Proposal

Name:

Devices for measuring implicit behavior in social conflict and reconciliation

FiscalYear:

2013

Audience:

Science, College of

Submitter:

Wong, Alexander

Budget Manager:

Blanchard, Dominique

Project Manager:

Vallacher, Robin R

Proposal Approvers

Dept. Chair:

Wolgin, David L

Local IT:

N/A

Dean:

Ivy, Russell L.

Facilities:

N/A

OIT:

Campbell, Glen R.

Proposal Funding

Year 1:

$ 23,496.67

Year 2:

$ 0.00

Year 3:

$ 0.00

Total:

$ 23,496.67

Proposal Funding versus Average

Questionnaire

Narrative

Goals

This grant proposal requests funding for devices in order to examine patterns of emotion, arousal, and eye gaze underlying conflict and well-being in couples.  We believe novel contributions to the study of conflict and well-being are to be found using a complex systems perspective.  We request eye trackers, computerized emotion detection software, and physiological arousal sensors because these types of devices offer the rich dynamic behavioral streams necessary for examining the interdependence, feedback loops, and patterns of synchronization that occur between couples engaged in social interaction.  It is the goal of this lab to understand how variation in patterns of coordination in eye gaze, emotion, and physiological arousal relate to interpersonal conflict and well-being.  The requested devices can foster creative research since they offer access to areas relatively uncommon in social psychology.  Several of their strengths include they are direct measurements of behavior, especially implicit behavior, they are unobtrusive, they yield densely-sampled data over fast time scales, and they are powerful for capturing real-life behaviors in social interaction.  Additionally, funding for this grant proposal is merited by its strong resonance with the goals and signature themes of FAU’s 2012-2017 strategic plan.  We thank you for your consideration.        

Requested devices for achieving these goals

Eye tracking hardware and software

  1.         Gazepoint GP3 desktop eyetracker with Gazepoint analysis & GP3 Laptop mount bundle
  2.         Gazepoint GP3 desktop eyetracker
  3.         Gazepoint GP3 VESA Screen mount

Computerized emotion detection software

  1.         Noldus FaceReader
  2.         Noldus FaceReader Project Analysis Module 

Physiological arousal sensor hardware

  1.         Basis Band sensors

SoSoftware Integration Platform

  1. Noldus The Observer XT 11.5: Base Module (+Advanced Analysis Module)
  2. Noldus Media Recorder 2.5
  3. Noldus Multiple Media Module, 4 Media
  4. Noldus Media Recorder Hardware (framegrabber)


Justification of requested devices to achieve stated goals

Computerized emotion detection software.  We intend to study the social interaction of conflict and well-being in couples directly, rather than depending solely on indirect, static, and abstracted questionnaire methods.  One of the ways we intend to achieve this research goal is by using Noldus FaceReader software.  The FaceReader software uses a neural network algorithm to make probabilistic guesses of a participant’s emotion.  The FaceReader has been shown to have high validity, agreeing 87% with human expert observers of emotion.  The input to the FaceReader is a facial recording, either from a live interaction stream, or from an existing video.  A strength of this method is that it can directly capture very fast emotion and valence changes in a social interaction, much of which may be beyond conscious recall or awareness of the participant.  By recording the faces of each partner in a conflict interaction or reconciliation interaction, we can examine dynamic patterns of emotional coordination, lead-lag relationships, and developmental changes.   

Gaze Point GP3 eye tracker.  From facilitating informational pickup to motivating social influence, the informational role of eye gazes in social interaction is difficult to overstate.  For this reason we request eye tracking hardware and software.  There is value in the use of eye tracker technology since they are relatively uncommon in social psychology experiments.  Secondly, eye tracking strongly pairs with the aforementioned emotion detection software.  Experiments that utilize these two technologies in tandem can explore the coordinated interplay between gaze fixation regions (areas of interest), fixation dynamics, and emotional response.  In general, these technologies permit questions such as how attentional, visual, and emotional resources are deployed and coordinated differently in couples that are perpetually in conflict versus couples with positive well-being.

Physiological arousal sensor hardware.  The lab requests Basis Band sensors.  These sensors are worn around the wrist to measure physiological arousal, heart rate, motion, skin temperature, and other biometrics.  They can be worn comfortably for long time periods and gather physiological data unobtrusively.  The Basis Band sensors complement eye tracking and the FaceReader as similar method for collecting quick changing emotional responses, which the participant may unable to articulate, over fast time scales.  The Basis Band measures arousal by detecting the galvanic skin response around a participant’s wrist.  Since the Basis bands are unobtrusive and can record for long intervals, they are ideal for both laboratory experiments as well daily life longitudinal sampling.  The Basis Bands allows for questions of how arousal, real-life processes such as social interactions and daily events, relationships, and individual differences covary.  Their utility is noteworthy in the case of conflict interactions.  The dynamics of a participant’s arousal and perception of his partner’s arousal is likely to have strategic consequences in the deployment of attentional and emotional resources and coordination.

Noldus Observer XT 11.5 and modules.  Each of the devices (eye tracker, emotion detector, arousal sensor) on its own offers a valuable way of exploring conflict and well-being in social interactions, but when they are combined their benefits strong reinforce one another synergistically.  For this reason we request the Noldus Observer XT and its add-on modules.  The Observer XT is an integrative platform that can launch and synchronize the Noldus FaceReader software, the GazePoint GP3 eye tracker, and Inquisit stimulus-delivery program.  Without this automated solution to synchronize these various external programs, there would be no manual way to synchronize them.  The Noldus Media Recorder 2.5   With the Observer XT, we can harness the synergy of multiple time series patterns of eye gazes, emotion, and arousal to examine covariation structures, both within and between individuals and couples.  We are prepared to use these methods immediately given the lab’s experience in nonlinear methods, experimental design, and analysis of dynamic and synchronized data (e.g., multilevel modeling, fractal analyses, recurrence quantification analysis, time series analyses, computational modeling, etc.).  

We are confident that the proposed research agenda is consistent with the signature themes and goals in FAU’s strategic plan and thank you for your time and consideration of our grant proposal.

Benefits to students and the university

Goal 1: Enrich the educational experience

Objectives

A. Enhance the quality of undergraduate academic programs

Strategies

A.6 Expand the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) initiatives

A.8 Identify and expand programs that develop in students the talents and skills that promote economic development

A.6, A.8: Undergraduate students that work with the requested devices (eye tracking, arousal monitors, and emotion detection) are learning valuable skills for occupational success in both academic and non-academic careers.  For example, with the development of eye tracker technology and the advent of cheap trackers, many video games, electronics, and mobile devices are incorporating eye movement and arousal as input, just as smart phones have added touch.  Examples include Tobii, a major eye tracker company, which has recently begun selling a consumer-level eye tracker meant for video gaming, the PIP (Personal Input Pod), which is a recent biosensor gaming platform that uses arousal (via galvanic skin response) as an input for a therapeutic racing game, and the requested Basis Band sensor, a sports watch that utilizes biometric data and is a consumer level health and fitness product.  Experience with the requested emotion tracker will also benefit the undergraduate psychology students that also seek advertising, consumer psychology, or business careers.  Market researchers often employ in consumer testing the dynamic emotional response to a product as part of the development process.  Many websites, television ads, print media are designed using the emotional response of focus groups to a product; this is in fact one of core ways the requested FaceReader software is widely used.

          Objectives

          B. Strengthen and expand graduate programs

                    Strategies

B.3 Expand graduate program support in areas that strengthen the signature themes of the university

Signature Themes

Biotechnology

                   Contemporary Societal Challenges

B.4 Increase the number of terminal or doctoral degree conferrals to levels consistent with the requirements of a RU/VH research University

B.3. This grant proposal is consistent with FAU’s goal of achieving its signature themes of “contemporary societal challenges.”  Eye tracking research, for example, enhances FAU’s signature theme of contemporary social challenges because understanding the patterns of how people use their eyes, where they look, and what information they use in social interactions can ultimately be important for designing assistive technologies in healthcare, “smart” work, home, and educational system environments with more human artificial intelligence, software, or robotics.  Emotional co-regulation also relates to FAU’s signature theme because how people coordinate their moods with others, or use their emotion to influence others, has valuable implications for the contemporary societal challenge of conflict resolution, health, and positive well-being, and in particular, the well-being of romantic relationships.  Several studies illustrate this idea that coordination of emotional and self-regulation are strongly implicated in issues of well-being.  For example, in married adults, cyclic patterns of emotional influence in couples strongly relate to marital satisfaction and divorce rates.  In mother-child relations, studies have shown that coordination of eye movements between mother and child relate to the development of self-regulation and self-control; arguably one of the strongest predictors of life outcomes. 

The proposal also coincides with FAU’s goal of achieving another signature theme of “biotechnology,” since the requesting lab applies the complex systems paradigm to experimental psychology.  Additionally, psychobiology is implicated by the use of the requested devices (biometric sensors).   

B.4: This grant proposal is also consistent with FAU’s goal of achieving its graduate program objective of increasing the number of doctoral degree conferrals befitting a very high research activity university.  By adopting and maintaining a reputation of cutting edge methodology FAU’s graduate program will attract larger numbers of talented graduate student applicants, which in turn will lead to higher degree conferral rates.        

Goal 2: Inspire research, scholarship, and creative activity

          Objectives

          A. Increase scholarship and creativity

                   Strategies

A.2 Maintain and strengthen the necessary facilities, equipment, and staff support in colleges for faculty and researchers to engage in research, scholarship, and creative activity

A.4 Establish a pool of funds to support scholarship and creativity in departments or individuals with the highest performance under this objective

          B. Increase funded research

                   Strategies

B.4 Place greater emphasis on seed money from internal resources to develop funded research programs.

C. Enhance the regard and visibility of our research, scholarship and creativity

A.2, A.4, B.4, C.: Cutting edge technologies, such as the requested eye trackers, emotion detectors, and biometric sensors, allow for novel, creative, and powerful ways to augment the more traditional methods of social psychological research.  Several of the advantages and unique properties of these methods are as follows.  These methods are capable of direct measurements of both explicit and implicit behavior.  The measurements occur over ultrafast time scales that are uncommon in social psychology experiments, particularly for behaviors other than reaction times.  These methods can stretch the power of traditional questionnaire assessments in exploring the rich coordinated and dynamic behavior of real interactions of multiple subjects in a social situation.  Moreover, the utility and creative potential for these methods grow dramatically when they are synergistically used in tandem.  

Goal 3: Increase FAU’s community engagement

          Objectives

          B. Increase the number of community partnerships

          Strategies

B.1 Highlight and emphasize the impact, value and benefit that FAU’s various centers have on the health, wellbeing, and life quality of the communities they serve

          C. Focus on the unique opportunities of FAU’s stewardship of place

C.1. Recognize and expand the presence and activities of centers and departments in support of identified signature theme

C.2. Recognize and support the expertise of faculty, staff and students and develop more interdisciplinary units of study that serve the community in areas identified as signature themes

          B.1, C.1, C.2: This grant proposal meets FAU in its commitment to enhancing the health and wellbeing of its community since the intended use of the requested devices is to study mechanisms that underlie conflict resolution, well-being in social interactions, with a special emphasis on romantic relationships.  The requested devices will yield novel insight into the study of community and societal issues such as marital discord, relationship stability, and wellbeing, and are thus consistent with FAU’s signature theme in contemporary societal challenges of conflict resolution and health.  As noted earlier, the perspective adopted in these studies will be informed by complex systems and experimental psychology, and thus also coincide with FAU’s biotechnology theme.

Facilities
None
Hardware Requirements

Gazepoint Eyetracker (http://gazept.com/products/)

Gazepoint GP3 desktop eyetracker with gazepoint analysis (Professional Edition) & GP3 VESA mount bundle (x1) = $1495

The gazepoint analysis software is sold bundled with the Gazepoint Eye tracker hardware.

Gazepoint GP3 desktop eyetracker (x1) = $495

Gazepoint GP3 VESA Screen mount (x1) = $120



Basis Band sensor (https://store.mybasis.com/)

Basis Band sensor (x9) $199 = $1791

Basis shipping: free shipping


Noldus Media Recorder Hardware (http://www.noldus.com/the-observer-xt/modules)

Noldus Media Recorder Hardware (framegrabber) (x1) = $1100


All hardware listed complies with IRM standards.

Hardware Total = $5001


Software Requirements

Noldus emotion detection software (http://www.noldus.com/human-behavior-research/products/facereader)

Noldus FaceReader 5.1 (1 license) = $6125

Noldus FaceReader 5.1: Project Analysis Module (1 license) = $1465


Noldus Observer XT integration platform (http://www.noldus.com/human-behavior-research/products/the-observer-xt)

Noldus The Observer XT 11.5: Base Module (+Advanced Analysis Module) (1 license) = $2625

Noldus Media Recorder 2.5 (1 license) = $1330

Noldus Multiple Media Module, 4 media (1 license) = $6800


Software Total: $18345

Personnel Costs
None
Other Costs
Gazepoint shipping: $50.67 

Noldus estimated shipping, tax: $100

Other Total: $150.67
Timeline

Upon funding the items can be purchased immediately, and experiments can begin.  The requested software and hardware can be used indefinitely for research projects upon acquisition. 

Sustainability

The project is highly sustainable following funding.  The funding request is a one-time request limited to a single year for purchase of hardware and software.  No additional funds are needed for maintenance costs or subscription fees.

Resource Matching
N/A
Implementing Organization
The Department of Psychology will implement the project under leadership of Alex Wong, doctoral student, and faculty advisors Dr. Robin Vallacher and Dr. Andrzej Nowak.   

Proposal Budget

Fiscal Year 1 Fiscal Year 2 Fiscal Year 3 Total
Hardware One-Time $ 5,001.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 5,001.00
Hardware Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Software One-time $ 18,345.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 18,345.00
Software Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Personnel One-time $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Personnel Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Other One-time $ 150.67 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 150.67
Other Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Totals $ 23,496.67 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 23,496.67

Supporting Documentation

Filename Size Description
Basis band products price.pdf 131,894b PDF of shopping cart with Basis Band sensors
Gazepoint products price.pdf 90,368b PDF of shopping cart with Gazepoint eye trackers, analysis package, and screen mount
Noldus itemized price list.pdf 472,750b PDF of itemized list of Noldus products on pages 3-4, from account manager Wilant van Giessen