Does attributing mental states to a robot influence accessibility of information represented during reading?

When we read fiction, we encounter characters that interact in the story. As such, we encode that information and comprehend the stories. Prior studies suggest that this comprehension process is facilitated by taking the perspective of characters during reading. Thus, two questions of interest are whether people take the perspective of characters that are not perceived as capable of experiencing perspectives (e.g., robots), and whether current models of language comprehension can explain these differences between human and nonhuman protagonists (or lack thereof) during reading. The study aims to (1) compare the situation model (i.e., a model that factors in a protagonist's perspective) and the RI-VAL model (which relies more on comparisons of newly acquired information with information stored in long term memory) and (2) investigate whether differences in accessibility of information differ based on adopting the intentional stance towards a robot. To address the aims of our study, we designed a preregistered experiment in which participants read stories about one of three protagonists (an intentional robot, a mechanistic robot and a human) and answered questions about objects that were either occluded or not occluded from the protagonist's view. Based on the situation model, we expected faster responses to items that were not occluded compared to those that were occluded (i.e., the occlusion effect). However, based on the RI-VAL model, we expected overall differences between the protagonists would arise due to inconsistency with general world knowledge. The results of the pre-registered analysis showed no differences between the protagonists, nor differences in occlusion. However, a post-hoc analysis showed that the occlusion effect was shown only for the intentional robot but not for the human, nor mechanistic robot. Results also showed that depending on the age of the readers, the RI-VAL or the situation model is able to explain the results such that older participants "simulated" the situation about which they read (situation model), while younger adults compared new information with information stored in long-term memory (RI-VAL model). This suggests that comparing to information in long term memory is cognitively more costly. Therefore, with older adults used less cognitively demanding strategy of simulation.

Eosinophilic esophagitis an update in children.

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is an emerging antigen-mediated, inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. EoE affects about 1/2,000 patients in the United States (US), with a higher prevalence rate in adults (43.4/100,000) than in children (29.5/100,000), prevailing in Caucasians and male sex. EoE is a multifactorial disease typically characterized by type 2 inflammation. Pathogenesis is not entirely understood and is likely non-IgE mediated. Food allergens trigger EoE, stimulating the dysregulated immune cells through an impaired esophageal epithelial barrier. Clinical presentation of EoE depends on age and mainly includes food refusal, vomiting, abdominal or chest pain, dysphagia, and food impaction. Endoscopy is the gold standard to diagnose EoE. The goal of EoE therapy is to achieve clinical and histological remission to prevent esophageal fibrosis and improve patients' quality of life (QoL). Cornerstones of therapy are PPIs, topical steroids, and elimination diets. Over recent decades, research progress has been made in terms of a greater understanding of the EoE pathogenesis and new therapeutic approaches. However, there are still several unmet needs, such as non-invasive tools and biomarkers for monitoring the disease.