Innovative protocol of an exploratory study evaluating the acceptability of a humanoid robot at home of deaf children with cochlear implants.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a research methodology for the assessment of the acceptability of a humanoid robot at home for children with cochlear implants (CI). The quality of audiology rehabilitation for cochlear implanted child administrated at the hospital with pluri-weekly sessions is a major prognostic factor in the outcome on communications abilities, but represents also a constraint for families related to the access to care that are more difficult. Further, home training with tools would balance the equitable distribution of care in the territory and promote the child's progress. The humanoid robot should allow an ecological approach to this complementary training. Before developing this approach, it is necessary to study the acceptability of the humanoid robot at home, both by cochlear implanted child and their families. Ten families were chosen to have a humanoid robot at home, to explore their acceptability of the humanoid robot Pepper. The study lasts for 1 month per participants (i.e. cochlear implemented children and parent). Participants were invited to use the robot at home as much as they want. The humanoid robot Pepper was able to communicate and proposed activities not related to rehabilitation. Once a week during the study, data were collected from participants (questionnaires and robot's logs) and the smooth running of the study was checked. Questionnaires are used to evaluate the acceptability of the robot by children and parents. User data from the robot's logs are used to quantify the time and the actual use of the robot over the period of the study. Results of the experimentation will be reported, once all 10 participants have completed their passation. The robot is anticipated to be used and accepted by children with cochlear implants and their families. Clinical trial registration: Clinical Trials ID: NCT04832373; https://clinicaltrials.gov/.

Influence of Emotions on Elementary-School Children's Implicit Learning during a Serial Reaction Time Task.

As pedagogues and childhood professionals, teachers must be aware of both implicit and explicit learning processes. They must also bear in mind that learners' performances may be influenced by the many emotions triggered by different situations at school (e.g., fear of failing, happiness upon succeeding, anger at leaving work unfinished). The objective of the present study was thus to analyze the efficiency of implicit learning among 8- to 11-year-old children and the impact of emotions on this type of learning. In order to analyze implicit learning, 65 elementary-school children performed a serial reaction time task in a laboratory context. Emotions were induced by asking the children to read six short emotional sentences and listen to classical music. Results showed a significant impact of the task condition (semi-random or fixed sequence) on reaction times. Moreover, the induction of happiness resulted in slightly longer reaction times compared with neutral induction. These results need to be deepened to better understand the interactions between emotions and implicit learning in children.

Social contact, own-group recognition bias and visual attention to faces.

The own-group recognition bias (OGRB) has been consistently linked to social contact in theoretical accounts. Indeed, social contact is assumed by most authors to underlie the perceptual expertise of out-groups' faces. However, little is known empirically about how it might impact face-processing strategies. We tested the proposition that social interaction would improve the face recognition performance of another group by modulating visual strategies for different face areas. In Experiment 1, we studied visual processes using an eye tracker during a person's first live encounter with a particular member of their own group (European) or an outgroup (African) to explore how increasing familiarity during a first interaction influences face-processing strategies. In Experiments 2 and 3, we explored the effect of simulated intergroup contact on face recognition accuracy, while simultaneously studying the impact of contact on visual attention strategies that occur during recognition (Experiment 2) and encoding (Experiment 3). The results showed a strong OGRB and a difference in visual processes based on the ethnic group of the targets. Although a single interaction is not sufficient to reduce the OGRB, familiarization during a live interaction (Experiment 1) and virtual social contact (Experiment 2) had an impact on the visual strategies employed.

Toward the Use of Pupillary Responses for Pilot Selection.

OBJECTIVE: For selection practitioners, it seems important to assess the level of mental resources invested in order to perform a demanding task. In this study, we investigated the potential of pupil size measurement to discriminate the most proficient pilot students from the less proficient. BACKGROUND: Cognitive workload is known to influence learning outcome. More specifically, cognitive difficulties observed during pilot training are often related to a lack of efficient mental workload management. METHOD: Twenty pilot students performed a laboratory multitasking scenario, composed of several stages with increasing workload, while their pupil size was recorded. Two levels of pilot students were compared according to the outcome after 2 years of training: high success and medium success. RESULTS: Our findings suggested that task-evoked pupil size measurements could be a promising predictor of flight training difficulties during the 2-year training. Indeed, high-level pilot students showed greater pupil size changes from low-load to high-load stages of the multitasking scenario than medium-level pilot students. Moreover, average pupil diameters at the low-load stage were smallest for the high-level pilot students. CONCLUSION: Following the neural efficiency hypothesis framework, the most proficient pilot students supposedly used their mental resources more efficiently than the least proficient while performing the multitasking scenario. APPLICATION: These findings might introduce a new way of managing selection processes complemented with ocular measurements. More specifically, pupil size measurement could enable identification of applicants with greater chances of success during pilot training.

Training Participants to Focus on Critical Facial Features Does Not Decrease Own-Group Bias.

The own-group recognition bias (OGB) might be explained by the usage of different face processing strategies for own and other-group faces. Although featural processing appears in general to impair face recognition ability when compared to configural processing (itself perhaps a function of acquired expertise), recent research has suggested that the OGB can be reduced by directing featural processing to group-discriminating features. The present study assessed a perceptual training task intended to replicate Hills and Lewis' (2006) findings: we trained White participants to focus more on discriminating parts of Black faces, in particular the bottom halves of the faces, expecting a reduction of the OGB as a consequence. Thirty participants completed the training task, and visual patterns of attention were recorded with an eye-tracking device. Results showed that even though participants modified their visual exploration according to task instructions, spending significantly more time on the lower halves of faces after training, the OGB unexpectedly increased rather than decreased. The difference seems to be a function of an increased false alarm rate, with participants reducing response criterion for other-group - but not own-group - faces after training.

Human Voice as a Measure of Mental Load Level.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine a reliable and efficient set of acoustic parameters of the human voice able to estimate individuals' mental load level. Implementing detection methods and real-time analysis of mental load is a major challenge for monitoring and enhancing human task performance, especially during high-risk activities (e.g., flying aircraft). METHOD: The voices of 32 participants were recorded during a cognitive task featuring word list recall. The difficulty of the task was manipulated by varying the number of words in each list (i.e., between 1 and 7, corresponding to 7 mental load conditions). Evoked pupillary response, known to be a useful proxy of mental load, was recorded simultaneously with speech to attest variations in mental load level during the experimental task. RESULTS: Classic features (fundamental frequency, its standard deviation, number of periods) and original features (frequency modulation and short-term variation in digital amplitude length) of the acoustic signals were predictive of memory load condition. They varied significantly according to the number of words to recall, specifically beyond a threshold of 3-5 words to recall, that is, when memory performance started to decline. CONCLUSIONS: Some acoustic parameters of the human voice could be an appropriate and efficient means for detecting mental load levels.

The restless mind while driving: drivers' thoughts behind the wheel.

UNLABELLED: Recent research has clearly shown that inattention when driving has an indisputable impact on road safety. "Mind wandering" (MW), an inattentional state caused by a shift in attention from the ongoing task to inner thoughts, is not only frequent in everyday activities but also known to impact performance. There is a growing body of research investigating the concept of MW, suggesting potential causes that could foster such a phenomenon. Only one epidemiological study has focused on this issue in a critical driving context (Galéra et al., 2012), and it revealed the harmful effects of MW in increasing the risk of a car crash. Experimental studies rather consider that driver would adduce in MW (Lemercier et al., 2014). When the driving context is too hard or the thought too difficult to proceed, driver reduced their MW. The aim of this paper is to examine this issue using the most recent trip of ordinary drivers whose MW state did not lead to a road accident. Using a questionnaire, information was collected about the participants' most recent trip as a driver, including: (1) personal characteristics, (2) context in which MW occurs, (3) awareness of MW episodes and finally (4) characteristics of the thoughts. RESULTS: revealed that MW affected 85.2% of the drivers, who spent on average 34.74% of their trip in a MW state. Moreover, we found that the contexts which favor MW are situations in which less of the driver's attention is needed to drive, such as familiar commutes, monotonous motorways or by-passes, or when drivers were alone in their cars. In these MW situations, the drivers quickly became aware of their MW episodes. Thoughts tend to involve neutral private concerns, related to present- or future-oriented content. Our findings suggest that MW is a functional state aiming to solve current problems. Future investigations should focus on this critical concept of MW when driving, both to identify safety issues and to provide suitable solutions for drivers subject to a wandering mind.