In recent years, there has been a significant growth in research on emotion expression in the field of human-robot interaction. In the process of human-robot interaction, the effect of the robot\'s emotional expression determines the user\'s experience and acceptance. Gaze is widely accepted as an important media to express emotions in human-human interaction. But it has been found that users have difficulty in effectively recognizing emotions such as happiness and anger expressed by animaloid robots that use eye contact individually. In addition, in real interaction, effective nonverbal expression includes not only eye contact but also physical expression. However, current animaloid social robots consider human-like eyes as the main emotion expression pathway, which results in a dysfunctional robot appearance and behavioral approach, affecting the quality of emotional expression. Based on retaining the effectiveness of eyes for emotional communication, we added a mechanical tail as a physical expression to enhance the robot\'s emotional expression in concert with the eyes. The results show that the collaboration between the mechanical tail and the bionic eye enhances emotional expression in all four emotions. Further more, we found that the mechanical tail can enhance the expression of specific emotions with different parameters. The above study is conducive to enhancing the robot\'s emotional expression ability in human-robot interaction and improving the user\'s interaction experience.

OBJECTIVE: Impaired speech-gesture matching has repeatedly been shown in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Here, we tested the hypothesis that schizotypal traits in the general population are related to reduced speech-gesture matching performance and reduced self-reports about gesture perception. We further explored the relationships between facets of schizotypy and gesture processing in a network model.
METHODS: Participants (1094 mainly healthy adults) were presented with concrete or abstract sentences accompanied with videos showing related or unrelated gestures. For each video, participants evaluated the alignment between speech and gesture. They also completed self-rating scales about the perception and production of gestures (Brief Assessment of Gesture scale) and schizotypal traits (Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief 22-item version). We analyzed bivariate associations and estimated a non-regularized partial Spearman correlation network. We characterized the network by analyzing bridge centrality and controllability metrics of nodes.
RESULTS: We found a negative relationship between both concrete and abstract gesture-speech matching performance and overall schizotypy. In the network, disorganization had the highest average controllability and it was negatively related to abstract speech-gesture matching. Bridge centralities indicated that self-reported production of gestures to enhance communication in social interactions connects self-reported gesture perception, schizotypal traits, and gesture processing task performance.
CONCLUSIONS: The association between impaired abstract speech-gesture matching and disorganization supports a continuum between schizophrenia and schizotypy. Using gestures to facilitate communication connects subjective and objective aspects of gesture processing and schizotypal traits. Future interventional studies in patients should test the potential causal pathways implied by this network model.

OBJECTIVE: High-quality communication is essential to patient-centered care. Existing communication models and research tends to focus on what is said verbally with little attention to nonverbal aspects of communication. In sensitive and emotionally intensive healthcare encounters, such as in cancer care, provider and patient nonverbal behavior may be particularly important for communicating with empathy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a conceptual model of communication that accounts for nonverbal behavior.
METHODS: We followed a systematic grounded theory design that involved semi-structured interviews with 23 providers, including nurse practitioners, physicians, surgeons, and physician\'s assistants. Using constant comparative analysis, we analyzed transcripts and developed a grounded theory model of communication accounting for nonverbal behavior.
RESULTS: The major themes included building rapport, gauging how patients will take bad news, ensuring patients\' understanding of their conditions, staying honest but hopeful, centering but guiding patient through cancer care, conveying empathy while managing heightened emotions, and ensuring patient understanding. Throughout the process, providers synthesize both verbal and nonverbal information and apply what they learn to future encounters.
CONCLUSIONS: The results extend existing models of patient-centered communication and invite communication intervention and research that incorporates nonverbal behavior. The model contributes an understanding of the full process of communication in clinical encounters.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often face challenges in early social communication skills, prompting the need for a detailed exploration of specific behaviors and their impact on cognitive and adaptive functioning. This study aims to address this gap by examining the developmental trajectories of early social communication skills in preschoolers with ASD aged 18-60 months, comparing them to age-matched typically developing (TD) children. Utilizing the early social communication scales (ESCS), the research employs a longitudinal design to capture changes over time. We apply a principal component analysis (PCA) to ESCS variables to identify underlying components, and cluster analysis to identify subgroups based on preverbal communication profiles. The results reveal consistent differences in early social communication skills between ASD and TD children, with ASD children exhibiting reduced skills. PCA identifies two components, distinguishing objects-directed behaviors and social interaction-directed behaviors. Cluster analysis identifies three subgroups of autistic children, each displaying specific communication profiles associated with distinct cognitive and adaptive functioning trajectories. In conclusion, this study provides a nuanced understanding of early social communication development in ASD, emphasizing the importance of low-level behaviors. The identification of subgroups and their unique trajectories contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of ASD heterogeneity. These findings underscore the significance of early diagnosis, focusing on specific behaviors predicting cognitive and adaptive functioning outcomes. The study encourages further research to explore the sequential development of these skills, offering valuable insights for interventions and support strategies.

There is no room for pragmatic expectations about communicative interactions in core cognition. Spelke takes the combinatorial power of the human language faculty to overcome the limits of core cognition. The question is: Why should the combinatorial power of the human language faculty support infants\' pragmatic expectations not merely about speech, but also about nonverbal communicative interactions?

Do the nonverbal signals used to make social judgements differ depending on the type of judgement being made and what other nonverbal signals are visible? Experiment 1 investigated how nonverbal signals across three channels (face: angry/fearful, posture: expanded/contracted, lean: forward/backward), when viewed together, were used for judgements of emotion, threat, and status. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 and explored how use of the body channels differed in making social judgements when the face channel was obscured. Both experiments found facial anger linked to high anger, threat, and status ratings; facial fear was linked to low ratings. Expanded body posture increased threat and status judgements, while backward lean decreased anger and threat. With the face channel blocked (Experiment 2B), the influence of body posture increased across emotion, threat, and status judgements, while body lean was more consistent. Findings demonstrate that despite the face\'s importance across types of social judgements, the body channels differentially contribute to judgements of emotion, threat and status. Further, they are differentially affected by the absence of facial information. How much face and body-related channels are used in social judgements is moderated by the type of judgement being made and the availability of other (particularly facial) channel information.

Online education has become increasingly popular in recent years, and video lectures have emerged as a common instructional format. While the importance of instructors\' nonverbal social cues such as gaze, facial expression, and gestures for learning progress in face-to-face teaching is well-established, their impact on instructional videos is not fully understood. Most studies on nonverbal social cues in instructional videos focus on isolated cues rather than considering multimodal nonverbal behavior patterns and their effects on the learning progress. This study examines the role of instructors\' nonverbal immediacy (a construct capturing multimodal nonverbal behaviors that reduce psychological distance) in video lectures with respect to learners\' cognitive, affective, and motivational outcomes. We carried out an eye-tracking experiment with 87 participants (Mage = 24.11, SD = 4.80). Results of multilevel path analyses indicate that high nonverbal immediacy substantially increases learners\' state motivation and enjoyment, but does not affect cognitive learning. Analyses of learners\' eye movements show that learners allocate more attention to the instructor than to the learning material with increasing levels of nonverbal immediacy displayed by the instructor. The study highlights the importance of considering the role of multimodal nonverbal behavior patterns in online education and provides insights for effective video lecture design.

UNASSIGNED: This study\'s purpose was to investigate how nurses, using a picture schedule, enable or hinder the realization of disabled children\'s agency in the preparation for an MRI procedure carried out under general anaesthesia.
UNASSIGNED: A qualitative observation study was used to explore the interaction of nurses and children. The data consisted of video recordings of 25 preparation situations of 3 (3-8 years old) children (with challenges in communication and/or cognitive skills) with 4 nurses. Verbal and nonverbal communication was analysed with interventionist applied conversation analysis.
UNASSIGNED: What was most crucial was how the picture schedule was used during the interaction. Reciprocal information sharing, responding to the child\'s initiatives by negotiating and allowing the child to take physical action with the picture schedule enabled the realization of the child\'s agency.
UNASSIGNED: The preparation process should aim to help the child prepare in his/her own way. The preparation tools should encourage reciprocal interaction in informing and in responding to the children\'s initiatives. The preparation practices should include enough time for the child\'s initiatives and physical participation. The results can be used in assessing preparation tools and how they are used from the perspective of the child\'s agency.

BACKGROUND: Suicide is a major public health problem, especially among the young population. Nurses are in a unique position to prevent it due to their constant contact with patients. However, addressing suicidal behaviour can be complicated by the emotional responses it elicits. Simulation has been shown to be an effective tool to increase the self-confidence of nursing students in dealing with these sensitive situations in a safe environment prior to dealing with real patients.
OBJECTIVE: To explore nursing students\' perceptions, thoughts, and emotions about their performance in dealing with risk for suicidal behaviour through simulated scenarios.
METHODS: Qualitative descriptive study.
METHODS: Students of Mental Health and Psychiatric II in the third year of the Nursing course at the University of Málaga were invited to explain their experience by answering a questionnaire of three open-ended questions following their participation in the simulated scenarios of the course.
RESULTS: A total of 72 students participated. Content analysis of the written responses identified three main themes: (i) Emotions experienced during the simulation; (ii) Self-criticism of the performance/intervention; (iii) Student evaluation of the learning experience. Most of the students indicated at some point during the clinical scenario, they had felt anxiety, proposing possible improvements in their own performance. The clinical scenario that elicited the most negative emotions was that of a person diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
CONCLUSIONS: Clinical simulations contribute to a better understanding of nursing practice with mental health patients and the need for training in emotional and therapeutic communication skills among students.

Guilt is a negative emotion elicited by realizing one has caused actual or perceived harm to another person. One of guilt\'s primary functions is to signal that one is aware of the harm that was caused and regrets it, an indication that the harm will not be repeated. Verbal expressions of guilt are often deemed insufficient by observers when not accompanied by nonverbal signals such as facial expression, gesture, posture, or gaze. Some research has investigated isolated nonverbal expressions in guilt, however none to date has explored multiple nonverbal channels simultaneously. This study explored facial expression, gesture, posture, and gaze during the real-time experience of guilt when response demands are minimal. Healthy adults completed a novel task involving watching videos designed to elicit guilt, as well as comparison emotions. During the video task, participants were continuously recorded to capture nonverbal behaviour, which was then analyzed via automated facial expression software. We found that while feeling guilt, individuals engaged less in several nonverbal behaviours than they did while experiencing the comparison emotions. This may reflect the highly social aspect of guilt, suggesting that an audience is required to prompt a guilt display, or may suggest that guilt does not have clear nonverbal correlates.