Visualization-Driven Time-Series Extraction from Wearable Systems Can Facilitate Differentiation of Passive ADL Characteristics among Stroke and Healthy Older Adults

Wearable technologies allow the measurement of unhindered activities of daily living (ADL) among patients who had a stroke in their natural settings. However, methods to extract meaningful information from large multi-day datasets are limited. This study investigated new visualization-driven time-series extraction methods for distinguishing activities from stroke and healthy adults. Fourteen stroke and fourteen healthy adults wore a wearable sensor at the L5/S1 position for three consecutive days and collected accelerometer data passively in the participant’s naturalistic environment. Data from visualization facilitated selecting information-rich time series, which resulted in classification accuracy of 97.3% using recurrent neural networks (RNNs). Individuals with stroke showed a negative correlation between their body mass index (BMI) and higher-acceleration fraction produced during ADL. We also found individuals with stroke made lower activity amplitudes than healthy counterparts in all three activity bands (low, medium, and high). Our findings show that visualization-driven time series can accurately classify movements among stroke and healthy groups using a deep recurrent neural network. This novel visualization-based time-series extraction from naturalistic data provides a physical basis for analyzing passive ADL monitoring data from real-world environments. This time-series extraction method using unit sphere projections of acceleration can be used by a slew of analysis algorithms to remotely track progress among stroke survivors in their rehabilitation program and their ADL abilities.

Mind the attention gap: how does digital advertising impact choice under low attention?

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether digital advertising can be effective despite consumer inattention and how certain common combinations of ad characteristics increase or decrease ad effectiveness under conditions of low attention. Design/methodology/approach Using two online experiments in naturalistic environment, the authors compare ad effects under focussed, divided and incidental attention, for certain ad characteristics, namely, appeal type and (mis)matching between appeal and brand type. The results are analysed using logistic regression. Findings Ad exposure under low attention does increase brand consideration and choice. The greatest uplift in impact occurs when moving from non-exposure to incidental attention. Under incidental attention, emotive advertising was more effective than rational advertising, as was matching rather than mismatching an emotional appeal to a hedonic brand. Conversely, under divided attention, rational advertising and mismatching a rational appeal to a hedonic brand were more effective. Research limitations/implications This research explores the effectiveness of Twitter ads with an emotional or a rational appeal and the (mis)matching between appeal and utilitarian or hedonic brand type. Future research can examine other formats and creative elements of digital advertising that can affect the low-attention processing and the effects that occur. Practical implications Intrusive, attention-getting advertising strategies may not be necessary. Certain common creative devices can increase advertising effectiveness despite low attention, so marketers can ensure consumer-centric marketing communication. Originality/value There has previously been limited understanding of low-attention mechanisms in advertising and little evidence of ad effectiveness under conditions of low attention. The research also demonstrates that certain ad characteristics, linked to common creative devices, enhance the impact of advertising despite low attention.

A naturalistic environment to study visual cognition in unrestrained monkeys

Macaque monkeys are widely used to study vision. In the traditional approach, monkeys are brought into a lab to perform visual tasks while they are restrained to obtain stable eye tracking and neural recordings. Here, we describe a novel environment to study visual cognition in a more natural setting as well as other natural and social behaviors. We designed a naturalistic environment with an integrated touchscreen workstation that enables high-quality eye tracking in unrestrained monkeys. We used this environment to train monkeys on a challenging same-different task. We also show that this environment can reveal interesting novel social behaviors. As proof of concept, we show that two naïve monkeys were able to learn this complex task through a combination of socially observing trained monkeys and through solo trial-and-error. We propose that such naturalistic environments can be used to rigorously study visual cognition as well as other natural and social behaviors in freely moving monkeys.

Natural Habitat Design for Zoo-Housed Elasmobranch and Teleost Fish Species Improves Behavioural Repertoire and Space Use in a Visitor Facing Exhibit

This study investigated the behaviour of two Elasmobranch species; Southern fiddler ray (Trygonorrhina dumerilii, n = 1) and Port Jackson shark (Heterodontus portusjacksoni, n = 4) and two teleost species; moonlighter (Tilodon sexfasciatus, n = 1) and banded morwong (Cheilodactylus spectabilis, n = 1) living within a single enclosure. For this study, two treatments were compared, the original enclosure design, and then after the enclosure had been renovated to more closely represent the species natural habitats, with a raised front viewing glass to prevent visitor interaction. Behaviours such as resting, swimming and abnormal behaviours such as surface and perimeter swimming (elasmobranchs only) were recorded as well as location within the enclosure, for 10 days pre and 10 days post renovation. The Port Jackson sharks significantly reduced the performance of abnormal behaviours after renovation, and significantly increased the time spent near the exhibit front. The Southern fiddler ray increased resting post renovation, while the teleost species also spent more time near the exhibit front. Although a small sample size was used, the results suggest that a more naturalistic environment with multiple micro-habitats and effective visitor barriers allows for a greater proportion of the day spent exhibiting natural behaviours, greater space use and reduced stereotypes.

Wordform variability in infants' language environment and its effects on early word learning

We explore wordform variability in a naturalistic environment by looking at wordplay (e.g. ''dog~doggy''), where multiple different wordforms composed of different sounds can be used to pick out the same object in the world. In this chapter, we characterize concrete noun wordplay in speech to 44 infants, looking at both the frequency of wordplay and the ways in which wordplay forms differ from the adult form. We also look at wordform variability wholesale, examining relationships between how many different wordforms exist per lemma in children's language environments. We find that wordplay occurs with a limited number of lemmas that are usually early-learned, highly-frequent, and shorter. We find that wordplay rates by themselves do not predict learning, suggesting that infants who hear a higher proportion of unconventional wordforms do not lag behind as a result. When looking at wordform variability beyond just wordplay, we find that infants who hear more wordforms per lemma also say more words in our recordings. Furthermore, we find that individual words with higher levels of wordform variability are learned earlier than words with fewer wordforms, over and above the effect of frequency.

The Validation of a Portable Functional NIRS System for Assessing Mental Workload

Portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) systems have the potential to image the brain in naturalistic settings. Experimental studies are essential to validate such fNIRS systems. Working memory (WM) is a short-term active memory that is associated with the temporary storage and manipulation of information. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) brain area is involved in the processing of WM. We assessed the PFC brain during n-back WM tasks in a group of 25 college students using our laboratory-developed portable fNIRS system, WearLight. We designed an experimental protocol with 32 n-back WM task blocks with four different pseudo-randomized task difficulty levels. The hemodynamic response of the brain was computed from the experimental data and the evaluated brain responses due to these tasks. We observed the incremental mean hemodynamic activation induced by the increasing WM load. The left-PFC area was more activated in the WM task compared to the right-PFC. The task performance was seen to be related to the hemodynamic responses. The experimental results proved the functioning of the WearLight system in cognitive load imaging. Since the portable fNIRS system was wearable and operated wirelessly, it was possible to measure the cognitive load in the naturalistic environment, which could also lead to the development of a user-friendly brain–computer interface system.

The Role of Theory in SLA Empirical Research on the Critical Period Hypothesis

This paper sets out to peruse the role of various theories or more precisely, hypotheses invoked in SLA research by surveying three empirical studies pertaining to the critical period hypothesis in the SLA of phonetics and phonology. In particular, the three studies which will be reviewed in the next section are titled in chronological order as (1) A critical period for learning to pronounce foreign languages? (Flege, 1987); (2) Reexamining the critical period hypothesis: A case study of successful adult SLA in a naturalistic environment. (Ioup et al., 1994); (3) Ultimate attainment in L2 Phonology: The Critical Factors of Age, Motivation, and Instruction (Moyer, 1999).

Visual Influences on Auditory Behavioral, Neural, and Perceptual Processes: A Review

In a naturalistic environment, auditory cues are often accompanied by information from other senses, which can be redundant with or complementary to the auditory information. Although the multisensory interactions derived from this combination of information and that shape auditory function are seen across all sensory modalities, our greatest body of knowledge to date centers on how vision influences audition. In this review, we attempt to capture the state of our understanding at this point in time regarding this topic. Following a general introduction, the review is divided into 5 sections. In the first section, we review the psychophysical evidence in humans regarding vision’s influence in audition, making the distinction between vision’s ability to enhance versus alter auditory performance and perception. Three examples are then described that serve to highlight vision’s ability to modulate auditory processes: spatial ventriloquism, cross-modal dynamic capture, and the McGurk effect. The final part of this section discusses models that have been built based on available psychophysical data and that seek to provide greater mechanistic insights into how vision can impact audition. The second section reviews the extant neuroimaging and far-field imaging work on this topic, with a strong emphasis on the roles of feedforward and feedback processes, on imaging insights into the causal nature of audiovisual interactions, and on the limitations of current imaging-based approaches. These limitations point to a greater need for machine-learning-based decoding approaches toward understanding how auditory representations are shaped by vision. The third section reviews the wealth of neuroanatomical and neurophysiological data from animal models that highlights audiovisual interactions at the neuronal and circuit level in both subcortical and cortical structures. It also speaks to the functional significance of audiovisual interactions for two critically important facets of auditory perception—scene analysis and communication. The fourth section presents current evidence for alterations in audiovisual processes in three clinical conditions: autism, schizophrenia, and sensorineural hearing loss. These changes in audiovisual interactions are postulated to have cascading effects on higher-order domains of dysfunction in these conditions. The final section highlights ongoing work seeking to leverage our knowledge of audiovisual interactions to develop better remediation approaches to these sensory-based disorders, founded in concepts of perceptual plasticity in which vision has been shown to have the capacity to facilitate auditory learning.