[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6376\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EHuman \u0027black box\u2019 provides insight into decision-making\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s one of several research projects using wearable technology to decipher our behaviour and help us learn to take the right decisions when it matters most.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers working with the Norwegian Police Service have been wiring up the trainees with a tiny camera embedded in a pair of glasses, known as a subcam, and a microphone. In the thick of a tense exercise \u2014 whether it\u2019s a shootout or a dealing with a local drunkard \u2014 every breath, every shake of their head and every glance is recorded \u2014 from their own perspective.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Sophie Le Bellu, a Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the UK, has been using the device, which is part of a so-called cognitive black box that can provide detailed insight into the decision-making process. Over 100 trainees at the Norwegian Police University College (PHS) have now worn them in a variety of simulations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Le Bellu says that the technique, known as subjective evidence-based ethnography, which she developed with Professor Saadi Lahlou of LSE who invented the device, plugs a gap in our understanding of behaviour and revolutionises introspection.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There are lots of methods for studying cognitive processes but when you want to understand what the person was thinking at the moment when they took the decision \u2014 we do not have that information,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOr, as the researchers put it in one of their papers, \u2018It provides the detailed \u0022how?\u0022 of the effects that are measured at aggregate level by other techniques\u2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe subcam is designed by the team\u0027s own research technicians as it requires higher-level specifications in terms of size, resolution, quality of sound and battery than devices currently available on the market.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe playback is so finely detailed it can pick up hesitation, fear (for example from head movements or breathing rate) and gesturing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPlaying back footage from their own point of view evokes far more detailed memories than simple recall or normal video ever could, a phenomenon known as situated cognition.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERecruits are learning how they communicate with their policing partners and how well they synchronise with them. In particular, says Dr Le Bellu, they get better at analysing their actions, understanding their own reflexes and tendencies, seeing what their limitations are, and spotting how their thought processes differ from their policing partners\u0027.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe technique has also been used in another situation where decision-making can be critical: a nuclear power station, run by French energy company EDF. In that case, the company was afraid that an upcoming glut of retirements amongst its engineers would mean the irrevocable loss of years of know-how and experience of the kind it is hard to transmit in a manual.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Le Bellu kitted the older engineers out with the cameras and microphones. Debriefing them afterwards about why they had tackled problems in a particular way shone a light on their decision-making and formed the basis of training materials for new recruits.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor those of us who never plan to be police or nuclear engineers, the technique can shine a light on more mundane decisions. For example, what (if anything) is going through the head of a mother who gives her child a sugary drink when plain water would be a better option?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAutomatic behaviour\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EQuestionnaires don\u2019t always hit on the real factors at play at the decision-making moment, but researchers have revealed the fine detail of these situations \u2014 in this case by fitting mothers with the devices in a Polish project \u2014 revealing that habit and automatic behaviour play a large role.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe emotions that drive our behaviour are not always conscious, of course. Dr Leonid Ivonin, a Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie research fellow at Bristol University, UK, is looking for ways of revealing how unconscious emotions may be controlling our decision-making.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy showing people film clips he has revealed a discrepancy between the emotions we report we have experienced, and our biological responses. For example, a film designed to make the viewer angry may indeed alter their breathing rate, skin temperature, skin conductance and blood pressure in the predicted way \u2014 but the viewer may report that they did not feel angry at all.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We ask participants how they feel and they can\u2019t really tell us but their bodies have clearly indicated that they hold particular emotional states,\u2019 said Dr Ivonin.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018These are unconscious, implicit states that we can\u2019t recognise in ourselves but our body, through physiological signals, exhibits them.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Ivonin is planning to expand this tracking of unconscious emotions so it becomes part of the growing phenomenon of lifelogging, or the \u2018quantified self\u2019. In the form of a wristband, it could then be used as a tool for understanding the unconscious forces at play when we make decisions, adding to \u2014 or even dispensing with \u2014 the use of questionnaires.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EShopping and happiness\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne perplexing area of decision-making he is trying to illuminate is the relationship between shopping and happiness.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018We ask participants how they feel and they can\u2019t really tell us but their bodies have clearly indicated that they hold particular emotional states.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Leonid Ivonin, Bristol University, UK\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYears of research have shown that money does buy us happiness \u2014 but not nearly as much as we think it will. We tend to overestimate both the duration and intensity of the happiness that a new purchase will bring. But not all purchases are the same.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Ivonin is homing in on how to record people\u2019s feelings before, during and after a purchase, in the hope that this data can be used to help us make better decisions. How did the anticipation of a meal out compare, for example, with the prospect of buying a cuddly toy? How did we feel as we bought them \u2014 and what were our emotions a day after the event?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe is designing \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ohpf.me\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ean app\u003C\/a\u003E in which participants log such feelings daily.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I hope that eventually it could advise people on what could be improved in their spending habits,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOnce his wristband is sufficiently developed, this would replace the app, so that people will no longer have to laboriously answer questions about how they feel.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUltimately each of us could be sporting a wristband that will monitor our unconscious emotions throughout the ups and downs of our consumer day. Dr Ivonin envisions the data from this wristband feeding into a personal database which would become a kind of oracle, issuing guidance on what kind of happiness we might expect from the next big purchase \u2014 and perhaps steering us in another direction.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-u-6qoj4bzctkeidtll0uig2wmzwm6xil6ezxdxkbitc\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-U-6qoJ4bzcTkeidtlL0uIG2WmZWm6Xil6eZxDXkBiTc\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]