行為與社會科學

This study dives into the benefits of a heart rate (HR) monitoring application to aid families in identifying mood changes in children diagnosed with neurodivergence. Children with neurodivergence often struggle with communicating their emotions, which often results in tantrums or emotional outbursts, and this study plans to address this by creating an app that detects users’ HR to calculate heart rate variability (HRV) and detect when the user’s heart rate variability (HRV) levels become higher than usual. Heart-rate variability is defined as a small variation of the interval between every heartbeat, it’s calculated with the formula of . By looking at the developments of these small variations, it will be 60/𝐵𝑃𝑀 × 1000 easier to notice then the interval for heartbeats are shorter, meaning the body is in need of more blood pumped quickly for support. The app is connected to a heart rate sensor that is worn by the user. The heart-rate sensor frequently uploads data to the app which the app processes and carefully observes while looking for any sudden, dramatic change. The sensor and app was tested and proved to meet the expected requirements of functionality. Four participants with neurodivergence were asked to equip the heart-rate sensor and results showed that different developments of heart-rate variability were able to be detected by the app, these participants varied in their type of neurodivergence as well as their age. As an example, the third participant showed the purpose of the app most visibly, having a resting heart-rate of 86 BPM (697.67 ms) turning into a high 107 BPM (561.68ms) after changing activities. When the user’s sensor detects a sudden spike in heart-rate variability, the app notified the parent account about this change in emotion. This study has supported the relevance of using heart-rate variability to observe changes in mood.

色彩偏好影響生活的許多決策，對於背景對色彩偏好的影響，現行兩個色覺理論(對比理論與生態價理論)有不同的解釋，本研究以高中生為對象，旨在探討背景對色彩偏好影響與支持理論，並提出運用方向。 之前色彩定量方式缺乏對敏感度與視錐細胞的考量，本研究發展以中性灰為基礎對不同色彩的定量方法，並以此進行色彩偏好測試。實驗結果發現：顏色偏好會受到背景影響(支持對比理論)，背景對各色彩具不同影響力，偏黃偏綠顏色受背景影響較大；綠色與藍色背景提升偏黃與偏綠之顏色偏好而紅色背景則會下降(支持生態價理論)，背景亮度不影響顏色偏好。期望研究結果有助於青少年環境與產品設計配色參考，並對未來背景影響顏色的神經機制研究提供基礎。

The DIVE&CLEAN project is an educational and innovative initiative aimed at addressing a significant environmental challenge: marine pollution. With oceans covering over 70% of the Earth’s surface and providing a home to 50–80% of life on the planet, their health is critical. However, marine ecosystems are under threat due to plastic pollution, which impacts wildlife, coastal communities, and global biodiversity. This project centers around the idea of introducing underwater trash bins, especially in areas frequented by recreational divers. While most divers explore the seas without specific tools to collect trash, they could contribute significantly with the right infrastructure. The vision of DIVE&CLEAN is to inspire behavioral change, encourage collaboration, and promote actionable solutions to reduce ocean pollution. Using interactive robotics and storytelling, the project tells the story of divers rescuing animals entangled in plastic and collecting trash from the ocean floor using underwater bins. Through creative performances, it seeks to educate and motivate individuals, resorts, and authorities to adopt sustainable practices.

Conspiracy theories are generally perceived as irrational, absurd and as having a negative effect on our reputation. Yet some people do not see them as such. This may lead us to wonder why and how an individual would come to believe or support such statements. In this work, the primary goal is to obtain the level of absurdity of various conspiracy theories so that they can be used in experiments designed to test Williams' “Strategic Absurdity Hypothesis”. In addition, this study attempts to demonstrate the link between conspiracy mentality and feelings of ostracism. In this research, I analyzed a group of 47 participants recruited via social networks in May 2023. The survey collected their demographic information, their conspiracy mentality, their feeling of ostracism, their knowledge of conspiracy theories and their perception of absurdity toward them. The results were analyzed using correlations and linear regressions. The results show a negative correlation between conspiracy mentality and the perception of absurdity for most theories. In other words, the higher a participant's conspiracy mentality, the less absurd the theory is perceived to be. Therefore, hypothesis (I) is partially supported. On the other hand, hypothesis (II), which says that ostracism predicts conspiracy mentality, is not supported by the results. These results are in line with Williams' “Strategic Absurdity Hypothesis” and Sterelny's signaling theory, explaining that an individual, by expressing agreement with a conspiracy theory typically perceived as absurd, damages their reputation in the eyes of others to show that they belong to the group. However, for the theories relating to COVID-19 and climate change, the conspiracy mentality does not predict the vision of absurdity, suggesting that their currentness and media coverage influence whether they are used as signals. The literature does not fully agree with our results and still presents very divergent opinions regarding the links between feelings of ostracism and conspiracy mentality. Indeed, it remains difficult to determine whether conspiracy mentality influences ostracism or vice versa. In conclusion, this study provides new ideas for future research on the origins and impact of the conspiracy theories.

The DIVE&CLEAN project is an educational and innovative initiative aimed at addressing a significant environmental challenge: marine pollution. With oceans covering over 70% of the Earth’s surface and providing a home to 50–80% of life on the planet, their health is critical. However, marine ecosystems are under threat due to plastic pollution, which impacts wildlife, coastal communities, and global biodiversity. This project centers around the idea of introducing underwater trash bins, especially in areas frequented by recreational divers. While most divers explore the seas without specific tools to collect trash, they could contribute significantly with the right infrastructure. The vision of DIVE&CLEAN is to inspire behavioral change, encourage collaboration, and promote actionable solutions to reduce ocean pollution. Using interactive robotics and storytelling, the project tells the story of divers rescuing animals entangled in plastic and collecting trash from the ocean floor using underwater bins. Through creative performances, it seeks to educate and motivate individuals, resorts, and authorities to adopt sustainable practices.