Misattribution Errors Research Articles

Recognition of masked and unmasked facial expressions in males and females and relations with mental wellness.

While the effects of mask wearing/facial occlusion are known to impair facial expression recognition, little is known about the role of mental wellness on facial expression recognition, as well as the influence of sex on misattribution errors (i.e., confusions between emotions). In this large study, we aimed to address the relation between facial expression recognition and loneliness, perceived stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms in male and female adults. We assessed the influence of mask-wearing on facial expression recognition [i.e., accuracy and response time (RT)] via an online study in N = 469 adult males and females across Canada. Expectedly, recognition was impaired under masked conditions (i.e., lower accuracy, longer RTs, more misattribution errors). Females were faster and more accurate than males, with less misattribution errors. A novel finding was that people with higher perceived stress were less accurate at identifying masked fearful faces. Perceived stress influenced the relation between sex and RT to masked happy faces; males with high stress scores were slower to recognize masked happy faces, the opposite was true for females. Finally, this study was among the first to show that higher loneliness predicted shorter RT to unmasked faces. Our results show that facial expression recognition is impaired by mask-wearing, and that sex and mental health features are important predictors of performance. Such insight could be detrimental in certain sectors of the population (e.g., health care or education), and inform policies being adopted in future pandemics.

Social cognition training improves recognition of distinct facial emotions and decreases misattribution errors in healthy individuals.

Facial emotion recognition is a key component of social cognition. Impaired facial emotion recognition is tied to poor psychological wellbeing and deficient social functioning. While previous research has demonstrated the potential for social cognition training to improve overall facial emotion recognition, questions remain regarding what aspects of emotion recognition improve. We report results from a randomized controlled trial that evaluates whether computerized social cognition training can improve recognition of distinct facial emotions in healthy participants. This investigation was designed to better understand the therapeutic potential of social cognition training for individuals with neuropsychiatric disorders. Fifty-five healthy adult participants were randomly assigned to an internet-based intervention during which they either completed social cognition training (SCT) or played control computer games (CON) for 10.5 h over 2-3 weeks. Facial emotion recognition was measured with the Penn ER-40, which was conducted before and after training. The following variables were collected and analyzed: facial emotion recognition accuracy for each emotion (i.e., anger, fear, happy, neutral (no emotional expression), and sad), reaction times for each emotion, and response error types (i.e., frequency of an emotion being chosen incorrectly, frequency of an emotion being missed, and frequency of an emotion being confused for another particular emotion). ANOVAs and t-tests were used to elucidate intervention effects both within and between groups. Results showed that the SCT group improved their accuracy for angry and neutral faces. They also improved their reaction times for neutral, fearful, and sad faces. Compared to the CON group, the SCT group had significantly faster reaction times to neutral faces after training. Lastly, the SCT group decreased their tendency to confuse angry faces for no emotional expression and to confuse no emotional expression for sad faces. In contrast, the CON group did not significantly improve their accuracy or reaction times on any emotional expression, and they did not improve their response error types. We conclude that social cognition training can improve recognition of distinct emotions in healthy participants and decrease response error patterns, suggesting it has the potential to improve impaired emotion recognition and social functioning in individuals with facial emotion recognition deficits.

Mapping the perception-space of facial expressions in the era of face masks.

With the advent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-Corona Virus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, the theme of emotion recognition from facial expressions has become highly relevant due to the widespread use of face masks as one of the main devices imposed to counter the spread of the virus. Unsurprisingly, several studies published in the last 2 years have shown that accuracy in the recognition of basic emotions expressed by faces wearing masks is reduced. However, less is known about the impact that wearing face masks has on the ability to recognize emotions from subtle expressions. Furthermore, even less is known regarding the role of interindividual differences (such as alexithymic and autistic traits) in emotion processing. This study investigated the perception of all the six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise), both as a function of the face mask and as a function of the facial expressions’ intensity (full vs. subtle) in terms of participants’ uncertainty in their responses, misattribution errors, and perceived intensity. The experiment was conducted online on a large sample of participants (N = 129). Participants completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Autistic Spectrum Quotient and then performed an emotion-recognition task that involved face stimuli wearing a mask or not, and displaying full or subtle expressions. Each face stimulus was presented alongside the Geneva Emotion Wheel (GEW), and participants had to indicate what emotion they believed the other person was feeling and its intensity using the GEW. For each combination of our variables, we computed the indices of ‘uncertainty’ (i.e., the spread of responses around the correct emotion category), ‘bias’ (i.e., the systematic errors in recognition), and ‘perceived intensity’ (i.e., the distance from the center of the GEW). We found that face masks increase uncertainty for all facial expressions of emotion, except for fear when intense, and that disgust was systematically confused with anger (i.e., response bias). Furthermore, when faces were covered by the mask, all the emotions were perceived as less intense, and this was particularly evident for subtle expressions. Finally, we did not find any evidence of a relationship between these indices and alexithymic/autistic traits.

Detecting and correcting false transients in calcium imaging.

Population recordings of calcium activity are a major source of insight into neural function. Large datasets require automated processing, but this can introduce errors that are difficult to detect. Here we show that popular time course-estimation algorithms often contain substantial misattribution errors affecting 10-20% of transients. Misattribution, in which fluorescence is ascribed to the wrong cell, arises when overlapping cells and processes are imperfectly defined or not identified. To diagnose misattribution, we develop metrics and visualization tools for evaluating large datasets. To correct time courses, we introduce a robust estimator that explicitly accounts for contaminating signals. In one hippocampal dataset, removing contamination reduced the number of place cells by 15%, and 19% of place fields shifted by over 10 cm. Our methods are compatible with other cell-finding techniques, empowering users to diagnose and correct a potentially widespread problem that could alter scientific conclusions.

On the evolution of a functional approach to memory.

In an analysis of memory systems, Sherry and Schacter (Psychological Review, 94, 439-454, 1987) emphasized the importance of functional and evolutionary considerations for characterizing mechanisms of memory. The present article considers four different yet closely related topics from more recent research in which similar considerations have played a prominent role in shaping both experiment and theory: the seven sins of memory, mechanisms underlying memory misattribution errors, the role of memory in imagining future experiences, and the relation between associative inference and memory errors. These lines of research illustrate the usefulness of attempting to integrate functional and mechanistic considerations, in line with the general approach articulated by Sherry and Schacter.

Scent and the Cinema.

From the very earliest days of public cinema (moving pictures), there has been consideration about how odors and scents might influence the viewer’s experience. While initially this was primarily a concern with how to eliminate the malodor of the cinema-goers themselves, in more recent times, there have been a number of well-publicized attempts to add synchronized pleasant (and, on occasion, also unpleasant) scents to “enhance” the cinema experience. While early solutions such as AromaRama and Smell-O-Vision were beset by technical challenges, low-tech scratch and sniff (Odorama) and, more recently, Edible Cinema-type solutions (where the audience get to consume flavourful, and often aromatic, morsels in time with the events on screen) have proved somewhat more successful. Nevertheless, there are a number of key psychological factors that will likely inhibit the uptake of scented cinema in the future, even should the technical and financial issues (associated with retrofitting cinemas, and providing the appropriate fragrances) one day be satisfactorily resolved. These include the phenomenon of “inattentional anosmia” as well as the “fundamental misattribution error,” whereby people (who are, by-and-large, visually-dominant) tend to attribute their enjoyment to the action seen on screen, rather than to smell, and hence are unlikely to pay a premium for the latter.

Structured word-lists as a model of basic schemata: deviations from content and order in a repeated event paradigm

ABSTRACTRepeated events are common in everyday life, but relatively neglected as a topic within memory psychology. In two samples of adults, we investigated memory for repeated, schema-establishing simple events (operationalised as structured word-lists), and the effects of deviations within those events. We focused on the effects of deviations from two core dimensions of schema: content and order. Across three successive word-list events, we established and reinforced a basic list schema by always presenting three content categories in the same order. These expectations were violated in a fourth and final word-list. We measured the effects on memory of both the violating and the schema-establishing lists in multiple recall attempts over a period of one month. We measured correct recall, misattribution errors, metacognitive awareness of list-organisation and deviations, and recall organisation. Across all delays and across all word-lists (not only the final one), content changes increased recall, whereas order changes decreased recall. Participants were also more aware of content changes than order changes. These disparate effects suggest that the two types of schema-deviations may have qualitatively different effects on memory for specific instances of a repeated generic event. Cognitive processes underlying memory for typical and exceptional instances of repeated events are discussed.

Round-robin-differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution based on wavelength division multiplexing

Most quantum communications are resilient against eavesdropping attacks. But most protocols fail to address the problems of the poor rates of data transmission and key generation with the constraints of transmission distance and misattribution errors. To address these issues, we propose a new round-robin-differential-phase-shift (RRDPS) quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol to improve the transmission and key generation rates, secure transmission distance and misattribution errors. The new protocol named WDM-OAM-MDI-RRDPS QKD protocol is based on a combination of the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technique, Fibonacci-valued orbital angular momentum (OAM) theory, decoy state and measurement-device independent (MDI) method. It utilizes a series of coherent weak sources simultaneously and high-capacity Fibonacci-valued encoding technology. In our protocol, WDM technology can greatly increase the amount of information transmitted in optical fiber communication, and improve the transmission efficiency, the total secure bit rate and the key generation rate of QKD. The OAM theory can achieve basis independence and increase the information capacity per photon from one to five. Fibonacci-valued OAM states can be used to reduce misattribution errors. The decoy state and MDI method can be used to increase the transmission distance resilient to the Photon-number-splitting and detector blinding attacks.

High-rate and high-capacity measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution with Fibonacci matrix coding in free space

This paper proposes a high-rate and high-capacitymeasurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD)protocol with Fibonacci-valued and Lucas-valued orbital angularmomentum (OAM) entangled states in free space. In the existingMDI-OAM-QKD protocols, the main encoding algorithm handles encodednumbers in a bit-by-bit manner. To design a fast encoding algorithm,we introduce a Fibonacci matrix coding algorithm, by which, encodednumbers are separated into segments longer than one bit. By doingso, when compared to the existing MDI-OAM-QKD protocols, the newprotocol can effectively increase the key rate and the codingcapacity. This is because Fibonacci sequences are used in preparingOAM entangled states, reducing the misattribution errors (which slowdown the execution cycle of the entire QKD) in QKD protocols.Moreover, our protocol keeps the data blocks as small as possible,so as to have more blocks in a given time interval. Mostimportantly, our proposed protocol can distill multiple Fibonaccikey matrices from the same block of data, thus reducing thestatistical fluctuations in the sample and increasing the final QKDrate. Last but not the least, the sender and the receiver can omitclassical information exchange and bit flipping in the secure keydistillation stage.

Mechanisms leading to misattribution errors and cooperative knowledge acquisition

AbstractThis study sought to clarify the process of knowledge acquisition by examining why people tend to misattribute others' activities as their own after having interacted with them. In Study 1, an experiment was conducted with 4‐year‐old children allocated to 2 groups: one group of children interacted with an adult, and the other group interacted with a peer. The latter group was further divided into 2 subgroups on the basis of the strength of children's friendships (high intimacy vs. low intimacy). Children in the low intimacy condition demonstrated more misattributions and greater knowledge acquisition. Study 2 focused on interactions and revealed that knowledge acquisition was influenced by the nature of children's interactions, which depended on the strength of their friendships. Those in the low intimacy condition (i.e., weaker friendships) provided their peers with appropriate support sufficient to complete a task but did not unilaterally complete tasks for their peers. These results suggest that misattribution occurs when individuals actively participate in interactions with others, and that new knowledge is acquired as they internalize the knowledge of others.Highlights This paper examined the role of “error bias” (a tendency to mistakenly attribute others' activities to oneself more often than attributing one's own activities to others) in knowledge acquisition. Error bias occurred in child‐child pairs with low intimacy more often than in adult‐child pairs, as the level of intimacy leads to differences in attitudes to taking part in interactions. The findings suggest that although intimacy is useful for starting active interactions with others, meaningful interactions that lead to knowledge acquisition are developed through an individual's recognition of appropriate ways of interacting with others.

MP37-08 MISATTRIBUTION ERRORS IN UROLOGIC PROCEDURES FROM THE PROPUBLICA SURGEON SCORECARD

You have accessJournal of UrologyGeneral & Epidemiological Trends & Socioeconomics: Practice Patterns, Quality of Life and Shared Decision Making IV1 Apr 2016MP37-08 MISATTRIBUTION ERRORS IN UROLOGIC PROCEDURES FROM THE PROPUBLICA SURGEON SCORECARD Young Suk Kwon, Seonghyun Kang, Wei Wang, Nicholas Farber, Kushan Radadia, Paul Lee, Jongmyung Kim, Jeong Hee Hong, and Isaac Kim Young Suk KwonYoung Suk Kwon More articles by this author , Seonghyun KangSeonghyun Kang More articles by this author , Wei WangWei Wang More articles by this author , Nicholas FarberNicholas Farber More articles by this author , Kushan RadadiaKushan Radadia More articles by this author , Paul LeePaul Lee More articles by this author , Jongmyung KimJongmyung Kim More articles by this author , Jeong Hee HongJeong Hee Hong More articles by this author , and Isaac KimIsaac Kim More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2016.02.1685AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The ProPublica published a surgeon scorecard displaying adjusted complication rates of nearly 17000 surgeons in the United States after analyzing Medicare billing data of eight surgical procedures. While methodological issues are controversial and the accuracy of this online tool remains to be determined, a growing number of people rely on the information presented in this publically available database. We have examined the surgeon scorecard to evaluate its accuracy and consistency with respect to urologists and urologic procedures. METHODS Data from 2009 through 2013 were queried from the ProPublica surgeon scorecard (https://projects.propublica.org/surgeons). The surgeons were categorized into two groups based on the number of performed cases (# of case ≥20 vs. <20) as presented in the scorecard. The specialties of providers who performed prostatectomy in the scorecard were verified using affiliated hospital homepage, Healthgrades (http://www.healthgrades.com), and Vitals (http://www.vitals.com). Any identified non-urologists were confirmed using at least two different sources. Similarly, all surgical procedures performed by the list of urologists provided by the scorecard were reviewed. RESULTS The total number of providers performing prostatectomy was 3040, including 972 who performed ≥20 cases, 2072 who performed <20 cases, and 4 providers who were erroneously counted twice in both categories. No errors were found for surgeons who performed ≥20 cases. However, for providers who performed <20 cases, 79 providers out of 2072 (3.81%) were non-urologists who performed prostatectomy while 38 out of 2702 (1.83%) were urologists performing non-urologic procedures based on the surgeon scorecard (table 1). CONCLUSIONS While convenient and easily accessible, ProPublica surgeon scorecard contains some misattribution errors that may inevitably compromise overall reliability of the data. While the database is updated periodically, it is advisable for the public to take caution when interpreting data and selecting surgeons based on the ProPublica surgeon scorecard. © 2016FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 195Issue 4SApril 2016Page: e499-e500 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2016MetricsAuthor Information Young Suk Kwon More articles by this author Seonghyun Kang More articles by this author Wei Wang More articles by this author Nicholas Farber More articles by this author Kushan Radadia More articles by this author Paul Lee More articles by this author Jongmyung Kim More articles by this author Jeong Hee Hong More articles by this author Isaac Kim More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...

Physical Aggression and Facial Expression Identification

Social information processing theories suggest that aggressive individuals may exhibit hostile perceptual biases when interpreting other’s behaviour. This hypothesis was tested in the present study which investigated the effects of physical aggression on facial expression identification in a sample of healthy participants. Participants were asked to judge the expressions of faces presented to them and to complete a self-report measure of aggression. Relative to low physically aggressive participants, high physically aggressive participants were more likely to mistake non-angry facial expressions as being angry facial expressions (misattribution errors), supporting the idea of a hostile predisposition. These differences were not explained by gender, or response times. There were no differences in identifying angry expressions in general between aggression groups (misperceived errors). These findings add support to the idea that aggressive individuals exhibit hostile perceptual biases when interpreting facial expressions.

Source misattributions and false recognition errors: Examining the role of perceptual resemblance and imagery generation processes

In three experiments, we examine the extent to which participants’ memory errors are affected by the perceptual features of an encoding series and imagery generation processes. Perceptual features were examined by manipulating the features associated with individual items as well as the relationships among items. An encoding instruction manipulation was included to examine the effects of explicit requests to generate images. In all three experiments, participants falsely claimed to have seen pictures of items presented as words, committing picture misattribution errors. These misattribution errors were exaggerated when the perceptual resemblance between pictures and images was relatively high (Experiment 1) and when explicit requests to generate images were omitted from encoding instructions (Experiments 1 and 2). When perceptual cues made the thematic relationships among items salient, the level and pattern of misattribution errors were also affected (Experiments 2 and 3). Results address alternative views about the nature of internal representations resulting in misattribution errors and refute the idea that these errors reflect only participants’ general impressions or beliefs about what was seen.

Phantosmia as a meteorological forecaster

In normosmics, olfactory ability has been found to vary with ambient humidity, barometric pressure, and season. While hallucinated sensations of phantom pain associated with changes in weather have been described, a linkage to chemosensory hallucinations has heretofore not been reported. A 64-year-old white male with Parkinson's disease presents with 5years of phantosmia of a smoky burnt wood which changed to onion-gas and then to a noxious skunk-onion excrement odor. Absent upon waking it increases over the day and persists for hours. When severe, there appears a phantom taste with the same qualities as the odor. It is exacerbated by factors that manipulate intranasal pressure, such as coughing. When eating or sniffing, the actual flavors replace the phantosmia. Since onset, he noted the intensity and frequency of the phantosmia forecasted the weather. Two to 3h before a storm, the phantosmia intensifies from a level 0 to a 7-10, which persists through the entire thunderstorm. Twenty years prior, he reported the ability to forecast the weather, based on pain in a torn meniscus, which vanished after surgical repair. Extensive olfactory testing demonstrates underlying hyposmia. Possible mechanisms for such chemosensory-meteorological linkage includes: air pressure induced synesthesia, disinhibition of spontaneous olfactory discharge, exacerbation of ectopic discharge, affect mediated somatic sensory amplification, and misattribution error with expectation and recall bias. This is the first reported case of weather-induced exacerbation of phantosmia. Further investigation of the connection between chemosensory complaints and ambient weather is warranted.

Does source memory impairment associated with emotionally arousing stimuli occur at encoding or retrieval?

The present experiment investigated whether negatively arousing stimuli produce source memory impairment and whether the impairment occurs at encoding or retrieval. Participants were presented with negatively arousing, positively arousing, and neutral pictures. Each picture was followed by an instructional slide that indicated whether the picture was an Apple-kind or an Orange-kind. Item memory was assessed by free recall and source memory was assessed by asking participants to classify the recalled pictures into the two kinds of pictures. The results indicated that item memory was greater for the negatively arousing pictures than for the positively arousing and the neutral pictures. However, the negatively arousing pictures produced more misattribution errors than the neutral pictures, replicating source memory impairment. It was concluded that source memory impairment associated with negatively arousing stimuli occurs at encoding.

Emotion, directed forgetting, and source memory

We investigated the role of emotion on item and source memory using the item method of directed forgetting (DF) paradigm. We predicted that emotion would produce source memory impairment because emotion would make it more difficult to distinguish between to-be-remembered (R items) and to-be-forgotten items (F items) by making memory strength of R and F items similar to each other. Participants were presented with negatively arousing, positively arousing, and neutral pictures. After each picture, they received an instruction to remember or forget the picture. At retrieval, participants were asked to recall both R and F items and indicate whether each item was an R or F item. Recall was higher for the negatively arousing than for the positively arousing or neutral pictures. Further, DF occurred for the positively arousing and neutral pictures, whereas DF was not significant for the negatively arousing pictures. More importantly, the negatively arousing pictures, particularly the ones with violent content, showed a higher tendency of producing misattribution errors than the other picture types, supporting the notion that negative emotion may produce source memory impairment, even though it is still not clear whether the impairment occurs at encoding or retrieval.

Imagery encoding and false recognition errors: Examining the role of imagery process and imagery content on source misattributions

Imagery encoding effects on source-monitoring errors were explored using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm in two experiments. While viewing thematically related lists embedded in mixed picture/word presentations, participants were asked to generate images of objects or words (Experiment 1) or to simply name the items (Experiment 2). An encoding task intended to induce spontaneous images served as a control for the explicit imagery instruction conditions (Experiment 1). On the picture/word source-monitoring tests, participants were much more likely to report “seeing” a picture of an item presented as a word than the converse particularly when images were induced spontaneously. However, this picture misattribution error was reversed after generating images of words (Experiment 1) and was eliminated after simply labelling the items (Experiment 2). Thus source misattributions were sensitive to the processes giving rise to imagery experiences (spontaneous vs deliberate), the kinds of images generated (object vs word images), and the ways in which materials were presented (as pictures vs words).

Neural correlates of emotion recognition in schizophrenia

The following fMRI study aimed to characterize the neural correlates of explicit emotion discrimination in 17 patients with schizophrenia and 17 matched healthy controls. In patients, emotion recognition impairments were found to be paralleled by cerebral dysfunctions in the affective division of the anterior cingulate cortex, the bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the right superior temporal gyrus and the right fusiform gyrus. While the patients' responses to emotional faces were characterized predominantly by hypoactivations, the neutral faces elicited hyperactivations mainly in the frontal and cingulate areas, and the basal ganglia, along with misattribution errors. The decreased activation in the fusiform face area during responses to both emotional and neutral stimuli may be indicative of general face processing deficits. Similar although less pronounced deficits have been observed in subjects at high risk of psychosis as well as in patients with early onset. In adult schizophrenia, the evidence of an imbalanced cerebral network appears early in the course of the illness, with the dysfunctions, as indicated by correlations here, becoming more pronounced in patients with longer illness duration.

Facial Expression Recognition in Depressed Subjects

The goal was to investigate whether patients with depression perform more poorly in overall emotion perception tasks compared with controls and whether this difference varies as a function of emotional intensity and arousal, with a perceptual bias toward high arousal emotions. Data were collected from 23 depressed and 23 control subjects, matched for gender, age, and education. Basic emotions were presented at 5 intensity levels ranging from 20% to 100%. Results showed that, relative to controls, patients with depression showed a significant impairment in the ability to recognize facial expressions, and that the impairment was most pronounced at subtle, but clearly recognizable emotional facial stimuli representing low arousal. Furthermore, depressed patients were found to make more misattribution errors of neutral and low arousal facial expressions in the direction of high arousal emotions. We conclude that the inability to accurately recognize nonemotional and emotional facial expressions along with the tendency for more attributions to the high arousal emotions can represent 2 basic contributing factors to the well-documented social problems of patients with depression.

Schema‐driven source misattribution errors: remembering the expected from a witnessed event

AbstractWhen recollection is difficult, people may use schematic processing to enhance memory. Two experiments showed that a delay between witnessing and recalling a visual sequence increases schematic processing, resulting in stereotypic memory errors. Participants watched a slide show of a man and a woman performing stereotype‐consistent and stereotype‐inconsistent actions, followed by an immediate or delayed memory test. Over a two‐day delay, stereotype‐inconsistent actions were increasingly misremembered as having been performed by the stereotype‐consistent actor (Experiment 1). All the source errors increased, regardless of stereotype consistency, when the wrong actor was suggested. When we merely suggested that ‘someone’ performed an action (Experiment 2), only stereotype‐consistent source errors were increased. Although visual scenes are typically well remembered, these results suggest that when memory fades, reliance on schemata increases, leading to increased stereotypic memory errors. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.