Real-time Social Interaction Research Articles

Designing a Web-Based Science Learning Environment for Model-Based Collaborative Inquiry

The paper traces a research process in the design and development of a science learning environment called WiMVT (web-based inquirer with modeling and visualization technology). The WiMVT system is designed to help secondary school students build a sophisticated understanding of scientific conceptions, and the science inquiry process, as well as develop critical learning skills through model-based collaborative inquiry approach. It is intended to support collaborative inquiry, real-time social interaction, progressive modeling, and to provide multiple sources of scaffolding for students. We first discuss the theoretical underpinnings for synthesizing the WiMVT design framework, introduce the components and features of the system, and describe the proposed work flow of WiMVT instruction. We also elucidate our research approach that supports the development of the system. Finally, the findings of a pilot study are briefly presented to demonstrate of the potential for learning efficacy of the WiMVT implementation in science learning. Implications are drawn on how to improve the existing system, refine teaching strategies and provide feedback to researchers, designers and teachers. This pilot study informs designers like us on how to narrow the gap between the learning environment’s intended design and its actual usage in the classroom.

Atypical brain activation patterns during a face-to-face joint attention game in adults with autism spectrum disorder

Joint attention behaviors include initiating one's own and responding to another's bid for joint attention to an object, person, or topic. Joint attention abilities in autism are pervasively atypical, correlate with development of language and social abilities, and discriminate children with autism from other developmental disorders. Despite the importance of these behaviors, the neural correlates of joint attention in individuals with autism remain unclear. This paucity of data is likely due to the inherent challenge of acquiring data during a real-time social interaction. We used a novel experimental set-up in which participants engaged with an experimenter in an interactive face-to-face joint attention game during fMRI data acquisition. Both initiating and responding to joint attention behaviors were examined as well as a solo attention (SA) control condition. Participants included adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 13), a mean age- and sex-matched neurotypical group (n = 14), and a separate group of neurotypical adults (n = 22). Significant differences were found between groups within social-cognitive brain regions, including dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC) and right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), during the RJA as compared to SA conditions. Region-of-interest analyses revealed a lack of signal differentiation between joint attention and control conditions within left pSTS and dMPFC in individuals with ASD. Within the pSTS, this lack of differentiation was characterized by reduced activation during joint attention and relative hyper-activation during SA. These findings suggest a possible failure of developmental neural specialization within the STS and dMPFC to joint attention in ASD.

Causal uncertainty during initial interactions

Department ofPsychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, CanadaAbstractCausal uncertainty (CU) refers to persistent doubts people have about their ability to understand causes of social events.Although such confusion about social dynamics should affect social exchanges, previous research has been limited to therealm of social cognition (i.e., computer-based studies exploring perceptions of hypothetical others). In three studies, weexplored CU effects during real-time social interactions with unacquainted conversational partners. We found that high CUparticipants perceived their conversations and conversational partners more negatively than did low CU participants and thatthese negative social perceptions stemmed from an inability to sufficiently reduce their cognitive uncertainty. Copyright © 2012John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.People often need to determine the reasons for people’sactions so they can respond appropriately. However, this pro-cess can be quite difficult because social events are complexand the specific causes for people’s behavior can be ambigu-ous and difficult to prove (Weary & Edwards, 1996). Inter-preting behavior during interactions with strangers, or initialinteractions,isfurthercomplicatedbythefactthatwepossesslittle information about our partners, increasing our uncer-tainty (Berger & Calabrese, 1975).Berger (1979) proposed that we experience cognitive uncer-tainty (i.e., uncertainty about others’ backgrounds, attitudes,and beliefs) and behavioral uncertainty (i.e., uncertainty abouthowtoactor reactinsocialsituations)during theseinteractions.In turn, this uncertainty produces cognitive and emotional dis-comfort (Heath & Bryant, 2000). Thus, according to Bergerand Calabrese (1975), a primary objective during initial interac-tions is uncertainty reduction. Specifically, we engage in twoforms of uncertainty reduction: proactive uncertaintyreduction,so wecan predict how our partner will behave in the future, andretroactive uncertainty reduction, so we can explain ourpartner’s behavior and select the appropriate response. Thisinformation is then incorporated into behavioral schemas thathelp people negotiate future interactions (Douglas, 1991).However, some individuals are unable to reduce theiruncertainty as effectively as others, making social interactionsmore difficult. For example, Douglas (1991) argued that peoplewith more global uncertainty (i.e., confusion about generalacquaintanceship processes) are unable to develop coherentschemas to guide their behavior and, therefore, experience lessuncertainty reduction as interactions progress. Consequently,they are more likely to avoid initial interactions altogether,resulting in greater loneliness.Similarly, some individuals experience persistent doubtsabout their ability to understand causes of social events; thesedoubts have been labeled causal uncertainty (CU; Weary EWeary&Jacobson,1997)andlesssatisfy-ing interactions (Boucher & Jacobson, 2005). Thus, CU maylead to problems with uncertainty reduction similar to thoseassociated with global uncertainty. Furthermore, CU is mod-erately and positively correlated with intolerance for and dis-comfort with ambiguity (Weary & Edwards, 1996), socausally uncertain people may find a lack of uncertaintyreduction especially frustrating, exacerbating their negativeperceptions of their conversations.Unfortunately, although causally uncertain people’s confu-sion about social dynamics should have the greatest impactduring social interactions (particularly initial interactions),virtually all CU research has been in the realm of social cogni-tion, and little attempt has been made to observe CU effectsduring real-time social interactions. In most previous research,participants made judgments about hypothetical targets at iso-lated computer terminals and merely had to process informa-tion that was given to them. Consequently, how CU affectsthe uncertainty reduction process or perceptions of interactionsand interaction partners remains unclear. We addressed thislimitation in the current research by exploring how CU affectsreal-time social exchanges between strangers.

Eyes on the mind: investigating the influence of gaze dynamics on the perception of others in real-time social interaction.

Social gaze provides a window into the interests and intentions of others and allows us to actively point out our own. It enables us to engage in triadic interactions involving human actors and physical objects and to build an indispensable basis for coordinated action and collaborative efforts. The object-related aspect of gaze in combination with the fact that any motor act of looking encompasses both input and output of the minds involved makes this non-verbal cue system particularly interesting for research in embodied social cognition. Social gaze comprises several core components, such as gaze-following or gaze aversion. Gaze-following can result in situations of either “joint attention” or “shared attention.” The former describes situations in which the gaze-follower is aware of sharing a joint visual focus with the gazer. The latter refers to a situation in which gazer and gaze-follower focus on the same object and both are aware of their reciprocal awareness of this joint focus. Here, a novel interactive eye-tracking paradigm suited for studying triadic interactions was used to explore two aspects of social gaze. Experiments 1a and 1b assessed how the latency of another person’s gaze reactions (i.e., gaze-following or gaze version) affected participants’ sense of agency, which was measured by their experience of relatedness of these reactions. Results demonstrate that both timing and congruency of a gaze reaction as well as the other’s action options influence the sense of agency. Experiment 2 explored differences in gaze dynamics when participants were asked to establish either joint or shared attention. Findings indicate that establishing shared attention takes longer and requires a larger number of gaze shifts as compared to joint attention, which more closely seems to resemble simple visual detection. Taken together, novel insights into the sense of agency and the awareness of others in gaze-based interaction are provided.

Enactive cinema paves way for understanding complex real-time social interaction in neuroimaging experiments

We outline general theoretical and practical implications of what we promote as enactive cinema for the neuroscientific study of online socio-emotional interaction. In a real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) setting, participants are immersed in cinematic experiences that simulate social situations. While viewing, their physiological reactions—including brain responses—are tracked, representing implicit and unconscious experiences of the on-going social situations. These reactions, in turn, are analyzed in real-time and fed back to modify the cinematic sequences they are viewing while being scanned. Due to the engaging cinematic content, the proposed setting focuses on living-by in terms of shared psycho-physiological epiphenomena of experience rather than active coping in terms of goal-oriented motor actions. It constitutes a means to parametrically modify stimuli that depict social situations and their broader environmental contexts. As an alternative to studying the variation of brain responses as a function of a priori fixed stimuli, this method can be applied to survey the range of stimuli that evoke similar responses across participants at particular brain regions of interest.

From the Editors’ Desk: What You Don’t Know Could Hurt You

An e-mail that would have usually been categorized as “junk” somehow managed to elude the university spam filter and made its way into my in-box; the subject line read: “What Doctors Need to Know About Facebook.” The e-mail was inviting me to participate in a webinar that promised the participants that, among other wonders, they would learn to use Facebook as a “valuable tool for sharing information with colleagues.” Really? As a late and somewhat reluctant adopter of Facebook, I have been unconvinced of its value for me personally or professionally, and have mainly ignored the many “friend” requests that somehow began showing up in my e-mail after I finally signed up a few months ago; some came from patients and their families, some from people whose names I barely recognized (none, alas, from long lost flames). I was surprised, however, when a former colleague found me through my new Facebook presence and said she was thrilled to see the wonderful pictures of my kids. I was surprised because I had not posted any pictures of my now grown children; surprise gave way to dismay when I realized that the photos she had accessed were actually on my 19- and 23-year-old children’s Facebook pages, many of which were not suitable for sharing at a family reunion, and certainly not what I would choose to share with colleagues or patients. The potential, and potential perils, of Facebook and other Internet and social media are the subject of several papers in this month’s JGIM. In one of the first empirical studies to examine the question of the availability and nature of physician information accessible on the Internet, Mostaghimi et al. searched the Internet to see what kind of professional and personal information was freely available to the average patient about a randomly selected sample of 250 internal medicine physicians in Massachusetts. They found, not surprisingly, that almost all the physicians (94%) had either personal or professional information that could be easily accessed with a simple Google search. Perhaps more surprising was that while most of the information available was of a professional nature (such as quality rating sites, publications and in three cases, disciplinary actions), almost 1/3 of the physicians had personal information available on-line on more than 200 web sites, including Facebook pages, political and charitable donations, and family and personal financial information. It is likely that most of these physicians were unaware of the extent of their personal information available on-line and would not have chosen to share much of it if given the choice. As Mostaghimi et al. state: “Most physicians limit their self-expression during patient encounters: few physicians would wear a political pin, discuss their ongoing litigations with their neighbor, or detail charitable contributions during a patient encounter. Our study demonstrates, however, that this type of information could easily be found with a single limited Internet search.” Physicians may not only put themselves at risk when they fail to monitor their on-line presence, but they also risk compromising the integrity of the profession. The impact of the rise of social media such as Facebook on medical professionalism is the subject of an incisive Perspective in this issue by Greysen et al. They argue that the time has come for the establishment of consensus-based standards for “online professionalism.” Too often, they argue, and as Mostaghami et al. found, physicians do not consider the potential impact of their on-line content and may inadvertently violate professional standards in cyberspace that they would never violate in real-time social interactions. Greysen et al. make the point that what we don’t know may not only hurt us, but may also hurt others such as our patients and colleagues, and the medical profession as a whole.

Development of trust and reciprocity in adolescence

We investigate the development of two types of prosocial behavior, trust and reciprocity, as defined using a game-theoretical task that allows investigation of real-time social interaction, among 4 age groups from 9 to 25 years. By manipulating the possible outcome alternatives, we could distinguish among important determinants of trust and reciprocity that are related to the risk and benefit of trusting. The results demonstrate age-related changes in sensitivity to outcome for others from late childhood until late adolescence, with different developmental trajectories for trust and reciprocity and differential sensitivity to risk and benefit for self and others.

INTERACTION AND GRAMMAR.Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff, & Sandra A. Thompson (Eds.). New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xii + 468. $74.95 cloth, $29.95 paper.

Interaction and grammar is a valuable addition to the Cambridge “Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics” series. The book is a collection of papers that all, in one way or another, and within the frameworks of linguistic anthropology, functional grammar, or conversation analysis, investigate the interface, or rather the essential interrelatedness, of language and real-time social interaction. The value of the book for the L2 researcher or practitioner is perhaps not direct; however, because much of L2 research focuses on interaction and draws its data from naturally occurring discourse, the indirect contribution is notable. In particular, the chapter by Fox, Hayashi, and Jasperson beautifully underscores those typological differences between English and Japanese that lead to different interactional strategies—an issue of direct relevance to L2 studies.