This Is Your Brain on Autopilot: Neural Indices of Driver Workload and Engagement During Partial Vehicle Automation

Author(s):  
Amy S. McDonnell ◽  
Trent G. Simmons ◽  
Gus G. Erickson ◽  
Monika Lohani ◽  
Joel M. Cooper ◽  
...  

Objective This research explores the effect of partial vehicle automation on neural indices of mental workload and visual engagement during on-road driving. Background There is concern that the introduction of automated technology in vehicles may lead to low driver stimulation and subsequent disengagement from the driving environment. Simulator-based studies have examined the effect of automation on a driver’s cognitive state, but it is unknown how the conclusions translate to on-road driving. Electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of frontal theta and parietal alpha can provide insight into a driver’s mental workload and visual engagement while driving under various conditions. Method EEG was recorded from 71 participants while driving on the roadway. We examined two age cohorts, on two different highway configurations, in four different vehicles, with partial vehicle automation both engaged and disengaged. Results Analysis of frontal theta and parietal alpha power revealed that there was no change in mental workload or visual engagement when driving manually compared with driving under partial vehicle automation. Conclusion Drivers new to the technology remained engaged with the driving environment when operating under partial vehicle automation. These findings suggest that the concern surrounding driver disengagement under vehicle automation may need to be tempered, at least for drivers new to the experience. Application These findings expand our understanding of the effects of partial vehicle automation on drivers’ cognitive states.

Author(s):  
Wan-Lin Hu ◽  
Joran Booth ◽  
Tahira Reid

This research investigated the effect of warm-up activities on cognitive states during concept generation. Psychophysiological tools including electroencephalography (EEG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) were used along with self-report measures (NASA TLX). Participants were divided into 3 test conditions: 1) no warm-up activity; 2) simple warm-up activities; 3) sketch-inhibition reducing activities. All participants did the same short design task. Results show that those who did a warm-up prior to ideation had a decrease in stress, especially for those who were personally familiar with the design problem. The art activities especially improved engagement for younger participants. We also saw that females who used the art-based activities reported lower mental workload during ideation and greater pride in their sketches. However, the warm-ups did not produce any difference in the number of ideas or other metrics of performance. These preliminary results indicate that warm-up activities, especially the art-based ones, help reduce inhibition by calming the cognitive state.


Author(s):  
Somayeh B. Shafiei ◽  
Ehsan Tarkesh Esfahani

This paper investigates the proper synchronization of sketch data and cognitive states in a multi-modal CAD interface. In a series of experiments, 5 subjects were instructed to watch and then explain 6 mechanical mechanisms by sketching them on a touch based screen. Simultaneously, subject’s brain waves were recorded in terms of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from 9 locations on the scalp. EEG signals were analyzed and translated into mental workload and cognitive state. A dynamic time window was then constructed to align these features with sketch features such that the combination of two modalities maximizes the classification of gesture from non-gesture strokes. Quadratic Discriminant Analysis (QDA) was used as classification method. Our experimental results show that the best temporal alignment for workload and sketch analysis starts from 30% time lag with previous stroke and ends before 30% time lag with next stroke.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 3439
Author(s):  
Edgar Bañuelos-Lozoya ◽  
Gabriel González-Serna ◽  
Nimrod González-Franco ◽  
Olivia Fragoso-Diaz ◽  
Noé Castro-Sánchez

Traditional evaluation of user experience is subjective by nature, for what is sought is to use data from physiological and behavioral sensors to interpret the relationship that the user’s cognitive states have with the elements of a graphical interface and interaction mechanisms. This study presents the systematic review that was developed to determine the cognitive states that are being investigated in the context of Quality of Experience (QoE)/User Experience (UX) evaluation, as well as the signals and characteristics obtained, machine learning models used, evaluation architectures proposed, and the results achieved. Twenty-nine papers published in 2014–2019 were selected from eight online sources of information, of which 24% were related to the classification of cognitive states, 17% described evaluation architectures, and 41% presented correlations between different signals, cognitive states, and QoE/UX metrics, among others. The amount of identified studies was low in comparison with cognitive state research in other contexts, such as driving or other critical activities; however, this provides a starting point to analyze and interpret states such as mental workload, confusion, and mental stress from various human signals and propose more robust QoE/UX evaluation architectures.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Deepak K. Sarpal ◽  
Goda Tarcijonas ◽  
Finnegan J. Calabro ◽  
William Foran ◽  
Gretchen L. Haas ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Cognitive impairments, which contribute to the profound functional deficits observed in psychotic disorders, have found to be associated with abnormalities in trial-level cognitive control. However, neural tasks operate within the context of sustained cognitive states, which can be assessed with ‘background connectivity’ following the removal of task effects. To date, little is known about the integrity of brain processes supporting the maintenance of a cognitive state in individuals with psychotic disorders. Thus, here we examine background connectivity during executive processing in a cohort of participants with first-episode psychosis (FEP). Methods The following fMRI study examined background connectivity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), during working memory engagement in a group of 43 patients with FEP, relative to 35 healthy controls (HC). Findings were also examined in relation to measures of executive function. Results The FEP group relative to HC showed significantly lower background DLPFC connectivity with bilateral superior parietal lobule (SPL) and left inferior parietal lobule. Background connectivity between DLPFC and SPL was also positively associated with overall cognition across all subjects and in our FEP group. In comparison, resting-state frontoparietal connectivity did not differ between groups and was not significantly associated with overall cognition, suggesting that psychosis-related alterations in executive networks only emerged during states of goal-oriented behavior. Conclusions These results provide novel evidence indicating while frontoparietal connectivity at rest appears intact in psychosis, when engaged during a cognitive state, it is impaired possibly undermining cognitive control capacities in FEP.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 2338
Author(s):  
Júlio Medeiros ◽  
Ricardo Couceiro ◽  
Gonçalo Duarte ◽  
João Durães ◽  
João Castelhano ◽  
...  

An emergent research area in software engineering and software reliability is the use of wearable biosensors to monitor the cognitive state of software developers during software development tasks. The goal is to gather physiologic manifestations that can be linked to error-prone scenarios related to programmers’ cognitive states. In this paper we investigate whether electroencephalography (EEG) can be applied to accurately identify programmers’ cognitive load associated with the comprehension of code with different complexity levels. Therefore, a controlled experiment involving 26 programmers was carried. We found that features related to Theta, Alpha, and Beta brain waves have the highest discriminative power, allowing the identification of code lines and demanding higher mental effort. The EEG results reveal evidence of mental effort saturation as code complexity increases. Conversely, the classic software complexity metrics do not accurately represent the mental effort involved in code comprehension. Finally, EEG is proposed as a reference, in particular, the combination of EEG with eye tracking information allows for an accurate identification of code lines that correspond to peaks of cognitive load, providing a reference to help in the future evaluation of the space and time accuracy of programmers’ cognitive state monitored using wearable devices compatible with software development activities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 155-164
Author(s):  
Kisor Kumar Chakrabarti ◽  

One approaching a thing from a distance may perceive it as existent, then as a substance, then as a tree and, finally, as a fig tree. Thus, the same fig tree can be the object of all these different perceptions. This shows, Udayana argues, that difference in cognitive states does not necessarily prove that their objects are different. This argument is in response to the Buddhist claim that since perceptual cognitive states and non-perceptual cognitive states are different, their respective objects are also different; unique particulars (svalakSaNa) that alone are real, are grasped in perception; general features (saamaanyalakSaNa) that are not real are grasped in non-perceptual cognitive states. The Buddhist objects: when the same thing appears to be the object of different cognitive states, only that cognitive state which leads to useful result is reliable. Udayana replies: More than one cognitive state in the above situation may lead to useful result; it is not justified to accept only one of them as reliable and reject the others. The Buddhist objects again: perceptual awareness is direct but non-perceptual awareness is indirect: hence their objects are different. Udayana replies: The same thing may be perceived when there is sensory connection with it and then inferred from an invariably connected sign when there is no sensory connection. Thus, the same thing may be the object of both direct and indirect cognitive states depending on different causal conditions.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Lupyan

Attending is a cognitive process that incorporates a person’s knowledge, goals, and expectations. What we perceive when we attend to one thing is different from what we perceive when we attend to something else. Yet, it is often argued that attentional effects do not count as evidence that perception is influenced by cognition. I investigate two arguments often given to justify excluding attention. The first is arguing that attention is a post-perceptual process reflecting selection between fully constructed perceptual representations. The second is arguing that attention as a pre-perceptual process that simply changes the input to encapsulated perceptual systems. Both of these arguments are highly problematic. Although some attentional effects can indeed be construed as post-perceptual, others operate by changing perceptual content across the entire visual hierarchy. Although there is a natural analogy between spatial attention and a change of input, the analogy falls apart when we consider other forms of attention. After dispelling these arguments, I make a case for thinking of attention not as a confound, but as one of the mechanisms by which cognitive states affect perception by going through cases in which the same or similar visual inputs are perceived differently depending on the observer’s cognitive state, and instances where cuing an observer using language affects what one sees. Lastly, I provide two compelling counter-examples to the critique that although cognitive influences on perception can be demonstrated in the laboratory, it is impossible to really experience them for oneself in a phenomenologically compelling way. Taken together, the current evidence strongly supports the thesis that what we know routinely influences what we see, that the same sensory input can be perceived differently depending on the current cognitive state of the viewer, and that phenomenologically salient demonstrations are possible if certain conditions are met.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishnu Radhakrishnan ◽  
Natasha Merat ◽  
Tyron Louw ◽  
Rafael Goncalves ◽  
Wei Lyu ◽  
...  

This driving simulator study, conducted as a part of Horizon2020-funded L3Pilot project, investigated how different car-following situations affected driver workload, within the context of vehicle automation. Electrocardiogram (ECG) and electrodermal activity (EDA)-based physiological metrics were used as objective indicators of workload, along with self-reported workload ratings. A total of 32 drivers were divided into two equal groups, based on whether they engaged in a non-driving related task (NDRT) during automation or monitored the drive. Drivers in both groups were exposed to two counterbalanced experimental drives, lasting ~18 minutes each, of Short (0.5 s) and Long (1.5 s) Time Headway conditions during automated car-following (ACF), which was followed by a takeover that happened with or without a lead vehicle. We observed that the workload on the driver due to the NDRT was significantly higher than both monitoring the drive during ACF and manual car-following (MCF). Furthermore, the results indicated that shorter THWs and the presence of a lead vehicle can significantly increase driver workload during takeover scenarios, potentially affecting the safety of the vehicle. This warrants further research into understanding safe time headway thresholds to be maintained by automated vehicles, without placing additional mental or attentional demands on the driver. To conclude, our results indicated that ECG and EDA signals are sensitive to variations in workload, and hence, warrants further investigation on the value of combining these two signals to assess driver workload in real-time, to help the system respond appropriately to the limitations of the driver and predict their performance in driving task if and when they have to resume manual control of the vehicle.


2020 ◽  
pp. 168-195
Author(s):  
Christopher Morton

Chapter 7 examines Evans-Pritchard’s photographic record of the Nuer rite of gorot, witnessed in 1936, and raises questions about the relationship between photography and participant-observation as a core research method in early twentieth-century anthropology. The chapter explores the question of why Evans-Pritchard’s record of this ritual is characterized by a sustained visual engagement with two distinct stages of the rite, and why other aspects of the ceremony are not recorded. In order to explore this question, the chapter proposes the model of Evans-Pritchard as ‘participant-photographer’—a model that understands his involvement with the ritual as being composed of periods of photographic engagement interposed with observation and note-taking. Placing Evans-Pritchard back into the field through a careful examination of his fieldwork records of a particular event enables us to gain a new insight into not just his fieldwork methods, but his proximity, involvement, and perspective on key elements of the ritual as they unfolded.


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