ORCID Profile
0000-0002-2345-2806
Current Organisation
Bond University
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2022
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Date: 27-04-2018
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 06-09-2021
Abstract: Relying on shared tasks and stimuli to conduct research can enhance the replicability of findings and allow a community of researchers to collect large data sets across multiple experiments. This approach is particularly relevant for experiments in spatial navigation, which often require the development of unfamiliar large-scale virtual environments to test participants. One challenge with shared platforms is that undetected technical errors, rather than being restricted to in idual studies, become pervasive across many studies. Here, we discuss the discovery of a software bug in a virtual environment platform used to investigate in idual differences in spatial navigation: Virtual Silcton. The bug, which was difficult to detect for several reasons, resulted in storing the absolute value of a direction in a pointing task rather than the signed direction and rendered the original sign of the direction unrecoverable. To assess the impact of the bug on published findings, we collected a new data set for comparison. Results revealed that although the bug caused suppression in pointing errors and had different effects across people (less accurate navigators had more suppression), the effect of the bug on published data is small, partially explaining the difficulty in detecting the bug. We also used the new data set to develop a tool that allows researchers who have previously used Virtual Silcton to evaluate the impact of the bug on their findings. We summarize the ways that shared open materials, shared data, and collaboration can pave the way for better science to prevent errors in the future.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-09-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-019-45876-8
Abstract: Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood is associated with worse health and early mortality. Although many mechanisms may partially account for this effect, disadvantaged neighborhood environments are hypothesized to elicit stress and emotional responses that accumulate over time and influence physical and mental health. However, evidence for neighborhood effects on stress and emotion is limited due to methodological challenges. In order to address this question, we developed a virtual reality experimental model of neighborhood disadvantage and affluence and examined the effects of simulated neighborhoods on immediate stress and emotion. Exposure to neighborhood disadvantage resulted in greater negative emotion, less positive emotion, and more compassion, compared to exposure to affluence. However, the effect of virtual neighborhood environments on blood pressure and electrodermal reactivity depended on parental education. Participants from families with lower education exhibited greater reactivity to the disadvantaged neighborhood, while those from families with higher education exhibited greater reactivity to the affluent neighborhood. These results demonstrate that simulated neighborhood environments can elicit immediate stress reactivity and emotion, but the nature of physiological effects depends on sensitization to prior experience.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 03-2020
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.191523
Abstract: A carefully designed map can reduce pedestrians’ cognitive load during wayfinding and may be an especially useful navigation aid in crowded public environments. In the present paper, we report three studies that investigated the effects of map complexity and crowd movement on wayfinding time, accuracy and hesitation using both online and laboratory-based networked virtual reality (VR) platforms. In the online study, we found that simple map designs led to shorter decision times and higher accuracy compared to complex map designs. In the networked VR set-up, we found that co-present participants made very few errors. In the final VR study, we replayed the traces of participants’ avatars from the second study so that they indicated a different direction than the maps. In this scenario, we found an interaction between map design and crowd movement in terms of decision time and the distributions of locations at which participants hesitated. Together, these findings can help the designers of maps for public spaces account for the movements of real crowds.
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 22-11-2017
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 22-03-2021
Publisher: ACM
Date: 21-04-2020
Publisher: ACM
Date: 29-04-2022
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-11-2021
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2017
Publisher: ACM
Date: 28-06-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-08-2018
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 10-05-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.08.539920
Abstract: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) has been associated with greater total power in canonical frequency bands (i.e., alpha, beta) of the resting electroencephalogram (EEG). However, PD has also been associated with a reduction in the proportion of total power across all frequency bands. This discrepancy may be explained by aperiodic activity (exponent and offset) present across all frequency bands. Here, we examined differences in the eyes-open and eyes-closed resting EEG of PD participants ( N = 26) on and off medication, and age-matched controls (CTL N = 26). We extracted power from canonical frequency bands using traditional methods (total alpha and beta power) and extracted separate parameters for periodic (parameterized alpha and beta power) and aperiodic activity (exponent and offset). Cluster-based permutation tests over spatial and frequency dimensions indicated that total alpha and beta power, and aperiodic exponent and offset were greater in PD participants, independent of medication status. After removing the exponent and offset, greater alpha power in PD (vs. CTL) was only present in eyes-open recordings and no reliable differences in beta power were observed. Differences between PD and CTLs in the resting EEG are likely driven by aperiodic activity, suggestive of greater relative inhibitory neural activity and greater neuronal spiking. Our findings suggest that resting EEG activity in PD is characterized by medication-invariant differences in aperiodic activity which is independent of the increase in alpha power with EO. This highlights the importance of considering aperiodic activity contributions to the neural correlates of brain disorders.
Publisher: ZappyLab, Inc.
Date: 09-08-2017
DOI: 10.17504/PROTOCOLS.IO.JBDCII6
Abstract: Previous research in spatial cognition has often relied on simple spatial tasks in staticenvironments in order to draw inferences regarding navigation performance. These tasksare typically ided into categories (e.g., egocentric or allocentric) that reflect differenttwo-systems theories. Unfortunately, this two-systems approach has been insufficient forreliably predicting navigation performance in virtual reality (VR). In the presentexperiment, participants were asked to learn and navigate towards goal locations in avirtual city and then perform eight simple spatial tasks in a separate environment.These eight tasks were organised along four orthogonal dimensions (static/dynamic,perceived/remembered, egocentric/allocentric, and distance/direction). We employedconfirmatory and exploratory analyses in order to assess the relationship betweennavigation performance and performances on these simple tasks. We provide evidencethat a dynamic task (i.e., intercepting a moving object) is capable of predictingnavigation performance in a familiar virtual environment better than several categoriesof static tasks. These results have important implications for studies on navigation inVR that tend to over-emphasise the role of spatial memory. Given that our dynamictasks required efficient interaction with the human interface device (HID), they weremore closely aligned with the perceptuomotor processes associated with locomotionthan wayfinding. In the future, researchers should consider training participants onHIDs using a dynamic task prior to conducting a navigation experiment. Performanceson dynamic tasks should also be assessed in order to avoid confounding skill with anHID and spatial knowledge acquisition.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 04-02-2021
Abstract: Purpose: Investigating difficulties during activities of daily living is a fundamental first step for the development of intervention and rehabilitation strategies. One way to do this is through visual impairment simulations. The aim of this review is to synthesise and assess the types of simulation methods that have been used to simulate age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in normally sighted participants, during activities of daily living (e.g., reading, cleaning, cooking).Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search in five databases and a critical analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of various AMD simulation methods (following PRISMA guidelines). The review focuses on the suitability of each method for investigating activities of daily living, an assessment of clinical validation procedures, and an evaluation of the adaptation periods for participants. Results: Nineteen studies met the criteria for inclusion. Contact lenses, computer manipulations, gaze contingent displays, and simulation glasses were the main forms of AMD simulation identified. The use of validation and adaptation procedures were reported in approximately two-thirds and half of studies, respectively. Conclusions: Synthesis of the methodology demonstrated that the choice of simulation has been, and should continue to be, guided by the nature of the study. While simulations may never completely replicate vision loss experienced during AMD, consistency in simulation methodology is critical for generating realistic behavioural responses under vision impairment simulation and limiting the influence of confounding factors. Researchers could also come to a consensus regarding the length and form of adaptation by exploring what is an adequate amount of time and type of training required to acclimatise participants to vision impairment simulations.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2022
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 27-06-2022
DOI: 10.3390/RS14133095
Abstract: Smart Cities already surround us, and yet they are still incomprehensibly far from directly impacting everyday life. While current Smart Cities are often inaccessible, the experience of everyday citizens may be enhanced with a combination of the emerging technologies Digital Twins (DTs) and Situated Analytics. DTs represent their Physical Twin (PT) in the real world via models, simulations, (remotely) sensed data, context awareness, and interactions. However, interaction requires appropriate interfaces to address the complexity of the city. Ultimately, leveraging the potential of Smart Cities requires going beyond assembling the DT to be comprehensive and accessible. Situated Analytics allows for the anchoring of city information in its spatial context. We advance the concept of embedding the DT into the PT through Situated Analytics to form Fused Twins (FTs). This fusion allows access to data in the location that it is generated in in an embodied context that can make the data more understandable. Prototypes of FTs are rapidly emerging from different domains, but Smart Cities represent the context with the most potential for FTs in the future. This paper reviews DTs, Situated Analytics, and Smart Cities as the foundations of FTs. Regarding DTs, we define five components (physical, data, analytical, virtual, and Connection Environments) that we relate to several cognates (i.e., similar but different terms) from existing literature. Regarding Situated Analytics, we review the effects of user embodiment on cognition and cognitive load. Finally, we classify existing partial ex les of FTs from the literature and address their construction from Augmented Reality, Geographic Information Systems, Building/City Information Models, and DTs and provide an overview of future directions.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 04-2023
DOI: 10.1037/XLM0001146
Abstract: Relying on shared tasks and stimuli to conduct research can enhance the replicability of findings and allow a community of researchers to collect large data sets across multiple experiments. This approach is particularly relevant for experiments in spatial navigation, which often require the development of unfamiliar large-scale virtual environments to test participants. One challenge with shared platforms is that undetected technical errors, rather than being restricted to in idual studies, become pervasive across many studies. Here, we discuss the discovery of a software bug in a virtual environment platform used to investigate in idual differences in spatial navigation: Virtual Silcton. The bug, which was difficult to detect for several reasons, resulted in storing the absolute value of a direction in a pointing task rather than the signed direction and rendered the original sign of the direction unrecoverable. To assess the impact of the bug on published findings, we collected a new data set for comparison. Results revealed that although the bug caused suppression in pointing errors and had different effects across people (less accurate navigators had more suppression), the effect of the bug on published data is small, partially explaining the difficulty in detecting the bug. We also used the new data set to develop a tool that allows researchers who have previously used Virtual Silcton to evaluate the impact of the bug on their findings. We summarize the ways that shared open materials, shared data, and collaboration can pave the way for better science to prevent errors in the future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2021
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-12-2021
DOI: 10.1007/S12559-019-09689-1
Abstract: Signage systems are critical for communicating spatial information during wayfinding among a plethora of noise in the environment. A proper signage system can improve wayfinding performance and user experience by reducing the perceived complexity of the environment. However, previous models of sign-based wayfinding do not incorporate realistic noise or quantify the reduction in perceived complexity from the use of signage. Drawing upon concepts from information theory, we propose and validate a new agent-signage interaction model that quantifies available wayfinding information from signs for wayfinding. We conducted two online crowd-sourcing experiments to compute the distribution of a sign’s visibility and an agent’s decision-making confidence as a function of observation angle and viewing distance. We then validated this model using a virtual reality (VR) experiment with trajectories from human participants. The crowd-sourcing experiments provided a distribution of decision-making entropy (conditioned on visibility) that can be applied to any sign/environment. From the VR experiment, a training dataset of 30 trajectories was used to refine our model, and the remaining test dataset of 10 trajectories was compared with agent behavior using dynamic time warping (DTW) distance. The results revealed a reduction of 38.76% in DTW distance between the average trajectories before and after refinement. Our refined agent-signage interaction model provides realistic predictions of human wayfinding behavior using signs. These findings represent a first step towards modeling human wayfinding behavior in complex real environments in a manner that can incorporate several additional random variables (e.g., environment layout).
Publisher: ETH Zurich
Date: 2020
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 22-03-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-12-2016
DOI: 10.1002/WCS.1375
Abstract: Spatial navigation in the absence of vision has been investigated from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. These different approaches have progressed our understanding of spatial knowledge acquisition by blind in iduals, including their abilities, strategies, and corresponding mental representations. In this review, we propose a framework for investigating differences in spatial knowledge acquisition by blind and sighted people consisting of three longitudinal models (i.e., convergent, cumulative, and persistent). Recent advances in neuroscience and technological devices have provided novel insights into the different neural mechanisms underlying spatial navigation by blind and sighted people and the potential for functional reorganization. Despite these advances, there is still a lack of consensus regarding the extent to which locomotion and wayfinding depend on amodal spatial representations. This challenge largely stems from methodological limitations such as heterogeneity in the blind population and terminological ambiguity related to the concept of cognitive maps. Coupled with an over‐reliance on potential technological solutions, the field has diffused into theoretical and applied branches that do not always communicate. Here, we review research on navigation by congenitally blind in iduals with an emphasis on behavioral and neuroscientific evidence, as well as the potential of technological assistance. Throughout the article, we emphasize the need to disentangle strategy choice and performance when discussing the navigation abilities of the blind population. WIREs Cogn Sci 2016, 7:37–58. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1375 This article is categorized under: Psychology Learning Neuroscience Cognition Neuroscience Plasticity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-03-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-022-07924-8
Abstract: The reliable assessment of cognitive functioning is critical to the study of brain-behaviour relationships. Yet conditions that are synchronous which ageing, including visual decline, are easily overlooked when interpreting cognitive test scores. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the negative consequences of visual impairments on cognitive tests performance. Moderate to severe levels of age-related macular degeneration were simulated, with a set of goggles, in a s le of twenty-four normally sighted participants while they completed two cognitive tasks: a vision-dependent reaction time task and a vision-independent verbal fluency test. Performance on the reaction time task significantly decreased ( p 0.001) in the simulated age-related macular degeneration condition, by as much as 25 percentile ranks. In contrast, performance on the verbal fluency test were not statistically different between the simulated and normal vision conditions ( p = 0.78). The findings highlight the importance of considering visual functioning when assessing cognitive function. When vision is not accounted for, low test scores may inaccurately indicate poor cognition. Such false attributions may have significant ramification for diagnosis and research on cognitive functioning.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 15-09-2017
Publisher: Royal College of Psychiatrists
Date: 08-08-2022
DOI: 10.1192/BJO.2022.558
Abstract: People with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can report reduced mental health. There is also evidence that they struggle with daily tasks because of vision loss. The purpose of this study was to assess the psychological impact of instrumental activities of daily living on people with simulated AMD. Twenty-four normally sighted participants completed 12 household tasks, in a simulated home environment, under a moderate-to-severe AMD simulation. Participants’ psychological state was measured through self-report questionnaires and physiological measurements related to anxiety and stress. Tasks were completed twice, under counterbalanced vision conditions (normal and simulated AMD). Linear mixed models on vision condition (normal versus simulated AMD) and trial order (trial 1 versus trial 2) revealed a significant large negative effect of the AMD simulation on time to complete tasks, and the anxiety, task engagement and distress self-reports (all P 0.024, all ω 2 0.177). There were also significant medium-large effects of trial order on time, task incompletion, task errors, and the anxiety and task engagement self-reports (all P 0.047, all ω 2 0.130), whereby the results improved during the second attempt at the tasks. No physiological measures were significant (all P 0.05). Completing instrumental activities of daily living under an AMD simulation had a negative impact on participants’ self-reported mental state. The observed trial order effects also illuminated how practice with tasks could ease anxiety and stress over time.
Publisher: MyJove Corporation
Date: 29-08-2018
DOI: 10.3791/58318
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2010
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROIMAGE.2010.06.065
Abstract: Classical theories of spatial microgenesis (Siegel and White, 1975) posit that information about landmarks and the paths between them is acquired prior to the establishment of more holistic survey-level representations. To test this idea, we examined the neural and behavioral correlates of landmark and path encoding during a real-world route learning episode. Subjects were taught a novel 3 km route around the University of Pennsylvania c us and then brought to the laboratory where they performed a recognition task that required them to discriminate between on-route and off-route buildings. Each building was preceded by a masked prime, which could either be the building that immediately preceded the target building along the route or immediately succeeded it. Consistent with previous reports using a similar paradigm in a virtual environment (Janzen and Weststeijn, 2007), buildings at navigational decision points (DPs) were more easily recognized than non-DP buildings and recognition was facilitated by in-route vs. against-route primes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected during the recognition task revealed two effects of interest: first, greater response to DP vs. non-DP buildings in a wide network of brain regions previously implicated in spatial processing second, a significant interaction between building location (DP vs. non-DP) and route direction (in-route vs. against-route) in a retrosplenial arietal-occipital sulcus region previously labeled the retrosplenial complex (RSC). These results indicate that newly learned real-world routes are coded in terms of paths between decision points and suggest that the RSC may be a critical locus for integrating landmark and path information.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 13-07-2018
Publisher: ACM
Date: 02-06-2020
Publisher: MyJove Corporation
Date: 26-08-2018
DOI: 10.3791/58155
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2023
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2019
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2012
Publisher: ETH Zurich
Date: 2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2012
Publisher: North American Cartographic Information Society
Date: 03-11-2014
DOI: 10.14714/CP77.1232
Abstract: We present the results of a study that investigated the interaction of strategy and scale on search quality and efficiency for vista-scale spaces. The experiment was designed such that sighted participants were required to locate “invisible” objects whose locations were marked only with audio cues, thus enabling sight to be used for search coordination, but not for object detection. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions: a small indoor space (~20 m2), a medium-sized outdoor space (~250 m2), or a large outdoor space (~1000 m2), and the entire search for each participant was recorded either by a laser tracking system (indoor) or by GPS (outdoor). Results revealed a clear relationship between the size of space and search strategy. In iduals were likely to use ad-hoc methods in smaller spaces, but they were much more likely to search large spaces in a systematic fashion. In the smallest space, 21.5% of in iduals used a systematic gridline search, but the rate increased to 56.2% for the medium-sized space, and 66.7% for the large-sized space. Similarly, in iduals were much more likely to revisit previously found locations in small spaces, but avoided doing so in large spaces, instead devoting proportionally more time to search. Our results suggest that even within vista-scale spaces, perceived transport costs increase at a decreasing rate with distance, resulting in a distinct shift in exploration strategy type.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2023
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2005
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 05-2017
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 04-2017
DOI: 10.1037/XLM0000314
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 06-2020
Abstract: Dense crowds in public spaces have often caused serious security issues at large events. In this paper, we study the 2010 Love Parade disaster, for which a large amount of data (e.g. research papers, professional reports and video footage) exist. We reproduce the Love Parade disaster in a three-dimensional computer simulation calibrated with data from the actual event and using the social force model for pedestrian behaviour. Moreover, we simulate several crowd management strategies and investigate their ability to prevent the disaster. We evaluate these strategies in virtual reality (VR) by measuring the response and arousal of participants while experiencing the simulated event from a festival attendee’s perspective. Overall, we find that opening an additional exit and removing the police cordons could have significantly reduced the number of casualties. We also find that this strategy affects the physiological responses of the participants in VR.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 05-2014
DOI: 10.1037/A0035261
Abstract: There are marked in idual differences in the formation of cognitive maps both in the real world and in virtual environments (VE e.g., Blajenkova, Motes, & Kozhevnikov, 2005 Chai & Jacobs, 2010 Ishikawa & Montello, 2006 Wen, Ishikawa, & Sato, 2011). These differences, however, are poorly understood and can be difficult to assess except by self-report methods. VEs offer an opportunity to collect objective data in environments that can be controlled and standardized. In this study, we designed a VE consisting of buildings arrayed along 2 separated routes, allowing for differentiation of between-route and within-route representation. Performance on a pointing task and a model-building task correlated with self-reported navigation ability. However, for participants with lower levels of between-route pointing, the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction scale (Hegarty, Richardson, Montello, Lovelace, & Subbiah, 2002) did not predict in idual differences in accuracy when pointing to buildings within the same route. Thus, we confirm the existence of in idual differences in the ability to construct a cognitive map of an environment, identify both the strengths and the potential weaknesses of self-report measures, and isolate a dimension that may help to characterize in idual differences more completely. The VE designed for this study provides an objective behavioral measure of navigation ability that can be widely used as a research tool.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-03-2013
DOI: 10.1002/HIPO.22111
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 22-09-2023
No related grants have been discovered for Victor Schinazi.