Perspective Of Observer Research Articles

Justice sensitivity among nurses and physiotherapists in a Croatian rehabilitation hospital.

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare justice sensitivity between self-perceived beneficiaries, victims, and observers in a sample of 90 healthcare workers (nurses and physiotherapists) at the Varaždinske Toplice Special Medical Rehabilitation Hospital, Croatia. For this purpose we used a questionnaire consisting of demographic data and the Croatian version of the justice sensitivity inventory developed by Schmitt. Regardless of its limitations, our study clearly shows that healthcare professionals at Varaždinske Toplice are most sensitive to injustice from the beneficiary's perspective, that is, as persons who personally benefitted from injustice, although they may not have been instrumental to this effect. They are less sensitive to injustice perceived on the outside (observer's perspective) or to injustice suffered by themselves (victim's perspective). Another important finding is that participants of female gender, rural residence, and nurses (who are all women) are significantly more sensitive to injustice, whereas age and marital status do not seem to contribute to justice sensitivity. Future research should investigate the perception of injustice over a longer timeframe and involve all healthcare workers. It could also address different approaches to management, especially in terms of worker rewards and career advancement. Qualitative research among healthcare workers could provide a broader and clearer idea of social injustice at their workplace.

Online chasing action recruits both mirror neuron and mentalizing systems: A pilot fNIRS study

Engaging in chasing, where an actor actively pursues a target, is considered a crucial activity for the development of social skills. Previous studies have focused predominantly on understanding the neural correlates of chasing from an observer's perspective, but the neural mechanisms underlying the real-time implementation of chasing action remain poorly understood. To gain deeper insights into this phenomenon, the current study employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) techniques and a novel interactive game. In this interactive game, participants (N = 29) were tasked to engage in chasing behavior by controlling an on-screen character using a gamepad, with the goal of catching a virtual partner. To specifically examine the brain activations associated with the interactive nature of chasing, we included two additional interactive actions: following action of following the path of a virtual partner and free action of moving without a specific pursuit goal. The results revealed that chasing and following actions elicited activation in a broad and overlapping network of brain regions, including the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), premotor cortex (PMC), primary somatosensory cortex (SI), and primary motor cortex (M1). Crucially, these regions were found to be modulated by the type of interaction, with greater activation and functional connectivity during the chasing interaction than during the following and free interactions. These findings suggested that both the MNS, encompassing regions such as the PMC, M1 and SI, and the mentalizing system (MS), involving the TPJ and mPFC, contribute to the execution of online chasing actions. Thus, the present study represents an initial step toward future investigations into the roles of MNS and MS in real-time chasing interactions.

SELF DISTANCING EFFECT IN WRITING NEGATIVE EVENTS REMEMBERING OR WRITING? IMPLICATIONS OF SELF-DISTANCING IN THE REFLECTION OF NEGATIVE EVENTS

Although many studies indicate that self-distancing facilitates adaptive self-reflection, it is necessary to examine the variables in the adaptive self-reflection process further to determine whether it will produce the same profile when the self-reflection is done through writing. As such, this study aims to examine a) whether the induction to remember from an actor's perspective and from an observer’s perspective has the same implications as the induction to write using the first-person pronouns and using own-name in facilitating adaptive self-reflection, and b) whether adaptive self-reflection through writing has the same profile as adaptive self-reflection through remembering (thinking). Two quasi-experimental studies (N=428) conducted in this research found that self-distancing was the only variable that differed significantly when we induced the actor's perspective and the observer's perspective (study 1), but the variables of self-distancing, emotional reactivity, and reconstruing differed significantly when self-reflection was conducted through writing manipulation using the first-person pronouns and using own-name. It was also found that adaptive self-reflection through writing (study 2) had a stronger correlation in the negative direction between self-distancing and emotional reactivity, recounting, avoidance, and in the positive direction with the variables of reconstruing, memory age, and perceived resolution, which meant that writing about negative experiences better facilitates adaptive self-reflection than just remembering. We also analyzed the intervening variables to see the direct or indirect relationship between key variables.

Examining the Morphological Change of Aksaray City in the Historical Process According to Upper-Scale Investment Decisions

As a result of both local and universal values that societies have created over the centuries, cities have been open to development and change. It is seen that the physical, social, cultural, economic and political factors that play a role in the change of cities affect the city in different ways in different periods. The study aimed to analyze the changes in the urban morphology of Aksaray according to upper-scale investment decisions. The research determined three investments that caused recent morphological development and change for Aksaray as breaking points. These are the opening of the Mercedes Factory in 1986, the establishment of Aksaray University in 2006, and the relocation of Aksaray Hospital in 2018. According to these three investment decisions, the morphological change of the city was investigated on an urban scale and periodically from an observer's perspective. Development plans and aerial photographs were used to reveal the periodic differences between these three investments that affect the morphological structure of the city. The morphological change in the city form in three different periods, 1986-2006, 2006-2018 and 2018-2024, was examined through the city perimeter and building blocks. The examination determined that with the increasing population in Aksaray, industry, health, education and management functions moved out of the city. From the opening of the Mercedes Truck Factory in 1986 to 2006, urban growth generally took place in the north-south direction. Although the city's orientation was towards the southwest after establishing Aksaray University in 2006, there was no intense interaction between the university and the city until 2018. Since 2018, with the New Hospital’s opening and the New Municipality’s construction, the city's influence area has completely shifted to the west. The city’s development is anticipated to continue in 2024 and beyond, depending on the newly constructed municipality service building.

She is seeking attention: Women's self-objectification and hostility toward peer selfies

Although the relationship between self-objectification and selfie-related behaviors has been extensively investigated, limited attention has been given to understanding how women's self-objectification impacts their attitudes toward peer selfies from the observer's perspective. This issue was addressed across four studies (N = 801). Specifically, Studies 1a and 1b (correlational research) revealed a positive association between women's self-objectification and hostile attitudes toward peer selfies. In Studies 2 and 3 (experimental research), a causal relationship was established, such that women with higher levels of state self-objectification were more inclined to attach negative tags to other women's selfies. Notably, perceived attention-seeking motivation plays a mediating role in the process (Studies 1b, 2, and 3). Furthermore, these effects occurred not only in response to selfies taken by highly attractive women but also in response to targets who are moderately attractive or average-looking (Study 3). These findings bridge a significant gap in the field of self-objectification and social interaction on social media.

The real-time hand and object recognition for virtual interaction.

Recognizing hand-object interactions presents a significant challenge in computer vision. It arises due to the varying nature of hand-object interactions. Moreover, estimating the 3D position of a hand from a single frame can be problematic, especially when the hand obstructs the view of the object from the observer's perspective. In this article, we present a novel approach to recognizing objects and facilitating virtual interactions, using a steering wheel as an illustrative example. We propose a real-time solution for identifying hand-object interactions in eXtended reality (XR) environments. Our approach relies on data captured by a single RGB camera during a manipulation scenario involving a steering wheel. Our model pipeline consists of three key components: (a) a hand landmark detector based on the MediaPipe cross-platform hand tracking solution; (b) a three-spoke steering wheel model tracker implemented using the faster region-based convolutional neural network (Faster R-CNN) architecture; and (c) a gesture recognition module designed to analyze interactions between the hand and the steering wheel. This approach not only offers a realistic experience of interacting with steering-based mechanisms but also contributes to reducing emissions in the real-world environment. Our experimental results demonstrate the natural interaction between physical objects in virtual environments, showcasing precision and stability in our system.

Can people empathize with offenders and victims during violent scenes? Behavioral and brain correlates of affective and cognitive empathy considering victim vs. offender perspective using the Bochumer affective and cognitive empathy task (BACET).

Empathy is defined as the capacity to resonate with others' emotions and can be subdivided into affective and cognitive components. Few studies have focused on the role of perspective-taking within this ability. Utilizing the novel Bochumer Affective and Cognitive Empathy Task (BACET), the present study aims to determine the characteristics of specific empathy components, as well as the impact of offender vs. victim perspective-taking. A total of 21 male participants (mean age = 30.6) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while watching 60 videos showing two protagonists in neutral (n = 30) or violent interactions (n = 30) thereby adopting the perspective of the (later) offender or victim. Our data show that videos showing emotional (violent) content, compared to those with neutral content, were rated more emotionally negative and induced higher affective empathic involvement, particularly when adopting the victim's perspective compared to the offender's point of view. The correct assignment of people's appropriate emotion (cognitive empathy) was found to be more accurate and faster in the emotional condition relative to the neutral one. However, no significant differences in cognitive empathy performance were observed when comparing victim vs offender conditions. On a neural level, affective empathy processing, during emotional compared to neutral videos, was related to brain areas generally involved in social information processing, particularly in occipital, parietal, insular, and frontal regions. Cognitive aspects of empathy, relative to factual reasoning questions, were located in inferior occipital areas, fusiform gyrus, temporal pole, and frontal cortex. Neural differences were found depending on the perspective, i.e., empathizing with the victim, compared to the offender, during affective empathy activated parts of the right temporal lobe, whereas empathy towards the role of the offender revealed stronger activation in the right lingual gyrus. During cognitive empathy, empathy toward the victim, relative to the offender, enhanced activity of the right supramarginal and left precentral gyri. The opposite contrast did not show any significant differences. We conclude that the BACET can be a useful tool for further studying behavioral and neurobiological underpinnings of affective and cognitive empathy, especially in forensic populations since response patterns point to a significant impact of the observer's perspective.

An observer's perspective of the Unruh and Hawking effects—Using coherent signals to extract information from a black hole

The Unruh effect is one of the first calculations that explain what one would see when transiting between an inertial reference frame in its quantum field vacuum state and a non-inertial (specifically, uniformly accelerating) reference frame. The inertial reference frame's vacuum state would not correspond to the vacuum state of the non-inertial frame. The observer in the non-inertial frame would see radiation, with a corresponding Bose distribution and a temperature proportional to the acceleration. In this paper, I compute the response of this non-inertial observer to a single frequency mode in the inertial frame and deduce that, indeed, the cumulative distribution (over the observer's proper time) of frequencies observed by the accelerating observer would be the Bose distribution with a temperature proportional to the acceleration. The conclusion is that the Unruh effect (and the related Hawking effect) is generic, in that it would appear with any incoming incoherent state and the Bose distribution is obtained as a consequence of the non-inertial frame's motion, rather than some special property of the quantum vacuum. As a consequence of the analysis of a coherent set of signals, I show how to extract information from the spectrum that an accelerated observer would see (as well as from the radiation from a black hole).

PATRON: Perspective-Aware Multitask Model for Referring Expression Grounding Using Embodied Multimodal Cues

Humans naturally use referring expressions with verbal utterances and nonverbal gestures to refer to objects and events. As these referring expressions can be interpreted differently from the speaker's or the observer's perspective, people effectively decide on the perspective in comprehending the expressions. However, existing models do not explicitly learn perspective grounding, which often causes the models to perform poorly in understanding embodied referring expressions. To make it exacerbate, these models are often trained on datasets collected in non-embodied settings without nonverbal gestures and curated from an exocentric perspective. To address these issues, in this paper, we present a perspective-aware multitask learning model, called PATRON, for relation and object grounding tasks in embodied settings by utilizing verbal utterances and nonverbal cues. In PATRON, we have developed a guided fusion approach, where a perspective grounding task guides the relation and object grounding task. Through this approach, PATRON learns disentangled task-specific and task-guidance representations, where task-guidance representations guide the extraction of salient multimodal features to ground the relation and object accurately. Furthermore, we have curated a synthetic dataset of embodied referring expressions with multimodal cues, called CAESAR-PRO. The experimental results suggest that PATRON outperforms the evaluated state-of-the-art visual-language models. Additionally, the results indicate that learning to ground perspective helps machine learning models to improve the performance of the relation and object grounding task. Furthermore, the insights from the extensive experimental results and the proposed dataset will enable researchers to evaluate visual-language models' effectiveness in understanding referring expressions in other embodied settings.

More evidence, greater generalization? The relation between the prevalence of observed action and the strength of generalization depends on action properties.

Although group members may be diverse and have their own reasons for actions, people tend to generalize the actions of known members to unknown cases from the observer's perspective. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether action generalization is entirely determined by statistical evidence or is additionally constrained by prior knowledge or beliefs toward group members' actions. Given that people specifically believe that group members pursue common action goals, we hypothesized that action generalization is constrained by this belief. Accordingly, the extent of generalizing a goal underlying action does not always increase as the prevalence of the goal increases; instead, a strict monotonicity effect is observed for the action's movement. We found that the common goal is generalized to a new group member only when all sampled group members have this target property, revealing that the relation between the prevalence of goals and the strength of their generalization violates strict monotonicity (Studies 1a and 1b). In contrast, the more group members perform the same movement, the more likely this movement is to be generalized to an unknown group member, showing monotonic generalization of movements (Studies 3a, 3b, and 3c). Importantly, these dissociative generalizations are specific to entitative social groups (Studies 2, 4, and 6) and not due to differences in experimental tasks between studies. In shared experimental paradigms, when the goal status is available, the monotonic generalization of actions is not found; however, when the goal status is unavailable and the movement is still accessed, the monotonic generalization of actions is observed (Study 5). Thus, our findings highlight that the belief that group members pursue a common goal constrains action generalization to a greater extent than statistical evidence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The United Kingdom National Health Service through the lens of an overseas clinical observer: A reflective account based on personal experience.

This article provides insight into an aspect of the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom (UK) through the perspective of an overseas clinical observer. The NHS is a government-funded medical and health care service in the UK and has developed over the years providing a high standard of medical care and professionalism. The Clinical Observership Programme has been designed primarily for International Medical Graduates to experience how the NHS functions and the kind of services it offers. This article explores the overseas observer's experience in a surgical unit of the NHS including the organisational structure, delivery of care and challenges of the system. This article also highlights the observer's perspective of surgical care in the NHS compared to surgical care in low-resource income countries. The Clinical Observership is useful in learning about UK medical practice and gaining experience in a different cultural and professional environment. This is a reflective first-hand account based on personal experience.

Editorial to Part I “Revisioning, Rethinking, Restructuring Gender at Work: Quo Vadis Gender Stereotypes?”

AbstractThe papers in this Special Issue Part I “Revisioning, Rethinking, Restructuring Gender at Work: Quo Vadis Gender Stereotypes?” focus on the current state of gender inequality, particularly stereotypes. We present studies showing that differences in gender stereotypes still exist, confirm disadvantages for women in male‐dominated roles and sectors and when the employment sector is not specified, but also disadvantages for men in female‐dominated roles and sectors. In contrast to this general trend, one paper in Part II of this Special Issue found a preference for women over men as job candidates in their study. Incongruence emerged as a striking common theme to explain these gender differences, whereby some studies focused on the perceived incongruence from the actor's perspective and how external factors contribute to these perceptions, whereas others looked at the perceived incongruence from the observer's perspective. We summarize the papers and briefly discuss the key points of Part I at the end of this editorial.

Revisiting the folk concept of intentionality: Replications of

Malle and Knobe's (1997) Study 1 found that people exhibit a shared understanding of intentionality and apply it consistently in their judgments. The study found that different people tend to judge intentionality similarly, and that intentionality ratings were consistent across a set of behaviors from an actor's or an observer's perspective. Additionally, the presence or absence of a definition of intentionality as part of the study instruction did not seem to affect the intentionality judgments. We conducted two pre-registered replications of Study 1 (N = 46; N = 817). The replication results provide support for the findings of the original study. Consistent with the original study, we found high inter-rater agreement across perspective (actor vs. observer) experimental conditions; and no evidence for differences in intentionality ratings depending on whether a definition of intentionality was provided. We observed that actor perspective led to a higher average rating of intentionality than the observer perspective.

The observer's perspective determines which cues are used when interpreting pointing gestures.

Though ubiquitous in human communication, pointing gestures are often misunderstood. This study addressed how the observer's perspective affects pointing perception. More specifically, we tested the hypothesis that two different visual cues-namely (a) the vector defined by the pointer's arm or finger and (b) the pointer's index finger position in the observer's visual field-determine pointing perception and that their relative influence depends on the observer's perspective. In three experiments, participants judged the location at which a virtual or real pointer was pointing from different viewpoints. The experiments show that the observer perspective has a considerable effect on pointing perception. The more the observer's gaze direction is aligned with the pointing arm, the more observers rely on the position of the pointing finger in their visual field and the less they rely on its direction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

When looking 'hot' means not feeling cold: Evidence that self-objectification inhibits feelings of being cold.

Self-objectification, the internalization of an observer's appearance-based perspective of one's body, has been theorized and demonstrated to reduce body awareness among women. In this field study, we propose self-objectification as the mechanism to explain the oft-observed phenomenon where women wearing little clothing appear unbothered by cold weather, positing that self-objectification obstructs women's feelings of cold. We surveyed women outside nightclubs on cold nights, assessed self-objectification, and asked participants to report how cold they felt. Anonymous photos were taken and coded for amount of skin exposure. We hypothesized that self-objectification would moderate the relationship between clothing coverage and reports of feeling cold. Our hypothesis was supported: women low in self-objectification showed a positive, intuitive, relationship between skin exposure and perceptions of coldness, but women more highly focused on their appearance did not feel colder when wearing less clothing. These findings offer support for the relationship between self-objectification and awareness of bodily sensations in the context of a naturalistic setting. We discuss implications of these findings, and also consider limitations, an alternative explanation, and directions for future research.

Visualizing recycling: Promoting recycling through mental simulation

Mental simulation is a potentially effective intervention method for pursuing goals and enhancing task performance. Little is known, however, about the application of this method for enhancing pro-environmental behavior. We examined whether asking individuals to mentally simulate themselves recycling impacted their intention to recycle and how the imagery perspective (i.e., actor's vs. observer's perspective) and thought focus (i.e., process vs. outcome focus) can enhance the potential effectiveness of mental simulation. Across three studies, we found support for the efficacy of recycling simulation in enhancing individuals’ recycling behavior and intentions to recycle. This effect partly comes from warm-glow feelings about recycling. Furthermore, when individuals focus on the outcomes of recycling, adopting an observer's perspective leads to greater pro-recycling intentions. In contrast, when individuals focus on the processes of recycling, adopting an actor's perspective enhances pro-recycling intentions. The mechanisms that underlie the interaction effect, along with theoretical and practical implications, are examined and discussed.

Why should you respond to customer complaints on a personal level? The silent observer's perspective

PurposeThis paper analyzes the effect of company response style and complaint source on silent observers' reactions to a service failure episode vented on Twitter.Design/methodology/approachIn a 2 × 2 experimental design, company response style (personalized vs automatic) and complaint source (ordinary Twitter user vs influencer) were manipulated to test the hypotheses.FindingsComplaint source moderates the effect of company response style on brand image, purchase intention and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Thus, the authors found that a personalized response to a complaint, compared to an automatic response, leads to a more favorable brand image as well as purchase intention and eWOM intention when the complainant is an ordinary Twitter user. However, the automatic response, compared to the personalized one, is better perceived when the complainant is an influencer. The authors also found that service failure response attribution and the emotions elicited during the firm–complainant interaction mediate the previous effects.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper deals with the company's initial reaction after a complaint is posted on Twitter; however, the complaint-handling process is longer, and both the customer and silent observers await a resolution. Future research could tackle subsequent stages of the process and different recovery strategies.Practical implicationsThe study offers meaningful insights regarding complaint handling on Twitter and how the effectiveness of the company response style depends on the complaint source. Marketers should offer adapted personalized responses to prompt positive behavioral intentions for ordinary Twitter users, who represent prospective consumers. However, a personalized response given to an influencer may be perceived more negatively, as silent observers may interpret that the company offers such a response just because the complaint comes from a well-known person who can reach many users and not because of an honest interest in serving consumers.Originality/valueThis research focuses on the underresearched area of the impact of online complaints on silent observers, a large group of prospective consumers quietly exposed to complaints aired on Twitter. The underlying mechanisms are also identified.

Improving the Medium-Term Forecasting of Space Weather: A Big Picture Review From a Solar Observer's Perspective

We have improved considerably our scientific understanding of the key solar drivers of Space Weather, i.e., Coronal Mass Ejections, flares, in the last 20+ years thanks to a plethora of space missions and modeling advances. Yet, a major breakthrough in assessing the geo-effectiveness of a given CME and associated phenomena still escapes us, holding back actionable medium-term (up to 7 days) forecasting of Space Weather. Why is that? I adopt a two-pronged approach to search for answers. First, I assess the last 20+ years of research on solar drivers by identifying lessons-learned and paradigm shifts in our view of solar activity, always in relation to Space Weather concerns. Then, I review the state of key observation-based quantities used in forecasting to isolate the choke points and research gaps that limit medium-term forecasting performance. Finally, I outline a path forward along three vectors—breakthrough capabilities, geo-effective potential, and actionable forecast—with the strongest potential to improve space weather forecasting horizon and robustness.

Quantum formalism for events and how time can emerge from its foundations

Although time is one of our most intuitive physical concepts, its understanding at the fundamental level is still an open question in physics. For instance, time in quantum mechanics and general relativity are two distinct and incompatible entities. While relativity deals with events (points in spacetime), with time being observer-dependent and dynamical, quantum mechanics describes physical systems by treating time as an independent parameter. To resolve this conflict, in this work, we extend the classical concept of an event to the quantum domain by defining an event as a transfer of information between physical systems. Then, by describing the universe from the perspective of a certain observer, we introduce quantum states of events with space-time-symmetric wave functions that predict the joint probability distribution of a measurement (observation) at $ (t, {\vec x}) $. Under these circumstances, we propose that a well-defined instant of time, like any other observable, arises from a single event, thus being an observer-dependent property. As a result, a counterfactual asymmetry along a particular sequence of events within a stationary quantum state gives rise to the flow of time as being successive "snapshots" from the observer's perspective. In this proposal, it is the many distinguishable states in which the observer stores information that makes the existence of time possible.

Data and debriefing observations on healthcare simulation to prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic.

We report on data and debriefing observations in the context of an immersive simulation conducted to (a) train clinicians and (b) test new protocols and kits, developed in table-top exercises without prior clinical experience to fit anticipated clinical encounters in the setting of the rapidly expanding COVID-19 pandemic. We simulated scenarios with particular relevance for anesthesiology, perioperative and critical care, including (1) cardiac arrest, (2) emergency airway management, (3) tele-instruction for remote guidance and supervision, and (4) transporting an intubated patient.Using a grounded theory approach, three authors (MHA, DLR, EHS) developed emergent themes. First alone and then together, we sought consensus in uncovering overarching themes and constructs from the debriefings. We thus performed an informal qualitative thematic analysis based in a critical realist epistemological position - the understanding that our findings, while real, are affected by situational variables and the observer's perspective[1,2]. We compared data from videos and triangulated the data by member checking. All participants and course instructors volunteered to participate in this educational project and contributed as co-authors to this manuscript.During debriefing, we applied crisis resource management concepts including situation awareness, prioritization of tasks, and clear communication practices, conducting the debriefing with emphasis on current TeamStepps 2.0 terminology and concepts. [3,4] In addition, we re-evaluated formerly familiar processes, as shortcomings of protocols, kits, and interdisciplinary cooperation became apparent. The data provide detailed observations on how immersive simulation and debriefing among peers mitigated the unfamiliarity of individual clinicians and the organization at large with the demands of an unprecedented healthcare crisis. We also observed and report on the anxiety caused by resource constraints, risk to clinicians in the face of limited personal equipment, and the overall uncertainty surrounding COVID-19.We began to summarize, interpret, critique, and discuss our data and debriefing observations in a rapid co-publication in the Journal of Clinical Anesthesia. [Healthcare Simulation to Prepare for the COVID-19 Pandemic][5]