Patrick Weis Ph.D.

Ph.D. Patrick Weis

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Lehrstuhl für Psychologie III

Röntgenring 11

97070 Würzburg

Deutschland

Gebäude: Hörsaalgebäude

Raum: H 10

Telefon: +49 931 31-86456

E-Mail: patrick.weis@uni-wuerzburg.de

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2024[ to top ]

Weis, P. P., & Kunde, W. (2024). Switching between different cognitive strategies induces switch costs as evidenced by switches between manual and mental object rotation. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 6217. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56836-2
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Switching between tasks entails costs when compared to repeating the same task. It is unclear whether switch costs also occur when repeating the same task but switching the underlying cognitive strategy (CS). Here, we investigated whether CS switch costs exist despite overlap in mental processing between CSs and a lack of abstract goal (always ``solve task X'') or answer key binding switches. Specifically, we asked participants to judge the identity of two misaligned objects by either mental or manual computer-mediated object rotation. In each trial of Block 1, to measure switch costs without choice-related cognitive processes, a cue indicated which CS (mental/manual) to use. In Block 2, the CS was freely chosen. Participants exhibited considerable CS switch costs for both cued and freely chosen switches. Moreover, Block 1 switch costs moderately predicted Block 2 switch frequency, while an overall tendency for CS repetition was observed. In sum, we found that switch costs are not confined to situations in which tasks are switched but generalize to situations in which the task stays identical and the CS is switched instead. The results have implications for modern computerized cognitive environments in which a multitude of cognitive strategies is available for the same task.

2023[ to top ]

Abubshait, A., Weis, P. P., Momen, A., & Wiese, E. (2023). Perceptual discrimination in the face perception of robots is attenuated compared to humans. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 16708. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42510-6
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When interacting with groups of robots, we tend to perceive them as a homogenous group where all group members have similar capabilities. This overgeneralization of capabilities is potentially due to a lack of perceptual experience with robots or a lack of motivation to see them as individuals (i.e., individuation). This can undermine trust and performance in human--robot teams. One way to overcome this issue is by designing robots that can be individuated such that each team member can be provided tasks based on its actual skills. In two experiments, we examine if humans can effectively individuate robots: Experiment 1 (n{\thinspace}={\thinspace}225) investigates how individuation performance of robot stimuli compares to that of human stimuli that either belong to a social ingroup or outgroup. Experiment 2 (n{\thinspace}={\thinspace}177) examines to what extent robots' physical human-likeness (high versus low) affects individuation performance. Results show that although humans are able to individuate robots, they seem to individuate them to a lesser extent than both ingroup and outgroup human stimuli (Experiment 1). Furthermore, robots that are physically more humanlike are initially individuated better compared to robots that are physically less humanlike; this effect, however, diminishes over the course of the experiment, suggesting that the individuation of robots can be learned quite quickly (Experiment 2). Whether differences in individuation performance with robot versus human stimuli is primarily due to a reduced perceptual experience with robot stimuli or due to motivational aspects (i.e., robots as potential social outgroup) should be examined in future studies.
Weis, P. P., & Kunde, W. (2023). Primacy Effects in Extended Cognitive Strategy Choice: Initial Speed Benefits Outweigh Later Speed Benefits. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187208231195747
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Daria Dołżycka, J., Nikadon, J., Weis, P. P., Herbert, C., & Formanowicz, M. (2023). Linguistic and emotional responses evoked by pseudoword presentation: An EEG and behavioral study. Brain and Cognition, 168, 105973. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2023.105973
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Weis, P. P., & Kunde, W. (2023). Overreliance on inefficient computer-mediated information retrieval is countermanded by strategy advice that promotes memory-mediated retrieval. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 8(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-023-00526-6
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2022[ to top ]

Wiese, E., Weis, P. P., Bigman, Y., Kapsaskis, K., & Gray, K. (2022). It’s a Match: Task Assignment in Human--Robot Collaboration Depends on Mind Perception. International Journal of Social Robotics, 14(1), 141-148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-021-00771-z
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Robots are becoming more available for workplace collaboration, but many questions remain. Are people actually willing to assign collaborative tasks to robots? And if so, exactly which tasks will they assign to what kinds of robots? Here we leverage psychological theories on person-job fit and mind perception to investigate task assignment in human--robot collaborative work. We propose that people will assign robots to jobs based on their ``perceived mind,'' and also that people will show predictable social biases in their collaboration decisions. In this study, participants performed an arithmetic (i.e., calculating differences) and a social (i.e., judging emotional states) task, either alone or by collaborating with one of two robots: an emotionally capable robot or an emotionally incapable robot. Decisions to collaborate (i.e., to assign the robots to generate the answer) rates were high across all trials, especially for tasks that participants found challenging (i.e., the arithmetic task). Collaboration was predicted by perceived robot-task fit, such that the emotional robot was assigned the social task. Interestingly, the arithmetic task was assigned more to the emotionally incapable robot, despite the emotionally capable robot being equally capable of computation. This is consistent with social biases (e.g., gender bias) in mind perception and person-job fit. The theoretical and practical implications of this work for HRI are being discussed.
Weis, P. P., Nikadon, J., Herbert, C., & Formanowicz, M. (2022). The verb--self link: An implicit association test study. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29(5), 1946-1959. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02105-0
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Agency is defined as the ability to assign and pursue goals. Given people's focus on achieving their own goals, agency has been found to be strongly linked to the self. In two studies (N = 168), we examined whether this self--agency link is visible from a linguistic perspective. As the preferred grammatical category to convey agency is verbs, we hypothesize that, in the Implicit Association Test (IAT), verbs (vs. nouns) would be associated more strongly with the self (vs. others). Our results confirmed this hypothesis. Participants exhibited particularly fast responses when reading self-related stimuli (e.g., ``me'' or ``my'') and verb stimuli (e.g., ``deflect'' or ``contemplate'') both necessitated pressing an identical rather than different response keys in the IAT (d = .25). The finding connects two streams of literature---on the link between agency and verbs and on the link between self and agency---suggesting a triad between self, agency, and verbs. We argue that this verb--self link (1) opens up new perspectives for understanding linguistic expressions of agency and (2) expands our understanding of how word choice impacts socio-cognitive processing.
Weis, P. P., & Herbert, C. (2022). Do I still like myself? Human-robot collaboration entails emotional consequences. Computers in Human Behavior, 127, 107060. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.107060
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2021[ to top ]

Abubshait, A., Weis, P. P., & Wiese, E. (2021). Does Context Matter? Effects of Robot Appearance and Reliability on Social Attention Differs Based on Lifelikeness of Gaze Task. International Journal of Social Robotics, 13(5), 863-876. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-020-00675-4
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Social signals, such as changes in gaze direction, are essential cues to predict others' mental states and behaviors (i.e., mentalizing). Studies show that humans can mentalize with nonhuman agents when they perceive a mind in them (i.e., mind perception). Robots that physically and/or behaviorally resemble humans likely trigger mind perception, which enhances the relevance of social cues and improves social-cognitive performance. The current experiments examine whether the effect of physical and behavioral influencers of mind perception on social-cognitive processing is modulated by the lifelikeness of a social interaction. Participants interacted with robots of varying degrees of physical (humanlike vs. robot-like) and behavioral (reliable vs. random) human-likeness while the lifelikeness of a social attention task was manipulated across five experiments. The first four experiments manipulated lifelikeness via the physical realism of the robot images (Study 1 and 2), the biological plausibility of the social signals (Study 3), and the plausibility of the social context (Study 4). They showed that humanlike behavior affected social attention whereas appearance affected mind perception ratings. However, when the lifelikeness of the interaction was increased by using videos of a human and a robot sending the social cues in a realistic environment (Study 5), social attention mechanisms were affected both by physical appearance and behavioral features, while mind perception ratings were mainly affected by physical appearance. This indicates that in order to understand the effect of physical and behavioral features on social cognition, paradigms should be used that adequately simulate the lifelikeness of social interactions.

2020[ to top ]

Weis, P. P., & Wiese, E. (2020). Know Your Cognitive Environment! Mental Models as Crucial Determinant of Offloading Preferences. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 64(3), 499–513. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720820956861
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Weis, P. P., & Wiese, E. (2020). Investing in brain-based memory leads to decreased use of technology-based memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 26(3), 465–479. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000259
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Wiese, E., & Weis, P. P. (2020). It matters to me if you are human - Examining categorical perception in human and nonhuman agents. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 133, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2019.08.002
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2019[ to top ]

Weis, P. P., & Wiese, E. (2019). Problem Solvers Adjust Cognitive Offloading Based on Performance Goals. Cognitive Science, 43(12), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12802
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2018[ to top ]

Weis, P. P., & Wiese, E. (2018). Using Tools to Help Us Think: Actual but Also Believed Reliability Modulates Cognitive Offloading. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 61(2), 243–254. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720818797553
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Wiese, E., Weis, P. P., & Lofaro, D. M. (2018). Embodied social robots trigger gaze following in real-time HRI. 2018 15th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR), 477-482. https://doi.org/10.1109/URAI.2018.8441825
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When interacting with others, we use information from gestures, facial expressions and gaze direction to make inferences about what others think, feel or intend to do. Gaze direction also triggers shifts of attention to gazed-at locations and establishes joint attention between gazer and observer. The ability to follow gaze develops early in life and is a prerequisite for more complex social-cognitive processes like action perception, mentalizing and language acquisition. It has been shown that robot gaze induces similar gaze following effects in observers as human gaze, with positive effects on attitudes and performance in human-robot interaction. However, so far most studies have used images or videos in controlled laboratory settings to investigate gaze following in human-robot interaction rather than realistic social embodied robot platforms. The current experiment shows that gaze following can be observed in real-time interactions with embodied social robot platforms. The implications of this finding for human-robot interaction are discussed.

2017[ to top ]

Weis, P. P., & Herbert, C. (2017). Bodily Reactions to Emotional Words Referring to Own versus Other People’s Emotions. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(1277), Article 1277. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01277
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According to embodiment theories, language and emotion affect each other. In line with this, several previous studies investigated changes in bodily responses including facial expressions, heart rate or skin conductance during affective evaluation of emotional words and sentences. This study investigates the embodiment of emotional word processing from a social perspective by experimentally manipulating the emotional valence of a word and its personal reference. Stimuli consisted of pronoun-noun pairs, i.e., positive, negative, and neutral nouns paired with possessive pronouns of the first or the third person (“my,” “his”) or the non-referential negation term (“no”) as controls. Participants had to quickly evaluate the word pairs by key presses as either positive, negative, or neutral, depending on the subjective feelings they elicit. Hereafter, they elaborated the intensity of the feeling on a non-verbal scale from 1 (very unpleasant) to 9 (very pleasant). Facial expressions (M. Zygomaticus, M. Corrugator), heart rate, and, for exploratory purposes, skin conductance were recorded continuously during the spontaneous and elaborate evaluation tasks. Positive pronoun-noun phrases were responded to the quickest and judged more often as positive when they were self-related, i.e., related to the reader’s self (e.g., “my happiness,” “my joy”) than when related to the self of a virtual other (e.g., “his happiness,” “his joy”), suggesting a self-positivity bias in the emotional evaluation of word stimuli. Physiologically, evaluation of emotional, unlike neutral pronoun-noun pairs initially elicited an increase in mean heart rate irrespective of stimulus reference. Changes in facial muscle activity, M. Zygomaticus in particular, were most pronounced during spontaneous evaluation of positive other-related pronoun-noun phrases in line with theoretical assumptions that facial expressions are socially embedded even in situation where no real communication partner is present. Taken together, the present results confirm and extend the embodiment hypothesis of language by showing that bodily signals can be differently pronounced during emotional evaluation of self- and other-related emotional words.
Weis, P. P., & Wiese, E. (2017). Cognitive Conflict as Possible Origin of the Uncanny Valley. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 61(1), 1599–1603. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541931213601763
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2016[ to top ]

Feld, G. B., Weis, P. P., & Born, J. (2016). The Limited Capacity of Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation. Frontiers in Psychology, 7(1368), Article 1368. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01368
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Sleep supports memory consolidation. However, the conceptually important influence of the amount of items encoded in a memory test on this effect has not been investigated. In two experiments, participants (n = 101) learned lists of word-pairs varying in length (40, 160, 320 word-pairs) in the evening before a night of sleep (sleep group) or of sleep deprivation (wake group). After 36 h (including a night allowing recovery sleep) retrieval was tested. Compared with wakefulness, post-learning sleep enhanced retention for the 160 word-pair condition (p < 0.01), importantly, this effect completely vanished for the 320 word-pair condition. This result indicates a limited capacity for sleep-dependent memory consolidation, which is consistent with an active system consolidation view on sleep’s role for memory, if it is complemented by processes of active forgetting and/or gist abstraction. Whereas the absolute benefit from sleep should have increased with increasing amounts of successfully encoded items, if sleep only passively protected memory from interference. Moreover, the finding that retention performance was significantly diminished for the 320 word-pair condition compared to the 160 word-pair condition in the sleep group, makes it tempting to speculate that with increasing loads of information encoded during wakefulness, sleep might favor processes of forgetting over consolidation.

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Topics center around understanding and improving how humans think with their environments. More recent examples include interactions with robots or conversations with generative AI. Less recent examples include using calculators, internet search, or writing a shopping list. Specifically, topics could include performance monitoring (for example: how do we know whether an AI is fast and accurate?), affective consequences (for example: how do we feel after outsourcing thinking?), or the reasons for seeking environment-based help (for example: why do we ask generative AI instead of our partner or relying on our own memory?).

Ph.D. Patrick Weis

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