University of Utrecht researcher Itir Onal Ertugrul, University of Miami researchers Yeojin Amy Ahn and Daniel Messinger along with others published a study on automated facial action recognition in infants – which focuses on training Action Unit detectors.
Read more “Infant AFAR: Automated facial action recognition in infants”
Interaction with unfamiliar partners is a component of social life from infancy onward. Yet little is known about preverbal communication with strangers. This study compared the development of infant communication with strangers to communication with mothers and fathers and examined the contribution of temperament to partner-specific communication patterns.
Determination of the severity of autism spectrum disorder is based in part on expert (but subjective) clinician observations during the ADOS-2. Two characteristics of child vocalizations—a smaller number of speech-like sounds per vocalization and higher pitched vocalizations (including cries)—were associated with greater autism symptom severity. Read more “Objective Measurement of Vocalizations in the Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms in Preschool-Age Children”
Daniel Messinger, Lynn Perry, et al. contributed to the book series “Advances in Child Development Behavior,” Volume 62 “New Methods and Approaches for Studying Child Development,” Chapter 7 “Computational Approaches to Understanding Interaction and Development,” which focuses on vocal interaction and development in children.
Read more “Computational Approaches to Understanding Interaction and Development”
A team of University of Miami researchers has put together an extensive study simulating the spread of COVID-19 based on observed movement using RIFD systems and modeled on classroom dispersion.
Read more “Simulating COVID19 Transmission From Observed Movement”
Data science is one of the fastest-growing fields because of its ability to address analytic needs. However, the supply of data scientists has remained limited. Academic institutions must adapt to meet demand through programs to train future data scientists. Read more “IEEE Computer Journal: Challenges and Issues in Data Science Education”
Children with hearing loss often attend inclusive preschool classrooms aimed at improving their spoken language skills. Although preschool classrooms are fertile environments for vocal interaction with peers, little is known about the dyadic processes that influence children’s speech to one another and foster their language abilities and how these processes may vary in children with hearing loss. A team of researchers from the University of Miami used new objective measurement approaches to identify and quantify children’s vocalizations during social contact, as determined by children’s proximity and mutual orientation.
Read more “Reciprocal patterns of peer speech in preschoolers with and without hearing loss”
A glaucoma specialist at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has developed novel statistical models for disease progression using the advanced computing resources of the Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC). Read more “Novel Glaucoma Study Applies IDSC Resources”
Congratulations to Prof. Amin Sarafraz who was one of the authors of an article that recently appeared in the Frontiers in Psychology Journal, under the research topic “Empirical Research at a Distance: New Methods for Developmental Science.” As Covid-19 affected in-person data collection, this group found an approach for estimating gaze direction and duration collected remotely from webcam recordings by using a combination of OpenFace and machine learning. Read more “Frontiers in Psychology: Remote Data Collection During a Pandemic”
Daniel Messinger, Jacquelyn Moffitt, et al. published a chapter (21) in Oxford Academic’s The Oxford Handbook of Emotional Development titled “Early Interaction: New Approaches.” The chapter focuses on new developments in behavior imaging, objective quantification of human action, and computational approaches to the study of early emotional interaction and development.