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In many applications of cyber-physical systems, a sequence of tasks is necessary to perform a certain functionality. For example, from a sensor to an actuator, the first task reads the sensor value (cause), the second task processes the data, and the third task produces an output for the actuator (an effect is triggered). For such scenarios, the end-to-end timing properties (the so-called end-to-end latency) of the sequence of tasks (the so-called cause-effect chain) are of importance. This tutorial recaps different metrics for the end-to-end latency of cause-effect chains, and summarizes fundamental properties and existing analytical results in a systematic manner. To that end, this tutorial has a special focus on the reaction time (how fast can a reaction be in the worst case) and the data age (how old is the data source of an actuation in the worst case). The goal of this tutorial is to provide a systematic view of the fundamental end-to-end timing properties of cause-effect chains and offer an outlook of possible research directions in the near future. Furthermore, we extend the proof of one fundamental property in the literature to comply with the current state-of-the-art definition of end-to-end latencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful and safe management of interactions between cyclists and motorized vehicles often includes implicit communication, such as vehicle motion signals. While the introduction of automated vehicles (AVs) is anticipated to increase safety for cyclists by eliminating human error, it is still unclear how they should communicate implicitly in complex traffic scenarios. The turning maneuver constitutes a complex and ambiguous scenario, as it involves vehicle deceleration even when there is no intention to halt for the cyclist, proceeding straight ahead. A video-based laboratory study incorporating a bicycle setup examined the influence of four driving dynamics and automation status on cyclists' risk anticipation, perceived safety, and intention to continue to cycle through an intersection. Forty-two participants viewed videos of an oncoming vehicle making a left turn at an intersection from the perspective of a cyclist traveling straight through the intersection. The results indicated that participants perceived early and continuous braking of the vehicle (''passive yield'') as the most favorable approach (reduced risk anticipation, higher perceived safety, and greater intention to continue to cycle through the intersection), even when compared to later but stronger braking (''active yield''). The objectively riskiest maneuver that would result in a collision (''collision'') was evaluated as the least desirable. A rule-violating yet objectively safe maneuver (accelerating to exit the conflict area before the cyclist; ''no yield'') led to increased risk anticipation but not to lower perceived safety or reduced intention to continue to cycle through the intersection compared to active yield. The displayed automation status had minimal influence overall, although participants in the passive yield condition expressed greater uncertainty regarding their intention to continue to cycle through the intersection in interactions with AVs compared to MVs. It appears that natural driving dynamics exhibited by ''good'' human drivers could represent a promising approach to ensuring the safety and comfort of cyclists in interactions with AVs. Here, early and continuous braking is preferable to later and stronger braking.

• Drivers on slip roads want vehicles on the target lane to decelerate. • Drivers in target lanes rate the behaviour of vehicles on slip roads ambiguously. • AVs are rated identically or even more positively than MVs with identical behaviour. • No different safety distance is kept from automated vehicles. • Results show that cross-border traffic between Germany and UK with AVs is feasible. • Intercultural aspects must still be considered in the development of AVs. To ensure safe and uninterrupted traffic flow, (semi-)automated vehicles must be capable of providing comprehensible and agreeable implicit communication cues to human drivers. This driving simulator study investigated the assessment of implicit communication at a motorway slip road through longitudinal driving dynamics (acceleration, deceleration, and maintaining speed). The second aim of the study was to determine whether expectations of automated vehicles are different from those of human drivers. And thirdly, we investigated whether these findings are country-specific or can be (partially) generalised to other countries. The perception of three means of communication in connection with the presence of a labelling as an automated vehicle (eHMI) was examined in two samples in Germany and England. 27 participants drove from a slip road onto the motorway and interacted with another vehicle. After a stretch on the motorway, they passed a second slip road on which there was a vehicle merging onto the participants lane. This was repeated six times to test all variables. After each situation, the perceived cooperativity and criticality was recorded, as well as the time headway (THW) to the other vehicle. This paper presents the findings from the UK sample and compares them with the German results, which were previously published. Results show, that when the cooperating vehicles are on the slip road, participants from both countries prefer this vehicle to decelerate. However, when participants themselves are on the slip road, expectations for vehicles on the target lane are ambiguous in the UK sample. Except for one aspect (perceived cooperativity of decelerating vehicles on the slip road), the perception of automated vehicles is similar to those of manual drivers. Also, UK participants do not maintain a different safety distance from these vehicles, while this is the case in the German sample. This paper contributes valuable insights into the cross-cultural evaluation of driving dynamics, shedding light on implications for the development and acceptance of automated vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of non‐verbal, creative/implicit processes into ongoing psychoanalytic treatment as a highly effective modality to process trauma, also understood as Mentalization as a core element in the correction of pathological thinking caused by trauma (Allen et al., 2008. Mentalizing in clinical practice. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publication) will be presented. This clinical approach is designed to gain access to deeper unconscious, implicit, pre‐verbal memories and material that may have been otherwise inaccessible for clinical processing on a purely verbal level. The author will offer an ongoing case study of a client who was initially resistant to direct verbal processing of traumatic memories. He will then demonstrate how the communication of implicit stimuli, in the form of photographs and drawings, can be structured as the primary initial communication of non‐verbal material within this treatment. Images were presented by the patient at the beginning of each virtual session, allowed her to access traumatic material without triggering overwhelming anxiety allowing adequate affect regulation and enabling successful clinical processing of this previously inaccessible material. The author offers, from both a neurological and psychoanalytic perspective, demonstrations of clinical processing and intervention techniques that have, up until now, been utilized within the clinical fields of creative art therapy and psychoanalysis on an intuitive level without having a firmer foundation in demonstrable neuroscience. It is the intended purpose of this article to bridge this gap between previous intuitive interventions and neuroscientific research, within our clinical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that manipulation relies more heavily on implicit than on explicit communication has been the plank of several earlier and recent debates on argumentation and speaker roles in interactions. The present contribution will inquire into the selective nature of the use of implicit communication in political discourse; notably, analyzing the distribution of presuppositions and implicatures in two political debates, it will be argued that the use of these two implicit communicative devices – and, particularly, that of presupposition – is likely to correlate with the expression of disagreement, notably through aggressive and blasting contents, more often than with other content types. This tendency will be accounted for by considering the evidential meaning presuppositions and implicatures add to an utterance, which contributes to modulating both speaker's commitment to truth and source identification on the part of the receiver. Data also show that, when face-threatening contents are exchanged, presuppositions epitomize by far the most preferred strategy in both debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Philosophy of language has been witnessing for the last fifteen years or so, if not a turn, at least the rising of a new trend, with its usual methods applied to new non-semantic phenomena linked to language use in the context of politics, and with new methods arising from the distinctive features of the new subject matter. Among these phenomena, dogwhistles have taken somewhat of a center stage (other phenomena include ethnic slurs, testimonial and hermeneutical injustice, propaganda and gender-inclusive language, among others). This special issue is devoted to their study. In this brief introduction, we seek to succinctly review the key aspects of the phenomenon. First, we present some intuitive examples; second, we put forward a preliminary characterization of dogwhistles; then we discuss some of the main issues raised by these examples, as well as some basic notions found in the literature. We close by presenting an overview of the articles to be found in the current issue.

As both a therapist and an actor, O’Connell proposes that: 1) The artforms of acting and psychotherapy share the same core goal: to invite another person to embody a range of their humanity; and 2) Both artforms rely on the same core action to realize that goal – to listen. By listening to clients the way actors listen to their scene partners, O’Connell suggests that clinicians can maximize how we use our most essential instrument for therapeutic engagement: ourselves – particularly in terms of our implicit/ nonverbal communication, or “subtext.” He emphasizes that listening like an actor is always the key to performing the art of therapy, no matter what “kind” of therapist we are, and no matter how our “scene work” takes place, (e.g. on “stage” or screen). Anecdotes from both therapy and acting are used to illustrate his ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of automated vehicles (AVs), drivers' understanding and expectations of AVs are crucial in their interaction decisions and actions. In a multi-agent driving simulator, participants encountered AVs and manually-driven vehicles (MVs) in a narrow passage. Controlled by a confederate, the vehicles communicated to yield or insist on priority, either distinctly or ambiguously. The ambiguous communication was repeated six times, involving three AVs and three MVs. The results revealed profound differences in expectations toward AVs and MVs, but similar passing times when communication was distinct. However, different learning curves emerged for AVs and MVs. Repeated exposure to ambiguous communication improved passing times for AVs, while no similar improvement was observed for MVs. The study highlights that when distinct bottom-up information is available, the influence of vehicle categories on drivers' behavior is reduced. In turn, top-down processes become more effective when bottom-up information leaves room for interpretation and behavioral adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Dynamics of turning vehicles as a means of communication were investigated. • Turning maneuvers involve deceleration, even if vehicles do not intend to stop. • A video-based laboratory study was conducted. • Driving dynamics remain the basis of pedestrians' crossing evaluations. Several studies have investigated implicit communication, such as driving dynamics, as a way to communicate vehicle or driver intention to pedestrians, indicating that "good" human driving behavior is sufficient to ensure a subjectively safe crossing, regardless of the vehicle's automation status. Using a video-based laboratory experiment, the present study investigates the extent to which such findings can be transferred to more complex driving maneuvers, such as turning. The results reveal that even in this case, driving dynamics and distance remain the main determinants of crossing decisions and perceived safety. To be able to draw conclusions for vehicle algorithms, more driving maneuvers need to be investigated and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Analysis of the effect of external human machine interface (eHMI), acoustic signal and pitch motion and the combination of both on pedestrianś crossing behavior and safety feeling. • Analysis of actual crossing behavior under real world conditions. • Beneficial effects of eHMI and acoustic signal on participantś crossing decision and safety feeling. Communication between automated vehicles (AVs) and pedestrians is crucial to coordinate traffic maneuvers and hence maintain road safety. Automated driving changes the driver's role to that of a mere passenger, who can perform non-driving related tasks and therefore may not interact with other road users. In this novel traffic environment, both explicit and implicit cues might contribute to an effective communication between AVs and pedestrians by providing relevant information. So far, physical prototypes of AV communication have rarely been evaluated under real world conditions. The few studies managed to do so used a Wizard of Oz technique, where a human operator simulates the behavior of an AV. To measure the communication effectiveness, these studies instructed participants to explicitly state their crossing decision, but not to cross. While safety is assured, the generalizability of the results to pedestrians' actual crossing behavior is unclear. We established a more realistic experimental setup for a Wizard of Oz study that allows pedestrians to actually start crossing while a of simulated AV is approaching. In a Wizard of Oz study, participants (N = 35) interacted with a simulated AV and had to infer its intention. In a fully factorial design, the effects of three different communication cues were explored: an external human-machine interface (eHMI, absent vs. present), an acoustic signal (absent vs. present), and pitch motion (active, normal, or none). The eHMI and acoustic signal were considered as explicit and the pitch motion as implicit cues. Participants were asked to exhibit natural crossing behavior which was captured by two optical tracking systems. Consistently to previous work, explicit AV communication showed a positive effect on pedestrians' crossing behavior and safety feeling. Pedestrians initiated their crossings earlier and reported to feel safer when approaching an AV with an eHMI or an acoustic signal, compared to only having only a pitch motion. There was no main effect of pitch motion on crossing behavior and safety feeling. Nevertheless, there was an interaction between eHMI and active pitch motion. The effect of eHMI on crossing initiation time (CIT) was smaller in combination with an active pitch motion compared to normal pitch conditions. These results underline the importance of implementing appropriate AV communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At intersections, road users need to comprehend the intentions of others while also implicitly expressing their own intentions using dynamic information. Identifying patterns of this implicit communication between human drivers and vulnerable road users (VRUs) at intersections could enhance automated driving functions (ADFs), enabling more human-like communication with VRUs. To this end, we conducted a coupled vehicle–bicycle simulator study to investigate interactions between right-turning motorists and crossing cyclists. This involved 34 participants (17 pairs of motorists and cyclists) encountering each other in a virtual intersection. The analysis focused on identifying interaction patterns between motorists and cyclists, specifically aiming to discern which patterns were more likely to be accepted by both parties. We found that in CM (vehicles overtaking), the post-encroachment time (PET) and the average speed of vehicles were higher than in the other two interaction patterns: C (bicycles always in front) and CMC (bicycles overtake). However, subjective ratings indicated that CM was viewed as more critical and less cooperative. Furthermore, this study unveiled the influence of crossing order and overtaking position on subjective ratings through ordered logistic regressions, suggesting that earlier overtaking could improve cyclists' acceptance of the interaction. These findings may contribute to the optimization of communication strategies for ADF, thereby ensuring safety in interactions with VRUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swarm robots have always served as verification platforms and deployment tools for swarming models that usually take relative distances, bearing angles, velocity directions, or differentiation of neighbors as inputs to regulate individual motion. With natural decentralization and high scalability, existing swarm robotic platforms based on purely implicit cooperation exhibit excellent potential for evaluating and deploying swarming models in denied environments. However, most of the current implicit cooperation platforms are limited in their adaptability because they are hardly capable of providing the above four inputs without external assistance. To address this problem, this article presents optiSwarm, a swarm robotic platform, where each robot (Cubot) within this platform is based on a novel implicit cooperation system. Cubot can not only directly obtain relative distances, bearing angles, and differentiation of adjacent robots through vision-based local rules but also has a relative velocity direction perception mechanism purely on implicit communication. The robot’s perception is proven to be reliable through real-world tests. Through implementing three collective behaviors guided by diverse inputs, optiSwarm is employed and evaluated in typical scenarios demonstrating that it is capable of verifying models of collective behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Analysis of a two-step communication concepts for automated vehicles which provided implicit and explicit communication cues at two distances. • Comparison of two-step and single-step communication concepts. • Beneficial effect of single-step communication concepts on pedestrians' crossing behavior and safety feeling, no further improvements by two-step communication concepts. • Analysis of fixation patterns in pedestrian interactions with automated vehicles. • Consistent pattern of pedestrians' fixation behavior as a function of the automated vehicle's distance. An important challenge of automated vehicles (AV) will be the cooperative interaction with surrounding road users such as pedestrians. One solution to compensate for the missing driver-pedestrian interaction might be explicit communication via external human machine interfaces (eHMIs). Additionally, implicit communication such as a vehicle pitch motion might support AVs when interacting with pedestrians. While previous work explored various explicit and implicit communication cues, these concepts communicated the intention of the AV at one single time point. Currently, empirical findings on two-step communication lack so far. In this study, we empirically test the effect of a two-step AV communication that uses an implicit cue at a long distance and subsequently provides an implicit or explicit cues at a short distance. We compared its efficiency to single-step communication concepts providing implicit or explicit cues at the shorter distance only. To explore whether the right communication cue is used at the right distance, we analyzed pedestrians' fixations while approaching an AV using an eye tracking device. We conducted a virtual reality study (N = 30) with AV communication concept that provided an active pitch motion or an eHMI and compared them with a two-step AV communication concept that provided an additional active pitch motion at a long distance when approaching the pedestrian. Furthermore, we recorded pedestrians' fixation behavior while the AV approached. Consistently to previous work, single-step AV communication showed a beneficial effect on crossing behavior. Pedestrians initiated their crossing earlier while approaching an AV with an active pitch motion or an eHMI compared to the baseline condition. While active pitch motion reduced subjective safety feeling, eHMI increased it. However, the two-step communication concept did not further improve pedestrians' crossing initiation times and their safety feeling. The pattern of fixation behavior differed as a function of AV distance. When the approaching AV was far away, pedestrians exclusively looked at the environment. During the approach, pedestrians gradually fixated the bumper and the hood and only then the windshield of the AV. Hence, it seems to be useful to present an AV intent communication at a certain distance from the pedestrian. These findings posit the importance of considering pedestrians' fixation behavior when developing communication concepts between AVs and pedestrians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article Collection gathers eight contributions on the persuasive and manipulative power of linguistic implicit communication. The phenomenon is dealt with from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, with articles elucidating diversities between different implicit strategies in terms of discourse functions and cognitive processing, and others undertaking corpus-based research on the manipulative impact of implicit communication in various types of persuasive texts. The collection brings together up-to-date papers which, emphasizing different standpoints and frameworks, all contribute to move forward what the scientific community knows about several aspects of the working of persuasive implicit strategies. • Linguistic implicit communication is used with persuasive aims. • This is due to its capacity to lower critical attention. • Analyses of advertising, political discourse, journalistic texts, social media. • Theoretical and corpus-based studies on written and spoken data. • Impact on sensitive topics: gender-based violence, the "Me too movement", migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twitter is nowadays a powerful means of political propaganda. Its effectiveness can be easily appreciated in the large amounts of messages exchanged by politicians every day. This wealth of data, together with the interactive nature of the social medium, provides an ideal basis for the analysis of a striking feature of political messages, i.e., their implicitness, often achieved using presuppositions, among other strategies. The present work proposes a comparative analysis of British and Italian politicians' use of Twitter by focusing on implicit communication (notably, presuppositions) and the pragmatic functions of tweets. Based on a sample of about 400 tweets, our analysis shows that some of these functions tend to associate either with presuppositional or non-presuppositional communicative devices. Moreover, a critical methodological discussion is offered in order to address the main challenges of quantitative corpus-based pragmatics. • Politicians' tweets convey many functions in both explicit and implicit ways. • Presupposed contents tend to associate with criticism and self-praise. • This association is stable cross-linguistically. • A methodological discussion on the quantitative study of implicit is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political communication in modern democratic societies often requires the speaker to address multiple audiences with heterogeneous values, interests and agendas. This creates an incentive for communication strategies that allow politicians to send, along with the explicit content of their speech, concealed messages that seek to secure the approval of certain groups without alienating the rest of the electorate. These strategies have been labeled dogwhistling in recent literature. In this article, we provide an analysis of overt intentional dogwhistling (OID). We recognize two main stages within the OIDs’ way of conveying a concealed message: the expression of a perspective together with the transmission of an accompanying positioning message vis-à-vis the OID targeted sub-audience, and the inferential extraction (by the target audience) of a set of cognitive and non-cognitive contents inferred on the basis of the former stage. Furthermore, we identify three linguistic mechanisms whereby these contents may be transmitted: conventional meaning, conversational implicature and perlocutionary inferencing. Hence, on our view OIDs are not a uniform category, as they may differ as to what extent the concealed content is speaker-meant, and thus actually communicated by the speaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction of automated vehicles with vulnerable road users is one of the greatest challenges in the development of automated driving functions (ADF). In order to improve efficiency and ensure the safety of mixed traffic, ADF need to understand the intention of vulnerable road users, to adapt to their driving behavior, and to show its intention. However, this communication may occur in an implicit way, meaning they may communicate with vulnerable road users by using dynamic information, such as speed, distance, etc. Therefore, investigating patterns of implicit communication of human drivers with vulnerable road users is relevant for developing ADF. The aim of this study is to identify the patterns of implicit communication of human drivers with vulnerable road users. For this purpose, the interaction between right-turning motorists and crossing cyclists was investigated at a traffic light controlled urban intersection. In the scenario, motorists and cyclists had a green signal at the same time, but cyclist had right-of-way. Using the Application Platform for Intelligent Mobility (AIM) Research Intersection, trajectory and video data were recorded at an intersection in Braunschweig, Germany. Data had been recorded for 4 weeks. Based on the criticality metric post-encroachment time (PET) and quality of the recorded trajectory, 206 cases of interaction were selected for further analyses. According to the video annotation, when approaching the intersection, three common communication patterns were identified: (1) no yield, motorists, who should yield to cyclists, crossed the intersection first while forcing right-of-way; (2) active yield, motorists, who were in front of cyclists, gave the right-of-way; (3) passive yield, motorists, who were behind cyclists, had to give the right-of-way. The analysis of the trajectory data revealed different patterns of changes in time advantage in these three categories. Additionally, the communication patterns were evaluated with regard to frequency of occurrence, efficiency, and safety. The findings of this study may provide knowledge for the implementation of a communication strategy for ADF, contributing to traffic efficiency as well as ensuring safety in the interaction with vulnerable road users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction of automated vehicles with vulnerable road users is one of the greatest challenges in the development of automated driving functions (ADF). In order to improve efficiency and ensure the safety of mixed traffic, ADF need to understand the intention of vulnerable road users, to adapt to their driving behavior, and to show its intention. However, this communication may occur in an implicit way, meaning they may communicate with vulnerable road users by using dynamic information, such as speed, distance, etc. Therefore, investigating patterns of implicit communication of human drivers with vulnerable road users is relevant for developing ADF. The aim of this study is to identify the patterns of implicit communication of human drivers with vulnerable road users. For this purpose, the interaction between right-turning motorists and crossing cyclists was investigated at a traffic light controlled urban intersection. In the scenario, motorists and cyclists had a green signal at the same time, but cyclist had right-of-way. Using the Application Platform for Intelligent Mobility (AIM) Research Intersection, trajectory and video data were recorded at an intersection in Braunschweig, Germany. Data had been recorded for 4 weeks. Based on the criticality metric post-encroachment time (PET) and quality of the recorded trajectory, 206 cases of interaction were selected for further analyses. According to the video annotation, when approaching the intersection, three common communication patterns were identified: (1) no yield, motorists, who should yield to cyclists, crossed the intersection first while forcing right-of-way; (2) active yield, motorists, who were in front of cyclists, gave the right-of-way; (3) passive yield, motorists, who were behind cyclists, had to give the right-of-way. The analysis of the trajectory data revealed different patterns of changes in time advantage in these three categories. Additionally, the communication patterns were evaluated with regard to frequency of occurrence, efficiency, and safety. The findings of this study may provide knowledge for the implementation of a communication strategy for ADF, contributing to traffic efficiency as well as ensuring safety in the interaction with vulnerable road users.

It may be necessary to introduce new modes of communication between automated vehicles (AVs) and pedestrians. This research proposes using the AV's lateral deviation within the lane to communicate if the AV will yield to the pedestrian. In an online experiment, animated video clips depicting an approaching AV were shown to participants. Each of 1104 participants viewed 28 videos twice in random order. The videos differed in deviation magnitude, deviation onset, turn indicator usage, and deviation-yielding mapping. Participants had to press and hold a key as long as they felt safe to cross, and report the perceived intuitiveness of the AV's behaviour after each trial. The results showed that the AV moving towards the pedestrian to indicate yielding and away to indicate continuing driving was more effective than the opposite combination. Furthermore, the turn indicator was regarded as intuitive for signalling that the AV will yield. Practitioner Summary: Future automated vehicles (AVs) may have to communicate with vulnerable road users. Many researchers have explored explicit communication via text messages and led strips on the outside of the AV. The present study examines the viability of implicit communication via the lateral movement of the AV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The situation whereby we meet either in person wearing a mask, or remotely on video, can give preeminence to speech over implicit expressivity and thus to abstract/conceptual discourse which risks remaining far removed from experience. This affects bodily experience, and consequently the manifestation of emotions, movement and their processing. It is therefore essential to reflect on language and to shape it so that it comes as close as possible to the bodily and motor experience. Verbs that designate a general function (such as "to see," "to hear," "to understand," and many others) should be brought as close as possible to the way in which that function, from time to time, takes place, to the particular context, with its specific experiential and emotional tone. Three clinical vignettes are given to illustrate our therapeutic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IMPAQTS corpus of Italian political speeches annotated per implicit contents contains recurrent examples of NPs introduced by indefinite articles which are characterized by anaphoric specific reference: (Questa legge) hanno tentato di dichiararla anticostituzionale per non applicarla a una persona che si ritiene al di sopra della giustizia. (This law) they tried to declare it unconstitutional so as not to apply it to a person who thinks to be above justice. Such examples must be interpreted as anaphorically referring to a specific, identifiable referent, recoverable in the co-text or in the universe of discourse. Consequently, they activate a presupposition of existence for the mentioned entity, thus revealing that indefinite expressions can trigger existential presupposition in a similar way to definite descriptions. We analyze the formal characteristics of such "presuppositional indefinite descriptions", which show a recurrent syntactic and semantic structure. As for their functions, we show that they allow a different distribution of the speaker's responsibility on the contents of the utterance, as compared to definite descriptions. This is particularly relevant for the syntactic expansions to the indefinite NPs, whose contents are typically derogatory and disputable, which – in persuasive discourse – makes it beneficial for them to be conveyed in an implicit way. • Indefinite descriptions can work anaphorically, thus presupposing their content. • This happens systematically in an Italian corpus of political speeches. • Presupposing indefinite descriptions (PID) show recurrent syntactic/semantic features. • PIDs differ from definite descriptions in the distribution of implicit/explicit meaning. • The syntactic expansions of PIDs serve the function to introduce criticism implicitly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the problem of cooperative object transportation for multiple underwater vehicle manipulator systems (UVMSs) in a constrained workspace with static obstacles, where the coordination relies solely on implicit communication arising from the physical interaction of the robots with the commonly grasped object. In this article, we propose a novel distributed leader–follower architecture, where the leading UVMS, which has knowledge of the object's desired trajectory, tries to achieve the desired tracking behavior via an impedance control law, navigating in this way, the overall formation toward the goal configuration while avoiding collisions with the obstacles. On the other hand, the following UVMSs estimate locally the object's desired trajectory via a novel prescribed performance estimation law and implement a similar impedance control law that achieves tracking of the desired trajectory despite the uncertainty and external disturbance in the object and the UVMS dynamics, respectively. The feedback relies on each UVMS's force/torque measurements and no explicit data is exchanged online among the robots, thus reducing the required communication bandwidth and increasing robustness. Moreover, the control scheme adopts load sharing among the UVMSs according to their specific payload capabilities. Finally, various simulation studies clarify the proposed method and verify its efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) are expected to bridge the communication gap between an automated vehicle (AV) and pedestrians to replace the missing driver-pedestrian interaction. However, the relative impact of movement-based implicit communication and explicit communication with the aid of eHMIs on pedestrians has not been studied and empirically evaluated. In this study, we pit messages from an eHMI against different driving behaviors of an AV that yields to a pedestrian to understand whether pedestrians tend to pay more attention to the motion dynamics of the car or the eHMI in making road-crossing decisions. Our contributions are twofold: we investigate (1) whether the presence of eHMIs has any objective effect on pedestrians' understanding of the vehicle's intent, and (2) how the movement dynamics of the vehicle affect the perception of the vehicle intent and interact with the impact of an eHMI. Results show that (1) eHMIs help in convincing pedestrians of the vehicle's yielding intention, particularly when the speed of the vehicle is slow enough to not be an obvious threat, but still fast enough to raise a doubt about a vehicle's stopping intention, and (2) pedestrians do not blindly trust the eHMI: when the eHMI message and the vehicle's movement pattern contradict, pedestrians fall back to movement-based cues. Our results imply that when explicit communication (eHMI) and implicit communication (motion-dynamics and kinematics) are in alignment and work in tandem, communication of the AV's yielding intention can be facilitated most effectively. This insight can be useful in designing the optimal interaction between AVs and pedestrians from a user-centered design perspective when driver-centric communication is not available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The growing importance of subcultures in society has changed the way organisations communicate with consumers. Differences in values and norms suggest brands must strategically communicate with these audiences to engage and build trust. However, if the targeted subculture market is stigmatised, the risk of alienating other sections of society is a serious concern for marketers. This paper, therefore, conceptually examines how marketers can reach subculture markets without the risk of estranging the wider market. In particular, it considers this issue through the lens of cryptic marketing, which has the capacity to simultaneously overcome loss of brand trust and attract the attention of a target audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: manipulation; cognition; pragmatics; brain; implicit communication EN manipulation cognition pragmatics brain implicit communication 1 3 3 03/14/22 20220310 NES 220310 Manipulation is among the most recurrent topics in argumentation studies (Masia; de Saussure, [1]; Maillat, [2]; Oswald et al., [3]; Sorlin, [5] among others). The pragmatics of manipulation: exploiting im/politeness theories. Manipulation, cognition, pragmatics, brain, implicit communication. [Extracted from the article]

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many Asian countries have allowed virtual shareholder meetings. These meetings can not only prevent the spread of infection but also lower companies' costs and facilitate shareholders' participation. However, in virtual meetings, shareholders may lose a significant portion of implicit communication—communication through nonverbal elements—with management and other shareholders, a factor which has not been fully recognized as a benefit of in-person meetings. If this benefit is not sizable, then making a shareholder meeting non-mandatory is reasonable, whether in-person or virtual, because the other benefits of these meetings are not significant. However, some evidence shows that the benefit of implicit communication may be important for shareholders in many cases. If virtual meetings cannot sufficiently realize this benefit through virtual reality, it would generally be desirable to use them as a complimentary tool for in-person meetings, not as a substitute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since sending explicit messages can be costly, people often utilize "what is not said," i.e., informative silence, to economize communication. This paper studies the efficient communication rule, which is fully informative while minimizing the use of explicit messages, in cooperative environments. It is shown that when the notion of context is defined as the finest mutually self-evident event that contains the current state, the efficient use of informative silence exhibits the defining property of indexicals in natural languages. While the efficient use of silence could be complex, it is also found that the efficient use of silence can be as "simple" as the use of indexicals in natural languages if and only if the information structure satisfies some centrality and dominance properties. • People often utilize "what is not said," i.e., informative silence, to economize communication. • This paper studies the efficient communication rule that utilizes informative silence in cooperative environments. • It is shown that when the notion of context is defined as the finest mutually self-evident event that contains the current state, informative silence in any efficient rule exhibits the defining property of indexicals in natural languages. • The set of information structures in which indexical silence functions analogously to indexicals in natural languages is characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stigmergy is a common social network mechanism in nature, which allows individuals to achieve effective coordination through the environment, and has shown some successful applications on robotic systems. This paper proposes a stigmergetic target search method based on vector pheromone for swarm robots. Robots generate vector pheromones according to the target signal and release them to the environment for other robots to read, so as to achieve the indirect transfer of information. The method is extended from our previous work which has some shortcoming especially in the updating process of pheromones. This paper improves the previous search method by designing a hybrid pheromone updating rule to achieve more efficient and accurate information exchange. Moreover, the improved search method contains a robot navigation algorithm and a pheromone map building algorithm for guiding robots' motion and building the pheromone map. Numerical experiments are performed to compare the performance of the improved method with the previous one. Results show that the improved method can enhance the robot's efficiency and success rate in finding the static and dynamic targets. Meanwhile, it can also improve the speed of map building and the accuracy of the pheromone map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are communicators perceived as committed to what they actually say (what is explicit), or to what they mean (including what is implicit)? Some research claims that explicit communication leads to a higher attribution of commitment and more accountability than implicit communication. Here we present theoretical arguments and experimental data to the contrary. We present three studies exploring whether the saying–meaning distinction affects commitment attribution in promises, and, crucially, whether commitment attribution is further modulated by the degree to which the hearer will actually rely on the promise. Our results support the conclusion that people perceive communicators to be committed to 'what is meant', and not simply to 'what is said'. Our findings add to the experimental literature showing that the saying–meaning distinction is not as pivotal to social relations as often assumed, and that its role in commitment attribution might be overestimated. The attribution of commitment is strongly dependent on the (mutually known) relevance of 'what is meant'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding behavior of human drivers in interactions with automated vehicles (AV) can aid the development of future AVs. Existing investigations of such behavior have predominantly focused on situations in which an AV a priori needs to take action because the human has the right of way. However, future AVs might need to proactively manage interactions even if they have the right of way over humans, e.g., a human driver taking a left turn in front of the approaching AV. Yet it remains unclear how AVs could behave in such interactions and how humans would react to them. To address this issue, here we investigated behavior of human drivers (N = 19) when interacting with an oncoming AV during unprotected left turns in a driving simulator experiment. We measured the outcomes (Go or Stay) and timing of participants' decisions when interacting with an AV which performed subtle longitudinal nudging maneuvers, e.g. briefly decelerating and then accelerating back to its original speed. We found that participants' behavior was sensitive to deceleration nudges but not acceleration nudges. We compared the obtained data to predictions of several variants of a drift-diffusion model of human decision making. The most parsimonious model that captured the data hypothesized noisy integration of dynamic information on time-to-arrival and distance to a fixed decision boundary, with an initial accumulation bias towards the Go decision. Our model not only accounts for the observed behavior but can also flexibly generate predictions of human responses to arbitrary longitudinal AV maneuvers, and can be used for both informing future studies of human behavior and incorporating insights from such studies into computational frameworks for AV interaction planning. • Automated vehicles (AVs) can proactively shape interactions with humans around them. • We studied human left-turn behavior in response to subtle "nudging" maneuvers of AVs. • Participants of a driving simulator study were sensitive to AV's deceleration nudge. • A drift-diffusion model predicted participants' decisions and response times • Cognitive models can help go beyond empirical findings on human-AV interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]