Human Pointing Motion during Interaction with an Autonomous Blimp

We investigate the interaction between a human and a miniature autonomous blimp using a wand as pointing device. The wand movement generated by the human is followed by the blimp through a tracking controller.The Vector Integration to Endpoint (VITE) model, previously applied to human-computer interface (HCI), has been applied to model the human generated wand movement when interacting with the blimp. We show that the closed-loop human-blimp dynamics are exponentially stable. Similar to HCI using computer mouse, overshoot motion of the blimp has been observed. The VITE model can be viewed as a special reset controller used by the human to generate wand movements that effectively reduce the overshoot of blimp motion. Moreover, we have observed undershoot motion of the blimp due to its inertia, which does not appear in HCI using computer mouse. The asymptotic stability of the human-blimp dynamics is beneficial towards tolerating the undershoot motion of the blimp.

Gravity Influences How We Expect a Cursor to Move

We expect a cursor to move upwards when we push our computer mouse away. Do we expect it to move upwards on the screen, upwards with respect to our body, or upwards with respect to gravity? To find out, we asked participants to perform a simple task that involved guiding a cursor with a mouse. It took participants that were sitting upright longer to reach targets with the cursor if the screen was tilted, so not only directions on the screen are relevant. Tilted participants’ performance was indistinguishable from that of upright participants when the screen was tilted slightly in the same direction. Thus, the screen's orientation with respect to both the body and gravity are relevant. Considering published estimates of the ocular counter-roll induced by head tilt, it is possible that participants actually expect the cursor to move in a certain direction on their retina.

Unreferenced spatial localization under monocular and dichoptic viewing conditions

Knowledge of eye position in the brain is critical for localization of objects in space. To investigate the accuracy and precision of eye position feedback in an unreferenced environment, subjects with normal ocular alignment attempted to localize briefly presented targets during monocular and dichoptic viewing. In the task, subjects’ used a computer mouse to position a response disk at the remembered location of the target. Under dichoptic viewing (with red (right eye)–green (left eye) glasses), target and response disks were presented to the same or alternate eyes, leading to four conditions [green target–green response cue (LL), green–red (LR), red–green (RL), and red–red (RR)]. Time interval between target and response disks was varied and localization errors were the difference between the estimated and real positions of the target disk. Overall, the precision of spatial localization (variance across trials) became progressively worse with time. Under dichoptic viewing, localization errors were significantly greater for alternate-eye trials as compared to same-eye trials and were correlated to the average phoria of each subject. Our data suggests that during binocular dissociation, spatial localization may be achieved by combining a reliable versional efference copy signal with a proprioceptive signal that is unreliable perhaps because it is from the wrong eye or is too noisy.

Explicit and Implicit Cognitive Processes Associated With Microaggression Endorsement

Purpose Social standards that support White normativity impact communication styles and use of microaggressions that alienate minority and culturally/linguistically diverse groups. Though professionals in education and communication sciences and disorders (CSD) attempt to help students/clients navigate the world, CSD professionals focus more on nonnormativity as different, not bad, whereas mainstream education focuses on meeting normative standards—potentially impacting how preprofessional students approach and understand non-inclusive language. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the prevalence of microaggression endorsement (i.e., indicating they would use a phrase, even if unaware of its potential harm) and adaptation to feedback that may promote changes in microaggressive language endorsements by preservice students in predominantly White-dominated disciplines with different approaches to nonnormativity. Method Computer mouse-tracking was used to explore explicit and implicit cognition before and after corrective feedback regarding the perception and social impact of microaggressions among 37 undergraduate preservice CSD and education majors. Results Preservice CSD undergraduates were far less likely to endorse microaggression statements, and agree with the potential harm microaggressions cause. Preservice CSD undergraduates also experienced more cognitive competition when making decisions about microaggressions, but this cognitive competition lessened after feedback. Conclusions This study of microaggressions is promising, as it demonstrates that preservice educators and CSD undergraduates are sensitive to the harm microaggressions cause, but both groups of preprofessionals may still hold some non-inclusive notions that may be damaging to colleagues, clients, and students. Fortunately, this understanding of the research suggests that awareness may be an important factor affecting change, promoting cultural competence, and providing opportunities for reflection. Supplemental Materials https://osf.io/kax8t/