesian linear mixed models. Further, fNMES resulted in a reduction of P1, N170 and LPP amplitudes. These findings suggest that fNMES-induced facial feedback can bias facial emotion recognition and modulate the neural correlates of face processing. We conclude that fNMES has potential as a tool for studying the effects of facial feedback.

Variable search for orientation, uniformly optimal search for identity.

We compare eye movement strategies across a range of different stimulus sets to test the prediction that eye movements are guided by expected information gain. When searching for a simple target that has been defined based on orientation, interindividual variability is high, and a large proportion of eye movements are directed to locations where peripheral vision would have been sufficient to determine whether the target was present there or not. In contrast, when searching for a target defined based on identity, eye movements are similar across individuals and highly efficient, being directed almost exclusively to the locations where central vision is most needed. The results suggest that for most people, the way they search for a simple feature (orientation) is not directly representative of the way they search for objects based on their identity. More generally, the results highlight that because humans are adaptable, contradictory theories can be accurate descriptions of search in particular contexts and individuals. For a complete and accurate account of human search behavior to be achieved, the conditions that shift us from one mode of behavior to another need to be part of our models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Bayesian multi-level modelling for predicting single and double feature visual search.

Performance in visual search tasks is frequently summarised by "search slopes" - the additional cost in reaction time for each additional distractor. While search tasks with a shallow search slopes are termed efficient (pop-out, parallel, feature), there is no clear dichotomy between efficient and inefficient (serial, conjunction) search. Indeed, a range of search slopes are observed in empirical data. The Target Contrast Signal (TCS) Theory is a rare example of quantitative model that attempts to predict search slopes for efficient visual search. One study using the TCS framework has shown that the search slope in a double-feature search (where the target differs in both colour and shape from the distractors) can be estimated from the slopes of the associated single-feature searches. This estimation is done using a contrast combination model, and a collinear contrast integration model was shown to outperform other options. In our work, we extend TCS to a Bayesian multi-level framework. We investigate modelling using normal and shifted-lognormal distributions, and show that the latter allows for a better fit to previously published data. We run a new fully within-subjects experiment to attempt to replicate the key original findings, and show that overall, TCS does a good job of predicting the data. However, we do not replicate the finding that the collinear combination model outperforms the other contrast combination models, instead finding that it may be difficult to conclusively distinguish between them.

The role of framing, agency and uncertainty in a focus-divide dilemma.

How to prioritise multiple objectives is a common dilemma of daily life. A simple and effective decision rule is to focus resources when the tasks are difficult, and divide when tasks are easy. Nonetheless, in experimental paradigms of this dilemma, participants make highly variable and suboptimal strategic decisions when asked to allocate resources to two competing goals that vary in difficulty. We developed a new version in which participants had to choose where to park a fire truck between houses of varying distances apart. Unlike in the previous versions of the dilemma, participants approached the optimal strategy in this task. Three key differences between the fire truck version and previous versions of the task were investigated: (1) Framing (whether the objectives are familiar or abstract), by comparing a group who placed cartoon trucks between houses to a group performing the same task with abstract shapes; (2) Agency (how much of the task is under the participants' direct control), by comparing groups who controlled the movement of the truck to those who did not; (3) Uncertainty, by adding variability to the driving speed of the truck to make success or failure on a given trial more difficult to predict. Framing and agency did not influence strategic decisions. When adding variability to outcomes, however, decisions shifted away from optimal. The results suggest choices become more variable when the outcome is less certain, consistent with exploration of response alternatives triggered by an inability to predict success.

Facial mimicry is not modulated by dopamine D2/3 and opioid receptor antagonism.

RATIONALE: According to theories of embodied cognition, facial mimicry - the spontaneous, low-intensity imitation of a perceived emotional facial expression - is first an automatic motor response, whose accompanying proprioceptive feedback contributes to emotion recognition. Alternative theoretical accounts, however, view facial mimicry as an emotional response to a rewarding stimulus, and/or an affiliative signal, and thus reject the view of an automatic motor copy. OBJECTIVES: To contribute to this debate and further investigate the neural basis of facial mimicry, as well as its relation to reward processing, we measured facial reactions to dynamic happy and angry faces after pharmacologically manipulating the opioid and dopamine systems - respectively, thought to subserve 'liking' and 'wanting' of rewards. METHODS: In a placebo-controlled, double-blind experiment, 130 volunteers received in a between-subjects design 50 mg of the opioidergic antagonist naltrexone, 400 mg of the dopaminergic antagonist amisulpride, or placebo. RESULTS: Clear occurrence of facial mimicry, measured 4 h after drug intake with electromyography (EMG) of the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles, was found. However, facial mimicry was not affected by either compound, as shown with both frequentist statistics, and a Bayesian asymptotic regression model. CONCLUSIONS: This null finding does not support the hypothesis that facial mimicry (of happiness) reflects an emotional response to a rewarding stimulus, leaving open the possibility of facial mimicry being an automatic motor copy. The results are relevant to the discussion about the psychological nature and the neural basis of facial mimicry, although they should be considered preliminary, given the challenges of interpreting null findings when targeting a novel effect of unknown size.

Correction: Foraging as sampling without replacement: A Bayesian statistical model for estimating biases in target selection.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009813.].

Six of one, half dozen of the other: Suboptimal prioritizing for equal and unequal alternatives.

It is possible to accomplish multiple goals when available resources are abundant, but when the tasks are difficult and resources are limited, it is better to focus on one task and complete it successfully than to divide your efforts and fail on both. Previous research has shown that people rarely apply this logic when faced with prioritizing dilemmas. The pairs of tasks in previous research had equal utility, which according to some models, can disrupt decision-making. We investigated whether the equivalence of two tasks contributes to suboptimal decisions about how to prioritize them. If so, removing or manipulating the arbitrary nature of the decision between options should facilitate optimal decisions about whether to focus effort on one goal or divide effort over two. Across all three experiments, however, participants did not appropriately adjust their decisions with task difficulty. The only condition in which participants adopted a strategy that approached optimal was when they had voluntarily placed more reward on one task over the other. For the task that was more rewarded, choices were modified more effectively with task difficulty. However, participants were more likely to choose to distribute rewards equally than unequally. The results demonstrate that situations involving choices between options with equal utility are not avoided and are even slightly preferred over unequal options, despite unequal options having larger potential gains and leading to more effective prioritizing strategies.

A Bayesian Statistical Model Is Able to Predict Target-by-Target Selection Behaviour in a Human Foraging Task.

Foraging refers to search involving multiple targets or multiple types of targets, and as a model task has a long history in animal behaviour and human cognition research. Foraging behaviour is usually operationalized using summary statistics, such as average distance covered during target collection (the path length) and the frequency of switching between target types. We recently introduced an alternative approach, which is to model each instance of target selection as random selection without replacement. Our model produces estimates of a set of foraging biases, such as a bias to select closer targets or targets of a particular category. Here we apply this model to predict individual target selection events. We add a new start position bias to the model, and generate foraging paths using the parameters estimated from individual participants' pre-existing data. The model predicts which target the participant will select next with a range of accuracy from 43% to 69% across participants (chance is 11%). The model therefore explains a substantial proportion of foraging behaviour in this paradigm. The situations where the model makes errors reveal useful information to guide future research on those aspects of foraging that we have not yet explained.

Visual search habits and the spatial structure of scenes.

Some spatial layouts may suit our visual search habits better than others. We compared eye movements during search across three spatial configurations. Participants searched for a line segment oriented 45∘ to the right. Variation in the orientation of distractor line segments determines the extent to which this target would be visible in peripheral vision: a target among homogeneous distractors is highly visible, while a target among heterogeneous distractors requires central vision. When the search array is split into homogeneous and heterogeneous left and right halves, a large proportion of fixations are "wasted" on the homogeneous half, leading to slower search times. We compared this pattern to two new configurations. In the first, the array was split into upper and lower halves. During a passive viewing baseline condition, we observed biases to look both at the top half and also at the hetergeneous region first. Both of these biases were weaker during active search, despite the fact that the heterogeneous bias would have led to improvements in efficiency if it had been retained. In the second experiment, patches of more or less heterogeneous line segments were scattered across the search space. This configuration allows for more natural, spatially distributed scanpaths. Participants were more efficient and less variable relative to the left/right configuration. The results are consistent with the idea that visual search is associated with a distributed sequence of fixations, guided only loosely by the potential visibility of the target in different regions of the scene.

The mental health crisis of expectant women in the UK: effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on prenatal mental health, antenatal attachment and social support.

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy has been shown to be times in a woman's life particularly prone to mental health issues, however a substantial percentage of mothers report subclinical perinatal mental health symptoms that go undetected. Experiences of prenatal trauma, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may exacerbate vulnerability to negative health outcomes for pregnant women and their infants. We aimed to examine the role of: 1) anxiety, depression, and stress related to COVID-19 in predicting the quality of antenatal attachment; 2) perceived social support and COVID-19 appraisal in predicting maternal anxiety and depression. METHODS: A sample of 150 UK expectant women were surveyed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions included demographics, pregnancy details, and COVID-19 appraisal. Validated measures were used to collect self-reported maternal antenatal attachment (MAAS), symptoms of anxiety (STAI), depression (BDI-II), and stress related to the psychological impact of COVID-19 (IES-r). RESULTS: We found that the pandemic has affected UK expectant mothers' mental health by increasing prevalence of depression (47%), anxiety (60%) and stress related to the psychological impact of COVID-19 (40%). Women for whom COVID-19 had a higher psychological impact were more likely to suffer from depressive (95% HDPI = [0.04, 0.39]) and anxiety symptoms (95% HPDI = [0.40, 0.69]). High depressive symptoms were associated with reduced attachment to the unborn baby (95% HPDI [-0.46, -0.1]). Whilst women who appraised the impact of COVID-19 to be more negative showed higher levels of anxiety (HPDI = [0.15, 0.46]), higher social support acted as a protective factor and was associated with lower anxiety (95% HPDI = [-0.52, -0.21]). CONCLUSIONS: The current findings demonstrate that direct experience of prenatal trauma, such as the one experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly amplifies mothers' vulnerability to mental health symptoms and impairs the formation of a positive relationship with their unborn baby. Health services should prioritise interventions strategies aimed at fostering support for pregnant women.

Foraging as sampling without replacement: A Bayesian statistical model for estimating biases in target selection.

Foraging entails finding multiple targets sequentially. In humans and other animals, a key observation has been a tendency to forage in 'runs' of the same target type. This tendency is context-sensitive, and in humans, it is strongest when the targets are difficult to distinguish from the distractors. Many important questions have yet to be addressed about this and other tendencies in human foraging, and a key limitation is a lack of precise measures of foraging behaviour. The standard measures tend to be run statistics, such as the maximum run length and the number of runs. But these measures are not only interdependent, they are also constrained by the number and distribution of targets, making it difficult to make inferences about the effects of these aspects of the environment on foraging. Moreover, run statistics are underspecified about the underlying cognitive processes determining foraging behaviour. We present an alternative approach: modelling foraging as a procedure of generative sampling without replacement, implemented in a Bayesian multilevel model. This allows us to break behaviour down into a number of biases that influence target selection, such as the proximity of targets and a bias for selecting targets in runs, in a way that is not dependent on the number of targets present. Our method thereby facilitates direct comparison of specific foraging tendencies between search environments that differ in theoretically important dimensions. We demonstrate the use of our model with simulation examples and re-analysis of existing data. We believe our model will provide deeper insights into visual foraging and provide a foundation for further modelling work in this area.

Emotion perception bias associated with the hijab in Austrian and Turkish participants.

In a cross-cultural study, we investigated the link between explicit attitudes towards the hijab and implicit measures of cultural and religious bias during the recognition of emotions. Participants tested in Austria (N = 71) and in Turkey (N = 70) reported their attitude towards the hijab, and categorised in a mousetracker task happy and sad faces of women, shown with five levels of intensity, and framed either by a hijab or by an oval-shaped mask. The two samples did not differ in their explicit attitudes towards the hijab. However, negative attitude towards the hijab predicted greater sadness attribution to happy faces with the hijab in Austrian participants. Unrelated to their explicit attitudes, Turkish participants attributed more sadness to happy faces with than without the hijab. Results suggest that the sight of the hijab activated, in both Austrian and Turkish participants, implicit biases resulting in associations with sadness and negative emotions.

Stable individual differences in strategies within, but not between, visual search tasks.

A striking range of individual differences has recently been reported in three different visual search tasks. These differences in performance can be attributed to strategy, that is, the efficiency with which participants control their search to complete the task quickly and accurately. Here, we ask whether an individual's strategy and performance in one search task is correlated with how they perform in the other two. We tested 64 observers and found that even though the test-retest reliability of the tasks was high, an observer's performance and strategy in one task was not predictive of their behaviour in the other two. These results suggest search strategies are stable over time, but context-specific. To understand visual search, we therefore need to account not only for differences between individuals but also how individuals interact with the search task and context.

Age differences in COVID-19 risk-taking, and the relationship with risk attitude and numerical ability.

This study aimed to investigate age differences in risk-taking concerning the coronavirus pandemic, while disentangling the contribution of risk attitude, objective risk and numeracy. We tested (i) whether older and younger adults differed in taking coronavirus-related health risks, (ii) whether there are age differences in coronavirus risk, risk attitude and numerical ability and (iii) whether these age differences in coronavirus risk, attitude and numerical ability are related to coronavirus risk-taking. The study was observational, with measures presented to all participants in random order. A sample of 469 participants reported their coronavirus-related risk-taking behaviour, objective risk, risk attitude towards health and safety risks, numerical ability and risk perception. Our findings show that age was significantly related to coronavirus risk-taking, with younger adults taking more risk, and that this was partially mediated by higher numeracy, but not objective risk or risk attitude. Exploratory analyses suggest that risk perception for self and others partially mediated age differences in coronavirus risk-taking. The findings of this study may better our understanding of why age groups differ in their adoption of protective behaviours during a pandemic and contribute to the debate whether age differences in risk-taking occur due to decline in abilities or changes in risk attitude.

Characterizing the in-out asymmetry in visual crowding.

An object's processing is impaired by the presence of nearby clutter. Several distinct mechanisms, such as masking and visual crowding, are thought to contribute to such flanker-induced interference. It is therefore important to determine which mechanism is operational in any given situation. Previous studies have proposed that the in-out asymmetry (IOA), where a peripheral flanker interferes with the target more than a foveal flanker, is diagnostic of crowding. However, several studies have documented inconsistencies in the occurrence of this asymmetry, particularly at locations beyond the horizontal meridian, casting doubt on its ability to delineate crowding. In this study, to determine if IOA is diagnostic of crowding, we extensively charted its properties. We asked a relatively large set of participants (n = 38) to identify a briefly presented peripheral letter flanked by a single inward or outward letter at one of four locations. We also manipulated target location uncertainty and attentional allocation by blocking, randomizing or pre-cueing the target location. Using multilevel Bayesian regression analysis, we found robust IOA at all locations, although its strength was modulated by target location, location uncertainty, and attentional allocation. Our findings suggest that IOA can be an excellent marker of crowding, to the extent that it is not observed in other flanker-interference mechanisms, such as masking.

Search strategies improve with practice, but not with time pressure or financial incentives.

When searching for an object, do we minimize the number of eye movements we need to make? Under most circumstances, the cost of saccadic parsimony likely outweighs the benefit, given the cost is extensive computation and the benefit is a few hundred milliseconds of time saved. Previous research has measured the proportion of eye movements directed to locations where the target would have been visible in the periphery as a way of quantifying the proportion of superfluous fixations. A surprisingly large range of individual differences has emerged from these studies, suggesting some people are highly efficient and others much less so. Our question in the current study is whether these individual differences can be explained by differences in motivation. In two experiments, we demonstrate that neither time pressure nor financial incentive led to improvements of visual search strategies; the majority of participants continued to make many superfluous fixations in both experiments. The wide range of individual differences in efficiency observed previously was replicated here. We observed small but consistent improvements in strategy over the course of the experiment (regardless of reward or time pressure) suggesting practice, not motivation, makes participants more efficient. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).