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1. Promoting social attention in 3‐year‐olds with ASD through gaze‐contingent eye tracking

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2199  

   Wang, Quan ; Wall, Carla A. ; Barney, Erin C. ; Bradshaw, Jessica L. ; Macari, Suzanne L. ; Chawarska, Katarzyna ; Shic, Frederick ( August 2019 , Autism Research)

   Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) look less toward faces compared to their non‐ASD peers, limiting access to social learning. Currently, no technologies directly target these core social attention difficulties. This study examines the feasibility of automated gaze modification training for improving attention to faces in 3‐year‐olds with ASD. Using free‐viewing data from typically developing (TD) controls (n = 41), we implemented gaze‐contingent adaptive cueing to redirect children with ASD toward normative looking patterns during viewing of videos of an actress. Children with ASD were randomly assigned to either (a) an adaptive Cue condition (Cue,n = 16) or (b) a No‐Cue condition (No‐Cue,n = 19). Performance was examined at baseline, during training, and post‐training, and contrasted with TD controls (n = 23). Proportion of time looking at the screen (%Screen) and at actresses' faces (%Face) was analyzed. At Pre‐Training, Cue and No‐Cue groups did not differ in %Face (P > 0.1). At Post‐Training, the Cue group had higher %Face than the No‐Cue group (P = 0.015). In the No‐Cue group %Face decreased Pre‐ to Post‐Training; no decline was observed in the Cue group. These results suggest gaze‐contingent training effectively mitigated decreases of attention toward the face of onscreen social characters in ASD. Additionally, larger training effects were observed in children with lower nonverbal ability, suggesting a gaze‐contingent approach may be particularly relevant for children with greater cognitive impairment. This work represents development toward new social attention therapeutic systems that could augment current behavioral interventions.Autism Res2020, 13: 61–73. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

   In this study, we leverage a new technology that combines eye tracking and automatic computer programs to help very young children with ASD look at social information in a more prototypical way. In a randomized controlled trial, we show that the use of this technology prevents the diminishing attention toward social information normally seen in children with ASD over the course of a single experimental session. This work represents development toward new social attention therapeutic systems that could augment current behavioral interventions.

    

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2. SearchGazer: Webcam Eye Tracking for Remote Studies of Web Search

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3020165.3020170  

   Papoutsaki, Alexandra ; Laskey, James ; Huang, Jeff ( January 2017 , Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Conference Human Information Interaction and Retrieval - CHIIR '17)

   We introduce SearchGazer, a web-based eye tracker for remote web search studies using common webcams already present in laptops and some desktop computers. SearchGazer is a pure JavaScript library that infers the gaze behavior of searchers in real time. The eye tracking model self-calibrates by watching searchers interact with the search pages and trains a mapping of eye features to gaze locations and search page elements on the screen. Contrary to typical eye tracking studies in information retrieval, this approach does not require the purchase of any additional specialized equipment, and can be done remotely in a user's natural environment, leading to cheaper and easier visual attention studies. While SearchGazer is not intended to be as accurate as specialized eye trackers, it is able to replicate many of the research findings of three seminal information retrieval papers: two that used eye tracking devices, and one that used the mouse cursor as a restricted focus viewer. Charts and heatmaps from those original papers are plotted side-by-side with SearchGazer results. While the main results are similar, there are some notable differences, which we hypothesize derive from improvements in the latest ranking technologies used by current versions of search engines and diligence by remote users. As part of this paper, we also release SearchGazer as a library that can be integrated into any search page. 

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3. A Case Study of the Validity of Web-based Visuomotor Rotation Experiments

   https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_02080  

   Shyr, Megan C. ; Joshi, Sanjay S. ( January 2024 , Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience)

   Web-based experiments are gaining momentum in motor learning research because of the desire to increase statistical power, decrease overhead for human participant experiments, and utilize a more demographically inclusive sample population. However, there is a vital need to understand the general feasibility and considerations necessary to shift tightly controlled human participant experiments to an online setting. We developed and deployed an online experimental platform modeled after established in-laboratory visuomotor rotation experiments to serve as a case study examining remotely collected data quality for an 80-min experiment. Current online motor learning experiments have thus far not exceeded 60 min, and current online crowdsourced studies have a median duration of approximately 10 min. Thus, the impact of a longer-duration, web-based experiment is unknown. We used our online platform to evaluate perturbation-driven motor adaptation behavior under three rotation sizes (±10°, ±35°, and ±65°) and two sensory uncertainty conditions. We hypothesized that our results would follow predictions by the relevance estimation hypothesis. Remote execution allowed us to double (n = 49) the typical participant population size from similar studies. Subsequently, we performed an in-depth examination of data quality by analyzing single-trial data quality, participant variability, and potential temporal effects across trials. Results replicated in-laboratory findings and provided insight on the effect of induced sensory uncertainty on the relevance estimation hypothesis. Our experiment also highlighted several specific challenges associated with online data collection including potentially smaller effect sizes, higher data variability, and lower recommended experiment duration thresholds. Overall, online paradigms present both opportunities and challenges for future motor learning research.

    

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4. Improved quantification of cover crop biomass and ecosystem services through remote sensing-based model–data fusion

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ace4df  

   Ye, Lexuan ; Guan, Kaiyu ; Qin, Ziqi ; Wang, Sheng ; Zhou, Wang ; Peng, Bin ; Grant, Robert ; Tang, Jinyun ; Hu, Tongxi ; Jin, Zhenong ; et al ( August 2023 , Environmental Research Letters)

   Cover crops have long been seen as an effective management practice to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) and reduce nitrogen (N) leaching. However, there are large uncertainties in quantifying these ecosystem services using either observation (e.g. field measurement, remote sensing data) or process-based modeling. In this study, we developed and implemented a model–data fusion (MDF) framework to improve the quantification of cover crop benefits in SOC accrual and N retention in central Illinois by integrating process-based modeling and remotely-sensed observations. Specifically, we first constrained and validated the process-based agroecosystem model,ecosys, using observations of cover crop aboveground biomass derived from satellite-based spectral signals, which is highly consistent with field measurements. Then, we compared the simulated cover crop benefits in SOC accrual and N leaching reduction with and without the constraints of remotely-sensed cover crop aboveground biomass. When benchmarked with remote sensing-based observations, the constrained simulations all show significant improvements in quantifying cover crop aboveground biomass C compared with the unconstrained ones, withR²increasing from 0.60 to 0.87, and root mean square error (RMSE) and absolute bias decreasing by 64% and 97%, respectively. On all study sites, the constrained simulations of aboveground biomass C and N at termination are 29% and 35% lower than the unconstrained ones on average. Correspondingly, the averages of simulated SOC accrual and N retention net benefits are 31% and 23% lower than the unconstrained simulations, respectively. Our results show that the MDF framework with remotely-sensed biomass constraints effectively reduced the uncertainties in cover crop biomass simulations, which further constrained the quantification of cover crop-induced ecosystem services in increasing SOC and reducing N leaching.

    

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5. Standardized Data to Improve Understanding and Modeling of Soil Nitrogen at Continental Scale

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EF003224  

   Weintraub‐Leff, Samantha R. ; Hall, Steven J. ; Craig, Matthew E. ; Sihi, Debjani ; Wang, Zhuonan ; Hart, Stephen C. ( May 2023 , Earth's Future)

   Nitrogen (N) is a key limiting nutrient in terrestrial ecosystems, but there remain critical gaps in our ability to predict and model controls on soil N cycling. This may be in part due to lack of standardized sampling across broad spatial–temporal scales. Here, we introduce a continentally distributed, publicly available data set collected by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) that can help fill these gaps. First, we detail the sampling design and methods used to collect and analyze soil inorganic N pool and net flux rate data from 47 terrestrial sites. We address methodological challenges in generating a standardized data set, even for a network using uniform protocols. Then, we evaluate sources of variation within the sampling design and compare measured net N mineralization to simulated fluxes from the Community Earth System Model 2 (CESM2). We observed wide spatiotemporal variation in inorganic N pool sizes and net transformation rates. Site explained the most variation in NEON’s stratified sampling design, followed by plots within sites. Organic horizons had larger pools and net N transformation rates than mineral horizons on a sample weight basis. The majority of sites showed some degree of seasonality in N dynamics, but overall these temporal patterns were not matched by CESM2, leading to poor correspondence between observed and modeled data. Looking forward, these data can reveal new insights into controls on soil N cycling, especially in the context of other environmental data sets provided by NEON, and should be leveraged to improve predictive modeling of the soil N cycle.

    

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