O Contraste Sucessivo é um dos paradigmas experimentais que modelam a experiencia de perda. Nele, os organismos deixam de estarem expostos à eventos reforçadores, apetitivos e/ou preferidos para entrarem em contato com outros de menor qualidade ou valor. Isto resulta numa série de estratégias comportamentais caracterizadas por um importante componente emocional, uma diminuição na execução da resposta (consumatória ou operante) que não está mais correlacionada com a consequência, um aumento na execução de respostas que eram menos prováveis, e uma conservação da estrutura do comportamento exibido antes da perda ou deterioro. A função dos estímulos antecedentes e/ou discriminativos envolvidos, que constituem a parte vigente da contingência que foi quebrada, também tem se mostrado comprometida. Contudo, a interação entre essas características tem sido estudada de modo separado, seja por complicações técnicas ou por isolamento teórico entre os paradigmas. Neste experimento se apresenta uma proposta que tenta obter uma caracterização mais abrangente das estratégias comportamentais que emergem numa situação de perda, aproveitando a versatilidade topológica e funcional da resposta ocular, e a disponibilidade de recursos técnicos que permitem obter medidas precisas dela. Para isso, no procedimento utilizado foram disponibilizadas alternativas de resposta com diferentes valores de reforçamento em cada. 192 fotografias do IAPS foram categorizadas segundo seu valor emotivo e seu conteúdo em seis categorias: Eróticas, Filhotes (Agradáveis), Paisagens naturais, Paisagens artificiais (Neutrais), Doenças e Violência (Desagradáveis). Pares dessas fotografias foram apresentadas num arranjo de quatro quadrantes na tela do computador, antecedidas de forma consistente por Figuras geométricas específicas para cada categoria, enquanto os tempos de fixação eram registrados com um rastreador ocular. Uma sétima figura geométrica foi pareada aleatoriamente com fotografias de todas as categorias. Após atingir um critério de estabilidade baseado no ranqueamento e correspondência entre os tempos de fixação das Figuras geométricas e das Fotografias, as Fotografias da categoria mais observada foram substituídas por Fotografias daquela correspondente ao terceiro lugar, mas continuaram sendo antecedidas pela mesma Figura geométrica. Os resultados mostraram que o procedimento foi sensível às condições e a manipulação experimental. Foi possível estabelecer um ranqueamento entre as categorias a partir das respostas oculares e caracterizar um padrão de observação após a incongruência introduzida. No caso, as preferências exibidas pela participante foram reorganizadas, com um aumento nos tempos de fixação das categorias agradáveis, evitação das fotografias da categoria Doença enquanto a Figura geométrica que à antecedia começou a ser mais observada, e um aumento no tempo de fixação da categoria de imagens aleatórias. No caso das Categorias alteradas, as fotografias de Filhotes (terceira categoria no ranqueamento) que começaram a ser antecedidas pela Figura geométrica correspondente à categoria Violência (a mais observada), foram menos observadas do que àquelas antecedidas pela figura geométrica treinada na fase anterior. São discutidas as melhoras que o procedimento poderia ter assim como o uso das medidas mais apropriadas na exploração de diversos fenômenos comportamentais. Se analisa se os resultados podem ser entendidos dentro do paradigma de contraste e por último se apresentam comentários sobre a necessidade de aproveitar os desenvolvimentos técnicos que permitem executar experimentos mais complexos / Successive Contrast is one of the experimental paradigms that models the experience of loss. On it, organisms are no longer exposed to reinforcing, appetitive and/or preferred events, but to some others with less quality or value. This results in different behavioral strategies characterized by an important emotional component, a decrement in the response not any longer associated with the consequence (consummatory or operant), an increment in less likely responses, and a preservation of behavioral structure from before the impairment. The role of the antecedent and / or discriminative stimuli involved, which constitute the current part of the contingency that has been broken, has also shown to be compromised. However, the interaction between these characteristics has been studied separately, either by technical complications or by theoretical isolation between paradigms. In this study, we propose a procedure to obtain a more comprehensive characterization of the behavioral strategies that emerge in a situation of loss, taking advantage of the topological and functional versatility of the ocular response, and the availability of technical resources that allow to obtain precise measurements of it. To solve this, alternatives for responding with different values of reinforcement were available. 192 photographs from the IAPS were categorized into six categories according to their emotional value and their content: Erotic, Puppies (Pleasant), Natural Landscapes, Artificial Landscapes (Neutral), Diseases and Violence (Unpleasant). Pairs of these photographs were presented in a four-quadrant arrangement on the computer screen, consistently preceded by specific geometric figures for each category, while fixation times were recorded with an eye tracker. A seventh geometric figure was randomly paired with photographs of all categories. After reaching a stability criterion based on the ranking and correspondence between the fixation times of the Geometric Figures and the Photographs, the Photographs of the most observed category were replaced by Photographs of the one corresponding to the third place, but continued to be preceded by the same Geometric Figure. The results showed that the procedure worked well within our experimental conditions and manipulation. It was possible to establish a ranking from the ocular responses among the categories and to characterize a pattern of observation after the introduced incongruity. The preferences exhibited by the participant were reorganized, with an increase in the fixation time of the pleasant categories, avoidance of photographs of the category Disease while its geometric Figure became more observed, and an increase in the fixation time of the category of random images. On the changed Categories, the photographs of Pups (third category in the ranking) that began to be preceded by the geometric Figure corresponding to the category Violence (the most observed category), were less observed than those preceded by the geometric figure trained in the previous phase. The improvements that the procedure could have as well as the use of the most appropriate measures in the exploration of several behavioral phenomena are discussed. It is analyzed if the results can be understood within the contrast paradigm and finally comments are made on the need to take advantage of the technical developments that allow to execute more complex experiments

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:40:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Clara Portela Hara.pdf: 1185473 bytes, checksum: 98af56b10b63f07c120ba7122a299358 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-06 / The human visual attention and cognitive processes involved still arouse interest in investigations and have gaps. Perform a reading task or look for a parking spot are common actions of our day-to-day life that require the recruitment of our visual attentional system. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC) in the performance of visuospatial attention tasks, such as Bisection of Lines test and Visual Search test in young healthy volunteers. In order to analyze differences and similarities between different types of stimulation (anodic and cathodic simulation) as well as the pseudoneglect phenomenon, participated 21 young adults of which 90.47% female, 95.23% with incomplete higher education; right handed and with a mean age of 22.66 ± 3.04 (mean ± standard deviation). The results showed that participants were faster in the second assessment compared to baseline for both tasks. In addition, volunteers were faster in the Line Bisection test when the large lines was at left. Another important finding of the study was the longer fixation time in the left visual hemifield when faced with larger lines on the left in the Line Bisection Task. Furthermore, similar results when there are target to the left or right was find in the Visual Search test. Was also observe an increase in fixation time on right hemifield after cathodal stimulation in the Visual Search test compared to baseline. Therefore, these findings come against pseudoneglect phenomenon, as well as inhibition of the right posterior parietal cortex with the Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation can have induced a decrease in this phenomenon. The present study brought important contributions to the understanding of pseudoneglect phenomenon, and showed that tDCS can be an important tool for research and future intervention possibilities. / A atenção visual humana e os processos cognitivos nela envolvidos ainda despertam interesse em investigações e apresentam lacunas. Realizar uma tarefa de leitura ou procurar uma vaga no estacionamentosão ações comuns do nosso dia-a-dia que exigem o recrutamento do nosso sistema atencional visual. O presente trabalhoteve como objetivo investigar a influência da Estimulação Transcraniana por Corrente Contínua em Córtex Parietal Posterior (CPP) no desempenho de tarefas de atenção visuoespacial, tais como Bissecção de Linhas e Busca Visual, em jovens saudáveis; a fim de analisar diferenças e semelhanças entre os diferentes tipos de estimulação (anódica, catódica e placebo), bem como o fenômeno pseudonegligência. Participaram do estudo 21 adultos jovens, sendo 90,47% do sexo feminino; 95,23% com ensino superior incompleto; destros e com idade média de 22,66 ±3,04 (média±desvio-padrão). Os resultados mostraram que na Tarefa de Bissecção de Linhas os participantes foram mais rápidos na segunda avaliação em comparação com a linha de base. Além disso, os voluntários foram mais rápidos quando diante das linhas Maiores à Esquerda. Outro achado importante do estudo foi o maior tempo de fixação visual em hemicampo esquerdo quando diante de linhas maiores à esquerda. Quanto aos resultados encontrados na Tarefa de Busca Visual, os participantes apresentaram maior número de acertos quando os alvos apareceram em hemicampo esquerdo. Além disso, independentemente da localização do alvo, seja em hemicampo esquerdo ou hemicampo direito, o tempo de fixação foi maior à esquerda. Outro achado significativo foi o aumento no tempo de fixação em hemicampo direito após estimulação catódica na tarefa Busca Visual em comparação com a linha de base. Tais achados apontam para o fenômeno pseudonegligência, assim como a inibição do CPP direito por meio da ETCC pode ter induzido a diminuição de tal fenômeno. O presente estudo trouxe importantes contribuições no entendimento da pseudonegligência, assim como demonstrou ser uma importante ferramenta de investigação sobre o fenômeno e com possibilidades futuras de intervenção.

In this thesis we present a system to extract the eye motion from a video stream containing a human face and applying this eye motion into a virtual character. By the notation eye motion estimation, we mean the information which describes the location of the eyes in each frame of the video stream. Applying this eye motion estimation into a virtual character, we achieve that the virtual face moves the eyes in the same way than the human face, synthesizing eye motion into a virtual character. In this study, a system capable of face tracking, eye detection and extraction, and finally iris position extraction using video stream containing a human face has been developed. Once an image containing a human face is extracted from the current frame of the video stream, the detection and extraction of the eyes is applied. The detection and extraction of the eyes is based on edge detection. Then the iris center is determined applying different image preprocessing and region segmentation using edge features on the eye picture extracted. Once, we have extracted the eye motion, using MPEG-4 Facial Animation, this motion is translated into the Facial Animation arameters (FAPs). Thus we can improve the quality and quantity of Facial Animation expressions that we can synthesize into a virtual character.

Eye-tracking devices can tell us where on the screen a person is looking. Researchers frequently analyze eye-tracking data manually, by examining every frame of a visual stimulus used in an eye-tracking experiment so as to match 2D screen-coordinates provided by the eye-tracker to related objects and content within the stimulus. Such task requires significant manual effort and is not feasible for analyzing data collected from many users, long experimental sessions, and heavily interactive and dynamic visual stimuli. In this dissertation, we present a novel analysis method. We would instrument visualizations that have open source code, and leverage real-time information about the layout of the rendered visual content, to automatically relate gaze-samples to visual objects drawn on the screen. Since such visual objects are shown in a visualization stand for data, the method would allow us to necessarily detect data that users focus on or Data of Interest (DOI). This dissertation has two contributions. First, we demonstrated the feasibility of collecting DOI data for real life visualization in a reliable way which is not self-evident. Second, we formalized the process of collecting and interpreting DOI data and test whether the automated DOI detection can lead to research workflows, and insights not possible with traditional, manual approaches.

Compared to other children, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are known to engage less in joint attention - the sharing of attention between two individuals toward a common object or event. Joint attention behaviors - for example gaze following, alternating gaze, and pointing - play an important role in early development, as they provide a foundation for learning and social interaction. Study I and Study II focused on infant siblings of children with ASD. These infants, often termed high risk (HR) infants, have an increased probability of receiving a later ASD diagnosis. Studying them therefore allows for the detection of early signs of ASD. Live eye tracking was used to investigate different joint attention behaviors at 10 months of age. Study I showed that omitting the head movement that usually accompany experimenters’ eye gaze shifts in similar designs reduced gaze following performance in the HR group, but not in a group of infants at low risk (LR) for ASD. HR infants may thus be less sensitive to eye information, or may need more salient cues in order to follow gaze optimally. Study II focused on the infants’ tendency to initiate joint attention by alternating their gaze between a person and an event. LR infants engaged more in alternating gaze than HR infants, and less alternating gaze in infancy was associated with more ASD symptoms at 18 months. This relation remained when controlling for visual disengagement and general social interest in infancy. Study III explored the role of joint attention later in development, by investigating the microstructure of the looking behaviors of autistic and typically developing children (~6 years old). The results indicated that seeing somebody look at an object influenced the processing of that object less in autistic children than in the typically developing controls. Both groups followed gaze effectively, suggesting that differences in joint attention at this age may be subtle, but detectable with eye tracking technology. Together, the studies contribute to our understanding of the role that joint attention atypicalities play both in the early development of infants at risk for ASD, and later in the development of children with a confirmed diagnosis.

Eyetracking is a technology that can be used as a complement to the traditional interaction device by warping the mouse pointer to the position the user is looking at. Relatively recently this technology became available on the public market. This thesis examines the user's perceived experience of eyetracking interaction with an interface in comparison to a traditional touchpad. This is an important aspect to investigate since previous research has not investigated this particularly much. Previous research has focused on quantitative studies with measurable results. But how does the user experience the usability of eyetracking when interacting with an interface in comparison to a touchpad? During a test, users have performed tasks with both eyetracking and touchpad. Afterwards, the users participated in an interview where they were able to convey their experience. In this qualitative study, observations and semi-structured interviews have been used as data collection methods. Both the observations and the interviews have then been analyzed thematically in order to identify patterns. These patterns have then been compared to previous research in order to identify similarities and differences. A clear pattern that could be identified was that users experienced a faster interaction with eyetracking. The reason for this was that eyetracking did not require as much physical or mental effort to move the mouse pointer. The users experienced the precision as incomplete but still sufficient to perform the tasks during the test. The users experienced a higher comfort with eyetracking for the same reason as for the speed. Eyetracking did not require as much physical movement to move the mousepointer. / Eyetracking är en teknologi som kan användas som ett hjälpmedel till det befintliga interaktionsmedlet genom att flytta muspekaren till den position användaren tittar på. Detta är en teknologi som relativt nyligen blev tillgänglig för den stora massan på den offentliga marknaden. I denna kandidatuppsats undersöks hur användarna upplever att eyetracking påverkar användbarheten vid interaktion med ett gränssnitt i jämförelse med traditionell pekplatta. Detta är en viktig aspekt att undersöka då tidigare forskning inte har undersökt detta särskilt mycket. Tidigare forskning har fokuserat på kvantitativa studier med mätbara resultat. Men hur upplever användare att eyetracking påverkar användbarheten vid interaktion med ett gränssnitt?  Användarna har under ett test utfört uppgifter med både eyetracking och traditionell pekplatta för att sedan förmedla sina upplevelser i en intervju. I denna kvalitativa studie har observationer och semi-strukturerade intervjuer använts som datainsamlingsmetoder. Både observationerna och intervjuerna har sedan analyserats tematiskt för att identifiera mönster. Dessa mönster har sedan jämförts mot tidigare forskning för att identifiera likheter och skillnader. Ett tydligt mönster som kunde identifieras i resultatet var att användarna upplevde interaktionen som snabbare med eyetracking. Anledningen till detta var att inte lika mycket fysisk eller psykisk ansträngning krävdes för att flytta muspekaren. Användarna upplevde precisionen som ofullständig men ändå tillräcklig för att kunna utföra uppgifterna under testet. Bekvämligheten upplevde användarna som bättre med eyetracking och detta av samma anledning som för snabbheten. Eyetracking krävde inte lika mycket fysisk ansträngning för att flytta muspekaren.

Cette thèse en ergonomie s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un projet de conception industrielle d’un système innovant d’e-santé (HADAGIO), développé par l’entreprise SESIN et permettant le maintien à domicile de personnes âgées fragiles. Son objectif appliqué a été de produire des recommandations ergonomiques permettant d’améliorer les interfaces du système proposé sous la forme d’un portail d’applications web afin de les rendre faciles à utiliser par des personnes âgées et, ainsi, favoriser l’acceptation finale du dispositif HADAGIO. Ce travail s’est intéressé à la tâche de localisation d’informations sur un écran et, plus particulièrement, au rôle des éléments de surface (couleur et niveau de détails) des icônes et libellés lexicaux sur les performances de réalisation de cette tâche par des personnes âgées. Cette tâche est en effet particulièrement difficile pour ces dernières qui obtiennent des performances de localisation moindres que celles des jeunes (temps de réaction et nombre d’erreurs plus importants). Des recommandations graphiques pour la conception d’interfaces du portail HADAGIO ont émergées de ce travail, et permettent de faciliter la tâche de localisation des informations pour des personnes âgées. / This thesis in ergonomics is part of an industrial design project of an innovative e-health system (HADAGIO), developed by the company SESIN and allowing home support frail elderly. Its goal was applied to produce ergonomic recommendations for improving the interfaces of the system proposed in the form of a web portal software to make them easier to use and thus promote the final acceptance HADAGIO the device.This work has focused on the task of locating information on a screen and, in particular, the role of perceptual features (color and detail) lexical icons and labels on achieving performance of this task by elders. This task is indeed particularly difficult for this people who get lower localization performances than young people (reaction times and a larger number of errors). The models proposed for the target location task assumes that the knowledge possessed by individuals on the appearance of the target to locate allow improved performance. Given that advancing age does not affect the process involving knowledge stored in memory (Top Down type) implemented in this task it was to determine what could be the color of the role and Details of the target level in the implementation of these processes at a location task information.Graphics recommendations for HADAGIO portal interface design have emerged from this work, and provide information to facilitate the localization task for the elderly.

Les visages fournissent à l'observateur un ensemble d'informations physiques, émotionnelles et sociales qui déterminent la manière dont les gens interagissent entre eux. Grâce aux cette informations, un humain peut se faire rapidement une première impression. La capacité de former des jugements de nature sociale est au centre de ce travail de thèse ainsi qu'à la manière dont la fiabilité d'autrui peut-être détectée spontanément à partir d'un visage. J'ai employé des techniques de suivi du mouvement oculaire, d'électrophysiologie (EEG) et comportementales. Le but de l'étude 1 visait à déterminer si la capacité d'évaluer la confiance est universelle. J'ai teste si les singes peuvent montrer une préférence spontanée envers des visages humains inspirant confiance, comme il l'a été observé chez les humains. Chez les deux espèces le temps de regard étais supérieur pour les visages inspirant confiance par rapport à ceux n'inspirant pas confiance. Un autre ensemble d'études s'intéressait au syndrome de Williams-Beuren (WS). La pathologie dont une des caractéristiques est un comportement d'appétence sociale a été utilisée comme modèle neurobiologique humain afin d'étudier la capacité à détecter les informations sociales du visage. Les patients WS sont-ils capables de détecter la confiance à partir d'un visage? Comment les patients WS se représentent un visage qui inspire confiance? J'ai observé que les patients WS regardent moins longtemps les visages qui inspirent confiance, suggérant qu'ils ont une tendance à davantage faire confiance à tout le monde. Nos résultats démontrent aussi qu'en comparaison à un groupe sain, ils ne présentent pas une image stéréotypique d'un visage qui inspire confiance. Dans une dernière étude, j'ai cherché à savoir si les sources neuronales éléctrophysiologiques, en particulier dans les régions du sulcus temporal supérieur (240ms), pouvaient expliquer leur comportement. J'ai observé que l'activité de la source était modulée de manière significative par rapport à la proximité des yeux, comme dans le groupe control. Les résultats suggèrent la présence d'une voie rapide dans le cerveau qui joue le rôle fondamental de moduler les comportements d'approche et d'évitement et que cette voie peut être altérée chez des patients caractérisés par un comportement d'appétence sociale / Faces provide a complex set of physical, emotional and social information to the observer that determines how people will interact with others. From facial information, human subjects can form rapid, first impression judgments. The ability to create social judgments from faces is the core topic of this work. This thesis will focus on how social information and trust is spontaneously detected from faces. In my studies I used eye tracking procedure, electrophysiology (EEG) and behavioral measures. In a first experiment, I investigated the evolutionary origin of trustworthiness detection testing whether monkeys (Macaca Mulatta and Fascicularis) have a spontaneous preference towards trustworthy human faces, thus suggesting a capacity to detect facial cues similar to those used by humans. Using a preference visual paradigm we observed that both species spent more time looking at trustworthy faces than untrustworthy ones. I further conducted three studies with patients affected by Williams-Beuren syndrome (WS). This pathology can be considered a neurobiological human model for the overexpressed social behavior. Are Williams-syndrome patients able to detect trustworthiness from faces? How WS patients form the representation of trustable faces ? Using a preference visual paradigm I observed that WS patients looked less the trustworthy faces compared to control group. This implicit behavior supports patients’ tendency to trust everybody. In a second experiment using reverse correlation paradigm - the procedure pushes subjects to select from noise the facial features that they believe are important for a specific judgment – I found that at group level patients did not show a stereotypical image of trustworthy faces compared to healthy controls. In a final study I investigate whether electrophysiological brain sources, with particular attention to the source localized in the superior temporal sulcus, could explain patients’ behaviour. I found that the activity of a source localized in the STS at 240ms was significantly modulated by eye proximity as in the control group. Overall the results of this work suggests the presence of a fast route in the brain that plays the fundamental role of modulating approach/avoidance behavior. This route may be altered in patients characterized by an overexpressed social behavior

Recollection, the process by which an item provokes the retrieval of associated information stored in the brain, is a key component of recognition memory. It is explored in this thesis through the use of a paradigm designed to allow the neural correlates of amount recalled to be identified through parametric fMRI analysis. A series of experiments were carried out during the development and optimisation of this paradigm in order to ensure that the various demands of this analysis were met. Subsequently this paradigm was applied during an fMRI experiment which provided data from both the encoding and retrieval stages of recollection.Whilst the development work was chiefly concerned with producing a suitable task design for the parametric fMRI analysis, these experiments provided some interesting results in their own right. The task design, which required participants to associate multiple item types within a story context, showed that there are significant differences in the frequency with which different stimuli are recollected. Participants were found to be particularly poor at recollecting faces whilst words were also shown to be recollected less frequently than either object or animal picture stimuli. A possible explanation for these differences may be related to the picture superiority effect although eye-tracking data collected from these experiments demonstrates large differences in viewing behaviour between different target stimulus types which is not correlated with later recall success. The amount of time participants spend engaging with the highly contextual scene item does predict later recall success.The fMRI analysis (Chapter 5) carried out during the encoding and retrieval stages of recollection found a variety of regions exhibiting a positive linear relationship with recollection at both these stages. This result provides support for the cortical reinstatement hypothesis of recollection despite the fact that the hippocampus only showed parametric modulation of activity during retrieval. It is proposed that parahippocampal activity during encoding and retrieval supports the recollection of contextual information whilst the same pattern of activity in parietal regions related to recollection may reflect the reinstatement of the global image of the story created during the encoding task.

Streets are the most resilient elements in a city. While buildings are replaced and property borders redrawn, the streets remain. The primary means of planning new streets and the built environment surrounding it is by the creation of a two-dimensional plan - in a Swedish context called a detailed development plan. The two-dimensional plan is sometimes criticized for its inability to take the three-dimensional world into account and thus its inability to predict the actual outcome of the plan. To address this critique and provide additional understanding for this planning device, this paper empirically explores if the distribution of visual attention can  be predicted from a two-dimensional plan.  Visual attention is explored due to sight being the most prominent means used by humans to gather information in the urban environment. Fifteen subjects performed a simple, computerized eye-tracking experiment, whereby their visual attention was measured as they looked at 40 images on a monitor. The 40 images depicts four different street types: blocked, open, curved and angled, each of which was represented with a simple figure image, as per interpretation from a two-dimensional plan, as well as a photograph of the same environment, representing the actual outcome of the plan. The results show that the simple figure images have effective predictive capabilities, as  the distribution of visual attention exhibited a similar pattern in both the figure image and the photograph. The results also show that different patterns of visual attention are evoked by each of the four different street types. In sum, the results indicate that two-dimensional plans are able to predict the future three-dimensional outcome of a given plan in terms of visual attention. These indications are valuable for planners, architects, engineers and decision-makers when planning for new urban environments. The results are also valuable for understanding human perception of streets in a wider context.