Promises and partnership in human-robot interaction

Understanding human trust in machine partners has become imperative due to the widespread use of intelligent machines in a variety of applications and contexts. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether human-beings trust a social robot - i.e. a human-like robot that embodies emotional states, empathy, and non-verbal communication - differently than other types of agents. To do so, we adapt the well-known economic trust-game proposed by Charness and Dufwenberg (2006) to assess whether receiving a promise from a robot increases human-trust in it. We find that receiving a promise from the robot increases the trust of the human in it, but only for individuals who perceive the robot very similar to a human-being. Importantly, we observe a similar pattern in choices when we replace the humanoid counterpart with a real human but not when it is replaced by a computer-box. Additionally, we investigate participants' psychophysiological reaction in terms of cardiovascular and electrodermal activity. Our results highlight an increased psychophysiological arousal when the game is played with the social robot compared to the computer-box. Taken all together, these results strongly support the development of technologies enhancing the humanity of robots.

Exploring the impact of safety behaviour use on cognitive, psychophysiological, emotional and behavioural responses during a speech task

Background:There is a debate among researchers and clinicians regarding whether the judicious use of safety behaviours (SBs) during exposure therapy is helpful or detrimental. Central to this debate is the premise that SBs may interfere with one’s ability to gather disconfirmatory evidence.Aims:No study to date has assessed how SB use may impact cognitive mechanisms implicated during an exposure-like task. We investigated multiple cognitive, emotional, psychophysiological and behavioural underpinnings of exposure with and without SBs.Method:Speech anxious participants (n = 111) were randomly assigned to deliver an evaluated speech with or without SBs. Self-reported anxiety ratings and psychophysiological arousal measures were recorded at baseline, in anticipation of the speech, and following the speech. Measures of working memory, ability to gather disconfirmatory evidence, speech duration, objective and subjective speech performance, and speech task acceptability were administered.Results:There were no differences between conditions on working memory, self-reported anxiety, psychophysiological arousal, ability to gather disconfirmatory evidence, speech duration, or objective and subjective speech performance. All participants were able to gather disconfirmatory evidence. However, condition did influence willingness to deliver future speeches. Our sample was largely female undergraduate students, and we offered only a small number of specific safety behaviours.Conclusions:Judicious SB use may not necessarily be detrimental, but clients may believe them to be more helpful than they actually are.

Representative Training with Less Risk: The Effects of Non-lethal Training and Conventional Ammunition in Police Use of Force Training on Heart Rate Variability

With the goal of preventing unintentional fire-arm death and injury as well as widening the scope of police use of force training design, this study compared the impact of non-lethal training (NLT) ammunition and conventional ammunition (CA) on police officers’ psychophysiological arousal. We assessed heart rate and parasympathetic activity while police officers engaged in a demanding fighting and shooting exercise. Based on previous research, which shows that physiological arousal in representative scenario exercises does not differ from active duty operations, this study tested and corroborated the hypothesis that simulated psychophysiological demand will be the same in using both NLT and CA. Thus, the use of NLT ammunition provides a safe alternative to training the use of issue weapons with CA, equally as representative of the active duty environment of the real world. Furthermore, this study underlines that fighting elicits high levels of physiological load that police officers need to be prepared for.

Psychophysiological arousal in different gambling phases in youngs and adolescents

Nowadays, gambling is increasing as a more frequent problem among the young people. In order to shed light about the physiological correlates of the three phases that were identified in the roulette gambling game (phase of betting, phase of watching the rotation of the roulette and phase of watching the final result), 24 participants, with no pathological gambling problems, participated in three attempts of this game. Heart rate, skin conductance level and skin conductance response were recorded. The results showed that betting phase is the phase where highest arousal is experienced by the participants, followed by the phase of watching the rotation of the roulette. Likewise, it was verified that not getting the prize provokes a quick habituation that is evidenced in the decrease of the arousal in the second phase. Finally, clinical implications of the results are discussed.