Impact of Anthropomorphic Robot Design on Trust and Attention in Industrial Human-Robot Interaction

The application of anthropomorphic features to robots is generally considered beneficial for human-robot interaction (HRI ). Although previous research has mainly focused on social robots, the phenomenon gains increasing attention in industrial human-Robot interaction as well. In this study, the impact of anthropomorphic design of a collaborative industrial robot on the dynamics of trust and visual attention allocation was examined. Participants interacted with a robot, which was either anthropomorphically or non-anthropomorphically designed. Unexpectedly, attribute-based trust measures revealed no beneficial effect of anthropomorphism but even a negative impact on the perceived reliability of the robot. Trust behavior was not significantly affected by an anthropomorphic robot design during faultless interactions, but showed a relatively steeper decrease after participants experienced a failure of the robot. With regard to attention allocation, the study clearly reveals a distracting effect of anthropomorphic robot design. The results emphasize that anthropomorphism might not be an appropriate feature in industrial HRI as it not only failed to reveal positive effects on trust, but distracted participants from relevant task areas which might be a significant drawback with regard to occupational safety in HRI.

How Cues of Being Watched Promote Risk Seeking in Fund Investment in Older Adults

Social cues, such as being watched, can subtly alter fund investment choices. This study aimed to investigate how cues of being watched influence decision-making, attention allocation, and risk tendencies. Using decision scenarios adopted from the “Asian Disease Problem,” we examined participants’ risk tendency in a financial scenario when they were watched. A total of 63 older and 66 younger adults participated. Eye tracking was used to reveal the decision-maker’s attention allocation (fixations and dwell time per word). The results found that both younger and older adults tend to seek risk in the loss frame than in the gain frame (i.e., framing effect). Watching eyes tended to escalate reckless gambling behaviors among older adults, which led them to maintain their share in the depressed fund market, regardless of whether the options were gain or loss framed. The eye-tracking results revealed that older adults gave less attention to the sure option in the eye condition (i.e., fewer fixations and shorter dwell time). However, their attention was maintained on the gamble options. In comparison, images of “watching eyes” did not influence the risk seeking of younger adults but decreased their framing effect. Being watched can affect financial risk preference in decision-making. The exploration of the contextual sensitivity of being watched provides us with insight into developing decision aids to promote rational financial decision-making, such as human-robot interactions. Future research on age differences still requires further replication.

Working memory guidance of visual attention to threat in offenders

Aggression and trait anger have been linked to attentional biases toward angry faces and attribution of hostile intent in ambiguous social situations. Memory and emotion play a crucial role in social-cognitive models of aggression but their mechanisms of influence are not fully understood. Combining a memory task and a visual search task, this study investigated the guidance of attention allocation toward naturalistic face targets during visual search by visual working memory (WM) templates in 113 participants who self-reported having served a custodial sentence. Searches were faster when angry faces were held in working memory regardless of the emotional valence of the visual search target. Higher aggression and trait anger predicted increased working memory modulated attentional bias. These results are consistent with the Social-Information Processing model, demonstrating that internal representations bias attention allocation to threat and that the bias is linked to aggression and trait anger.

The Effects of Heart Rate Monitoring on Ratings of Perceived Exertion and Attention Allocation in Individuals of Varying Fitness Levels

There has been a rapid increase in the use of wearable technology-based physical activity trackers. Most of these physical activity trackers include tracking and displaying the individual's heart rate (HR). There is little known about how HR monitoring influences the perception of exertion and attention allocation. Shifting attentional focus toward the body (association), such as monitoring HR, instead of environmental stimuli (dissociation) may increase one's perceived level of exertion. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of HR monitoring on ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and attention allocation during an exertive stepping task in individuals of varying fitness levels. The YMCA stepping task normative values determined fitness levels. For the experimental condition, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (i.e., HR monitoring or control) and completed a stepping task with a weighted vest at 20% of their bodyweight. HR, RPE, and attention allocation were collected at 30-s intervals. Performing the stepping task resulted in a gradual increase of HR and RPE along with a shift from dissociative to associative attention across all conditions. Monitoring one's HR during the task resulted in more dissociative attention allocation, however, no RPE differences were reported between the two conditions. Unfit individuals reported lower levels of RPE during the first time point compared to fit individuals despite having higher HR throughout the task. The results of this study have relevance for applied practitioners implementing physical activity interventions with individuals who monitor their HR.

Avoidance and engagement: Do societal problems fuel political parties’ issue attention?

An important part of political parties’ competition for votes is to what extent parties avoid or engage the issues that rival parties talk about. Despite a large literature on this topic, it remains largely unknown when parties engage. Drawing on research on political attention allocation and party behaviour, this study argues that societal problems are a central source of issue engagement: The engagement is due to a pressure to not ignore electorally important problems. The analysis shows that issue engagement emerges because parties address the same issues in a negative development. Moreover, and particularly important for the issue engagement, parties attend more to a negative development if other parties already attend to the development, particularly at elections. The argument is tested across 16 issue areas through the collection and coding of 5523 press releases from seven parties in Denmark at a quarterly level from 2004 to 2017.

The impact of maternal child- and self-oriented pain-related injustice appraisals upon maternal attention to child pain, attention to anger, and pain-attending behavior

Objectives The current study investigated the role of maternal child- and self-oriented injustice appraisals about child pain in understanding maternal attention for child pain and adult anger cues and pain-attending behavior. Methods Forty-four children underwent a painful cold pressor task (CPT) while their mother observed. Eye tracking was used to measure maternal attention to child pain and adult anger cues. Initial attention allocation and attentional maintenance were indexed by probability of first fixation and gaze duration, respectively. Maternal pain-attending behaviors toward the child were videotaped and coded after CPT completion. Mothers also rated the intensity of pain and anger cues used in the free-viewing tasks. All analyses controlled for maternal catastrophizing about child pain. Results Neither child-oriented nor self-oriented injustice was associated with maternal attentional bias toward child pain. Regarding attention toward self-relevant anger cues, differential associations were observed for self- and child-oriented injustice appraisals, with maternal self-oriented injustice being associated with a greater probability of first fixating on anger and with higher anger ratings, whereas maternal child-oriented injustice was associated with enhanced attentional maintenance toward anger. Neither type of maternal injustice appraisals was associated with maternal pain-attending behavior, which was only associated with maternal catastrophizing. Conclusions The current study sheds light on potential differential mechanisms through which maternal self- vs. child-oriented injustice appraisals may exert their impact on parent and child pain-related outcomes. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.

Depressive Symptoms Account for Loss of Positive Attention Bias in ADHD Patients: An Eye-Tracking Study

Objectives: Depression and ADHD often co-occur and are both characterized by altered attentional processing. Differences and overlap in the profile of attention to emotional information may help explain the co-occurence. We examined negative attention bias in ADHD as neurocognitive marker for comorbid depression. Methods: Patients with depression ( n = 63), ADHD ( n = 43), ADHD and depression ( n = 25), and non-psychiatric controls ( n = 68) were compared on attention allocation toward emotional faces. The following eye-tracking indices were used: gaze duration, number of revisits, and location and duration of first fixation. Results: Controls revisited the happy faces more than the other facial expressions. Both the depression and the comorbid group showed significantly less revisits of the happy faces compared to the ADHD and the control group. Interestingly, after controlling for depressive symptoms, the groups no longer differed on the number of revisits. Conclusion: ADHD patients show a relative positive attention bias, while negative attention bias in ADHD likely indicates (sub)clinical comorbid depression.