A Naturalistic Setup for Presenting Real People and Live Actions in Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Studies

Summary

This study presents a naturalistic experimental setup that allows researchers to present real-time action stimuli, obtain response time and mouse tracking data while participants respond after each stimulus display, and change actors between experimental conditions with a unique system including a special transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen and light manipulation.

Abstract

Perception of others' actions is crucial for survival, interaction, and communication. Despite decades of cognitive neuroscience research dedicated to understanding the perception of actions, we are still far away from developing a neurally inspired computer vision system that approaches human action perception. A major challenge is that actions in the real world consist of temporally unfolding events in space that happen "here and now" and are actable. In contrast, visual perception and cognitive neuroscience research to date have largely studied action perception through 2D displays (e.g., images or videos) that lack the presence of actors in space and time, hence these displays are limited in affording actability. Despite the growing body of knowledge in the field, these challenges must be overcome for a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of the perception of others' actions in the real world. The aim of this study is to introduce a novel setup to conduct naturalistic laboratory experiments with live actors in scenarios that approximate real-world settings. The core element of the setup used in this study is a transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen through which participants can watch the live actions of a physically present actor while the timing of their presentation is precisely controlled. In this work, this setup was tested in a behavioral experiment. We believe that the setup will help researchers reveal fundamental and previously inaccessible cognitive and neural mechanisms of action perception and will be a foundation for future studies investigating social perception and cognition in naturalistic settings.

Introduction

A fundamental skill for survival and social interaction is the ability to perceive and make sense of others' actions and interact with them in the surrounding environment. Previous research in the last several decades has made significant contributions to understanding the fundamental principles of how individuals perceive and understand others' actions^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,}

Protocol

The experimental protocols in this study were approved by the Ethics Committee for Research with Human Participants of Bilkent University. All participants included in the study were over 18 years old, and they read and signed the informed consent form before starting the study.

1. General design steps

NOTE: Figure 1A (top view) and Figure 1B and Figure 1C (front.......

Discussion

The overarching goal of the present study is to contribute to our understanding of how human high-level visual perception and cognition work in real-life situations. This study focused on action perception and suggested a naturalistic yet controllable experimental paradigm that enables researchers to test how individuals perceive and evaluate others' actions by presenting real actors in a laboratory setting.

The significance of this proposed methodology compared to existing methodologies i.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Adjustable Height Table	Custom-made	N/A	Width: 60 cm, Height: 62 cm, Depth: 40 cm
Ardunio UNO	Smart Projects	A000066	Microcontroller used for switching the state of the LEDs from the script running on the operator PC
Black Pants	No brand	N/A	Relaxed-fit pants of actors with no apparent brand name or logo.
Case	Xigmatek	EN43224	XIGMATEK HELIOS RAINBOW LED USB 3.0 MidT ATX GAMING CASE
CPU	AMD	YD1600BBAFBOX	AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Soket AM4 3.2 GHz - 3.6 GHz 16 MB 65 W 12 nm Processor
Curtains	Custom-made	N/A	Width: Part 1: 110 cm width from the wall (left) side, Part 2: 123 cm width above OLED display, Part 3: 170 cm from OLED display to right side, Cabin depth: 100 cm, Inside cabin depth: 100 cm, all heights 230 cm except for Part 2 (75 cm height)
Experimenter Adjustable/Swivel Chair	No brand	N/A	Any brand
Experimenter Table	Custom	N/A	Width: 160 cm, Height: 75 cm, Depth: 80 cm
GPU	MSI	GT 1030 2GHD4 LP OC	MSI GEFORCE GT 1030 2GHD4 LP OC 2GB DDR4 64bit NVIDIA GPU
Grey-color blackout curtain	Custom-made	N/A	Width: 330 cm, Height: 230 cm, used for covering the background
Hard Disk	Kioxia	LTC10Z240GG8	Kioxia 240 GB Exceria Sata 3.0 SSD (555 MB Read/540 MB Write)
Hard Disk	Toshiba	HDWK105UZSVA	Toshiba 2,5'' 500 GB L200 SATA 3.0 8 MB Cache 5400 Rpm 7 mm Harddisk
High-Power MOSFET Module	N/A	N/A	Heating Controller MKS MOSFET Module
Laptop	Apple	S/N: C02P916ZG3QT	MacBook Pro 11.1 Intel Core i7 (Used as the actor PC)
Laptop	Asus	UX410U	Used for monitoring the security camera in real-time.
LED lights	No brand	N/A
LED Strip Power Supply	No brand	N/A	AC to DC voltage converter used for supplying DC voltage to the lighting circuit
MATLAB	The MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA, USA	Version: R2022a	Used for programming the experiment. Required Toolboxes: MATLAB Support Package for Arduino Hardware (version 22.1.2) Instrument Control Toolbox (version 4.6) Psychtoolbox (version 3)
Monitor	Philips	UHB2051005145	Model ID: 242V8A/00, PHILIPS 23.8" 242V8A 4ms 75 Hz Freesync DP-HDMI+VGA IPS Gaming Monitor
Motherboard	MSI	B450M-A PRO MAX	MSI B450M-A PRO MAX Amd B450 Socket AM4 DDR4 3466(OC) M.2 Motherboard
Mouse Pad for participant	Monster	78185721101502042 / 8699266781857	Pusat Gaming Mouse Pad XL
Night lamp	Aukes	ES620-0.5W 6500K-IP 20	Used for helping the actors see around when the lights are off in the backstage.
Participant Adjustable/Swivel Chair	No brand	N/A
Participant Table	IKEA	Sandsberg 294.203.93	Width: 110 cm, Height: 75 cm, Depth: 67 cm
Power Extension Cable	Viko	9011760Y	250 V (6 inlets) Black
Power Extension Cable	Viko	9011730Y	250 V (3 inlets) Black
Power Extension Cable	Viko	9011330Y	250 V (3 inlets) White
Power Extension Cable	s-link	Model No: SPG3-J-10	AC - 250 V 3 meter (5 inlets)
Power Supply	THERMALTAKE	PS-LTP-0550NHSANE-1	THERMALTAKE LITEPOWER RGB 550W APFC 12 cm FAN PSU
Professional Gaming Mouse	Rampage	8680096	Model No: SMX-R50
RAM	GSKILL	F4-3000C16S-8GVRB	GSKILL 8GB (1x8GB) RipjawsV Red DDR4 3000 MHz CL16 1.35 V Single Ram
Reception bell	No brand	N/A	Used for helping the communication between the experimenter and the actors.
Security Camera	Brion Vega	2-20204210	Model:BV6000
Speakers	Logitech	P/N: 880-000-405 PID: WD528XM	Used for playing the background music.
Survey Software	Qualtrics	N/A
Switching Module	No brand	N/A	F5305S PMOS Switch Module
Table under the OLED display	Custom-made	N/A	Width: 123 cm, Height: 75 cm, Depth: 50 cm
Transparent OLED Display	Planar	PN: 998-1483-01 S/N:195210075	A 55-inch transparent display that showcases dynamic information, enabled the opaque and transparent usage during the experiment.
UPS	EAG	K200610100087	EAG 110
UPS	EAG	210312030507	EAG 103
USB 2.0 Cable Type A/B for Arduino UNO (Blue)	Smart Projects	M000006	Used to connect the microcontroller to the experimenter PC.
USB to RS232 Converter	s-link	8680096082559	Model: SW-U610
White Long-Sleeved Blouse (2)	H&M (cotton)	N/A	Relaxed-fit blouses with a round neckline and without ant apparent brand name or logo.
Wireless Keyboard	Logitech	P/N: 820-003488 S/N: 1719CE0856D8	Model: K360
Wireless Mouse	Logitech	S/N: 2147LZ96BGQ9	Model: M190 (Used as the response device)