Birds can learn as well from robots as from live tutors
We exposed young zebra finch birds to robots or live bird tutors and measured how well they could learn their songs from them. We did not find overall differences in learning and if anything, robots allowed the birds to reach their learning peaks quicker. Bird behaviors were not predictive of the results.
Article: Araguas, A., Guellaï, B., Gauthier, P., Richer, F., Montone, G., Chopin, A., & Derégnaucourt, S. (2022). Design of a robotic zebra finch for experimental studies on developmental song learning. Journal of Experimental Biology, 225(3), jeb242949. [Link] [PDF]
Article: Araguas, A., Guellaï, B., Gauthier, P., Richer, F., Montone, G., Chopin, A., & Derégnaucourt, S. (2022). Design of a robotic zebra finch for experimental studies on developmental song learning. Journal of Experimental Biology, 225(3), jeb242949. [Link] [PDF]
Action video games increase learning speed
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After we trained 77 young adults on action video games, they exhibited faster learning in perception and working memory. We used stratified randomization, pre-registration, demonstrated the causal aspect and controlled for several confounds, like expectations.
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Amblyopia: A treatment for global stereoblindness using local stereo-training
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We demonstrated on 5 adults with amblyopia who were completely blind to global stereopsis, that it is possible to recover fine global stereovision after training local stereopsis only. This transfer of learning from local to global stereopsis is compatible with an interacting two-stage model for stereopsis.
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Newborns know when you look at them
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We familiarized two groups of newborns with videos of different talking faces that were presented with either a direct or a faraway gaze. Newborns looked longer at the familiar face, but only in the direct gaze condition. These results suggest that just-born infants can perceive slight differences of gazes when someone is addressing to them.
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Action video gaming changes your visual perception
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After reviewing this topic, we conclude that gaming improves mostly the perception of motion and contrast, and visual processing in periphery. We established a dose-response relationship for intervention studies that demonstrates a causal role of action video games.
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Another way by which people deceive clinical stereotests of 3D-vision
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We have found that several well-known clinical stereotests used to determine stereo-anomaly can be deceived using what we call "binocular non-stereoscopic cues". These are a new family of cues that only happen with the two eyes. Participants with amblyopia had more difficulty using non-stereoscopic cues than typical observers.
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The prevalence and diagnosis of stereoblindness is 7%
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We determined that 7% of the population below the age of 60 is totally stereoblind, meaning that they see no depth from the difference of viewpoints between eyes. We also show that this value strongly depends on the way it is measured and explain why. We demonstrate that the expected relationship to exposure duration does not exist. We propose the concept of ecological stereoblindness, that does not depend on the way it is measured. We also show what is the best way to measure stereoblindness and what to expect when using clinical stereotests that can clearly be deceived. Finally, we show how to improve clinical stereotests.
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an fMRI-analysis pipeline for pRF retinotopy
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This full pipeline helps with the transformation of anatomical, inplane and EPI data into population receptive-fields retinopy. It uses mrVista, freesurfer, and FSL. It includes nifti conversion, motion and slice timing correction, artefact removal, segmentation, alignment, pRF calculations and visualization of pRF model results on a mesh projection.
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Are screens good or bad for the young child?
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The quick answer from our review is that passive screens are very bad for the cognitive development, particularly before 3 years and even when in the background. The situation is alarming given the statistics for babies' screen time. However there are two exceptions: when adults supervise the screen time actively and when 5-6 years-old children watch a very specific educative TV show: Sesame Street.
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Dressmakers have needle-sharp 3D vision
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They are 80% more accurate than non-dressmakers at calculating the distances between themselves and objects, and 43% better at estimating distances between objects. We are still determining whether dressmaking sharpens stereoscopic vision, or whether dressmakers are drawn to the trade because of their visual stereo-acuity
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Newborns prefer speech that is synchronized with lips
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With Bahia Guellai, we showed that newborns can make the difference between lip-synchronized and lip-unsynchronized speech. It suggests that they can use that information for lip-reading and learning to talk. It is very surprising when you think they are just born a few hours ago.
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Blindness to depth from absolute disparities and the mechanism of depth from relative disparities
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We discovered that observers are almost blind to absolute disparities and that it cannot be explained by memory-related or vergence-related explanations. Our results are only compatible with the idea that absolute disparities (depth between an object and fixation point) are transformed into relative disparities (depth between objects).
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Stereopsis and rivalry are under influence of orientation illusions
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We found that the illusory tilt produced from Zöllner illusion influences the orientation disparities defining stereoscopic slant or rivalry. Thus, rivalry and stereopsis rely on the illusory rather than the displayed orientations.
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Perceptual adaptation could be a mechanism of prediction
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We uncovered that the current percept is
strongly influenced by a group of stimuli remotely presented in the
past. We explain it with a new theory according to which adaptation is
predictive.
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Implicit probabilistic processings in the human ambiguous perception
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This my Ph.D thesis. I studied:
(1) the influence of one interpretation’s usefulness on bistable perception (2) the way of changing bistable preferences (3) the specificity of the first bistable percepts (4) the influence of orientation illusion on stereo-fusion and rivalry (5) the influence of past stimuli on the bistable percept through predictions
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Mysterious biases in the most simple stereoscopic perception
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In a very simple stereo configuration, we discovered that observers exhibit strong biases. When an upper dot is presented in front of a lower dot, the depth between the dots is perceived as completely different from the depth between an upper dot behind a lower dot. We have shown that the bias cannot be explained by cyclovergence biases or the tilt of the horopter.
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Bistable preferences are not random
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People experience preferences on the first percept of bistable stimuli. These preferences are strong, stable and specific to them. They look random and meaningless but we found that they are actually learned to be useful in the current task using the bistable stimuli.
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Operant conditioning of binocular rivalry
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If the image presented to an eye in binocular rivalry is useful for the current task, that image is found to become dominant, even when the observer is not aware of the usefulness of the image. This happens mainly on the first percept, independently of attention.
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| i1534-7362-16-8-2.pdf |
