A clinical assessment of three-dimensional-printed liver model navigation for thrice or more repeated hepatectomy based on a conversation analysis.

PURPOSES: We performed a conversation analysis of the speech conducted among the surgical team during three-dimensional (3D)-printed liver model navigation for thrice or more repeated hepatectomy (TMRH). METHODS: Seventeen patients underwent 3D-printed liver navigation surgery for TMRH. After transcription of the utterances recorded during surgery, the transcribed utterances were coded by the utterer, utterance object, utterance content, sensor, and surgical process during conversation. We then analyzed the utterances and clarified the association between the surgical process and conversation through the intraoperative reference of the 3D-printed liver. RESULTS: In total, 130 conversations including 1648 segments were recorded. Utterance coding showed that the operator/assistant, 3D-printed liver/real liver, fact check (F)/plan check (Pc), visual check/tactile check, and confirmation of planned resection or preservation target (T)/confirmation of planned or ongoing resection line (L) accounted for 791/857, 885/763, 1148/500, 1208/440, and 1304/344 segments, respectively. The utterance's proportions of assistants, F, F of T on 3D-printed liver, F of T on real liver, and Pc of L on 3D-printed liver were significantly higher during non-expert surgeries than during expert surgeries. Confirming the surgical process with both 3D-printed liver and real liver and performing planning using a 3D-printed liver facilitates the safe implementation of TMRH, regardless of the surgeon's experience. CONCLUSIONS: The present study, using a unique conversation analysis, provided the first evidence for the clinical value of 3D-printed liver for TMRH for anatomical guidance of non-expert surgeons.

Effect of cognitive load and working memory capacity on the efficiency of discovering better alternatives: A survival analysis.

Why do humans attempt to discover better alternatives to solve a problem even when they know the way to solve it? This question is related to the flexibility of thinking and is the subject of studies on the Einstellung effect. This study focuses on cognitive load for familiar trained procedure as a factor that influences the discovery of alternatives in Einstellung situations, where the problem can be solved using a trained procedure. Many studies on creative problem solving and strategy selection demonstrate that cognitive load for facilitates the discovery of alternatives. However, findings are inconsistent regarding Einstellung situations. We argue that the reason for such inconsistent results were the use of manipulations such as the double task, which both load on the trained and alternative procedure and the lack of perspective on efficiency in analysis. Therefore, we examine the relationship between cognitive load manipulated by the complexity of the trained procedure and time-based performance measured by the number of trials prior to finding alternatives. The results illustrate that higher cognitive load increased the efficiency of discovery of alternatives and that this effect was significant for participants with high working memory capacity. This study provides empirical evidence that high cognitive load for trained procedure facilitates the discovery of alternatives and suggests the importance of considering temporal properties, such as efficiency, when examining the effects of working memory on problem solving, which requires cognitive flexibility.

Differences in the distribution of attention to trained procedure between finders and non-finders of the alternative better procedure.

The human ability to flexibly discover alternatives without fixating on a known solution supports a variety of human creative activities. Previous research has shown that people who discover an alternative procedure relax their attentional bias to information regarding the known solutions just prior to the discovery. This study examined whether the difference in the distribution of attention between the finders and non-finders of the alternative procedure is observed from the phase of solving the problem using the trained procedure. We evaluated the characteristics of the finders' distribution of attention in situations where problem solving using a trained procedure was successful. This aspect has been little examined in previous research. Our study obtained empirical evidence for the fact that, compared to non-finders, finders pay more attention to information unrelated to the trained procedure acquired through knowledge and experience, even time when using a trained procedure. We also confirmed that this difference does not exist from the beginning of the task, but emerges during repeated use of familiar procedures. These findings indicate that in order to find an alternative procedure, one should not only divert attention from a familiar procedure just before the discovery but also pay a certain amount of attention to information unrelated to the familiar procedure even when the familiar procedure is functioning well.

Self-Benefit and Others' Benefit in Cooperative Behavior in Shared Space.

OBJECTIVE: The objective is to clarify the nature of cooperative moving behavior that realizes smooth traffic with others from the viewpoint of the trade-off between self-benefit and others' benefit in the shared space. BACKGROUND: The shared space is not constrained by formal rules or behavioral norms, and is a potentially ambiguous situation where it is not clear who has priority. Therefore, the nature of cooperative behavior in the shared space is unclear. METHOD: An experimental task was conducted to compare cooperative and nonurgent moving behavior regarding completion time (self-benefit), the amount of interruption (others' benefit), and the amount of operation (cognitive effort). RESULTS: First, cooperative behavior benefits others. Second, although cooperative behavior decreases self-benefit compared to the baseline without any instructions, it can obtain relatively more self-benefit than nonurgent behavior without considering self-benefit. Third, cooperative behavior requires cognitive effort. CONCLUSION: Cooperative behavior provides benefit to both oneself and others by spending cognitive effort in not interrupting others. APPLICATION: If the nature of the cooperative behavior can be clarified, a cooperative module can be implemented into the algorithms of various mobilities.

A Class Practice Study of Intervention Effect of Interactive Assessment on Learning Goal Orientation.

While focusing on the moderating effects of initial performance-approach goal orientation and performance-avoidance goal orientation, this study aimed to examine the effects of self- and peer-assessment on the growth of learning goal orientation. We set up a control group and two experimental groups (self-assessment and peer-assessment groups) and conducted experimental lessons. The responses of the 63 subjects (control group: n = 14; self-assessment group: n = 25; peer-assessment group: n = 24) who attended these lessons were analyzed. The following observations were made: (1) the effect of peer-assessment on the growth of learning goal orientation may change depending on the initial performance-approach goal orientation or performance-avoidance goal orientation; (2) to increase learning goal orientation for students who have high performance-approach goal orientation or low performance-avoidance goal orientation, peer-assessment is effective; and (3) to increase learning goal orientation for students who have low performance-approach goal orientation or high performance-avoidance goal orientation, peer-assessment appears to be counterproductive.

How Does Explanatory Virtue Determine Probability Estimation?-Empirical Discussion on Effect of Instruction.

It is important to reveal how humans evaluate an explanation of the recent development of explainable artificial intelligence. So, what makes people feel that one explanation is more likely than another? In the present study, we examine how explanatory virtues affect the process of estimating subjective posterior probability. Through systematically manipulating two virtues, Simplicity-the number of causes used to explain effects-and Scope-the number of effects predicted by causes-in three different conditions, we clarified two points in Experiment 1: (i) that Scope's effect is greater than Simplicity's; and (ii) that these virtues affect the outcome independently. In Experiment 2, we found that instruction about the explanatory structure increased the impact of both virtues' effects but especially that of Simplicity. These results suggest that Scope predominantly affects the estimation of subjective posterior probability, but that, if perspective on the explanatory structure is provided, Simplicity can also affect probability estimation.

Cognitive Modeling of Automation Adaptation in a Time Critical Task.

This paper presents a cognitive model that simulates an adaptation process to automation in a time-critical task. The paper uses a simple tracking task (which represents vehicle operation) to reveal how the reliance on automation changes as the success probabilities of the automatic and manual mode vary. The model was developed by using a cognitive architecture, ACT-R (Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational). We also introduce two methods of reinforcement learning: the summation of rewards over time and a gating mechanism. The model performs this task through productions that manage perception and motor control. The utility values of these productions are updated based on rewards in every perception-action cycle. A run of this model simulated the overall trends of the behavioral data such as the performance (tracking accuracy), the auto use ratio, and the number of switches between the two modes, suggesting some validity of the assumptions made in our model. This work shows how combining different paradigms of cognitive modeling can lead to practical representations and solutions to automation and trust in automation.

[Dual process in large number estimation under uncertainty].

According to dual process theory, there are two systems in the mind: an intuitive and automatic System 1 and a logical and effortful System 2. While many previous studies about number estimation have focused on simple heuristics and automatic processes, the deliberative System 2 process has not been sufficiently studied. This study focused on the System 2 process for large number estimation. First, we described an estimation process based on participants' verbal reports. The task, corresponding to the problem-solving process, consisted of creating subgoals, retrieving values, and applying operations. Second, we investigated the influence of such deliberative process by System 2 on intuitive estimation by System 1, using anchoring effects. The results of the experiment showed that the System 2 process could mitigate anchoring effects.

Experimental study of learning support through examples in mathematical problem posing.

When using mathematics to solve problems in everyday life, problem solvers must recognize and formulate problems by themselves because structured problems are not provided. Therefore, in general education, fostering learner problem posing is an important task. Because novice learners have difficulty in composing mathematical structures (solutions) in problem posing, learning support to improve the composition of solutions is required. Although learning by solving examples is adopted in general education, it may not be sufficiently effective in fostering learner problem posing because cognitive skills differ between problem solving and problem posing. This study discusses and experimentally investigates the effects of learning from examples on composing solutions when problem posing. We studied three learning activities: learning by solving an example, learning by reproducing an example, and learning by evaluating an example. In our experiment, undergraduates were asked to pose their own new, unique problems from a base problem initially presented after the students learned an example by solving, reproducing, or evaluating it. The example allowed the undergraduates to gain ideas for composing a novel solution. The results indicated that learning by reproducing the example was the most effective in fostering the composition of solutions.

[Effect of positive and negative instances on rule discovery: investigation using eye tracking].

This study investigated how participants would reject an initial rule when they faced positive and negative instances of an initial rule. Using eye movement data, we analyzed a perspective that indicated the type of rules that participants consider. Our experiments yielded the following results. A tendency to consider rules from the perspective that participants used for finding and confirming the initial rule was retained in the phase in which both positive and negative instances of the initial rule were given. This tendency was observed only when participants faced negative instances. We concluded that, when participants faced negative instances, they tried to change the initial rule peripherally to explain them.

[Development and evaluation of the Japanese remote associates test].

The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is one of the most popular tasks in experimental studies of insight in psychological and neuroscience studies. Since the RAT was originally developed for English-speaking countries, we developed a Japanese version of the RAT. This paper provides a brief overview of the structure of the task based on chunk decomposition using Japanese kanji characters and a list of sets of words as experimental stimuli, with representative data for experimental studies of insight.

[Effects of eye movement on forming and relaxing constraints in insight problem solving].

To solve an insight problem, a problem solver needs to relax mental constraints that prevent solving the problem, and to shift a search in an incorrect problem space into a search in a correct problem space. In this paper, we investigate how a tracking stimulus that guides problem solvers' eye movements affects the formation and relaxation of constraints in insight problem solving. We conducted two experiments using an insight task and an eye-tracking task in which participants' eye movements were expected to inhibit the fixation constraints in the insight task. Participants engaged in the tracking task before the constraints were formed in Experiment 1 and after the constraints were formed in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, participants who performed the tracking task were inhibited in forming the constraints more than those in the control condition. In both Experiments 1 and 2, the tracking task affects the participants' hypothesis formation in the insight problem solving processes. In particular, participants who were presented the tracking stimulus found a target rule faster after beginning to relax the constraints than those in the control condition.

[Experimental investigation of the effects of representations and perspectives for the comprehension of line graphs].

The comprehension of graphs is achieved through interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing. This study experimentally investigated the interaction between the graph representations determining bottom-up processing and the reader's perspective relating to top-down processing. Different representations on graphs generated from an identical data set elicited different interpretations of the graphs. We call this the "representation effect" on graph comprehension. In Experiment 1, we confirmed the characteristic of the bottom-up process of graph comprehension by using a set of line graphs which were identical in perceptual characteristics. In Experiments 2A and 2B, the participants were given a perspective for reading the graphs, and then they interpreted the graphs. The results showed that this perspective affected their comprehension of the graphs. Previous studies have shown that top-down processing may not be compatible with bottom-up processing in graph comprehension. However, our result indicated that top-down processing controlled by a perspective for reading the graph was not inconsistent with bottom-up processing, and therefore does not violate bottom-up processing.