Human Ability Research Articles

Rethinking the “we” in “we” intentionality: intention-sharing with—and not simply about—things

ABSTRACT This paper aims to place the general thesis for a species-unique “shared” or “we” intentionality, against the theoretical background of the material engagement approach. We will argue that the human ability to enact and share intentions rests upon a relational and participatory foundation of situated activity where intentional transactions between humans as well as between humans and things (in the broadest sense of material environment) are inseparable from the situational affordances of their engagement. Based on that, the paper advocates for an ecological-enactive account of shared intentionality which understands material engagement as central to the evolution and development of human social cognition.

Human factors considerations for the context-aware design of adaptive autonomous teammates

Despite the gains in performance that AI can bring to human-AI teams, they also present them with new challenges, such as the decline in human ability to respond to AI failures as the AI becomes more autonomous. This challenge is particularly dangerous in human-AI teams, where the AI holds a unique role in the team’s success. Thus, it is imperative that researchers find solutions for designing AI team-mates that consider their human team-mates’ needs in their adaptation logic. This study explores adaptive autonomy as a solution to overcoming these challenges. We conducted twelve contextual inquiries with professionals in two teaming contexts in order to understand how human teammate perceptions can be used to determine optimal autonomy levels for AI team-mates. The results of this study will enable the human factors community to develop AI team-mates that can enhance their team’s performance while avoiding the potentially devastating impacts of their failures.

De-anthropocentrification now: a call for problematizing revisions of human-animal positions in social thought

This article adds to an evolving literature arguing for revised human-animal positions in social thought. It elaborates on how writings fundamental to the modern human world ought to be problematized for their anthropocentric assumptions. It offers a way forward for approaching such “de-anthropocentrification” methodologically, and for the social sciences to thereby adjust their impact for sustainable futures. An implicit debate about the applicability of social constructionist theory to nonhuman animals provides an exemplary case to highlight the need for this turn in social thought. The article thus argues for the grand theory of social constructionism being applicable to a wide range of nonhuman animals too, and how this could have extensive consequences for embedding human abilities and experiences in a wider cosmos of social life and its unfolding.

Cascaded Aggregation Convolution Network for Salient Grain Pests Detection.

Pest infestation poses significant threats to grain storage due to pests' behaviors of feeding, respiration, excretion, and reproduction. Efficient pest detection and control are essential to mitigate these risks. However, accurate detection of small grain pests remains challenging due to their small size, high variability, low contrast, and cluttered background. Salient pest detection focuses on the visual features that stand out, improving the accuracy of pest identification in complex environments. Drawing inspiration from the rapid pest recognition abilities of humans and birds, we propose a novel Cascaded Aggregation Convolution Network (CACNet) for pest detection and control in stored grain. Our approach aims to improve detection accuracy by employing a reverse cascade feature aggregation network that imitates the visual attention mechanism in humans when observing and focusing on objects of interest. The CACNet uses VGG16 as the backbone network and incorporates two key operations, namely feature enhancement and feature aggregation. These operations merge the high-level semantic information and low-level positional information of salient objects, enabling accurate segmentation of small-scale grain pests. We have curated the GrainPest dataset, comprising 500 images showcasing zero to five or more pests in grains. Leveraging this dataset and the MSRA-B dataset, we validated our method's efficacy, achieving a structure S-measure of 91.9%, and 90.9%, and a weighted F-measure of 76.4%, and 91.0%, respectively. Our approach significantly surpasses the traditional saliency detection methods and other state-of-the-art salient object detection models based on deep learning. This technology shows great potential for pest detection and assessing the severity of pest infestation based on pest density in grain storage facilities. It also holds promise for the prevention and control of pests in agriculture and forestry.

Evaluating Large Language Models' Ability Using a Psychiatric Screening Tool Based on Metaphor and Sarcasm Scenarios.

Metaphors and sarcasm are precious fruits of our highly evolved social communication skills. However, children with the condition then known as Asperger syndrome are known to have difficulties in comprehending sarcasm, even if they possess adequate verbal IQs for understanding metaphors. Accordingly, researchers had employed a screening test that assesses metaphor and sarcasm comprehension to distinguish Asperger syndrome from other conditions with similar external behaviors (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). This study employs a standardized test to evaluate recent large language models' (LLMs) understanding of nuanced human communication. The results indicate improved metaphor comprehension with increased model parameters; however, no similar improvement was observed for sarcasm comprehension. Considering that a human's ability to grasp sarcasm has been associated with the amygdala, a pivotal cerebral region for emotional learning, a distinctive strategy for training LLMs would be imperative to imbue them with the ability in a cognitively grounded manner.

Effects of automation and artificial intelligence on human reliability in industries

Automation and artificial intelligence are rapidly changing the landscape of many industries and revolutionizing the way humans do work. This has a profound impact on human reliability, which refers to the ability of humans to perform their tasks safely, efficiently and effectively in a dynamic and often unpredictable environment. While automation and artificial intelligence can bring many benefits, including increased productivity, reduced errors, and improved safety, there are also potential risks to consider. A key concern is that over-reliance on automation can lead to a loss of human skills and knowledge, which can compromise reliability when automated systems fail or encounter unexpected data. become, reduce Additionally, AI systems can be complex and incomprehensible, which can lead to problems in trusting their output and understanding how they behave when errors occur.

The Principle of Cortical Development and Evolution.

Human's robust cognitive abilities, including creativity and language, are made possible, at least in large part, by evolutionary changes made to the cerebral cortex. This paper reviews the biology and evolution of mammalian cortical radial glial cells (primary neural stem cells) and introduces the concept that a genetically step wise process, based on a core molecular pathway already in use, is the evolutionary process that has molded cortical neurogenesis. The core mechanism, which has been identified in our recent studies, is the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-bone morphogenic protein 7 (BMP7)-GLI3 repressor form (GLI3R)-sonic hedgehog (SHH) positive feedback loop. Additionally, I propose that the molecular basis for cortical evolutionary dwarfism, exemplified by the lissencephalic mouse which originated from a larger gyrencephalic ancestor, is an increase in SHH signaling in radial glia, that antagonizes ERK-BMP7 signaling. Finally, I propose that: (1) SHH signaling is not a key regulator of primate cortical expansion and folding; (2) human cortical radial glial cells do not generate neocortical interneurons; (3) human-specific genes may not be essential for most cortical expansion. I hope this review assists colleagues in the field, guiding research to address gaps in our understanding of cortical development and evolution.

Hippocampal connectivity patterns echo macroscale cortical evolution in the primate brain

While the hippocampus is key for human cognitive abilities, it is also a phylogenetically old cortex and paradoxically considered evolutionarily preserved. Here, we introduce a comparative framework to quantify preservation and reconfiguration of hippocampal organisation in primate evolution, by analysing the hippocampus as an unfolded cortical surface that is geometrically matched across species. Our findings revealed an overall conservation of hippocampal macro- and micro-structure, which shows anterior-posterior and, perpendicularly, subfield-related organisational axes in both humans and macaques. However, while functional organisation in both species followed an anterior-posterior axis, we observed a marked reconfiguration in the latter across species, which mirrors a rudimentary integration of the default-mode-network in non-human primates. Here we show that microstructurally preserved regions like the hippocampus may still undergo functional reconfiguration in primate evolution, due to their embedding within heteromodal association networks.

Anthocyanins as natural bioactives with anti-hypertensive and atherosclerotic potential: Health benefits and recent advances

BackgroundHypertension is a highly prevalent chronic metabolic illness affecting individuals of all age groups. Furthermore, it is a significant risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis (AS), as a correlation between hypertension and AS has been observed. However, the effective treatments for either of these disorders appear to be uncommon. MethodsA systematic search of articles published in PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases over the last decade was performed using the following keywords: hypertension, AS, anthocyanins, antioxidants, gut microbes, health benefits, and bioactivity. ResultsThe available research indicates that anthocyanin consumption can achieve antioxidant effects by inducing the activation of intracellular nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2) and the expression of antioxidant genes. Moreover, previous reports showed that anthocyanins can enhance the human body's ability to fight against inflammation and cancer through the inhibition of inflammatory factors and the regulation of related signaling pathways. They can also protect the blood vessels and nervous system by regulating the production and function of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). Gut microorganisms play an important role in various chronic diseases. Our research has also investigated the role of anthocyanins in the metabolism of the gut microbiota, leading to significant breakthroughs. This study not only presents a unique strategy for reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) without the need for medicine but also provides insights into the development and utilization of intestinal probiotic dietary supplements. ConclusionIn this review, different in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that anthocyanins slow down the onset and progression of hypertension and AS through different mechanisms. In addition, gut microbial metabolites also play a crucial role in diseases through the gut-liver axis.

A knowledge-learning-and-transfer-aided differential evolution for nonlinear equation systems

Nonlinear equation systems (NESs) are common in practical applications, and solving them is an important task in numerical computation. Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) for handling NESs have received considerable attention. EAs generate a large amount of data, which reflect the evolutionary behavior. However, there are still deficiencies in the mining and use of these data. Inspired by the ability of humans to acquire knowledge from past historical experience, this paper proposes a knowledge-learning-and-transfer-aided hybrid niching-based differential evolution (HNDE/KLT). HNDE/KLT aims to acquire knowledge from historical experiences and use them to guide the evolution. The HNDE/KLT include two main features: i) artificial neural networks are embedded in EAs, so the algorithm can learn from successful historical evolutionary information and obtain the relationship between the current individual’s position and the optimal evolutionary direction; ii) a knowledge-transfer-based technique is designed to perform information exchange between different subpopulations, enhancing exploitation efficiency. Experimental results show that the HNDE/KLT can better solve NESs, indicating that learning plus transfer can make problem solving more intelligent. Additionally, we employed our algorithm to solve two real-world problems, and obtained good results.

The European commitment to human-centered technology: the integral role of HCI in the EU AI Act’s success

Abstract The evolution of AI is set to profoundly reshape the future. The European Union, recognizing this impending prominence, has enacted the AI Act, regulating market access for AI-based systems. A salient feature of the Act is to guard democratic and humanistic values by focusing regulation on transparency, explainability, and the human ability to understand and control AI systems. Hereby, the EU AI Act does not merely specify technological requirements for AI systems. The EU issues a democratic call for human-centered AI systems and, in turn, an interdisciplinary research agenda for human-centered innovation in AI development. Without robust methods to assess AI systems and their effect on individuals and society, the EU AI Act may lead to repeating the mistakes of the General Data Protection Regulation of the EU and to rushed, chaotic, ad-hoc, and ambiguous implementation, causing more confusion than lending guidance. Moreover, determined research activities in Human-AI interaction will be pivotal for both regulatory compliance and the advancement of AI in a manner that is both ethical and effective. Such an approach will ensure that AI development aligns with human values and needs, fostering a technology landscape that is innovative, responsible, and an integral part of our society.

A novel framework inspired by human behavior for peg-in-hole assembly

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to enhance the performance of robots in peg-in-hole assembly tasks, enabling them to swiftly and robustly accomplish the task. It also focuses on the robot’s ability to generalize across assemblies with different hole sizes.Design/methodology/approachHuman behavior in peg-in-hole assembly serves as inspiration, where individuals visually locate the hole firstly and then continuously adjust the peg pose based on force/torque feedback during the insertion process. This paper proposes a novel framework that integrate visual servo and adjustment based on force/torque feedback, the authors use deep neural network (DNN) and image processing techniques to determine the pose of hole, then an incremental learning approach based on a broad learning system (BLS) is used to simulate human learning ability, the number of adjustments required for insertion process is continuously reduced.FindingsThe author conducted experiments on visual servo, adjustment based on force/torque feedback, and the proposed framework. Visual servo inferred the pixel position and orientation of the target hole in only about 0.12 s, and the robot achieved peg insertion with 1–3 adjustments based on force/torque feedback. The success rate for peg-in-hole assembly using the proposed framework was 100%. These results proved the effectiveness of the proposed framework.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a framework for peg-in-hole assembly that combines visual servo and adjustment based on force/torque feedback. The assembly tasks are accomplished using DNN, image processing and BLS. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no similar methods were found in other people’s work. Therefore, the authors believe that this work is original.

Ultra‐Rapidly Responsive Electret‐Based Flexible Pressure Sensor via Functional Polymeric Nanoparticle Synthesis

AbstractFlexible electrets can be used to construct eco‐friendly devices that utilize dielectric materials to measure physical parameters without requiring any power supply. By achieving detection capabilities that surpass human tactile abilities, such devices can be employed to create super‐sensing technologies, such as electronic artificial skin, based on solution processes. In this study, electret‐type particles with self‐power‐generating properties are synthesized and applied to flexible pressure sensors. Notably, an ultrafast response is achieved despite the device being flexible and fabricated using a solution process. Moreover, this technology is successfully implemented in both human and robot applications, detecting tactile signals in real‐time and serving as electronic artificial skin—a key super‐sensing aspect. These results showcase the possibilities offered by high‐performance flexible sensing technology and illuminate potential directions for future applications.

Episodic-like memory in wild free-living blue tits and great tits

Episodic-like memory in non-human animals represents the behavioral characteristics of human episodic memory-the ability to mentally travel backward in time to "re-live" past experiences. A focus on traditional model species of episodic-like memory may overlook taxa possessing this cognitive ability and consequently its evolution across species. Experiments conducted in the wild have the potential to broaden the scope of episodic-like memory research under the natural conditions in which they evolved. We combine two distinct yet complementary episodic-like memory tasks (the what-where-when memory and incidental encoding paradigms), each targeting a different aspect of human episodic memory, namely the content (what-where-when) and process (incidental encoding), to comprehensively test the memory abilities of wild, free-living, non-caching blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and great tits (Parus major). Automated feeders with custom-built programs allowed for experimental manipulation of spatiotemporal experiences on an individual-level basis. In the what-where-when memory experiment, after learning individualized temporal feeder rules, the birds demonstrated their ability to recall the "what" (food type), "where" (feeder location), and "when" (time since their initial visit of the day) of previous foraging experiences. In the incidental encoding experiment, the birds showed that they were able to encode and recall incidental spatial information regarding previous foraging experiences ("where" test), and juveniles, but not adults, were also able to recall incidentally encoded visual information ("which" test). Consequently, this study presents multiple lines of converging evidence for episodic-like memory in a wild population of generalist foragers, suggesting that episodic-like memory may be more taxonomically widespread than previously assumed.

Constructive Challenges in the Water Supply to Cities, from Roman Times to Modern Times. Some Reflections Based on the Portuguese Reality

ABSTRACT Water, as an essential element for life, has always been present in the daily lives of societies. In the case of urban agglomerations, the quantities of water needed to supply them have in some cases been extremely challenging for human abilities, not only in terms of collecting it, but also in terms of transporting it and distributing it for final consumption by the population. Today, the lack of water continues to be a concern, taking centre stage in the global political agenda and in the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Convinced that the lessons of history can help minimise the harmful effects of climate change, the aim of this work is to analyse some of the constructive and architectural solutions found by past societies to obtain water, from which we can learn to preserve and value this important resource. Our approach will focus on analysing cases that refer mainly to the urban landscapes of Portuguese territory, as it is a territory that, in addition to having an occupational history that dates back to ancient prehistory, is characterised by a diversity of river basins and a relief that presents a great variety of forms, but which has nevertheless historically faced various challenges related to the supply of water to its urban centres. Likewise, in order to be able to attest to the fact that the lack of water was a common shortage in the overwhelming majority of urban societies in the past, we will chronologically base our approach between Roman times and the Modern Age, necessarily taking into account the different historical and cultural contexts of the examples presented, as well as the water resources they had, which is why we have structured our presentation in three parts. The first is dedicated to water supply requirements in roman cities, the second to the analysis of continuities and ruptures in the supply of water to the medieval city and third to the main challenges facing modern cities in the field of hydraulic construction. Finally, in the concluding remarks we reflect on the different solutions found, but also on the changes that have occurred in construction solutions, their diffusion and/or rehabilitation throughout history.

Motor-sensory biases are associated with cognitive and social abilities in humans

Across vertebrates, adaptive behaviors, like feeding and avoiding predators, are linked to lateralized brain function. The presence of the behavioral manifestations of these biases are associated with increased task success. Additionally, when an individual’s direction of bias aligns with the majority of the population, it is linked to social advantages. However, it remains unclear if behavioral biases in humans correlate with the same advantages. This large-scale study (N = 313–1661, analyses dependent) examines whether the strength and alignment of behavioral biases associate with cognitive and social benefits respectively in humans. To remain aligned with the animal literature, we evaluate motor-sensory biases linked to motor-sequencing and emotion detection to assess lateralization. Results reveal that moderate hand lateralization is positively associated with task success and task success is, in turn, associated with language fluency, possibly representing a cascade effect. Additionally, like other vertebrates, the majority of our human sample possess a ‘standard’ laterality profile (right hand bias, left visual bias). A ‘reversed’ profile is rare by comparison, and associates higher self-reported social difficulties and increased rate of autism and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. We highlight the importance of employing a comparative theoretical framing to illuminate how and why different laterization profiles associate with diverging social and cognitive phenotypes.

Hominin musical sound production: palaeoecological contexts and self domestication

In this article we seek to integrate theories of music origins and dance with hominin fossil anatomy and the paleoecological contexts of hominin evolution. Based on the association between rhythm in music, dance and locomotion, we propose that early bipedal hominins may have evolved neurobiological substrates different from other great apes due to the rhythmic aspects of bipedal walking and running. Combined with the emancipation of the hands resulting from erect posture, we propose that the neurobiological changes necessary for technological innovation, cultural practices and human musical abilities may have evolved, at least in incipient form, much earlier than previously thought. The consequent ability to synchronize movement and sound production may have also proved beneficial as early bipedal hominins ventured out of late Miocene and early Pliocene woodland and forested habitats and into more open habitats with increased predation risk. We also postulate that, along with bipedalism, paedomorphic morphogenesis of the skull at the base of the hominin clade was a necessary prerequisite for the evolution of vocal modulation and singing in later varieties of hominin. To date research into the evolution of music and dance has yet to be integrated with the fossil and paleoecological evidence of early hominin evolution. This paper seeks to fill this lacuna in the extant literature on human evolution. We also suggest that autocatalytic feedback loops evolving synergistically with hominin erect posture, skull and hand morphology, neurochemical processes and the self-domestication syndrome, have been operative from early hominins some 6 Ma to the present. We document this process by reference to primatological, ethnographic, neurochemical and archaeological data.

Особенности управления профессиональными рисками при взаимодействии с подрядными организациями

The need to involve contractors for a client is caused by special knowledge, skills, methods, and means possessed by contractors and required by the client in order to achieve certain results. Contractors, however, do not always support the client’s policies and attitudes to the occupational safety values; whereas the safety culture of contractors is, to a certain extent, conditioned by a subjective judgment and personal definition of safety criteria by the contractors’ management. Therefore, the client is exposed to additional professional risks associated with the admission of contractors to work on the client’s territory. One of the main sources of professional risks is the human factor, i.e., hazardous and mistaken actions of the contractors’ personnel. The cost of such actions in the conditions of highly hazardous work on the territories of active productions is specifically high. International and Russian studies have indicated the dependence between employee competence and the number of mistakes causing injuries. The level of competencies of both workers and managers is crucial. The impact of the human factor of contractors on the professional risk level of clients has been considered; and the relevant risk management methods have been proposed. One of the methods is the evaluation of employees’ cognitive abilities before admission to highly hazardous work as human cognitive abilities such as the perception of information, memory, and attention affect their actions when performing the jobs. The next step is the improvement of the competencies of contractors’ employees based on the evaluation of knowledge and skills and further theoretical and practical training based on the results obtained. In addition, a model of contractor HR management structure with specifications of the manageability norm has been proposed.

Comments on technological intervention and influence on human communication: From the perspective of folkloristics

This paper explores the evolution of human communication technologies, emphasizing the intertwined relationship between oral and written mediums across different stages: orality, literacy, printing, and the internet. The study underscores the persistent importance of orality, indicating that despite technological advancements, language's core role remains unchallenged in human communication. Delving into the limitations of orality, such as constraints in human memory and auditory abilities, the work addresses the crucial invention of devices and symbolic systems to record and transmit information more effectively. The transition from oral to written communication is analyzed not merely as a technical progression, but also as a factor impacting cultural dynamics and social hierarchies. Significant changes in communication practices are traced from the creation of writing scripts to the advent of printing and digital technology. The examination of such evolutions reveals the constant human effort to overcome biological constraints and leverage technology to meet increasingly complex communication needs. The study ultimately draws a fascinating parallel between ancient oral traditions and contemporary internet communication, stressing the ongoing relevance of orality even in our digitized era.

Precise tactile localization on the human fingernail.

Fingernails are specialized features of the primate hand, which are believed to contribute to manual dexterity. The sensorimotor functions of fingernails, however, remain poorly understood. This study investigates the ability of humans to precisely localize touches applied to the fingernail plate. Nine different locations on the fingernail were touched and participants judged the location by clicking a mouse cursor on a photograph of their finger. Performance in this condition was compared with stimuli applied to the skin of the fingertip. The results showed that participants are able to localize touch on the fingernails at substantially higher than chance levels. Moreover, the precision of this ability is not appreciably lower than that of the fingertips. These results show that the fingernail is a highly sensitive sensory organ, which is capable of providing rich spatial information about tactile stimuli.