Triadic Interactions Research Articles

Triadic Collaboration Between Adolescents, Caregivers, and Health-Care Providers to Promote Healthy Behavior

PurposeTo further elucidate the various aspects of the triadic relationship between health-care providers (HCP), adolescents, and caregivers during adolescent health-care visits, with the goal of helping HCPs better understand how they can best support adolescents to choose healthy behaviors. MethodsAdolescents (ages 13–18 years) and caregivers of adolescents were recruited to participate in qualitative interviews regarding preferences for provider interactions around health behavior change. Data analysis was conducted using inductive thematic analysis to identify and describe patterns of themes across the dataset. ResultsThirty one adolescents and 30 caregivers participated. Fourteen themes emerged in the analysis regarding adolescent and caregiver preferences for direct and indirect relationships between adolescents, caregivers, and HCPs in promoting healthy behavior. These themes were organized into a triadic collaboration framework to promote healthy behavior using an adolescent-centered and caregiver-involved approach. DiscussionThis study supports findings of previous research on triadic interactions between HCPs, adolescents, and caregivers while deepening our understanding of the HCP's role in helping adolescents to choose healthy behaviors. These themes are representative of the continuing shift toward an adolescent-centered and caregiver-involved approach to adolescent health care and provide further guidance to HCPs on how to work collaboratively with both adolescents and caregivers to promote healthy behaviors and improve health outcomes.

Energy transfer and vortex structures: visualizing the incompressible turbulent energy cascade

The transfer of kinetic energy from large to small scales is a hallmark of turbulent flows. Yet, a precise mechanistic description of this transfer, which is expected to occur via an energy cascade, is still missing. Several conceptually simple configurations with vortex tubes have been proposed as a testing ground to understand the energy cascade. Here, we focus on incompressible flows and compare the energy transfer occurring in a statistically steady homogeneous isotropic turbulent (HIT) flow with the generation of fine-scale motions in configurations involving vortex tubes. We start by filtering the velocity field in bands of wavenumbers distributed logarithmically, which allows us to study energy transfer in Fourier space and also visualize the energy cascade in real space. In the case of a statistically steady HIT flow at a moderate Reynolds number, our numerical results do not reveal any significant correlation between regions of intense energy transfers and vorticity or strain, filtered in corresponding wavenumber bands, nor any simple self-similar process. In comparison, in the transient turbulent flow obtained from the interaction between two antiparallel vortex tubes, we observe a qualitatively simpler organization of the intense structures, as well as of the energy transfer. However, the correlations between energy transfer and strain are small, and point to complicated dynamics of energy transfer. By imposing a structure at large scales consisting of antiparallel vortex tubes in a statistically steady flow, we observed a picture qualitatively similar to what was observed for the transient flow, but the energy transfer statistics do not reproduce the type of triadic interactions seen in HIT. These results indicate that the specific properties of the large-scale vortical structures affect the way energy is transferred, and may not be fully representative of HIT.

Multidimensional attributes expose Heider balance dynamics to measurements

Most of studied social interactions arise from dyadic relations. An exception is Heider Balance Theory that postulates the existence of triad dynamics, which however has been elusive to observe. Here, we discover a sufficient condition for the Heider dynamics observability: assigning the edge signs according to multiple opinions of connected agents. Using longitudinal records of university student mutual contacts and opinions, we create a coevolving network on which we introduce models of student interactions. These models account for: multiple topics of individual student opinions, influence of such opinions on dyadic relations, and influence of triadic relations on opinions. We show that the triadic influence is empirically measurable for static and dynamic observables when signs of edges are defined by multidimensional differences between opinions on all topics. Yet, when these signs are defined by a difference between opinions on each topic separately, the triadic interactions’ influence is indistinguishable from noise.

Characterization of energy transfer and triadic interactions of coherent structures in turbulent wakes

Turbulent wakes are often characterized by dominant coherent structures over disparate scales. Dynamics of their behaviour can be attributed to interscale energy dynamics and triadic interactions. We develop a methodology to quantify the dynamics of kinetic energy of specific scales. Coherent motions are characterized by the triple decomposition and used to define mean, coherent and random velocity. Specific scales of coherent structures are identified through dynamic mode decomposition, whereby the total coherent velocity is separated into a set of velocities classified by frequency. The coherent kinetic energy of a specific scale is defined by a frequency triad of scale-specific velocities. Equations for the balance of scale-specific coherent kinetic energy are derived to interpret interscale dynamics. The methodology is demonstrated on three wake flows: (i) ${Re}=175$ flow over a cylinder; (ii) a direct numerical simulation of ${Re}=3900$ flow over a cylinder; and (iii) a large-eddy simulation of a utility-scale wind turbine. The cylinder wake cases show that energy transfer starts with vortex shedding and redistributes energy through resonance of higher harmonics. The scale-specific coherent kinetic energy balance quantifies the distribution of transport and transfer among coherent, mean and random scales. The coherent kinetic energy in the rotor scales and the hub vortex scale in the wind turbine interact to produce new scales. The analysis reveals that vortices at the blade root interact with the hub vortex formed behind the nacelle, which has implications for the proliferation of scales in the downwind near wake.

Triadic family interactions at 2 years: The role of prenatal marital quality and infants’ attachment configuration with mother and father

ABSTRACT This longitudinal study uncovered prenatal marital antecedents of infants’ attachment configurations with both mother and father at 12-15 months (n = 125). We also examined the contribution of both marital quality and infants’ attachment configurations (secure with both parents, insecure with both parents, secure with mother-insecure with father, and insecure with mother-secure with father) to the quality of triadic (mother-father-toddler) interactions observed two years post-birth. Couples who displayed less negative affectivity and were more emotionally attuned were more likely to have infants securely attached with father and insecurely attached with mother (vs. insecure with both parents) and they engaged in more adaptive family interactions at two years. Also, a secure infant-father attachment relationship forecast more balanced triadic family interactions, regardless of whether the infant-mother attachment was secure or insecure. In contrast, a secure infant-mother attachment relationship was related to less controlling behavior during triadic interactions, regardless of infant-father attachment security.

Parental sensitivity, family alliance and infants' vagal tone: Influences of early family interactions on physiological emotion regulation.

In this study, we investigated the influence of parental sensitivity and family alliance on infants' vagal tone, considered as a physiological indicator of emotion regulation. Studies on mother-infant interactions have shown that vagal tone can be influenced by the quality of the interaction, such as interacting with a sensitive mother. To date, no study has investigated the influence of paternal sensitivity or family alliance on infants' vagal tone. We hypothesized that maternal sensitivity, paternal sensitivity, and family alliance would be associated with infants' vagal tone during dyadic and triadic interactions. We also explored if family alliance would act as a moderator on the association between parental sensitivity and vagal tone and if the sensitivity of both parents would act as a moderator on the association between family alliance and vagal tone. This study took place in Switzerland and included 82 families with their 3-4-month-old infants. Results showed that maternal sensitivity and family alliance were associated with infants' vagal tone, but paternal sensitivity was not. We found no significant moderation effect. However, result tendencies suggested that the contribution of paternal sensitivity to infants' emotion regulation could be influenced by family alliance, whereas maternal sensitivity and family alliance have a unique contribution.

Early triadic interactions in the first year of life: a systematic review on object-mediated shared encounters.

Infants' early interactions with adults and everyday objects are key to socio-communicative development, but their emergence and development are still under debate. Aiming at describing the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches on triadicity during the first year of life, we conducted a systematic and qualitative review of recent literature. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we explored the scientific production of recent decades on triadic interactions up to 12 months of age. We initially screened 1943 items from which we obtained a final sample of 51 publications. Studies are usually conducted in laboratory settings, while ecological research is becoming increasingly common, especially in home settings. According to a thematic analysis of the data, we discussed the different perspectives on the origin and conceptualization of triadic interactions, and how they contribute to structuring and facilitating other developmental phenomena, such as the children's communicative gestures and uses of objects. Prior to the origin of intentional communication, adults facilitate early forms of triadicity based on fostering opportunities for infants' communication and engagement with both adults and materiality. However, there is a need for further research that explore the potential of early triadic interactions for parenting and early childhood education practises.

Does ethnic heterogeneity decrease workers’ effort in the presence of income redistribution? An experimental analysis

Ethnic discrimination is ubiquitous, and it has been shown to exert adverse effects on income redistribution. The reason is that a country’s ethnic majority, if richer than the average, may be unwilling to transfer resources to the country’s ethnic minorities if poorer than the average. A yet untested mechanism is that a country’s ethnic majority may reduce their work effort knowing that their income will finance redistribution to ethnic minorities. We test for this mechanism experimentally in triadic interactions. A German citizen acting as a worker is randomly matched with a recipient who can be another German, an economic migrant, or an asylum seeker in Germany. Workers know that another German citizen may transfer part of their earnings to the recipient. The recipient does not exert any work effort. Even if the recipient’s identity does not affect effort in the aggregate, social identity strongly moderates this relationship. Participants with a strong German identity, i.e., who report feeling close to other Germans, exert significantly less effort than other participants if the recipient is an asylum seeker. They also exert more effort when matched with a German recipient than an asylum seeker, while participants with a less strong German identity do the opposite. Moreover, participants with a strong German identity exert slightly more effort when matched with economic migrants than with asylum seekers, while others tend to do the opposite, albeit not reaching statistical significance. Workers’ beliefs over the third party’s redistribution rate exhibit only limited mediating effects on such results and are generally inaccurate.

Influence of nozzle geometry on screech instability closure

The effect of nozzle exit geometry on the triadic interactions between convective Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities and the quasi-steady shock structure of supersonic jets is discussed in this study. A circular and rectangular nozzle with an aspect ratio (AR) of 2 were evaluated using results from near field acoustics and high-speed Schlieren images. The study investigated different types of screech instabilities in both nozzle configurations, including the multimode instability in rectangular jets. The near field acoustic measurements showed comparable trends in screech staging in both nozzle configurations. The Schlieren results revealed that the standing waves in the jet near field were influenced by the oscillation mode of the jets. The study also explored a new technique of noise visualization from Schlieren images based on near field acoustics and temporal Fourier decomposition. Spatial Fourier decomposition demonstrated that the resonance closure mechanism across both nozzle configurations was dependent on the relative influence of the first two shock cells. Comparisons between the AR 2 and AR 9 jet showed that jet aspect ratio can significantly affect the energy distribution from the triadic interactions.

Imitation among infants in a day-care center and the development of locomotion

To examine the relationship between imitation and locomotor development among peers during infancy, we observed free play in a class of infants in a day-care center over a one-year period. The analysis included 16 infants (mean age was 8.3 months (SD=2.3) at the beginning of the observation) and 5 caregivers. The longitudinal data were divided into the crawling, cruising, and walking periods, and the imitation of object manipulation that took place among the infants during each period was analyzed. With the development of locomotion, peer-to-peer imitation became frequent. Infants who had acquired the ability to walk demonstrated imitation more frequently in triadic interactions than in dyadic interactions. Imitation took place between infants, but it was often mediated by caregivers rather than directly between infants. The results suggest that the acquisition of locomotor skills is a link in a developmental cascade from motor development to infant peer interaction. However, it is reasonable to interpret the results as indicating that the development of locomotion does not directly affect infant interactions in isolation, but rather that walking increases both the sharing and manipulation of objects with caregivers and proximity to peers, and their combined effects form a cascade.

Why is it difficult for children and adults to follow a person's eye gaze in polynomial social relationships with compound audio-visual stimuli: An eye-tracking study.

Acquiring triadic social interactions could facilitate language and communication skills in early infancy. However, studies have rarely investigated polynomial relationships, defined as relationships among the self, two or more people, and objects. During the development from a child to an adult, the responsiveness to a preferred stimulus modality changes from visual to auditory dominance. Nevertheless, how people observe compound visual stimuli in polynomial social relationships and why it is difficult to ignore auditory cues remain unclear. Moreover, there is a need to identify differences between children's and adults' observing latencies in the time to the first fixation when detecting a stimulus. This study examined whether participants (24 adults and 19 children) demonstrated similar gaze patterns under triadic and polyadic conditions. The participants observed a target visual stimulus looked at by a face stimulus while we presented spoken names, either congruent or incongruent with the target visual stimulus. The results indicated that when the number of people in social relationships increased, children and adults decreased fixations on the target face and the stimulus and showed a shorter mean fixation duration on the face. Moreover, children had longer latencies and more fixation errors for the target stimulus, which might reflect children's difficulties in communicating with others. We expect that understanding children's communication transition from triadic to polynomial social relationships with audio-visual stimulus congruencies would facilitate understanding language development and social communication patterns.

Numerical simulations of internal gravity wave resonant triads

We investigate the triadic resonance interactions using numerical simulations of freely propagating internal waves at near-inertial frequency. We force multiple combinations of normal modes at primary frequency ω0 from the left boundary of the computational domain and study the spatiotemporal evolution of the superharmonic waves. Both the resonant and off-resonant simulations show distinct peaks of energy in the higher harmonics at 2ω0,3ω0, and 4ω0 close to the forcing region. The spatial evolution of modal amplitudes shows that higher normal modes of primary wave decay faster and the higher normal modes of superharmonic waves grow faster. Away from the forcing region, these distinct peaks in the resonant simulations weaken and redistribute the energy into continuous spectra, whereas in the off-resonant simulations, these distinct peaks at superharmonic frequencies sustain throughout the domain. The off-resonant simulations also show significant energy in sub-harmonic frequencies, and we see a buildup of energy in the near-inertial frequency regime far from the forcing region. The frequency and the wavenumber spectra for resonant simulations reveal a −2 power law consistent with the Garrett–Munk spectrum (E(ω,m)∝ω−2m−2).

Dynamical property and triadic interaction of Beltrami-type rotating waves

In this work, on the one hand, we continue with the study of the dynamic property of Beltrami flows [R. González, “Dynamics of non-axisymmetric Beltrami flows,” Phys. Fluids 26, 114104 (2014)], extending its scopes to non-stationary flows in the rotating system, which allowed us to classify the rotating waves on the basis of their phase velocities. On the other hand, and in accordance with this classification, we study the resonant triadic interaction of these waves. For this purpose, we use the expansion in a Chandrasekhar–Kendall basis for an infinite tube, in an analogous procedure to the one carried out by Waleffe [“The nature of triad interactions in homogeneous turbulence,” Phys. Fluids A 4, 350–363 (1992)], to study the interaction of plane Beltrami waves. Taking an equilibrium of the resulting non-linear equations for the amplitudes of the waves, we consider their linear and non-linear stability. Regarding their linear stability, we see that unlike plane Beltrami waves, their stability depends not only on the relative helicities but also on an interaction factor that depends on the properties and the co-rotating or counter-rotating character of the interacting waves. On the other hand, for non-linear stability dependent on the same parameters as those of linear stability, we find, for one case of analysis, that there is non-linear instability only for some interactions of two co-rotating waves with a counter-rotating one and we exhibit criteria that are sufficient conditions of non-linear stability or non-linear instability.

Balance-energy of resting state network in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Stability of the brain functional network is directly linked to organization of synchronous and anti-synchronous activities. Nevertheless, impact of arrangement of positive and negative links called links topology requires to be well understood. In this study, we investigated how topology of the functional links reduce balance-energy of the brain network in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and push the network to a more stable state as compared to healthy controls. Therefore, functional associations between the regions were measured using the phase synchrony between the EEG activities. Subsequently, balance-energy of the brain functional network was estimated based on the quality of triadic interactions. Occurrence rates of four different types of triadic interactions including weak and strong balanced, and unbalanced interactions were compared. In addition, impact of the links topology was also investigated by looking at the tendency of positive and negative links to making hubs. Our results showed although the number of positive and negative links were not statistically different between OCD and healthy controls, but positive links in OCDs’ brain networks have more tendency to make hub. Moreover, lower number of unbalanced triads and higher number of strongly balanced triad reduced the balance-energy in OCDs’ brain networks that conceptually has less requirement to change. We hope these findings could shed a light on better understanding of brain functional network in OCD.

Robot programming for a child with autism spectrum disorder: a pilot study

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show great interest in technological devices, and especially in robots. Several studies in the field have suggested that socially assistive robotics (SARs) can help children with ASD in the enhancement of their social skills and communication, and in the reduction of their stereotypical behaviors. Few published research results are available regarding robot programming or coding in the context of STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for these children. In this pilot study, the authors designed and implemented educational activities with the robot ‘Codey Rocky’, a ready-to-use robot designed for code learning and programming by primary school children. In this pilot study, the participation of two eight-year-old schoolchildren, a girl with ASD and intellectual deficit and a boy of typical development in triadic interactions with the robot, led to the enhancement of the social and communication skills of the girl with ASD. A decrease in her challenging behaviors was also observed although she manifested repetitive and stereotyped behaviors throughout the educational sessions. The benefits, risks, and implications of the use of SARs for children with ASD are discussed.

Higher-order dynamics in the replicator equation produce a limit cycle in rock-paper-scissors

Recent work has shown that pairwise interactions may not be sufficient to fully model ecological dynamics in the wild. In this letter, we consider a replicator dynamic that takes both pairwise and triadic interactions into consideration using a rank-three tensor. We study these new nonlinear dynamics using a generalized rock-paper-scissors game whose dynamics are well understood in the standard replicator sense. We show that the addition of higher-order dynamics leads to the creation of a subcritical Hopf bifurcation and consequently an unstable limit cycle. It is known that this kind of behaviour cannot occur in the pairwise replicator in any three-strategy games, showing the effect higher-order interactions can have on the resulting dynamics of the system. We numerically characterize parameter regimes in which limit cycles exist and discuss possible ways to generalize this approach to studying higher-order interactions.

Personality theory: New factors to incorporate in public decision‐making in communities

AbstractBackgroundThis study explored the effects of personality factors on public behavioral decision‐making.MethodsWe examined the literature on personality theory based on triadic interaction decision theory, and summarized and compared the findings with studies of the Big Five personality characteristics. A literature review method was used to explore the implications of personality theory for public decision‐making in Chinese communities.ResultsIndividuals with high neuroticism can be targeted by influential communicators. Individuals with high extraversion can influence decision‐making through interpersonal relationships. Individuals with high levels of openness can be influenced by the development of novel activities. Conscientious individuals respond to scientific and rational knowledge. Individuals with high agreeableness can be influenced by groups.ConclusionsPersonality traits can influence behavioral decisions and can have positive or negative effects on behavioral outcomes. For people with different personality traits, social actors and social activity communicators should formulate targeted measures according to the classification of personality traits. The current findings have implications for enriching research perspectives and approaches to public community decision‐making.

Child–robot interaction: designing robot mediation to facilitate friendship behaviors

ABSTRACT This research explored if a social robot would play a role in facilitating the development of friendship between young children while they engage in playful learning. Grounded in child–robot interaction and child development literature, we instantiated four sessions of triadic interaction activities among two children and a robot, where the robot mediated the children’s collaborative interactions. There were two types of robot-mediated activities (Conversational and Tablet assisted) with each type having two sessions and each session taking approx. 20 minutes, depending on the children. The activities were deployed with ten children (aged five to six) in an after-school program in a rural public school in the U.S. twice a week for two weeks. We video-recorded the sessions and later annotated these recordings for analysis. The friendship development between the children in a pair was observed in terms of five behavioral categories (liking, togetherness, parity, agreement, and co-construction). The results showed that both conversational and tablet-assisted robot mediation contributed complementarily to friendship development among the children.

Phase proper orthogonal decomposition of non-stationary turbulent flow

A phase proper orthogonal decomposition (phase POD) method is demonstrated utilizing phase averaging for the decomposition of spatiotemporal behavior of statistically non-stationary turbulent flows in an optimized manner. The proposed phase POD method is herein applied to a periodically forced statistically non-stationary lid-driven cavity flow, implemented using the snapshot proper orthogonal decomposition algorithm. Space-phase modes are extracted to describe the dynamics of the chaotic flow, in which four central flow patterns are identified for describing the evolution of the energetic structures as a function of phase. The modal building blocks of the energy transport equation are demonstrated as a function of the phase. The triadic interaction term can here be interpreted as the convective transport of bi-modal interactions. Non-local energy transfer is observed as a result of the non-stationarity of the dynamical processes inducing triadic interactions spanning across a wide range of mode numbers.

Physiological and neural synchrony in emotional and neutral stimulus processing: A study protocol.

As psychotherapy involves at least two individuals, it is essential to include the interaction perspective research. During interaction, synchrony, i.e., the occurrence of simultaneous responses, can be observed at the physiological, neural, and behavioral level. Physiological responses include heart rate and electrodermal activity; neural markers can be measured using electroencephalogram. Emotionally arousing stimuli are allocated more attentional resources (motivated attention), which is reflected in physiological activation and brain potentials. Here we present a protocol for a pilot study implementing a new research methodology, and replication of the motivated attention to emotion effect in in dyads. There is evidence that higher synchrony is associated with more positive (therapeutic) relationships. Thus, the secondary outcome will be the association between physiological and neural synchrony and subjective ratings. Individuals (18-30 years) will participate in same-sex pairs in two experiments. In the first experiment (triadic interaction), both participants attentively watch unpleasant, neutral and pleasant pictures, and read/listen to standardized scripts (unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant, respectively) for the imagination task. In the second experiment, participants will read out three scripts (unpleasant, neutral, pleasant) to each other, followed by a joint imagination period. Stimuli will be presented in counterbalanced orders. After each picture and imagination, participants rate their subjective arousal and valence. In the beginning and in the end of the procedure, dyads rate their relationship, sympathy, and bonds (Working Alliance Inventory subscale). Heart rate, electrodermal activity and electroencephalogram will be continuously measured during both experiments using portable devices (EcgMove4 and EdaMove4, nine-channel B-Alert X-Series mobile-wireless EEG). Synchrony analyses will include the dual electroencephalography analysis pipeline, correlational analyses and Actor-Partner Interdependence Models. The present study protocol provides an experimental approach to investigate interpersonal synchrony during emotion processing, allowing for the establishment of research methods in a pilot study, which can later be translated into real-life psychotherapy research. In the future, fundamental understanding of such mechanisms in dyadic interactions is essential in order to promote therapeutic relationships, and thus, treatment effectiveness and efficiency.