Bruno Berberian

• Doctor of Psychology
• Researcher at Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales

The sense of agency refers to the experience of authorship and control over self-generated actions and their effects. It is believed to be tightly linked to cerebral processes predicting the sensory consequences of action. Furthermore, predictions are considered central to the formation of percepts. Yet, the influence of the sense of agency on perc...

The sense of agency refers to the experience of control over voluntary actions and their effects. There is growing interest in the notion of we-agency, whereby individual sense of agency is supplanted by a collective agentic experience. The existence of this unique agentic state would have profound implications for human responsibility, and, as suc...

Individuals are increasingly required to interact with complex and autonomous technologies, which often has a significant impact on the control they experience over their actions and choices. A better characterization of the factors responsible for modulating the control experience of human operators is therefore a major challenge to improve the qu...

Purpose Self-motion perception is a key factor in daily behaviours such as driving a car or piloting an aircraft. It is mainly based on visuo-vestibular integration, whose weighting mechanisms are modulated by the reliability properties of sensory inputs. Recently, it has been shown that the internal state of the operator can also modulate multisen...

Self-motion perception is a key element guiding pilots' behavior. Its importance is mostly revealed when impaired, leading in most cases to spatial disorientation which is still today a major factor of accidents occurrence. Self-motion perception is known as mainly based on visuo-vestibular integration and can be modulated by the physical propertie...

The deployment of artificial intelligence from experimental settings to concrete applications implies to consider the social aspects of the environment and consequently to conceive the interaction between humans and computers endowed with the aim of being partners in action. This article proposes a review of the research initiatives regarding human...

In this article, we suggest that the study of social interactions and the development of a “sense of agency” in joint action can help determine the content of relevant explanations to be implemented in artificial systems to make them “explainable.” The introduction of automated systems, and more broadly of Artificial Intelligence (AI), into many do...

Supervision of automated systems is an ubiquitous aspect of most of our everyday life activities which is even more necessary in high risk industries (aeronautics, power plants, etc.). Performance monitoring related to our own error making has been widely studied. Here we propose to assess the neurofunctional correlates of system error detection. W...

Repeated interactions with automated systems are known to affect how agents experience their own actions and choices. The present study explores the possibility of partially restoring sense of agency in operators interacting with automated systems by providing additional information about the system's decision, i.e. its confidence. To do so, we imp...

Although previous investigations reported a reduced sense of agency when individuals act with traditional machines, little is known about the mechanisms underpinning interactions with human-like automata. The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to investigate the effect of the machine’s physical appearance on the individuals’ sense of agency, and (2...

The ability to maintain an appropriate level of vigilance over long periods of time underlies success on a range of tasks. Particularly, staying alert allows to detect infrequent signals and to allocate the right level of cognitive resources to respond to expected or unexpected events. A review of literature shows that some physiological markers ca...

The introduction of automated systems, and more broadly of Artificial Intelligence (AI), into many domains has profoundly changed the nature of human activity, as well as the subjective experience that agents have of their own actions and their consequences – an experience that is commonly referred to as "sense of agency" (SoA). In this review, we...

Multitasking situations, such as using one’s phone while driving, are increasingly common in everyday life. Experimental psychology has long documented the costs of multitasking on task performance; however, little is known of the effects it has on the metacognitive processes that monitor such performance. The present study is a step toward filling...

The phenomenon of mind wandering (MW), as a family of experiences related to internally directed cognition, heavily influences vigilance evolution. In particular, humans in teleoperations monitoring partially automated fleet before assuming manual control whenever necessary may see their attention drift due to internal sources; as such, it could pl...

Cognitive fatigue is a problem for the safety of critical systems (e.g., aircraft) as it can lead to accidents, especially during unexpected events. In order to determine the extent to which it disrupts adaptive capabilities, we evaluated its effect on online and anticipatory control. Despite numerous studies conducted to determine its effects, the...

When people do multiple tasks at the same time, it is often found that their performance is worse relative to when they do those same tasks in isolation. However, one aspect that has received little empirical attention is whether the ability to monitor and evaluate one’s task performance is also affected by multitasking. How does dual-tasking affec...

Recent technological improvements allow UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) operators to carry out increasingly long missions. Shift work was introduced during long-endurance missions to reduce the risk of fatigue. However, despite these short work periods and the creation of a fatigue risk management system (FRMS), the occurrence of intense and monoton...

Increasing the level of automation in air traffic management is seen as a measure to increase the performance of the service to satisfy the predicted future demand. This is expected to result in new roles for the human operator: he will mainly monitor highly automated systems and seldom intervene. Therefore, air traffic controllers (ATCos) would of...

Automation technology is a ubiquitous phenomenon that is profoundly changing our everyday life. While the public is generally enthusiastic about the possibilities that it offers, recent tragedies remind us of the difficulties human operators have in cooperating with highly automated systems. This issue of cooperation amongst team (and/with automate...

Performance monitoring is a critical process which allows us to both learn from our own errors, and also interact with other human beings. However, our increasingly automated world requires us to interact more and more with automated systems, especially in risky environments. The present EEG study aimed at investigating and comparing the neuro-func...

Performance monitoring is an amply studied function, since it is of major importance in carrying out actions in our everyday life. No consensus has been reached on the functional role and the relationship between each event-related potential (ERP) characterizing this function. In this study, we used a modified version of the flanker task, measuring...

This study examined the influence of automation reliability on task-unrelated mind wandering (MW) frequency and the impact of MW on task engagement. Automated environment features make it particularly prone to increase MW frequency. Through mechanisms like complacency or agency, automating a task could increase MW frequency for the operator. For sa...

Did you know that in airport security check, X-Ray checking software display fake bombs? This ensures that operators looking at the screen are focused on the screen. As everyone, they are prone to what we call mind wandering. Mind wandering (MW) is the human mind propensity to think about matters unrelated to the here and now. Operators thinking a...

The increasing presence of automation between operators and automated systems tends to disrupt operators from action outcomes, leading them to leave the control loop. The theoretical framework of agency suggests that priming the operator about the system’s upcoming behaviour could help restore an appropriate sense of control and increase user accep...

An increasing degree of automation in air traffic will also change the role of the air traffic controller (ATCO). ATCOs will fulfill significantly more monitoring tasks compared to today. However, this rather passive role may lead to Out-Of-The-Loop (OOTL) effects comprising vigilance decrement and less situation awareness. The project MINIMA (Miti...

[This corrects the article on p. 52 in vol. 11, PMID: 29081744.].

Adaptive automation appears to be one of the next most challenging milestones in the field of aviation and air traffic management. This approach is aimed to be human centered (Billings, 1996) and has to be user-friendly in order to increase safety (Flightpath 2050). The detection of human operators’ performance inevitably has to be the first step i...

The MINIMA (Mitigating Negative Impacts of Monitoring high levels of Automation) project assumes that air traffic controllers in the future will have to operate in a highly automated environment through dedicated HMIs (Human Machine Interfaces). It is expected that such controllers will perform a role with significantly more monitoring portion than...

Nowadays, interactions with others do not only involve human peers but also automated systems. Many studies suggest that the motor predictive systems that are engaged during action execution are also involved during joint actions with peers and during other human generated action observation. Indeed, the comparator model hypothesis suggests that th...

To satisfy the increasing demand for safer critical systems, engineers have integrated higher levels of automation, such as glass cockpits in aircraft, power plants, and driverless cars. These guiding principles relegate the operator to a monitoring role, increasing risks for humans to lack system understanding. The out of the loop performance prob...

The world surrounding us has become increasingly technological. Nowadays, the influence of automation is perceived in each aspect of everyday life. If automation makes some aspects of life easier, faster and safer, empirical data also suggests that it could have negative performance and safety consequences regarding human operators, a set of diffic...

The air traffic control domain is facing higher levels of automation. This will shift air traffic controller tasks to more monitoring and may cause negative impacts such as out-of-the-loop phenomena (OOTL) of controllers. MINIMA (Mitigating Negative Impacts of Monitoring high levels of Automation) will help to understand and mitigate OOTL phenomena...

To satisfy the increasing demand for safer critical systems, engineers have integrated higher levels of automation. In the context of airplane autopilot, time saved by automation, which should normally be used to plan the flight, might instead be filled by task-unrelated thoughts, or mind wandering (MW). We observed the impact of automation on MW i...

Nowadays, automation is present in every aspect of our daily life and has some benefits. Nonetheless, empirical data suggest that traditional automation has many negative performance and safety consequences as it changed task performers into task supervisors. In this context, we propose to use recent insights into the anatomical and neurophysiologi...

In this paper, we present the preliminary steps conducted in the framework of the research project Mitigating Negative Impacts of Monitoring high levels of Automation (MINIMA). The main objectives of MINIMA are (i) to develop vigilance and attention neuro-physiological indexes, and (ii) to implement them in a system that can adapt its behavior and...

The world surrounding us has become increasingly technological. Nowadays, the influence of automation is perceived in each aspect of everyday life and not only in the world of industry. Automation certainly makes some as-pects of life easier, faster and safer. Nonetheless, empirical data suggests that traditional automation has many negative perfor...

In this paper, we introduce a new approach based on the delimitation of the Human Performance Envelope (HPE) concept for cockpit operations. The metaphor underpinning the HPE concept suggests that, when studying performance degradation and recovery, we need to consider a range of interdependent factors (e.g., workload, fatigue, etc.) as a whole, in...

In this poster, we present the preliminary study conducted in the framework of the research project Mitigating Negative Impacts of Monitoring high levels of Automation (MINIMA). The main objectives of MINIMA are i) to develop vigilance and attention neuro-physiological indexes, and ii) to implement them in a system that can adapt its behavior and g...

In our increasingly technological world, automation largely improved some aspects of our life. Nonetheless, automation can also have negative consequences. Indeed, operators seem often helpless to takeover an automated system in case of failure. This “out-of-the-loop” problem occurs when operator is unable to understand the intentions and to predic...

Latency has been identified as a major bottleneck for usability of human-system interaction devices. However, the theoretical basis of the effect of latency on action control mechanisms remains weak. In this study, we aimed to investigate the cognitive implications of latency for Human-Computer Interaction. We proposed models of agency (i.e., mecha...

The key of the development of HMI technologies lies in the acquisition of knowledge and the integration of disciplines by industrials that are in the scope of cognitive neurosciences. The purpose of this paper is to provide new models to be applied in human centered design loops for cockpit in aeronautics. Two different problems are introduced: (1)...

This paper describes a preliminary human-in-the-loop experiment focusing on the Passenger issues of a future Personal Air Transport System (PATS). This experiment was conducted as an action of a Human Factors case regarding this revolutionary PATS concept, involving remotely Personal Air Vehicles. Volunteers participated as Passengers to the whole...

We live in an increasingly technological world. Automated systems certainly can make life easier, but they can also create complexity and uncertainty. Moreover, it is clear that automation does not merely supplant human activity, but also transforms the nature of human work. This review examines an original account of this transformation/a link bet...

Previous studies have shown that the perceived times of voluntary actions and their effects are perceived as shifted towards each other, so that the interval between action and outcome seems shortened. This has been referred to as 'intentional binding' (IB). However, the generality of this effect remains unclear. Here we demonstrate that Intentiona...

Time plays a central role in consciousness. A crucial question is the following: Why Consciousness takes time? We suggest the contents of consciousness could emerge as the result of global competition biased by top-down (intentional) modulation, which implements global constraint satisfaction. In our simplified conceptual framework, the information...

RÉSUMÉ L'objectif de cette étude est de regarder si un apprentissage implicite peut s'opérer aussi bien en pratiquant, qu'en observant ou qu'en imaginant mentalement le déplacement régulier de cibles dans une tâche de Temps de Réaction Sériel (TRS). Les résultats de cette expérience indiquent que les participants qui ont réellement effectué la tâch...

This experiment is aimed to study if an implicit learning can take place when participants practice, observe or mentally imagine regular displacements of a target in a Serial Reaction Time task (SRT). The results indicate that participants who really practice the task, and participants who realized motor imagery and also participants who made obser...

Action, observation and mental imagery: Can one implicitly learn in all cases? This experiment is aimed to study if an implicit learning can take place when participants practice, observe or mentally imagine regular displacements of a target in a Serial Reaction Time task (SRT). The results indicate that participants who really practice the task, a...

The current studies concerning authority sharing on Unmanned Aerial Systems makes us wonder about the agency of a human operator, i.e. his feeling of control while operating a highly-autonomous system. This research focuses on the various definitions of the agency concept, and its applications on human-machine interaction. An experiment to test our...

The goal of this study is to characterize observers’ abilities to discriminate between endogenous (i.e., self-produced) and exogenous changes. To do so, we developed a new experimental paradigm. On each trial, participants were shown a dot pattern on the screen. Next, the pattern disappeared and participants were to reproduce it. Changes were surre...

The goal of this study is to characterize observers' abilities to detect gradual changes and to explore putative dissociations between conscious experience of change and behavioral adaptation to a changing stimulus. We developed a new experimental paradigm in which, on each trial, participants were shown a dot pattern on the screen. Next, the patte...

Can one learn implicitly, that is, without conscious awareness of what it is that one learns? Daily life is replete with situations where our behavior is seemingly influenced by knowledge to which we have little access. Riding a bicycle, playing tennis or driving a car, all involve mastering complex sets of motor skills, yet we are at a loss when i...

The goal of the experiment reported was to replicate the previous Sarrazin's (2000) study in order to verify, with an adequate methodological procedure, whether or not the closure principle applied in spatial and temporal reproduction tasks. The hypothesis defended was that the closure of the pattern is an intrinsic property of the structuring proc...

We studied the process by which learning a pattern of motor activity reaches a steady-state characterized by a reduction in fluctuations. The stimuli consisted of eight visually presented dots that appeared sequentially. In a 20-trial learning phase, participants reproduced the positions of the eight dots after each presentation. Next, they reprodu...

The organization of tonal-temporal information in a memory task was studied in two experiments. The stimuli consisted of four different configurations of eight beeps, presented sequentially. In two configurations, the stimuli were tonal-time congruent, with (constant or variable) inter-stimulus tonal distances corresponding to (constant or variable...

Keywords Memory x Variability x Consolidation Background Classically, memory has been defined as the preservation in time of internal representations called mental images (Cooper 1976; Finke and Kosslyn 1980; Finke and Kurtzman 1981; Shepard 1978). An extensive body of literature has been devoted to understanding the processes allowing for stabiliz...