Eyewitness Memory for Person Identification: Predicting Mugbook Recognition Accuracy According to Person Description Abilities and Subjective Confidence of Witnesses

Mugbook searches are conducted in case a suspect is not known and to assess if a previously convicted person might be recognized as a potential culprit. The goal of the two experiments reported here was to analyze if prior statements and information about the suspect can aid in the evaluation if such a mugbook search is subsequently advised or not. In experiment 1, memory accuracy for person descriptors was tested in order to analyze, which attributes could be chosen to down-scale the mugbook prior to testing. Results showed that age was the most accurate descriptor, followed by ethnicity and height. At the same time self-assessed low subjective accuracy of culprit descriptions by the witness seemed to be divergent to the objective actual performance accuracy. In experiment 2, a mugbook search was conducted after participants viewed a video of a staged crime and gave a description of the culprit. Results showed that accuracy in mugbook searches correlated positively with the total number of person descriptors given by the witness as well as with witness’ description of external facial features. Predictive confidence (i.e., subjective rating of own performance in the subsequent mugbook search), however did not show any relation to the identification accuracy in the actual mugbook search. These results highlight the notion that mugbooks should not be conducted according to the subjective estimation of the witness’ performance but more according to the actual statements and descriptions that the witness can give about the culprit.

Neural mechanisms of modulations of empathy and altruism by beliefs of others' pain

Perceived cues signaling others' pain induce empathy which in turn motivates altruistic behavior toward those who appear suffering. This perception-emotion-behavior reactivity is the core of human altruism but does not always occur in real life situations. Here, by integrating behavioral and multimodal neuroimaging measures, we investigate neural mechanisms underlying modulations of empathy and altruistic behavior by beliefs of others' pain. We show evidence that lack of beliefs of others' pain reduces subjective estimation of others' painful feelings and decreases monetary donations to those who show pain expressions. Moreover, lack of beliefs of others' pain attenuates neural responses to their pain expressions within 200 ms after face onset and modulates neural responses to others' pain in the insular, post-central, and frontal cortices. Our findings suggest that beliefs of others’ pain provide a cognitive basis of human empathy and altruism and unravel the intermediate neural mechanisms.

Neural mechanisms underlying regulation of empathy and altruism by beliefs of others' pain

Perceived cues signaling others' pain induce empathy that in turn motivates altruistic behavior toward those who appear suffering. This perception-emotion-behavior reactivity is the core of human altruism but does not always occur in real life situations. Here, by integrating behavioral and multimodal neuroimaging measures, we investigate neural mechanisms underlying the functional role of beliefs of others' pain in modulating empathy and altruism. We show evidence that decreasing (or enhancing) beliefs of others' pain reduces (or increases) subjective estimation of others' painful emotional states and monetary donations to those who show pain expressions. Moreover, decreasing beliefs of others' pain attenuates neural responses to perceived cues signaling others' pain within 200 ms after stimulus onset and modulate neural responses to others' pain in the frontal cortices and temporoparietal junction. Our findings highlight beliefs of others' pain as a fundamental cognitive basis of human empathy and altruism and unravel the intermediate neural architecture.

Estimation of quality of life after operative treatment for venous trophic ulcers of the lower extremities

Objective. To study the patients’ quality of life after operative interventions, performed for venous trophic ulcers of the lower extremities. Маterials and methods. Analysis of data from 82 hospital cards of stationary patients was conducted. The patients were treated during 2010 - 2017 yrs in the Department of Vascular Surgery of Poltava Regional Clinical Hospital named after М. V. Sklifosovskyi for venous trophic ulcers of the lower extremities (Class С5 in accordance to Clinical-Etiological-Anatomical-Pathophysiological classification - СЕАР). The cause of trophic ulcers occurrence in all the patients was confirmed, using ultrasound duplex scanning of pelvic and the lower extremities arteries and veins. After conduction of certain conservative therapy the operative intervention, directed on elimination of the occurrence cause of trophic ulcers, was done. In all the patients the conduction of endovenous thermal ablations was not indicated, taking into account the anatomic peculiarities presented. Depending on the methods of operative interventions performed, the patients were distributed into two groups: Group I - 48 (58.5%) patients, surgical treatment of whom consisted of typical conventional open operative interventions, using a standard set of instruments, while Group II - 34 (41.5%) patients, to whom operative interventions were done, using elaborated own gadgets for the wounds edges opening, dissection and ligation of perforant and large subcutaneous veins, nontraumatic suturing of postoperative wounds. All operative interventions in the Group II patients were performed, using ultrasonographic support. In patients of both Groups a subjective estimation of quality of life was conducted, using questionnaire CIVIQ (Chronic Insufficiency Venous International Questions) for interviewing preoperatively and in 1, 3 and 6 mo postoperatively. Results. In accordance to data obtained, in patients of Group II the score in points of quality of life was higher, because in them the ulcers have healed faster, the pain sensation reduced, resulting in the psycho-emotional state improvement. Besides this, 29 (85.3%) patients of Group II have noted, that even while some symptoms persisted, their subjective signs reduced, leading to the well-being improvement. The conduction of treatment in accordance to own procedures proposed have promoted the raising of the quality of life score in patients, suffering trophic ulcers of the lower extremities. Conclusion. Application of gadgets of own elaboration during operative intervention on venous system of the lower extremities accelerates its performance and reduces traumaticity. This leads to reduction of the pain sensitivity intensity, raising of subjective estimation of quality of life in remote postoperative period.

Direction of Groove Detection for Wear Image of Four-Ball Friction Test Based on Gray Difference of Inclination Angle

In order to avoid subjective estimation of the direction of groove by using a tester in the four-ball friction test, an automatic wear angle detection method based on gray difference of inclination angle is proposed in this paper. First, the gray difference between the pixel and its W × 2W neighborhood pixels is acquired, in which each neighborhood pixel corresponds to an inclination angle. Second, a row’s grayscale difference of inclination angle is calculated, which is the sum of grayscale difference of all pixels in the same row with the same inclination angle. Third, the inclination angle corresponding to the minimum row’s grayscale difference is defined as the approach angles. Finally, the first t approaching angles with the highest frequency determine the wear angles. Compared with true angles determined manually, the simulation results of 200 samples show that the average absolute error is 2.1238° and the average running time is 1.3 s per frame. The influence of the algorithm parameters on detection precision is also analyzed.

Visual Model Fit Estimation in Scatterplots and Distribution of Attention

Scatterplots are ubiquitous data graphs and can be used to depict how well data fit to a quantitative theory. We investigated which information is used for such estimates. In Experiment 1 ( N = 25), we tested the influence of slope and noise on perceived fit between a linear model and data points. Additionally, eye tracking was used to analyze the deployment of attention. Visual fit estimation might mimic one or the other statistical estimate: If participants were influenced by noise only, this would suggest that their subjective judgment was similar to root mean square error. If slope was relevant, subjective estimation would mimic variance explained. While the influence of noise on estimated fit was stronger, we also found an influence of slope. As most of the fixations fell into the center of the scatterplot, in Experiment 2 ( N = 51), we tested whether location of noise affects judgment. Indeed, high noise influenced the judgment of fit more strongly if it was located in the middle of the scatterplot. Visual fit estimates seem to be driven by the center of the scatterplot and to mimic variance explained.

Time consumption in calculations of the hydraulic and geometrical tortuosity in granular beds

Tortuosity is one of the most elusive parameters of porous media due to its subjective estimation. Here, we compare two approaches for obtaining the tortuosity in granular porous media to investigate their capabilities and limitations. First, we determine the hydraulic tortuosity based on the calculated components of the velocity field obtained from flow simulations using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). Second, we directly determine the geometric tortuosity by making use of the Path Tracking Method (PTM) which only requires the geometric properties of the porous medium. In both cases, we apply the same geometrical structure which is a virtually generated 3D granular bed using the discrete element method consisting of 50 particles. Our results show that the direct PTM is much faster and more precise than the indirect approach based on the calculated velocity field. Therefore, PTM may provide a tool for calculating tortuosity for large 3D granular systems where indirect methods are limited due to the required computational power and time. While LBM considers various routes across the porous media implicitly, PTM identifies them explicitly. As a result, PTM requires a statistical post-processing. As an advantage, this can provide further information than just domain scale average values.

Relationship Between Satisfaction and Concern with Own Appearance and Subjective Estimation of Economic Status

This study is aimed to scrutinize the relationship between satisfaction and concern with an individual’s physical appearance and the subjective estimation of economic status, which is considered as one of main predictors of life satisfaction. Recent research has focused on the role of real economic status on different aspects of human life, including satisfaction and concern with own appearance. In contrast with such studies, our investigation is focused on a subjective-comparative approach to economic status evaluation. According to this approach, the participants have to identify themselves either with the group “rather poor than rich” or with the group “rather rich than poor”. We hypothesize that satisfaction and concern with own appearance in youth varies as a factor of subjective evaluation of economic status. The participants were 41 male and 82 female undergraduate and graduate students of different majors, aged 20–35. Of the subjects, 62% estimated their economic status as “rather poor than rich” and 38% of participants identified themselves with the group “rather rich than poor”. The paper-pencil questionnaires “Attitudes towards Own Appearance: Satisfaction and Concern” and “Subjective Evaluation of Economic Status” were administered. Results indicates that subjective evaluation of economic status has a stronger association with satisfaction with one’s own physical appearance in comparison with concern over one’s own appearance.