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Prein JC, Kalinke S, Haun DBM, Bohn M. TANGO: A reliable, open-source, browser-based task to assess individual differences in gaze understanding in 3 to 5-year-old children and adults. Behav Res Methods 2024; 56:2469-2485. [PMID: 37429985 PMCID: PMC10991054 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-023-02159-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 07/12/2023]
Abstract
Traditional measures of social cognition used in developmental research often lack satisfactory psychometric properties and are not designed to capture variation between individuals. Here, we present the TANGO (Task for Assessing iNdividual differences in Gaze understanding-Open); a brief (approx. 5-10min), reliable, open-source task to quantify individual differences in the understanding of gaze cues. Localizing the attentional focus of an agent is crucial in inferring their mental states, building common ground, and thus, supporting cooperation. Our interactive browser-based task works across devices and enables in-person and remote testing. The implemented spatial layout allows for discrete and continuous measures of participants' click imprecision and is easily adaptable to different study requirements. Our task measures inter-individual differences in a child (N = 387) and an adult (N = 236) sample. Our two study versions and data collection modes yield comparable results that show substantial developmental gains: the older children are, the more accurately they locate the target. High internal consistency and test-retest reliability estimates underline that the captured variation is systematic. Associations with social-environmental factors and language skills speak to the validity of the task. This work shows a promising way forward in studying individual differences in social cognition and will help us explore the structure and development of our core social-cognitive processes in greater detail.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Christin Prein
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Steven Kalinke
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Daniel B M Haun
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Manuel Bohn
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Psychology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany
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Feijoo S, Amadó A, Sidera F, Aguilar-Mediavilla E, Serrat E. Language acquisition in a post-pandemic context: the impact of measures against COVID-19 on early language development. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1205294. [PMID: 37575436 PMCID: PMC10413096 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1205294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2023] [Accepted: 07/14/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Language acquisition is influenced by the quality and quantity of input that language learners receive. In particular, early language development has been said to rely on the acoustic speech stream, as well as on language-related visual information, such as the cues provided by the mouth of interlocutors. Furthermore, children's expressive language skills are also influenced by the variability of interlocutors that provided the input. The COVID-19 pandemic has offered an unprecedented opportunity to explore the way these input factors affect language development. On the one hand, the pervasive use of masks diminishes the quality of speech, while it also reduces visual cues to language. On the other hand, lockdowns and restrictions regarding social gatherings have considerably limited the amount of interlocutor variability in children's input. The present study aims at analyzing the effects of the pandemic measures against COVID-19 on early language development. To this end, 41 children born in 2019 and 2020 were compared with 41 children born before 2012 using the Catalan adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDIs). Results do not show significant differences in vocabulary between pre- and post-Covid children, although there is a tendency for children with lower vocabulary levels to be in the post-Covid group. Furthermore, a relationship was found between interlocutor variability and participants' vocabulary, indicating that those participants with fewer opportunities for socio-communicative diversity showed lower expressive vocabulary scores. These results reinforce other recent findings regarding input factors and their impact on early language learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Feijoo
- Department of Llengües i Literatures Modernes i Estudis Anglesos, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Anna Amadó
- Department of Psicologia, Sociologia i Treball Social, Universitat de Lleida, Lleida, Spain
| | - Francesc Sidera
- Department of Psicologia, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
| | - Eva Aguilar-Mediavilla
- Department of Pedagogia Aplicada i Psicologia de l’Educació, Institut de Recerca i Innovació Educativa (IRIE), Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma, Spain
| | - Elisabet Serrat
- Department of Psicologia, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
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Breu MS, Ramezanpour H, Dicke PW, Thier P. A frontoparietal network for volitional control of gaze following. Eur J Neurosci 2023; 57:1723-1735. [PMID: 36967647 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15975] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2022] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
Abstract
Gaze following is a major element of non-verbal communication and important for successful social interactions. Human gaze following is a fast and almost reflex-like behaviour, yet it can be volitionally controlled and suppressed to some extent if inappropriate or unnecessary, given the social context. In order to identify the neural basis of the cognitive control of gaze following, we carried out an event-related fMRI experiment, in which human subjects' eye movements were tracked while they were exposed to gaze cues in two distinct contexts: A baseline gaze following condition in which subjects were instructed to use gaze cues to shift their attention to a gazed-at spatial target and a control condition in which the subjects were required to ignore the gaze cue and instead to shift their attention to a distinct spatial target to be selected based on a colour mapping rule, requiring the suppression of gaze following. We could identify a suppression-related blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response in a frontoparietal network comprising dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the anterior insula, precuneus, and posterior parietal cortex (PPC). These findings suggest that overexcitation of frontoparietal circuits in turn suppressing the gaze following patch might be a potential cause of gaze following deficits in clinical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- M S Breu
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - H Ramezanpour
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - P W Dicke
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - P Thier
- Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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Maglieri V, Zanoli A, Giunchi D, Palagi E. Social Isolation Affects the Mimicry Response in the Use of Smartphones : An Ethological Experiment during the COVID-19 Pandemic. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2023; 34:88-102. [PMID: 36806091 PMCID: PMC9942080 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-023-09443-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/23/2023]
Abstract
Humans are social animals that rely on different ways to interact with each other. The COVID-19 pandemic strongly changed our communication strategies. Because of the importance of direct contact for our species, we predict that immediately after the forced social isolation, people were more prone to engage in direct rather than in virtual interactions, thus showing a lower mimicry response in the use of smartphones. In a non-longitudinal study, we collected behavioral data under naturalistic contexts and directly compared the data of the mimicry response gathered immediately following the Italian lockdown (May-September 2020) with those gathered one year later (May-October 2021). Contrary to our expectations, the mimicry response in the use of smartphones was higher immediately after the lockdown than a year later. Probably the large use of these devices during the lockdown translated into a greater sensitivity to be affected by others' smartphone manipulation. Indeed, social isolation modified, at least in the short term, the ways we interact with others by making us more prone to engage in "virtual" social interactions. The bright side of the coin unveiled by our findings is that the effect seems to diminish over time. The large behavioral dataset analyzed here (1,608 events; 248 people) also revealed that the mimicry response in the use of smartphones was higher between familiar subjects than between strangers. In this view, mimicry in manipulating smartphones can be considered an example of joint action that fosters behavioral synchrony between individuals that, in the long-term, can translate into the formation of social bonding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronica Maglieri
- grid.5395.a0000 0004 1757 3729Unit of Ethology, Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, Pisa, 56126 Italy
| | - Anna Zanoli
- grid.7605.40000 0001 2336 6580Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Dimitri Giunchi
- grid.5395.a0000 0004 1757 3729Unit of Ethology, Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, Pisa, 56126 Italy
| | - Elisabetta Palagi
- Unit of Ethology, Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, Pisa, 56126, Italy.
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Capparini C, To MPS, Reid VM. Should I follow your virtual gaze? Infants' gaze following over video call. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 226:105554. [PMID: 36208491 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105554] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2022] [Revised: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
From 10 months of age, human infants start to understand the function of the eyes in the looking behavior of others to the point where they preferentially orient toward an object if the social partner has open eyes rather than closed eyes. Thus far, gaze following has been investigated in controlled laboratory paradigms. The current study investigated this early ability using a remote live testing procedure, testing infants in their everyday environment while manipulating whether the experimenter could or could not see some target objects. A total of 32 11- and 12-month-old infants' looking behavior was assessed, varying the experimenter's eye status condition (open eyes vs closed eyes) in a between-participant design. Results showed that infants followed the gaze of a virtual social partner and that they preferentially followed open eyes rather than closed eyes. These data generalize past laboratory findings to a noisier home environment and demonstrate gaze processing capacities of infants to a virtual partner interacting with the participants in a live setup.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Capparini
- Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YF, United Kingdom; Center for Research in Cognition & Neuroscience (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles 1050, Belgium.
| | - Michelle P S To
- Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YF, United Kingdom
| | - Vincent M Reid
- School of Psychology, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
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Cilia F, Brisson J, Vandromme L, Garry C, Le Driant B. Multiple deictic cues allow ASD children to direct their visual attention. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03993-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Falck-Ytter T, Kleberg JL, Portugal AM, Thorup E. Social Attention: Developmental Foundations and Relevance for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Biol Psychiatry 2022:S0006-3223(22)01695-X. [PMID: 36639295 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.09.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2021] [Revised: 08/27/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
The use of the term "social attention" (SA) in the cognitive neuroscience and developmental psychopathology literature has increased exponentially in recent years, in part motivated by the aim to understand the early development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Unfortunately, theoretical discussions around the term have lagged behind its various uses. Here, we evaluate SA through a review of key candidate SA phenotypes emerging early in life, from newborn gaze cueing and preference for face-like configurations to later emerging skills such as joint attention. We argue that most of the considered SA phenotypes are unlikely to represent unique socioattentional processes and instead have to be understood in the broader context of bottom-up and emerging top-down (domain-general) attention. Some types of SA behaviors (e.g., initiation of joint attention) are linked to the early development of ASD, but this may reflect differences in social motivation rather than attention per se. Several SA candidates are not linked to ASD early in life, including the ones that may represent uniquely socioattentional processes (e.g., orienting to faces, predicting others' manual action goals). Although SA may be a useful superordinate category under which one can organize certain research questions, the widespread use of the term without proper definition is problematic. Characterizing gaze patterns and visual attention in social contexts in infants at elevated likelihood of ASD may facilitate early detection, but conceptual clarity regarding the underlying processes at play is needed to sharpen research questions and identify potential targets for early intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Terje Falck-Ytter
- Development and Neurodiversity Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet & Stockholm Health Care Services, Region, Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden; Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala, Sweden.
| | - Johan Lundin Kleberg
- Rare Diseases Research Group, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Center for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet & Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Ana Maria Portugal
- Development and Neurodiversity Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet & Stockholm Health Care Services, Region, Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Emilia Thorup
- Development and Neurodiversity Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
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Morillo-Mendez L, Schrooten MGS, Loutfi A, Mozos OM. Age-Related Differences in the Perception of Robotic Referential Gaze in Human-Robot Interaction. Int J Soc Robot 2022:1-13. [PMID: 36185773 PMCID: PMC9510350 DOI: 10.1007/s12369-022-00926-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
There is an increased interest in using social robots to assist older adults during their daily life activities. As social robots are designed to interact with older users, it becomes relevant to study these interactions under the lens of social cognition. Gaze following, the social ability to infer where other people are looking at, deteriorates with older age. Therefore, the referential gaze from robots might not be an effective social cue to indicate spatial locations to older users. In this study, we explored the performance of older adults, middle-aged adults, and younger controls in a task assisted by the referential gaze of a Pepper robot. We examined age-related differences in task performance, and in self-reported social perception of the robot. Our main findings show that referential gaze from a robot benefited task performance, although the magnitude of this facilitation was lower for older participants. Moreover, perceived anthropomorphism of the robot varied less as a result of its referential gaze in older adults. This research supports that social robots, even if limited in their gazing capabilities, can be effectively perceived as social entities. Additionally, this research suggests that robotic social cues, usually validated with young participants, might be less optimal signs for older adults. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12369-022-00926-6.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Morillo-Mendez
- Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University, Fakultetsgatan 1, Örebro, 702 81 Sweden
| | | | - Amy Loutfi
- Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University, Fakultetsgatan 1, Örebro, 702 81 Sweden
| | - Oscar Martinez Mozos
- Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University, Fakultetsgatan 1, Örebro, 702 81 Sweden
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Astor K, Gredebäck G. Gaze following in infancy: Five big questions that the field should answer. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2022; 63:191-223. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2022.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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