"Fire! Do not fire!": Investigating the effects of autonomous systems on agency and moral decision-making.

Autonomous systems have pervaded many aspects of human activities. However, research suggests that the interaction with these machines may influence human decision-making processes. These effects raise ethical concerns in moral situations.

Neuro-cognitive specificities in prosocial disobedience: A comparative fMRI study of civilian and military populations.

The literature highlighted that compliance with or resistance to authority orders to inflict pain involves cognitive processes like empathy, guilt, mentalization, cognitive conflict, and sense of agency. However, previous studies have focused on civilians, for whom such decisions are less significant than for military personnel, where obedience or resistance is integral to duty. This functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study examined 53 military personnel, compared to 56 civilians, tasked with deciding whether or not to deliver shocks to a victim following orders received by an experimenter.

Influence of AI behavior on human moral decisions, agency, and responsibility.

There is a growing interest in understanding the effects of human-machine interaction on moral decision-making (Moral-DM) and sense of agency (SoA). Here, we investigated whether the "moral behavior" of an AI may affect both moral-DM and SoA in a military population, by using a task in which cadets played the role of drone operators on a battlefield. Participants had to decide whether or not to initiate an attack based on the presence of enemies and the risk of collateral damage.

An Emergentist Account of Language in the Brain-Seeking Neural Synergies Behind Human Uniqueness.

Cognitive neuroscience has become increasingly open to views of human cognitive faculties as emergent properties-as higher-level products of synergies between brain structures handling qualitatively different functions. This new perspective mitigates claims that cognitive abilities are tied to localized, domain-specific brain systems. In this changing landscape, the neurobiology of language has lagged behind, with virtually no mature theory apt to guide an exploration of language as an emergent function of the human brain.

Neural correlates of the sense of agency in free and coerced moral decision-making among civilians and military personnel.

The sense of agency, the feeling of being the author of one's actions and outcomes, is critical for decision-making. While prior research has explored its neural correlates, most studies have focused on neutral tasks, overlooking moral decision-making. In addition, previous studies mainly used convenience samples, ignoring that some social environments may influence how authorship in moral decision-making is processed.

Bimodal EEG-fNIRS in Neuroergonomics. Current Evidence and Prospects for Future Research.

Neuroergonomics focuses on the brain signatures and associated mental states underlying behavior to design human-machine interfaces enhancing performance in the cognitive and physical domains. Brain imaging techniques such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) have been considered key methods for achieving this goal. Recent research stresses the value of combining EEG and fNIRS in improving these interface systems' mental state decoding abilities, but little is known about whether these improvements generalize over different paradigms and methodologies, nor about the potentialities for using these systems in the real world.

Basic needs satisfaction in a military learning environment: An exploratory study.

Military academies request initiatives for better pedagogy to keep their cadets motivated and successful. Following the self-determination theory, one could promote autonomous motivation by fulfilling the three basic psychological needs of students: the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence. In this qualitative research, we investigated which motivational critical events go together with a perception of high or low autonomy, relatedness and competence.

The effect of military training on the sense of agency and outcome processing.

Armed forces often rely on strict hierarchical organization, where people are required to follow orders. In two cross-sectional studies, we investigate whether or not working in a military context influences the sense of agency and outcome processing, and how different durations (junior cadets vs senior cadets) and types (cadets vs privates) of military experience may modulate these effects. Participants could administer painful electrical shocks to a 'victim' in exchange for money, either by their own free choice, or following orders of the experimenter.

Daily Coping With Social Identity Threat in Outgroup-Dominated Contexts: Self-Group Distancing Among Female Soldiers.

We examine the degree to which women in a male-dominated field cope with daily experiences of social identity threat by distancing themselves from other women. A daily experience-sampling study among female soldiers ( = 345 data points nested in 61 participants) showed women to self-group distance more on days in which they experienced more identity threat. This was mediated by daily concerns about belonging but not achievement in the military, supporting the explanation that women distance from other women as a way to fit in a masculine domain.

Visuo-spatial path learning, stress, and cortisol secretion following military cadets' first parachute jump: the effect of increasing task complexity.

The present field experiment examined how multi-trial visuo-spatial learning and memory performance are impacted by excessive arousal, instigated by a potentially life-threatening event (i.e., a first parachute jump).