Orientador: Sérgio Tosi Rodrigues / Banca: Paula Favaro Podastri Zago / Banca: Fausto Orsi Medola / Resumo: O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar os efeitos da aptidão física e da velocidade do veículo sobre a aquisição da informação visual de motoristas experientes durante a condução simulada de automóveis. Quinze participantes fisicamente ativos, com idade de 37,46 ± 4,34 anos, IMC de 22,7 ± 2,57 kg/m2 e experiência de condução de 17,93 ± 4,06 anos, e quinze participantes sedentários, com idade de 30,66 ± 6,90 anos, IMC de 22,8 ± 3,87 kg/m2 e experiência de condução de 10,20 ± 5,08 anos, foram submetidos a uma tarefa de condução simulada de automóvel, de duração de três minutos, nas condições de velocidade 50-60, 80-90 e 110-120 Km/h, enquanto tiveram seus movimentos dos olhos e da cabeça e sua frequência cardíaca gravados. As variáveis dependentes adotadas foram número de fixações, duração média das fixações e sua variabilidade, tempo relativo de fixação, variâncias das posições horizontal e vertical do olhar, variâncias das posições e orientações tridimensionais da cabeça. Estes dados foram submetidos a uma análise de variância de Grupo (ativo, sedentário) por Velocidade (50-60, 80-90, 110-120 Km/h) com medidas repetidas no segundo fator. O questionário Baecke apresentou no score de exercícios físicos para classificação de aptidão física uma média de M = 3.53 (DP = 0.74) e o grupo sedentário M = 2.26 (DP = 0.67). A frequência cardíaca resultou em uma média significativamente afetada pela condição experimental, F(3,0, 83,2) = 4,51, p = 0,006 e pelo grupo, F(1, 28) = 5,50, p = 0,02... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of physical fitness and driving velocity on the experienced drivers' visual information acquisition during simulated car driving. Fifteen physically fit participants, with age of 37,46 + 4,34 years, BMI of 22,7 + 2,57 kg/m2, and driving experience of 17,93 + 4,06 years, and fifteen sedentary participants with age of 30,66 + 6,90 years, BMI of 22,8 + 3,87 kg/m2, and driving experience of 10,20 + 5,08 years, were submitted to a simulated car driving task of 3-min duration, under the velocity conditions of 50-60, 80-90, and 110-120 km/h, while had their gaze and head movements, and heart frequency recorded. The dependent variables adopted were number of fixations, mean fixation duration and its variability, relative fixation time, variances of horizontal and vertical gaze position, variances of tridimensional head position and orientation. These data were submitted to a Group (fit, sedentary) by driving velocity (50-60, 80-90, 110-120 km/h) analysis od variance. The Baecke questionnaire presented a mean of M = 3.53 (SD = 0.74) and the sedentary group M = 2,26 (S = 0.67) in the physical fitness score for physical fitness classification. The heart rate resulted in a mean significantly affected by the experimental condition, F (3.0, 83.2) + 4.51, p = 0,006 and by the group, F (1.28) = 5.50, p = 0,026. The variability of the fixation duration of the eye movements was signficantly affected by the velocity condition, F (1.5 43.2) = 3.79, p = 0.041 and the varibility of the fixation duration at the velocity 80-90 km/h (M = 0.34, SD = 0.17) was significantly higher (p=0.019) than at the speed 110-10 km/h (M=0,31, SD = 0.17). In summary: the level of physical fitness significantly affected the heart rate during simulated car driving at different speeds; vehicle speed significantly affected heart rate. Active and sedentary participants were similar... (Complete abstract electronic below) / Mestre

Vision research has uncovered computational principles that generalize across species and brain area. However, these biological mechanisms are not frequently implemented in computer vision algorithms. In this thesis, models suitable for application in computer vision were developed to address the benefits of two biologically-inspired computational principles: multi-scale sampling and active, space-variant, vision. The first model investigated the role of multi-scale sampling in motion integration. It is known that receptive fields of different spatial and temporal scales exist in the visual cortex; however, models addressing how this basic principle is exploited by species are sparse and do not adequately explain the data. The developed model showed that the solution to a classical problem in motion integration, the aperture problem, can be reframed as an emergent property of multi-scale sampling facilitated by fast, parallel, bi-directional connections at different spatial resolutions. Humans and most other mammals actively move their eyes to sample a scene (active vision); moreover, the resolution of detail in this sampling process is not uniform across spatial locations (space-variant). It is known that these eye-movements are not simply guided by image saliency, but are also influenced by factors such as spatial attention, scene layout, and task-relevance. However, it is seldom questioned how previous eye movements shape how one learns and recognizes an object in a continuously-learning system. To explore this question, a model (CogEye) was developed that integrates active, space-variant sampling with eye-movement selection (the where visual stream), and object recognition (the what visual stream). The model hypothesizes that a signal from the recognition system helps the where stream select fixation locations that best disambiguate object identity between competing alternatives. The third study used eye-tracking coupled with an object disambiguation psychophysics experiment to validate the second model, CogEye. While humans outperformed the model in recognition accuracy, when the model used information from the recognition pathway to help select future fixations, it was more similar to human eye movement patterns than when the model relied on image saliency alone. Taken together these results show that computational principles in the mammalian visual system can be used to improve computer vision models.

abstract: When people look for things in their environment they use a target template - a mental representation of the object they are attempting to locate - to guide their attention around a scene and to assess incoming visual input to determine if they have found that for which they are searching. However, unlike laboratory experiments, searchers in the real-world rarely have perfect knowledge regarding the appearance of their target. In five experiments (with nearly 1,000 participants), we examined how the precision of the observer's template affects their ability to conduct visual search. Specifically, we simulated template imprecision in two ways: First, by contaminating our searchers' templates with inaccurate features, and second, by introducing extraneous features to the template that were unhelpful. In those experiments we recorded the eye movements of our searchers in order to make inferences regarding the extent to which attentional guidance and decision-making are hindered by template imprecision. We also examined a third way in which templates may become imprecise; namely, that they may deteriorate over time. Overall, our findings support a dual-function theory of the target template, and highlight the importance of examining template precision in future research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2013

O problema desta pesquisa se configura em analisar as variáveis envolvidas no aprendizado da resposta de observação visual apropriada em arranjos com diferentes variações de estímulos irrelevantes e as implicações deste aprendizado para o estabelecimento da discriminação. O aprendizado da resposta de observação apropriada não vem apenas expor o animal aos estímulos especificados, no sentido de que o animal passa a atentar a eles, mas envolve o aprendizado sobre a relevância desses estímulos e, simultaneamente faz com que o animal deixe de atentar e a responder aos estímulos irrelevantes. No que se refere ao estabelecimento da discriminação, este problema de pesquisa foi tratado prioritariamente no período pressolução. Ampla extensão do período pressolução ou mesmo falhas no estabelecimento da discriminação podem ser determinadas por falhas no aprendizado sobre a relevância dos estímulos discriminativos. Nesse sentido, o procedimento proposto objetiva analisar o papel dos estímulos irrelevantes sobre a distribuição das respostas de observação e o aprendizado daquela que foi definida como apropriada em função dos estímulos discriminativos. A análise foi realizada em tarefas de discriminação simultânea com diferentes variações de pares de estímulos irrelevantes. Estas variações foram apresentadas para quatro grupos de oito participantes cada. Estas variações foram apresentadas na seguinte ordem: Constante (Grupo Const) Inter-tentativas (Grupo Inter) Intra-tentativas (Grupo Intra) Variações combinadas (Grupo Comb). Os resultados mostraram que a extensão do período pressolução para os Grupos Intra e Comb foi maior do que para os Grupos Const e Inter. Inversamente, a distribuição da observação para os estímulos discriminativos foi menor para os Grupos Intra e Comb em comparação aos demais grupos nas três primeiras tentativas. Algumas questões foram fundamentais para a análise e a discussão sobre o aprendizado da resposta de observação apropriada a partir de diferentes arranjos de estímulos e em função das consequências diferenciais. Entre elas, o papel mediador da última observação entre as diferentes consequências e a variação e modelagem das respostas de observação. Discutiu-se que houve situações onde o aprendizado sobre a irrelevância dos estímulos bem como situações onde o aprendizado sobre a relevância dos estímulos foi requerido. O requerimento deste aprendizado afetou o aprendizado da resposta de observação apropriada / The problem of this research is to analyze the variables involved in appropriate visual observing learning in arrangements with different variations of irrelevant stimuli and its implications for the discrimination establishment. The learning of the observing response comes not only expose the animal to discriminative stimuli in the sense that the animal begins to pay attention to them, but involves learning about the relevance of these stimuli. Simultaneously the animal ignores the irrelevant stimuli. Wide extension of the pre-solution period can be determined by failures in learning about the relevance of the discriminative stimuli. In this sense, the procedure aims to analyze the role of irrelevant stimuli on the distribution of observing responses. The analysis was performed in simultaneous discrimination tasks with different variations of irrelevant stimuli. These variations were made for four groups of each eight participants. These variations were presented in the following order: Constant (Group Const) - Inter-trials (Group Inter) - Intra-trials (Group Intra) combined variations (Group Comb). The results showed that the extent of pre-solution period for Intra and Comb groups was greater than for Const and Inter Groups. Conversely, the distribution of the observation to the discriminative stimuli was smaller for Intra and Comb groups compared to the other groups in the first three trials. Some issues were central in order to analyze the appropriated observing learning for example the role of last observing and the different consequences. There were situations where learning about the irrelevance was required. Learning about the irrelevance affected the appropriate observing response learning

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:41:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Anna Carolina Cassiano Brabosa.pdf: 1148993 bytes, checksum: a240fc0effdaa5732859d8fabc86f715 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-01-22 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / The developmental dyslexia is a learning disorder that includes behavioral and cognitive disorders such as slow reading and reversals errors of letters and syllables. The analysis of physiological measures during reading can help to understand the deficits present by dyslexics. The main physiological measures related to visual analysis of read items include: patterns of eye movements and pupil diameter variations. This study aims to analyze behavioral and physiological measures of good readers and dyslexics during reading of texts. The study included 16 children, 8 of whom were dyslexic and 8 good readers, with an average age of 10.71 years (sd = 1.799) and 10.57 years (sd= 1,761) respectively. The subjects read four different texts on a computer screen with equipment for analyzing eye movements. The results revealed that dyslexics presented worse than good readers on tests of reading, spelling and phonological awareness. Thus dyslexics have difficulties in the rapid identification of words, confusions committed by visual and auditory similarity, and demonstrate losses in phonological awareness. Additionally, took longer to complete tasks. Analysis of physiological measurements reveal the average duration of fixations was greater for dyslexics. Analysis of pupillary variance indicates that good readers showed no change in pupil diameter in four texts but dyslexics presented pupil contraction in Text 1. / A dislexia do desenvolvimento é um distúrbio de aprendizagem que abrange alterações comportamentais e cognitivas tais como leitura lenta e com erros de inversões de letras e sílabas. A análise de medidas fisiológicas durante a leitura pode auxiliar na compreensão dos déficits apresentados por disléxicos. Dentre as principais medidas fisiológicas relacionadas com a análise visual dos itens lidos destacam-se padrões de movimentos oculares e variações do diâmetro pupilar. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar medidas comportamentais e fisiológicas de disléxicos e bons leitores durante a leitura de textos. Participaram do estudo 16 crianças, sendo 8 disléxicos e 8 bons leitores, com idade média de 10,71 anos (dp=1,799) e 10,57 anos (dp= 1,761) respectivamente. Os sujeitos leram 4 textos diferentes na tela de um computador com equipamento de análise dos movimentos oculares. Os resultados revelaram que disléxicos apresentaram desempenho inferior aos bons leitores nas provas de leitura, escrita e consciência fonológica. Assim, disléxicos apresentam dificuldades na identificação rápida de palavras, cometeram confusões por semelhança visual e auditiva, e demonstram prejuízos em consciência fonológica. Além disso, levaram mais tempo para executar as tarefas. Análises das medidas fisiológicas revelam que a duração média das fixações foi maior para os disléxicos. Análise da variação pupilométrica indica que bons leitores não apresentaram variação no diâmetro da pupila nos 4 textos, mas os disléxicos apresentaram contração pupilar no Texto 1.

Title: Ideal Bayesian Observer with reduced detectability map Author: Josef Amemori Department: Department of Software and Computer Science Education Supervisor: Mgr. Filip Děchtěrenko, Department of Software and Computer Science Education Abstract: A computational modeling of the human vision is a challenging task. In recent years, a biologically inspired model Ideal Bayesian Observer was created for the visual search task (Najemnik & Geisler, 2005). The model predicts eye movements when searching for Gabor patch in 1/f noise. In their work, they observed similarity between distributions of fixations and saccades predicted by Ideal Bayesian Observer and distributions of fixations and saccades from a human observer. In this work, we have implemented Ideal Bayesian Observer with degenerated visual field and compared the model with behavior of a human. Keywords: Ideal Bayesian Observer, eye movements, modeling, central scotoma

Purpose - The purpose of this research was to study millennial consumers' attention to online advertisements published by streetwear companies on social media. The aim was to investigate differences between consumers' attention to familiar products and unfamiliar products. Three hypotheses were constructed to test whether product familiarity affects consumers´ attention to advertisements: H1: Consumers who are familiar with the products are more likely to look at them in advertisements than consumers who are unfamiliar with the products. H2: Consumers who are familiar with the products will spend more time looking at them in advertisements than consumers who are unfamiliar with the products. H3: Consumers who are familiar with the products will find them faster from advertisements than consumers who are unfamiliar with the products. Method - The study applied between-subjects design by dividing 40 participants in two matched groups based on their gender. Both groups had 10 male and 10 female participants. During the eye-tracking experiment, participants in Group 1 were shown three product photos for two seconds and three advertisements containing the same products for four seconds. Participants in Group 2 were only presented with three advertisements for four seconds. The results of the study are presented in two parts. Firstly, heatmaps give an illustrative overview of the findings and Statistical analysis presents the results of statistical tests. Chi-square test was performed to test the first hypothesis and independent-samples t-tests were performed to test the second and third hypotheses. Results - The results of the study show that people who were familiar with the products were more likely to look at them in advertisements than consumers who were unfamiliar with the products. Also, people who were familiar with the products spent more time looking at them compared to people who were unfamiliar with the products. However, previous exposure to products did not result in faster identification of the products from advertisements.

Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD) is a wide ranging developmental condition commonly recognised by impairments in social interaction, communication, repetitive behaviour and restricted interests. Deficits in imitation, sensory processing and motor control are also extensive, but conflicting findings mean a clear picture regarding the true nature of these is yet to be established. The aim of this thesis was to further investigate imitation with a specific focus on the effect of goals. It has been suggested that imitation occurs along two routes; a direct route for the imitation of meaningless actions i.e. goal-less, and a semantic route for meaningful or goal-directed actions. There is evidence to suggest that while individuals with ASD may have an impairment in goal-less imitation, goal-directed imitation is unaffected (Hamilton, Brindley & Frith, 2007). The experiments in the present work were based on the hypothesis that impaired goal-less imitation in ASD may be due to a problem with sensory motor integration in the direct visuomotor pathway for imitation (Tessari and Rumiati, 2004).The first experiment was conducted to ascertain whether movement kinematics differed between imitation during goal-directed and goal-less hand movements in a neurotypical control group. Participants observed and imitated hand movements of different speeds, while their movement was recorded with a motion sensor. Movement was modulated between the different speeds in the goal-less, but not goal-directed trials. These findings support the dual route model where visuomotor mapping occurs via the direct pathway during goal-less imitation but during goal-directed imitation there is greater reliance on representations of actions from long term memory.In experiment two, the same paradigm was employed, including additional movement types, and a group of adult individuals diagnosed with an ASD was compared to a control group. It was predicted that, unlike the control group, the ASD group would fail to modulate their movement in the goal-less condition, due to a disruption in the direct pathway. Eye movements were also recorded in this experiment, to ascertain if differences in gaze position or eye movements might influence the ability of the ASD group to imitate goal-less actions. The ASD group did not modulate their movement for goal-less imitation. In addition, the ASD group exhibited more goal-directed gaze, and less gaze toward the hand, than the control group. The ASD group also failed to maintain pursuit of the hand, which may have influenced the amount of information collected regarding the movement.The third study extended the investigation by introducing a training phase halfway through the experiment. Based on eye movement findings, it was hypothesised that drawing attention to the hand might increase the importance of the hand in goal-less trials, subsequently leading to increased tracking, and improved imitation. Perspective was also investigated to determine whether observing the action from an egocentric perspective would improve imitation. Movement modulation was not improved for either the post training or the egocentric condition. However, both training and egocentric viewing resulted in faster performance of movements while training also reduced the amount of movement variability; suggesting that these conditions made imitation easier. Findings strongly support the hypothesis that people with ASD are impaired in goal-less but not goal-directed imitation. These results are discussed in terms of bottom-up and top-down influences on imitation. The observed eye movement differences between the ASD and control group suggest eye movement abnormalities, and the finding that egocentric observation facilitates imitation indicates problems with visuospatial transformation during allocentric imitation. Finally, failure to pursue may be due to lack of attention to the hand movement, evidenced by no increase in pursuit after training. This thesis concludes with the suggestion that impaired goal-less imitation in ASD may result primarily from bottom-up low level visual processing and oculomotor control problems, combined with a high level attentional mechanism. Future studies need to address whether these are the primary causes of imitation difficulties, or whether there is a fundamental sensory motor integration deficit in ASD.

Nous sommes de plus en plus nombreux, jeunes ou âgés, à travailler devant un écran en milieu professionnel. Cette activité de travail peut induire une charge mentale et une fatigue importante, qui peuvent à leur tour générer, chez les personnes âgées notamment, des problèmes de santé. Dans ce contexte, il est donc important de développer et de déployer des solutions de surveillance de l’état psychophysiologique et d’alerte du travailleur sur écran.La charge mentale et la fatigue sont des phénomènes psychophysiologiques multidimensionnels. Des routines de travail inappropriées sont susceptibles d’accélèrr le développement de la fatigue, qui peut s’accompagner d’une diminution des ressources cognitives disponibles et d’une augmentation des erreurs. Les micro-pauses font partie des solutions possibles pour retarder, si elles sont mises en place de manière appropriée, l’apparition de la fatigue et de ses effets corollaires. L'oculométrie est une technologie prometteuse permettant la quantification de la charge mentale et des niveaux de fatigue. Ce travail doctoral avait pour objectif principal d’évaluer si, et dans quelle mesure, l'oculométrie, en association avec la charge mentale et la fatigue, peut être utilisée comme outil de détection précoce de la fatigue, et comme moyen de paramétrage de micro-pauses à mettre en œuvre afin de ralentir et/retarder le développement de la fatigue durant l’exécution d’un travail sur ordinateur.Pour répondre à cet objectif, trois études (I-III) portant sur 58 individus jeunes et âgés ont été conduites. Une tâche expérimentale, se rapprochant de celle qu’uin travailleur peut réaliser sur ordinateur, a été développée pour induire une charge mentale de trois niveaux d’intensités croissantes. Les positions du regard et les réponses pupillaires ont été enregistrées pendant l'exécution de cette tâche afin de détecter les événements oculaires et de calculer ainsi les paramètres oculomoteurs tels que la durée de fixation par exemple.Dans l'étude I, cette tâche a été effectuée à deux jours d’intervalle et dans un ordre contrebalancé. Les performances à la tâche et la charge de travail ont d’une part été mesurées. Dix-neuf paramètres oculomoteurs ont, d’autre part, été calculés pour évaluer leur sensibilité à la charge mentale, et leur fiabilité sur plusieurs jours.Dans l'étude II, le développement de la fatigue a été étudié au moyen des mesures oculométriques au cours de l'exécution de la tâche pendant 40 minutes, alors que les mesures de la fatigue subjective et de la performance ont été acquises. Un modèle prédictif du développement de la fatigue a été conçu sur la base des données d’oculomotricité recueillies dans l'étude II. Un système de biofeedback en temps réel basé sur l'oculométrie a été mis en œuvre. Son principe de fonctionnement repose sur la détection de la fatigue à l'aide du modèle développé, et le déclenchement de micro-pauses dès lors qu’un état de fatigue est détecté, afin de ralentir sa progression durant l’exécution de la tâche. L'efficacité et la robustesse de ce système de contrôle en boucle fermée ont été comparées à des micro-pauses déclenchées de manière automatique en termes de charge de travail perçue et de précision de la détection de la fatigue sur toute la journée.Nos résultats ont mis en évidence la fiabilité et la sensibilité d’un ensemble de paramètres oculomoteurs permettant d’estimer la charge mentale et la fatigue chez les personnes jeunes et âgées. Le biofeedback basé sur l’oculométrie a permis la planification des micro-pauses, qui, en comparaison à des micro-pauses déclenchées de manière automatique, ont réduit de manière significative la charge de travail perçue et le développement de la fatigue.Dans leur ensemble, les résultats suggèrent que le système de biofeedback oculométrique développé dans le cadre de ce travail doctoral peut représenter une solution prometteuse pouvant contribuer à un travail sur ordinateur productif et sain. / Computer work, as a prevalent occupation, involves different levels of mental load and fatigue with possible negative health effects. The population aging has also led to increased elderly workers highlighting the need for protective measures.Mental load and fatigue are multidimensional psychophysiological phenomena. Inefficient work routines accelerate fatigue development, associated with declined cognitive resources and increased errors. Micro-breaks are strategic solutions to counteract fatigue subject to design constraints, e.g. timing plan. Eye tracking is a promising technology for the quantification of mental load and fatigue levels. The oculometrics were aimed to be studied in association with age, mental load and fatigue, allowing early detection of fatigue, and thereby applying biologically-valid micro-breaks to decelerate fatigue development.Upon this, three Studies (I-III) involving 58 young and elderly individuals were conducted. A task, resembling computer work, was developed to induce mental load. Gaze positions and pupillary responses were recorded during the task execution to detect ocular events (saccades, fixations, and blinks), and thereby computing oculometrics e.g. fixation duration. In Study I, the task was performed on three load levels in a counterbalanced order across two days. Between-day reliability and mental-load sensitivity of 19 oculometrics were assessed, besides measuring performance and perceived workload. In Study II, fatigue development was explored in oculometrics during 40-min performance of the task while subjective fatigue and performance metrics were obtained. A predictive model of fatigue was developed in Study III based on the ocular data collected in Study II. An oculometrics-based biofeedback system was implemented in real time to detect fatigue using the developed model, which triggered micro-breaks upon fatigue detections to counteract it during the task. The optimality of the system was compared with self-triggering micro-breaks in terms of fatigue trends and workload.A group of oculometrics was sensitive and reliable to reflect mental load and fatigue in the young and elderly individuals. Similar trends in the oculometrics were observed with increased mental load and fatigue levels, implying shared neural systems for both conditions. Although age-related differences were exhibited in some oculometrics, age did not directly contribute to the predictive model of fatigue. The oculometrics-based biofeedback provided an improved solution for timing plan of micro-breaks in reducing workload and fatigue development compared with self-triggering micro-breaks. The oculometrics-biofeedback system made a benchmark towards productive and healthy computer work.

Eye tracking is commonly used in many scientific fields (experimental psychology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, etc.) and can provide us with rigorous data about current allocation of attention. Due to the complexity of data processing and missing methodology, experimental designs are often limited to static stimuli; eye tracking data is analyzed only with respect to basic types of eye movements - fixation and saccades. In dynamic tasks (e.g. with dynamic stimuli, such as showing movies or Multiple Object Tracking task), another type of eye movement is commonly present: smooth pursuit. Importantly, eye tracking data from dynamic tasks is often represented as raw data samples. It requires a different approach to analyze the data, and there are a lot of methodological gaps in analytical tools. This thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part, we gave an overview of current methods for analyzing scan patterns, followed by four simulations, in which we systematically distort scan patterns and measure the similarity using several commonly used metrics. In the second part, we presented the current approaches to statistical testing of differences between groups of scan patterns. We present two novel strategies for analyzing statistically significant differences between groups of scan patterns and...