Higher Task Performance Research Articles

Force-Based Modeling of Heterogeneous Roles in the Coordinated Behavior of a Triad

Group coordination is defined as interactions with other members to implement a task that is difficult to do alone or to achieve higher performance than an individual. Meanwhile, the adjustment process in coordination is not uniquely determined because each individual has many degrees of freedom. It is more difficult to explain and model complex and dynamic coordination, such as nonverbal behavior of three or more members than pair or verbal interaction. Hence, we previously introduced a coordinated drawing task and conducted the behavioral experiment. The triads operated reels to change the tensions of threads connected to a pen, shared three heterogeneous roles (pulling, relaxing, and adjusting), and moved the pen to draw an equilateral triangle. The results indicated that the adjusting role was related to high task performance by helping resiliently without disturbing the pen’s smooth movement while avoiding great pen deviation. However, this experiment alone cannot explain details of the adjustment process of tension. To supplement these findings, this study formulated the three roles using equations of motion. The multi-agent simulation results showed that the adjusting role might use the degree of pen deviation reflected by the others’ motor information, such as the operating procedures and forces, to change the tension and draw at least three sides. Although it is necessary to consider that we used the experimental task, our study contributes to the fundamental understanding of resilient adjustment in coordination by sharing heterogeneous roles as the first step.

It is Monday again: Weekend sleep differentially relates to the workweek via reattachment on Monday

SummaryThe weekend constitutes an important recovery period for employees. However, psychologically reattaching to work on Monday can be difficult because employees must transition from their private to their work role. Building on boundary theory and integrating a sleep and circadian perspective, we shed light on this transition by investigating antecedents and outcomes of Monday reattachment. We propose that three weekend sleep characteristics differentially relate to reattachment on Monday: weekend sleep quality, catch‐up sleep (extended sleep duration on the weekend), and social sleep lag (differences in sleep times workweek vs. weekend). Successful reattachment on Monday should, in turn, be related to lower levels of exhaustion and higher task performance during the workweek. We conducted a weekly diary study with 310 employees (933 weeks) over four workweeks. Two‐level path models demonstrated that higher weekend sleep quality was indirectly related to lower levels of workweek exhaustion via higher levels of Monday reattachment. In contrast, higher catch‐up sleep was related to higher levels of workweek exhaustion via lower levels of Monday reattachment. Accordingly, we demonstrate that Monday reattachment can set the tone for the entire workweek, but the capability to reattach can depend on weekend sleep as a core recovery process.

AI-Assisted Human Teamwork

Effective teamwork translates to fewer preventable errors and higher task performance in collaborative tasks. However, in time-critical tasks, successful teamwork becomes highly challenging to attain. In such settings, often, team members have partial observability of their surroundings, incur high cost of communication, and have trouble estimating the state and intent of their teammates. To assist a team in improving teamwork at task time, my doctoral research proposes an automated task-time team intervention system. Grounded in the notion of shared mental models, the system first detects whether the team is on the same page or not. It then generates effective interventions to improve teamwork. Additionally, by leveraging past demonstrations to learn a model of team behavior, this system minimizes the need for domain experts to specify teamwork models and rules.

A Tree-Structured Multitask Model Architectures Recommendation System.

Neural networks with branched architectures, namely, tree-structured models, have been employed to jointly tackle multiple vision tasks in the context of multitask learning (MTL). Such tree-structured networks typically start with a number of shared layers, after which different tasks branch out into their own sequence of layers. Hence, the major challenge is to determine where to branch out for each task given a backbone model to optimize for both task accuracy and computation efficiency. To address the challenge, this article proposes a recommendation system that, given a set of tasks and a convolutional neural network-based backbone model, automatically suggests tree-structured multitask architectures that could achieve a high task performance while meeting a user-specified computation budget without performing model training. Extensive evaluations on popular MTL benchmarks show that the recommended architectures could achieve competitive task accuracy and computation efficiency compared with state-of-the-art MTL methods. Our tree-structured multitask model recommender is open-sourced and available at https://github.com/zhanglijun95/TreeMTL.

Can conflict cultivate collaboration? The positive impact of mild versus intense task conflict via perceived openness rather than emotions.

Previous research has demonstrated negative associations between task-relevant conflicts and collaboration. To supplement the previous findings and explore the potential benefits of conflicts, we differentiate between two types of task conflict expressions (i.e., mild vs. intense task conflicts, such as debates vs. disagreements regarding work-related issues) in dyad interactions and propose the differential effects of mild versus intense task conflicts on collaboration based on the theory of conflict expression. In three studies with experimental manipulations and surveys on working adults, the results demonstrated that perceptions of debates versus disagreements (in Studies 1 and 2) or mild versus intense task conflicts (in Study 3) enhanced perceivers' collaboration with others via the perceivers' assessments of others' openness rather than emotions. The findings regarding positive associations between mild task conflicts and collaboration implicate the coexistence of conflict and collaboration. Moreover, the results showed that debates versus disagreements (in Study 1) or mild versus intense task conflicts (in Study 3) achieved high task performance by enhancing perceptions of others' openness that subsequently increased collaboration. These findings clarify why conflicts inconsistently influence interpersonal interactions and task performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Neural representations for multi-context visuomotor adaptation and the impact of common representation on multi-task performance: a multivariate decoding approach.

The human brain's remarkable motor adaptability stems from the formation of context representations and the use of a common context representation (e.g., an invariant task structure across task contexts) derived from structural learning. However, direct evaluation of context representations and structural learning in sensorimotor tasks remains limited. This study aimed to rigorously distinguish neural representations of visual, movement, and context levels crucial for multi-context visuomotor adaptation and investigate the association between representation commonality across task contexts and adaptation performance using multivariate decoding analysis with fMRI data. Here, we focused on three distinct task contexts, two of which share a rotation structure (i.e., visuomotor rotation contexts with -90° and +90° rotations, in which the mouse cursor's movement was rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and clockwise relative to the hand-movement direction, respectively) and the remaining one does not (i.e., mirror-reversal context where the horizontal movement of the computer mouse was inverted). This study found that visual representations (i.e., visual direction) were decoded in the occipital area, while movement representations (i.e., hand-movement direction) were decoded across various visuomotor-related regions. These findings are consistent with prior research and the widely recognized roles of those areas. Task-context representations (i.e., either -90° rotation, +90° rotation, or mirror-reversal) were also distinguishable in various brain regions. Notably, these regions largely overlapped with those encoding visual and movement representations. This overlap suggests a potential intricate dependency of encoding visual and movement directions on the context information. Moreover, we discovered that higher task performance is associated with task-context representation commonality, as evidenced by negative correlations between task performance and task-context-decoding accuracy in various brain regions, potentially supporting structural learning. Importantly, despite limited similarities between tasks (e.g., rotation and mirror-reversal contexts), such association was still observed, suggesting an efficient mechanism in the brain that extracts commonalities from different task contexts (such as visuomotor rotations or mirror-reversal) at multiple structural levels, from high-level abstractions to lower-level details. In summary, while illuminating the intricate interplay between visuomotor processing and context information, our study highlights the efficiency of learning mechanisms, thereby paving the way for future exploration of the brain's versatile motor ability.

Differences in Brain Functional Network Topology in High and Low Working Memory Performance

Nowadays the network approach in neuroscience provides a promising way of analyzing neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie psychological functions and is widely used to study working memory. To date, data obtained in neuroimaging studies links working memory with topological features of brain networks, such as increased connectivity between frontal, parietal, and temporal regions, as well as increased integration in brain networks as a whole. The present study examines the relationship between the topological characteristics of functional brain networks with the performance in the Sternberg item recognition paradigm based on electroencephalographic data. It is shown that the higher performance in Sternberg paradigm, implying a higher efficiency of the processes of encoding, storage, and retrieval of information from working memory, is associated with an increase in the integration of functional networks, expressed in differences in the clustering coefficient, participation coefficient, Wiener index and eigenvector centrality between the groups of high and low working memory task performance (p < .01). In addition, our data suggest the variability in the topological pattern of connectivity, which can be traced through changes in the magnitude of the standard deviation of the values of topological metrics during the task.

Fearful faces straight ahead or in the periphery: Early neuronal responses independently of trait anxiety.

For humans, it is vitally important to rapidly detect potentially threatening stimuli such as fearful faces in the periphery. Trait anxiety has been related to biased responses to threatening faces, which might be more pronounced for peripheral stimuli. We examined the impact of spatial location and trait anxiety on event-related potentials to fearful faces (ERPs) in a large sample (N = 80). Using a face-unrelated oddball detection task and online eye-tracking, we ensured central fixation but sustained attention to the location of fearful and neutral faces at central or peripheral locations (12° left or right). Manipulation checks showed high task performance and successful shifts of visuospatial attention indexed by prestimulus alpha lateralization of the EEG spectra. Concerning ERPs, we observed increased P1 amplitudes for fearful compared to neutral faces, independent of the spatial location. In contrast, the N170 to fearful faces was only potentiated for centrally presented faces. Finally, fearful and neutral faces did not differ during the EPN window at any spatial location. Trait anxiety was unrelated to fearful-neutral ERP differences for each examined location. Our findings show that differential P1 responses are less constrained by the stimulus location, possibly due to coarse low-level stimulus information processing. However, the relative N170 increase for fearful faces depends on the central stimulus location. Furthermore, findings support the view that differential processing at the stage of the EPN depends on attentional conditions. Finally, our results question the hypothesis that trait anxiety differences correlate with mandatorily altered processing of threatening stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

여가적 게임참여수준에 따른 집단 간 인지기능 및 운동조절능력 차이

The purpose of this study was to compare cognitive and motor control skill task performance among high and low groups according to the level of participation in video game as leisure for explaining the positive aspects of participation in leisure games. Participants were recruited from right-handed male and female adults in their 20s and 30s (n=153). To evaluate cognitive function and motor control skill, a measurement program consisting of 9 cognitive tasks was used: Trail Making Test, Corsi Block Test, Tower of London, Key-mapping, shooting game performance(Grid Shot, Sphere Track), etc. Descriptive statistical analysis and normality test were conducted. The difference in cognitive task performance and motor control skill between high and low game participation groups was identified in the Mann-Whitney U analysis, a non-parameter test method, and the statistical significance level was set to .05. As a result, the high group according to the level of participation in video game showed overall higher task performance than the low group. TMT_A(p=.034), Key-mapping(default p=.039, random 2nd p=.043, random 3rd p=.039), and motor control skill tasks through gaming condition (Grid Shot p=.032, Sphere Track p=.030) were verified statistically significant differences between groups. The current study verifies the hypothesis that leisure game participation activities can increase neural plasticity of brain cognitive function and motor control skill. Also, it implies the positive aspects of game participation through significant empirical data.

Tutorial: Toward Robust Deep Learning against Poisoning Attacks

Deep Learning (DL) has been increasingly deployed in various real-world applications due to its unprecedented performance and automated capability of learning hidden representations. While DL can achieve high task performance, the training process of a DL model is both time- and resource-consuming. Therefore, current supply chains of the DL models assume the customers obtain pre-trained Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) from the third-party providers that have sufficient computing power. In the centralized setting, the model designer trains the DL model using the local dataset. However, the collected training data may contain erroneous or poisoned data points. The model designer might craft malicious training samples and inject a backdoor in the DL model distributed to the users. As a result, the user’s model will malfunction. In the federated learning setting, the cloud server aggregates local models trained on individual local datasets and updates the global model. In this scenario, the local client could poison the local training set and/or arbitrarily manipulate the local update. If the cloud server incorporates the malicious local gradients in model aggregation, the resulting global model will have degraded performance or backdoor behaviors. In this article, we present a comprehensive overview of contemporary data poisoning and model poisoning attacks against DL models in both centralized and federated learning scenarios. In addition, we review existing detection and defense techniques against various poisoning attacks.

Recursive Visual Explanations Mediation Scheme Based on DropAttention Model With Multiple Episodes Pool

In some DL applications such as remote sensing, it is hard to obtain the high task performance (e.g. accuracy) using the DL model on image analysis due to the low resolution characteristics of the imagery. Accordingly, several studies attempted to provide visual explanations or apply the attention mechanism to enhance the reliability on the image analysis. However, there still remains structural complexity on obtaining a sophisticated visual explanation with such existing methods: 1) which layer will the visual explanation be extracted from, and 2) which layers the attention modules will be applied to. 3) Subsequently, in order to observe the aspects of visual explanations on such diverse episodes of applying attention modules individually, training cost inefficiency inevitably arises as it requires training the multiple models one by one in the conventional methods. In order to solve the problems, we propose a new scheme of mediating the visual explanations in a pixel-level recursively. Specifically, we propose DropAtt that generates multiple episodes pool by training only a single network once as an amortized model, which also shows stability on task performance regardless of layer-wise attention policy. From the multiple episodes pool generated by DropAtt, by quantitatively evaluating the explainability of each visual explanation and expanding the parts of explanations with high explainability recursively, our visual explanations mediation scheme attempts to adjust how much to reflect each episodic layer-wise explanation for enforcing a dominant explainability of each candidate. On the empirical evaluation, our methods show their feasibility on enhancing the visual explainability by reducing average drop about 17% and enhancing the rate of increase in confidence 3%.

Analysis of group behavior based on sharing heterogeneous roles in a triad using a coordinated drawing task.

Humans often share roles and aim to achieve a group goal based on sociality, which is the tendency to spontaneously involve oneself with others. Cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience studies suggest that in such planned coordination, adjusting one's own actions based on other roles is crucial for high task performance. However, the mechanisms of complex and dynamically planned coordination, such as non-verbal group behavior with three or more members, remain to be fully investigated. This study introduced a coordinated drawing task in a triad, quantitatively analyzed non-verbal group behavior based on sharing heterogeneous roles, and investigated an important role. Participant triads engaged in the task repeatedly by operating reels to change thread tensions and moving a pen connected to the three threads to draw an equilateral triangle. Then, the three roles (pulling, relaxing, and adjusting) had to be shared. The pulling and relaxing roles served to move the pen as if an operator pulled it closer to the hand and to support the pen's movement, respectively. However, these roles alone could not draw a side considering the task specification. The adjusting role needed to change the tension flexibly and maintain an overall balance. In the experiment, we measured the pen positions and tensions, and established statistical models to fit the analyzed data. The results estimated that the action in the adjusting role was related to the improved performance of faster drawing on a side. This role may moderately intervene in the actions by the other roles and fine-tune without disturbing the pen's smooth movement while avoiding great pen deviation. Our findings may suggest the crucial role as a facilitator that handles resiliently in non-verbal coordinated behavior of a triad, and contribute to our understanding of social interactions.

Early neural potentiation to centrally and peripherally presented fear-conditioned faces.

For humans, it is vitally important to rapidly detect and process threatening signals regardless of whether stimuli occur at fixation or in the periphery. However, it is unknown whether eccentricity affects early neuronal electrophysiological responses to fear-conditioned stimuli. We examined early event-related potentials (ERPs) of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to fear-conditioned faces to address this question. Participants (N=80) were presented with faces, either paired with an aversive (CS+) or neutral sound (CS-), at central or peripheral positions. We ensured constant central fixation using online eye-tracking but directed attention to either centrally or peripherally presented faces. Manipulation checks showed successful fear-conditioning (i.e., on average lower ratings in valence and higher ratings in arousal and perceived threat) and successful shifts of visuospatial attention indexed by high task performance and pre-stimulus alpha lateralization of the EEG spectra. We observed a generally increased P1 to fear-conditioned faces regardless of presentation location. An N170 difference between fear-conditioned and neutral stimuli was found but was restricted to the central location and depended on the effectivity of fear-conditioning. A similar effect was observed for the early posterior negativity (EPN). Trait anxiety was not related to differential ERP responses to CS+ versus CS- faces for any ERP component. These findings suggest that the P1 indexes early responses to centrally and peripherally presented fear-conditioned faces. Subsequent stages are modulated by the spatial location of the stimuli. This suggests different stages of neural processing of fear-conditioned faces depending on their spatial location. Finally, our results question the hypothesis that trait anxiety in healthy participants is related to altered visual processing of fear-conditioned faces.

Cortical sensory processing across motivational states during goal-directed behavior

Behavioral states can influence performance of goal-directed sensorimotor tasks. Yet, it is unclear how altered neuronal sensory representations in these states relate to task performance and learning. We trained water-restricted mice in a two-whisker discrimination task to study cortical circuits underlying perceptual decision-making under different levels of thirst. We identified somatosensory cortices as well as the premotor cortex as part of the circuit necessary for task execution. Two-photon calcium imaging in these areas identified populations selective to sensory or motor events. Analysis of task performance during individual sessions revealed distinct behavioral states induced by decreasing levels of thirst-related motivation. Learning was better explained by improvements in motivational state control rather than sensorimotor association. Whisker sensory representations in the cortex were altered across behavioral states. In particular, whisker stimuli could be better decoded from neuronal activity during high task performance states, suggesting that state-dependent changes of sensory processing influence decision-making.

Quantitative analysis of team communication for maritime collaborative task performance improvement

Poor communication may cause serious maritime accidents. In order to improve crews' collaborative task performance through team communication optimization, the present study implements a combination of social network analysis and speech-act coding analysis to quantitatively characterizes team communication. Twenty-one teams of eighty-four participants were recruited for an experiment in which they were instructed to perform three kinds of simulated collaborative tasks that are typical for maritime crews. Team communication was recorded using cameras and expert observation. The participants were divided into two groups according to task performance, and an independent sample t-test was used for group verification. The experimental results show that the high task performance group had a significantly shorter task completion time than that of the low task performance group. Besides, there existed significant differences in the communication mode adopted by the two groups. Compared with the low task performance group, the high task performance group exhibited a denser and more decentralised communication structure. They also had a stronger perception, deeper understanding, and greater prediction of communication content, which indicates better situation awareness. This study provides a theoretical basis and supporting data for improving crews’ collaborative task performance according to the quantitative analysis of team communication.

Human capital, social capital, psychological capital, and job performance: Based on fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

The present study investigated the configuration effect of human capital, social capital, and psychological capital on job performance. The human capital questionnaire, social capital scale, psychological capital scale, and job performance scale were used to survey 458 employees. Results revealed that four antecedent configurations could achieve high task performance, and three antecedent configurations can achieve high contextual performance. The high job performance driving path was characterized by “all roads lead to Rome.” Human capital, social capital, and psychological capital affected job performance in the form of configuration, which reflected the asymmetric causal relationship.

Job demands, resources, and task performance in Chinese social workers: Roles of burnout and work engagement.

Social work is a rapidly developing occupation in China. In the early 2000s, there were merely a few hundred thousand social workers, but by 2020 there were over 1.5 million social workers in the field. However, research has indicated these social workers are also experiencing record high burnout and turnover rates. Thus, researchers have started to question the work engagement and task performance factors that could be contributing to these increasing rates. This study uses the Job Demands and Resources (JD-R) Theory to understand how 537 social workers from Guangzhou, China are impacted by burnout and how it influences work engagement and task performance. The results show JD-R directly affect task performance through burnout and work engagement via a dual process. First, job demands were associated with high burnout and low work engagement, which both were found to lead to low task performance. Second, job resources were related to low burnout rates and high work engagement, both of which were associated with high task performance. These findings call for healthcare interventions to reduce burnout and workplace policy changes to promote work engagement to support task performance in social workers in China. These factors can each have a crucial impact on the public health of both the affected social workers and the vulnerable clients these social workers serve.

Age-related no-go P300 amplitudes are moderated by exposure to early-life stress

Deficits in inhibitory control are common with advancing age and may underlie declines in other complex cognitive functions. The inhibitory P300 event-related potential (ERP) generally decreases in amplitude with age, reflecting deficits in inhibitory performance evaluation and adaptation, with possible generators including precentral and inferior frontal gyri and midcingulate and parietal cortex. Exposure to early-life stress (ELS) is also associated with deficits in inhibitory control, smaller P300 amplitudes, and dysfunction in regions associated with P300 generation. Although biopsychosocial effects of ELS are evident in older adulthood, the influence of ELS on neural processes in later life is unknown. In the current study, 13 young adults and 21 healthy older adults completed a high-accuracy go/no-go task and the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ), an indicator of ELS. Regression analyses revealed significant central-parietal models, with smaller P300 amplitudes predicted by both older age and greater exposure to ELS. Age group*ELS interactions moderated P300 prediction at central and centro-parietal electrodes, such that older age predicted smaller P300 amplitudes only in those with lower to moderate ELS. Amplitudes did not significantly differ by age in those with higher ELS. Post-hoc within-age group correlations showed that greater ELS was associated with smaller P300 amplitudes in young adults. However, greater ELS was modestly associated with larger central amplitudes in older adults, potentially suggestive of anterior age-related compensatory recruitment to maintain high task performance. These findings suggest long-lasting neural implications of ELS that interact with normative neuro-cognitive aging processes, such that ELS may be an important risk factor for age-related cognitive decline.

Altered performance monitoring in Tourette Syndrome: an MEG investigation

The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential component indexing processes of performance monitoring during simple stimulus-response tasks: the ERN is typically enhanced for error processing and conflicting response representations. Investigations in healthy participants and different patient groups have linked the ERN to the dopamine system and to prefrontal information processing. As in patients with Tourette Syndrome (TS) both dopamine release and prefrontal information processing are impaired, we hypothesized that performance monitoring would be altered, which was investigated with magnetencephalography (MEG). We examined performance monitoring in TS patients by assessing the magnetic equivalent of the ERN (mERN). The mERN was investigated in tic-free trials of eight adult, unmedicated TS patients without clinically significant comorbidity and ten matched healthy controls while performing a Go/NoGo task in selected frontocentral channels. The analysis of the response-related amplitudes of the event-related magnetic field showed that TS patients, in contrast to controls, did not show earlier amplitude modulation (between 70 and 105 ms after response onset) depending on response type (errors or correct responses). In both groups significant mERN amplitudes in the time-window between 105 and 160 ms after response onset were detected thus pointing at only later error processing in TS patients. In TS patients, early error-related processing might be affected by an enhanced motor control triggered by a conflict between the targeted high task performance and tic suppression. TS patients seem to tend to initially process all responses as erroneous responses.

Sufficiently Elevated Core Body Temperature May Be Necessary to Maintain Cerebral Blood Flow Response throughout the Morning

In comparison to a carbohydrate-rich breakfast, a nutritionally balanced breakfast reportedly leads to a higher core body temperature because of diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) and also results in higher task performance. This study aimed to examine the relationships among the core body temperature, blood glucose level, cerebral blood flow, and cognitive performance when the core body temperature is raised to a similar extent as in DIT in the morning. This crossover study included 18 male participants who performed four sets of cognitive tests in the morning with four different foot baths and glucose intake conditions. In elevated body temperature (EBT) conditions, the core body temperature was increased by a foot bath at 42˚C or 39˚C, while in low body temperature (LBT) conditions, it was maintained at 35˚C by a foot bath; the participants received no glucose or two intakes of 20-g glucose for each thermal condition. In addition to the core body temperature measurement, the cerebral blood flow in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was measured using near-infrared spectroscopy. Three blood collections were performed to measure the changes in blood glucose levels. The results revealed that in the EBT conditions, the core body temperature remained 0.3˚C - 0.5˚C higher than that at wake-up time, while the glucose intake conditions increased blood glucose levels which remained higher than those during fasting. No significant between-treatment difference was observed in the results of cognitive tests. However, the blood flow in the DLPFC increased during the second test period in the EBT/glucose and LBT/glucose conditions, whereas during the fourth test period, it increased solely in the EBT/glucose condition. Thus, in addition to the blood glucose level, an elevated core body temperature within the physiological range may be needed for long-term maintenance of the cerebral blood flow response.