Situation awareness, emotions and time perception: an investigation of the effects of emotions on measures of situation awareness, the perception of time, and decision making

Current theories of Situation Awareness (SA) are based on three broad cognitive processes, that of perception, comprehension and projection. While there are considerable variations on how SA is defined and subsequently modeled (see Endsley 1995, Hancock & Smith 1995 or Edgar & Edgar 2007), most current theories fail to account for the role and influence of emotions on SA. A further shared characteristic of the current models is the lack of integration of SA theories with the ever-increasing knowledge of the functional specializations of different brain areas. This thesis' main aim was to bridge these gaps by integrating current developments from neuroscience and cognitive psychology with perception, learning and decision-making aspects of SA, all within the context of different affective conditions. The experiments described in this thesis, therefore, share a focus on the emotional effects on the aforementioned cognitive processes as well as detection of possible neural signatures as reflected by Electroencephalography (EEG) recording. The first experiment showed that negative, neutral and positive affective conditions had markedly different effects on the processes of SA. Subsequently, the next three experiments focused on the effects of emotions in a particular aspect of SA, that of decision making, and attempted to isolate the EEG correlates of advantageous and disadvantageous decision-making processes. It was found that about 400 to 300 milliseconds (denoted as SM400) prior to enacting a decision, the EEG recording was able to distinguish between the advantageous and disadvantageous choices. Finally, the last three experiments investigated the mechanisms by which emotions exert their influence on how information is perceived and learned. It was found that negative and positive affective stimuli dilated and contracted the perception of time respectively and that, furthermore, the processing of negative stimuli is based more on long-term memory as opposed to working memory. The research in this thesis suggests that what kind of SA one person may have is very much affected by emotional processes. This thesis hopes to have contributed to an initial understanding of these processes and stimulate further research on these areas

Online and face-to-face performance on two cognitive tasks in children with Williams syndrome.

There has been an increase in cognitive assessment via the Internet, especially since the coronavirus disease 2019 surged the need for remote psychological assessment. This is the first study to investigate the appropriability of conducting cognitive assessments online with children with a neurodevelopmental condition and intellectual disability, namely, Williams syndrome. This study compared Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM) and British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS) scores from two different groups of children with WS age 10-11 years who were assessed online ( = 14) or face-to-face (RCPM = 12; BPVS = 24). Bayesian -tests showed that children's RCPM scores were similar across testing conditions, but suggested BPVS scores were higher for participants assessed online. The differences between task protocols are discussed in line with these findings, as well as the implications for neurodevelopmental research. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2021 Ashworth, Palikara, Burchell, Purser, Nikolla and Van Herwegen.

Quantitative Analysis of Situation Awareness (QASA): modelling and measuring situation awareness using signal detection theory

This paper presents a model of situation awareness (SA) that emphasises that SA is necessarily built using a subset of available information. A technique (Quantitative Analysis of Situation Awareness – QASA), based around signal detection theory, has been developed from this model that provides separate measures of actual SA (ASA) and perceived SA (PSA), together with a feature unique to QASA, a measure of bias (information acceptance). These measures allow the exploration of the relationship between actual SA, perceived SA and information acceptance. QASA can also be used for the measurement of dynamic ASA, PSA and bias. Example studies are presented and full details of the implementation of the QASA technique are provided

Situation awareness, emotions and time perception :an investigation of the effects of emotions on measures of situation awreness, the perception of time, and decision making

Current theories of Situation Awareness (SA) are based on three broad cognitive processes, that of perception, comprehension and projection. While there are considerable variations on how SA is defined and subsequently modeled (see Endsley 1995, Hancock & Smith 1995 or Edgar & Edgar 2007), most current theories fail to account for the role and influence of emotions on SA. A further shared characteristic of the current models is the lack of integration of SA theories with the ever-increasing knowledge of the functional specializations of different brain areas. This thesis' main aim was to bridge these gaps by integrating current developments from neuroscience and cognitive psychology with perception, learning and decision-making aspects of SA, all within the context of different affective conditions. The experiments described in this thesis, therefore, share a focus on the emotional effects on the aforementioned cognitive processes as well as detection of possible neural signatures as reflected by Electroencephalography (EEG) recording. The first experiment showed that negative, neutral and positive affective conditions had markedly different effects on the processes of SA. Subsequently, the next three experiments focused on the effects of emotions in a particular aspect of SA, that of decision making, and attempted to isolate the EEG correlates of advantageous and disadvantageous decision-making processes. It was found that about 400 to 300 milliseconds (denoted as SM400) prior to enacting a decision, the EEG recording was able to distinguish between the advantageous and disadvantageous choices. Finally, the last three experiments investigated the mechanisms by which emotions exert their influence on how information is perceived and learned. It was found that negative and positive affective stimuli dilated and contracted the perception of time respectively and that, furthermore, the processing of negative stimuli is based more on long-term memory as opposed to working memory. The research in this thesis suggests that what kind of SA one person may have is very much affected by emotional processes. This thesis hopes to have contributed to an initial understanding of these processes and stimulate further research on these areas

Brain activity linked to the filtering of visual information under uncertain conditions

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Dynamic Auditory Remapping Across the Sleep-Wake Cycle

AbstractIn a single day we transition from vigilant wakefulness to unconscious sleep and dreaming, undergoing diverse behavioural, physiological and neural changes. While during the awake state, exogenous stimuli and endogenous changes lead to sensory reorganisation, this remapping has not been charted throughout the sleep-wake cycle. We recorded neural activity in response to a range of tones using electroencephalography during a full night’s sleep, and examined whether auditory responses become more similar, dissimilar or remain unchanged between wakefulness, non-rapid (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We found that neural similarities between pairs of auditory evoked potentials differed by conscious state in both early and late auditory processing stages. Furthermore, tone-pairs neural similarities were modulated by conscious state as a function of tone frequency, where some tone-pairs changed similarity between states and others continued unaffected. These findings demonstrate a state-, stimulus- and time-dependent functional reorganization of auditory processing across the sleep-wake cycle.</jats:p

Online and Face-to-Face Performance on Two Cognitive Tasks in Children With Williams Syndrome

There has been an increase in cognitive assessment via the Internet, especially since the coronavirus disease 2019 surged the need for remote psychological assessment. This is the first study to investigate the appropriability of conducting cognitive assessments online with children with a neurodevelopmental condition and intellectual disability, namely, Williams syndrome. This study compared Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM) and British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS) scores from two different groups of children with WS age 10–11 years who were assessed online (n = 14) or face-to-face (RCPM n = 12; BPVS n = 24). Bayesian t-tests showed that children’s RCPM scores were similar across testing conditions, but suggested BPVS scores were higher for participants assessed online. The differences between task protocols are discussed in line with these findings, as well as the implications for neurodevelopmental research.</jats:p

Mapping brain activity during loss of situation awareness: An EEG investigation of a basis for top-down influence on perception

Objective: The objective was to map brain activity during early intervals in loss of situation awareness (SA) to examine any co-activity in visual and high-order regions, reflecting grounds for top-down influences on Level 1 SA.Background: Behavioral and neuroscience evidence indicates that high-order brain areas can engage before perception is complete. Inappropriate topdown messages may distort perception during loss of SA. Evidence of co-activity of perceptual and highorder regions would not confirm such influence butmay reflect a basis for it.Method: SA and bias were measured using Quantitative Analysis of Situation Awareness and brain activity recorded with 128-channel EEG (electroencephalography) during loss of SA. One task (15 participants) required identification of a target pattern, and another task (10 participants) identificationof “threat” in urban scenes. In both, the target was changed without warning, enforcing loss of SA. Key regions of brain activity were identified using source localization with standardized low-resolution electrical tomography (sLORETA) 150 to 160 ms post–stimulus onset in both tasks and also 100 to 110 ms in the second task.Results: In both tasks, there was significant loss of SA and bias shift (p ≤ .02), associated at both 150-and 100-ms intervals with co-activity of visual regions and prefrontal, anterior cingulate and parietal regions linked to cognition under uncertainty.Conclusion: There was early co-activity in highorder and visual perception regions that may provide a basis for top-down influence on perception.Application: Co-activity in high- and low-order brain regions may explain either beneficial or disruptive top-down influence on perception affecting Level 1 SA in real-world operations