Martin Thirkettle

Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof and Todorov’s methodology across 11 world regions, 41 countries and 11,570 participants. When we used Oosterhof and Todorov’s original analysis strategy, the valence–dominance model generalized across regions. When we used an alternative methodology to allow for correlated dimensions, we observed much less generalization. Collectively, these results suggest that, while the valence–dominance model generalizes very well across regions when dimensions are forced to be orthogonal, regional differences are revealed when we use different extraction methods and correlate and rotate the dimension reduction solution. Protocol registration The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 5 November 2018. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7611443.v1.

Objective: Expert radiologists exhibit high levels of visual diagnostic accuracy from review of radiological images, doing so after accumulating years of training and experience. To train new radiologists, learning interventions must focus on the development of these skills. By developing a web-based measure of image assessment, a key part of visual diagnosis, we aimed to capture differences in the performance of expert, trainee and non-radiologists. Methods: 12 consultant paediatric radiologists, 12 radiology registrars, and 39 medical students were recruited to the study. All participants completed a two-part, online task requiring them to visually assess 30 images (25 containing an abnormality) drawn from a library of 150 paediatric skeletal radiographs assessed prior to the study. Participants first identified whether an image contained an abnormality, and then clicked within the image to mark its location. Performance measures of identification accuracy, localisation precision, and task time were collected. Results: Despite the difficulties of web-based testing, large differences in performance, both in terms of the accuracy of abnormality identification and in the precision of abnormality localisation were found between groups, with consultant radiologists the most accurate both at identifying images containing abnormalities (p < 0.001) and at localising abnormalities on the images (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that an online measurement of radiological skill is sufficiently sensitive to detect group level changes in performance consistent with the development of expertise. Advances in knowledge: The developed tool will allow future studies assessing the impact of different training strategies on cognitive performance and diagnostic accuracy.

A multidisciplinary journal on gaming and gamification for health education/promotion, teaching and social change.

Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof and Todorov’s methodology across 11 world regions, 41 countries and 11,570 participants. When we used Oosterhof and Todorov’s original analysis strategy, the valence–dominance model generalized across regions. When we used an alternative methodology to allow for correlated dimensions, we observed much less generalization. Collectively, these results suggest that, while the valence–dominance model generalizes very well across regions when dimensions are forced to be orthogonal, regional differences are revealed when we use different extraction methods and correlate and rotate the dimension reduction solution.

BACKGROUND Mobile phone and tablet apps are an increasingly common platform for collecting data. A key challenge for researchers has been participant “buy-in” and attrition for designs requiring repeated testing. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to develop and assess the utility of 1-2 minute versions of both classic and novel cognitive tasks using a user-focused and user-driven mobile phone and tablet app designed to encourage repeated play. METHODS A large sample of app users (N=13,979 at first data collection) participated in multiple, self-paced sessions of classic working memory (N-back), spatial cognition (mental rotation), sustained attentional focus (persistent vigilance task), and split attention (multiple object tracking) tasks, along with the implementation of a comparatively novel action-learning task. The “OU Brainwave” app was designed to measure time-of-day variation in cognitive performance and did not offer any training program or promise any cognitive enhancement. To record participants’ chronotype, a full Morningness-Eveningness questionnaire was also included, which measures whether a person's circadian rhythm produces peak alertness in the morning, in the evening, or in between. Data were collected during an 18-month period. While the app prompted re-engagement at set intervals, participants were free to complete each task as many times as they wished. RESULTS We found a significant relationship between morningness and age (r=.298, n=12,755, P<.001), with no effect of gender (t13,539=−1.036, P=.30). We report good task adherence, with ~4000 participants repeatedly playing each game >4 times each—our minimum engagement level for analysis. Repeated plays of these games allowed us to replicate commonly reported gender effects in gamified spatial cognition (F1,4216=154.861, P<.001, η2ρ=.035), split attention (F1,4185=11.047, P=.001, η2ρ=.003), and sustained attentional focus (F1,4238=15.993, P<.001, η2ρ=.004) tasks. We also report evidence of a small gender effect in an action-learning task (F1,3988=90.59, P<.001, η2ρ=.022). Finally, we found a strong negative effect of self-reported age on performance, when controlling for number of plays, in sustained attentional focus (n=1596, F6,1595=30.23, P<.001, η2=.102), working memory (n=1627, F6,1626=19.78, P<.001, η2=.068), spatial cognition (n=1640, F6,1639=23.74, P<.001, η2=.080), and split attention tasks (n=1616, F6,1615=2.48, P=.02, η2=.009). CONCLUSIONS Using extremely short testing periods and permitting participants to decide their level of engagement—both in terms of which gamified task they played and how many sessions they completed—we were able to collect a substantial and valid dataset. We suggest that the success of OU Brainwave should inform future research oriented apps—particularly in issues of balancing participant engagement with data fidelity.

Are you walking at me? Biological movement and the encoding of its motion and orientation. A person’s motion conveys a wealth of information that ranges from the complex, such as intention or emotional state, to the simple, such as direction of locomotion. How we recognise and recover people’s motion is addressed by models of biological motion processing. Single channel models propose that this occurs through the operation of form template neurons which respond to viewpoint dependent snapshots of posture. More controversially, a dual channel approach proposes a second stream containing motion template neurons sensitive to view dependent snapshots of biological movement’s characteristic local velocity field. We used behavioural adaptation to look for the co-encoding of viewpoint and walker motion, a hallmark of motion template analysis. We show that opposite viewpoint aftereffects can simultaneously be induced for forwards and reversed walkers. This demonstrates that distinct populations of neurons encode forwards and reversed walking. To account for such aftereffects, these units must either be able to inhibit viewpoint-encoding neurons, or they must encode viewpoint directly. Whereas current single channel models would need extending to incorporate these characteristics, the idea that walker motion is encoded directly, such that viewpoint and motion are intrinsically interlinked, is a fundamental component of the dual channel model.

Intrinsic motivations drive an agent to explore, providing essential data for linking behaviors with novel outcomes and so laying the foundation for future flexible action. We present experiments using a new behavioral task which allows us to interrogate the connection between exploration and action learning. Human participants used a joystick to search repeatedly for a target location, only receiving feedback on successful discovery. Feedback delay was manipulated, as was the starting position. Experiment 1 employed stable starting positions, so the task could be learnt with respect to a target location or a target trajectory. Participants were able to learn the correct movement under all delay conditions. Experiment 2 used a variable starting location, so the correct movement could only be learnt in terms of target location. Participants displayed little to no learning in this experiment. These results suggest that movements on this scale are stored as trajectories rather than in terms of target location. Overall the experiments demonstrate the potential of this task for uncovering the native representational substrates of action learning.