@article{KiserGromerPaulietal.2022, author = {Kiser, Dominik P. and Gromer, Daniel and Pauli, Paul and Hilger, Kirsten}, title = {A virtual reality social conditioned place preference paradigm for humans: Does trait social anxiety affect approach and avoidance of virtual agents?}, series = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, volume = {3}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, issn = {2673-4192}, doi = {10.3389/frvir.2022.916575}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-293564}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Approach and avoidance of positive and negative social cues are fundamental to prevent isolation and ensure survival. High trait social anxiety is characterized by an avoidance of social situations and extensive avoidance is a risk factor for the development of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Therefore, experimental methods to assess social avoidance behavior in humans are essential. The social conditioned place preference (SCPP) paradigm is a well-established experimental paradigm in animal research that is used to objectively investigate social approach-avoidance mechanisms. We retranslated this paradigm for human research using virtual reality. To this end, 58 healthy adults were exposed to either a happy- or angry-looking virtual agent in a specific room, and the effects of this encounter on dwell time as well as evaluation of this room in a later test without an agent were examined. We did not observe a general SCPP effect on dwell time or ratings but discovered a moderation by trait social anxiety, in which participants with higher trait social anxiety spent less time in the room in which the angry agent was present before, suggesting that higher levels of trait social anxiety foster conditioned social avoidance. However, further studies are needed to verify this observation and substantiate an association with social anxiety disorder. We discussed the strengths, limitations, and technical implications of our paradigm for future investigations to more comprehensively understand the mechanisms involved in social anxiety and facilitate the development of new personalized treatment approaches by using virtual reality.}, language = {en} } @article{WienrichCarolusRothIsigkeitetal.2022, author = {Wienrich, Carolin and Carolus, Astrid and Roth-Isigkeit, David and Hotho, Andreas}, title = {Inhibitors and enablers to explainable AI success: a systematic examination of explanation complexity and individual characteristics}, series = {Multimodal Technologies and Interaction}, volume = {6}, journal = {Multimodal Technologies and Interaction}, number = {12}, issn = {2414-4088}, doi = {10.3390/mti6120106}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-297288}, year = {2022}, abstract = {With the increasing adaptability and complexity of advisory artificial intelligence (AI)-based agents, the topics of explainable AI and human-centered AI are moving close together. Variations in the explanation itself have been widely studied, with some contradictory results. These could be due to users' individual differences, which have rarely been systematically studied regarding their inhibiting or enabling effect on the fulfillment of explanation objectives (such as trust, understanding, or workload). This paper aims to shed light on the significance of human dimensions (gender, age, trust disposition, need for cognition, affinity for technology, self-efficacy, attitudes, and mind attribution) as well as their interplay with different explanation modes (no, simple, or complex explanation). Participants played the game Deal or No Deal while interacting with an AI-based agent. The agent gave advice to the participants on whether they should accept or reject the deals offered to them. As expected, giving an explanation had a positive influence on the explanation objectives. However, the users' individual characteristics particularly reinforced the fulfillment of the objectives. The strongest predictor of objective fulfillment was the degree of attribution of human characteristics. The more human characteristics were attributed, the more trust was placed in the agent, advice was more likely to be accepted and understood, and important needs were satisfied during the interaction. Thus, the current work contributes to a better understanding of the design of explanations of an AI-based agent system that takes into account individual characteristics and meets the demand for both explainable and human-centered agent systems.}, language = {en} } @article{VernerHerrmannTrocheetal.2013, author = {Verner, Martin and Herrmann, Martin J. and Troche, Stefan J. and Roebers, Claudia M. and Rammsayer, Thomas H.}, title = {Cortical oxygen consumption in mental arithmetic as a function of task difficulty: a near-infrared spectroscopy approach}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {7}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, number = {217}, issn = {1662-5161}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2013.00217}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-122449}, year = {2013}, abstract = {The present study investigated changes in cortical oxygenation during mental arithmetic using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Twenty-nine male volunteers were examined using a 52-channel continuous wave system for analyzing activity in prefrontal areas. With the help of a probabilistic mapping method, three regions of interest (ROIs) on each hemisphere were defined: The inferior frontal gyri (IFG), the middle frontal gyri (MFG), and the superior frontal gyri (SFG). Oxygenation as an indicator of functional brain activation was compared over the three ROI and two levels of arithmetic task difficulty (simple and complex additions). In contrast to most previous studies using fMRI or NIRS, in the present study arithmetic tasks were presented verbally in analogue to many daily life situations. With respect to task difficulty, more complex addition tasks led to higher oxygenation in all defined ROI except in the left IFG compared to simple addition tasks. When compared to the channel positions covering different gyri of the temporal lobe, the observed sensitivity to task complexity was found to be restricted to the specified ROIs. As to the comparison of ROIs, the highest oxygenation was found in the IFG, while MFG and SFG showed significantly less activation compared to IFG. The present cognitive-neuroscience approach demonstrated that NIRS is a suitable and highly feasible research tool for investigating and quantifying neural effects of increasing arithmetic task difficulty.}, language = {en} }