Slide
Centre Interdisciplinaire
de Recherche et d’Innovation
en Cybersécurité et Société
de Recherche et d’Innovation
en Cybersécurité et Société
1.
Tiwari, A.; Arrabito, R.; Davoust, A.; Falk, T. H.
Bias in Physiology-Based Cognitive State Detection for Human–Autonomy Teaming: A Comprehensive Survey Proceedings Article
In: R.A., Sottilare; J., Schwarz (Ed.): Lect. Notes Comput. Sci., pp. 139–158, Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2026, ISBN: 03029743 (ISSN); 978-303230014-0 (ISBN), (Journal Abbreviation: Lect. Notes Comput. Sci.).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Behavioral research, Bias, Biases, Biomedical signal processing, Cognitive state, Cognitive systems, Human Autonomy Teaming, Instructional system, Intelligent systems, Learning pathway, Learning systems, Personalized learning, Physiological models, Physiological signals, Population statistics, Psychophysiology, State Detection, Student feedback, Surveying, Wearable devices, Wearable technology
@inproceedings{tiwariBiasPhysiologyBasedCognitive2026,
title = {Bias in Physiology-Based Cognitive State Detection for Human–Autonomy Teaming: A Comprehensive Survey},
author = {A. Tiwari and R. Arrabito and A. Davoust and T. H. Falk},
editor = {Sottilare R.A. and Schwarz J.},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105044000677?origin=resultslist},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-032-30015-7_9},
isbn = {03029743 (ISSN); 978-303230014-0 (ISBN)},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-01-01},
booktitle = {Lect. Notes Comput. Sci.},
volume = {16737 LNCS},
pages = {139–158},
publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH},
abstract = {Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the role of adaptive instructional systems (AIS) from passive tools, that deliver personalized learning pathways by adapting to student feedback, to active team members and co-learners that dynamically adapt alongside human partners. In this emerging landscape of human–autonomy teaming (HAT), assessing the cognitive states of individuals interacting with highly intelligent systems has become a critical design consideration for improving team performance, collaboration, and learning outcomes. Physiological signals have emerged as a popular method for measurement of cognitive states in the past few decades. However, these signals can be strongly influenced by different user demographics, including age and biological sex. If unaccounted for, these differences could introduce systematic biases into AIS based learning pathways for different demographic groups. These biases can lead to discriminative performance of instructional systems and may also leave them vulnerable to adversarial exploitation. Aside from physiological signal-induced biases, there may also be major behavioural differences between different sex and/or age groups when interacting with and teaming with AIS, thus further confounding cognitive state monitoring. In this survey, we review emerging human-autonomy teaming studies that incorporate physiological data and analyze where biological sex- and age-related physiological or behavioral differences were documented and/or analyzed. We highlight evidence demonstrating that differences do exist during interaction with autonomous systems. We then discuss how biases can accumulate across study design and analysis modelling pipelines, and provide practical guidelines for mitigating these biases in future human-autonomy teaming research and applications. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.},
note = {Journal Abbreviation: Lect. Notes Comput. Sci.},
keywords = {Behavioral research, Bias, Biases, Biomedical signal processing, Cognitive state, Cognitive systems, Human Autonomy Teaming, Instructional system, Intelligent systems, Learning pathway, Learning systems, Personalized learning, Physiological models, Physiological signals, Population statistics, Psychophysiology, State Detection, Student feedback, Surveying, Wearable devices, Wearable technology},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the role of adaptive instructional systems (AIS) from passive tools, that deliver personalized learning pathways by adapting to student feedback, to active team members and co-learners that dynamically adapt alongside human partners. In this emerging landscape of human–autonomy teaming (HAT), assessing the cognitive states of individuals interacting with highly intelligent systems has become a critical design consideration for improving team performance, collaboration, and learning outcomes. Physiological signals have emerged as a popular method for measurement of cognitive states in the past few decades. However, these signals can be strongly influenced by different user demographics, including age and biological sex. If unaccounted for, these differences could introduce systematic biases into AIS based learning pathways for different demographic groups. These biases can lead to discriminative performance of instructional systems and may also leave them vulnerable to adversarial exploitation. Aside from physiological signal-induced biases, there may also be major behavioural differences between different sex and/or age groups when interacting with and teaming with AIS, thus further confounding cognitive state monitoring. In this survey, we review emerging human-autonomy teaming studies that incorporate physiological data and analyze where biological sex- and age-related physiological or behavioral differences were documented and/or analyzed. We highlight evidence demonstrating that differences do exist during interaction with autonomous systems. We then discuss how biases can accumulate across study design and analysis modelling pipelines, and provide practical guidelines for mitigating these biases in future human-autonomy teaming research and applications. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.
2.
Tiwari, A.; Arrabito, R.; Davoust, A.; Falk, T. H.
Quantifying Biological Sex Leakage in Electroencephalography-Based Mental Workload Measurement and Its Impact on Model Performance Proceedings Article
In: IEEE Int. Conf. Hum.-Mach. Syst., ICHMS, pp. 392–397, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2026, ISBN: 979-833154511-6 (ISBN), (Journal Abbreviation: IEEE Int. Conf. Hum.-Mach. Syst., ICHMS).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Biomedical signal processing, Demographic information, Designing systems, Economic and social effects, Electroencephalography, Electrophysiology, Human operator, Mental workload, Modeling performance, Optimal performance, Performance, Population statistics, Real- time, Well being, Workload measurements
@inproceedings{tiwariQuantifyingBiologicalSex2026,
title = {Quantifying Biological Sex Leakage in Electroencephalography-Based Mental Workload Measurement and Its Impact on Model Performance},
author = {A. Tiwari and R. Arrabito and A. Davoust and T. H. Falk},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105045575255?origin=resultslist},
doi = {10.1109/ICHMS69701.2026.11602273},
isbn = {979-833154511-6 (ISBN)},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-01-01},
booktitle = {IEEE Int. Conf. Hum.-Mach. Syst., ICHMS},
pages = {392–397},
publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.},
abstract = {Detection of mental workload is essential for designing systems that can monitor and adapt to the needs of human operators, thereby ensuring their optimal performance and well-being. Features derived from neurophysiological signals, particularly electroencephalograms (EEG), provide a realtime, unobtrusive, and objective indicator of mental workload. However, EEG signals are often correlated with demographic variables, including biological sex and age, which can introduce systematic performance differences across demographic groups, while unintentionally encoding demographic information into models trained on EEG data. In this work, we investigate and quantify the influence of user demographics on mental workload detection models using fairness analysis. Furthermore, we propose domain-adversarial training, in which an adversary penalizes the model for retaining sex-related information, to mitigate leakage of private demographic information (biological sex). The proposed approach simultaneously increases the odds ratio for sex from 0.83 to 0.90 (values closer to 1 indicate reduced demographic disparity) while reducing statistical significance. This approach, however, also leads to a reduction in mental workload detection performance, with a 12.7% decrease in balanced accuracy (BACC), suggesting an inherent trade-off between performance and privacy protection. © 2026 IEEE.},
note = {Journal Abbreviation: IEEE Int. Conf. Hum.-Mach. Syst., ICHMS},
keywords = {Biomedical signal processing, Demographic information, Designing systems, Economic and social effects, Electroencephalography, Electrophysiology, Human operator, Mental workload, Modeling performance, Optimal performance, Performance, Population statistics, Real- time, Well being, Workload measurements},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Detection of mental workload is essential for designing systems that can monitor and adapt to the needs of human operators, thereby ensuring their optimal performance and well-being. Features derived from neurophysiological signals, particularly electroencephalograms (EEG), provide a realtime, unobtrusive, and objective indicator of mental workload. However, EEG signals are often correlated with demographic variables, including biological sex and age, which can introduce systematic performance differences across demographic groups, while unintentionally encoding demographic information into models trained on EEG data. In this work, we investigate and quantify the influence of user demographics on mental workload detection models using fairness analysis. Furthermore, we propose domain-adversarial training, in which an adversary penalizes the model for retaining sex-related information, to mitigate leakage of private demographic information (biological sex). The proposed approach simultaneously increases the odds ratio for sex from 0.83 to 0.90 (values closer to 1 indicate reduced demographic disparity) while reducing statistical significance. This approach, however, also leads to a reduction in mental workload detection performance, with a 12.7% decrease in balanced accuracy (BACC), suggesting an inherent trade-off between performance and privacy protection. © 2026 IEEE.
3.
Abdollahi, M.; Zhu, Y.; Guimaraes, H. R.; Coallier, N.; Maucourt, S.; Giovenazzo, P.; Falk, T. H.
Audio Modulation Spectral Features for Improved Honeybee Colony Population Prediction Journal Article
In: IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 25, no. 24, pp. 44378–44391, 2025, ISSN: 1530437X (ISSN).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Apis mellifera, Audio acoustics, Audio recordings, Beehive acoustic, Beehive acoustics, Biodiversity, Chemical contamination, Climate variation, Ecology, Food security, Food supply, Honeybee, Honeybee colonies, honeybees, Modulation spectrogram, Parasite-, Population statistics, Spectral feature, Spectrograms
@article{abdollahiAudioModulationSpectral2025,
title = {Audio Modulation Spectral Features for Improved Honeybee Colony Population Prediction},
author = {M. Abdollahi and Y. Zhu and H. R. Guimaraes and N. Coallier and S. Maucourt and P. Giovenazzo and T. H. Falk},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105020704883?origin=resultslist},
doi = {10.1109/JSEN.2025.3625178},
issn = {1530437X (ISSN)},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-01-01},
journal = {IEEE Sensors Journal},
volume = {25},
number = {24},
pages = {44378–44391},
publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.},
abstract = {Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are vital to agriculture and biodiversity, serving as primary pollinators for numerous crops and wild plants. However, the decline in bee populations due to factors such as pesticides, pathogens, parasites, and climate variations poses a serious threat to food security and ecological balance. This study introduces the use of modulation spectral features, extracted from beehive acoustic signals, to better predict the strength of the honeybee colony. Experiments conducted on the public urban beehive acoustics and phenotyping dataset (UrBAN), comprised of over 3000 h of beehive audio recordings, show the proposed features offering improved predictive performance compared with traditional audio features. This work underscores the potential of automated, noninvasive acoustic monitoring systems to support sustainable beekeeping and ecological preservation. © 2001-2012 IEEE.},
keywords = {Apis mellifera, Audio acoustics, Audio recordings, Beehive acoustic, Beehive acoustics, Biodiversity, Chemical contamination, Climate variation, Ecology, Food security, Food supply, Honeybee, Honeybee colonies, honeybees, Modulation spectrogram, Parasite-, Population statistics, Spectral feature, Spectrograms},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are vital to agriculture and biodiversity, serving as primary pollinators for numerous crops and wild plants. However, the decline in bee populations due to factors such as pesticides, pathogens, parasites, and climate variations poses a serious threat to food security and ecological balance. This study introduces the use of modulation spectral features, extracted from beehive acoustic signals, to better predict the strength of the honeybee colony. Experiments conducted on the public urban beehive acoustics and phenotyping dataset (UrBAN), comprised of over 3000 h of beehive audio recordings, show the proposed features offering improved predictive performance compared with traditional audio features. This work underscores the potential of automated, noninvasive acoustic monitoring systems to support sustainable beekeeping and ecological preservation. © 2001-2012 IEEE.
4.
Davoust, A.; Esfandiari, B.
User participation and honesty in online rating systems: What a social network can do Proceedings Article
In: AAAI Workshop - Technical Report, pp. 477–483, AI Access Foundation, 2016, ISBN: 978-1-57735-759-9.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Aggregation techniques, Artificial intelligence, Behavioral research, Big data, Co-operative behaviors, Cognitive systems, Computer games, Computer programming, Computer systems programming, Data mining, Hybrid systems, Incentive structure, On-line communities, Online rating systems, Online systems, Population statistics, Prisoners' Dilemma, Rating, Social networking (online), User participation
@inproceedings{davoust_user_2016,
title = {User participation and honesty in online rating systems: What a social network can do},
author = {A. Davoust and B. Esfandiari},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85021919921&partnerID=40&md5=6a33a1ab6d3b6ddd037240f4f664b6fe},
isbn = {978-1-57735-759-9},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
booktitle = {AAAI Workshop - Technical Report},
volume = {WS-16-01 - WS-16-15},
pages = {477–483},
publisher = {AI Access Foundation},
abstract = {An important problem with online communities in general, and online rating systems in particular, is uncooperative behavior: lack of user participation, dishonest contributions. This may be due to an incentive structure akin to a Prisoners' Dilemma (PD). We show that introducing an explicit social network to PD games fosters cooperative behavior, and use this insight to design a new aggregation technique for online rating systems. Using a dataset of ratings from Yelp, we show that our aggregation technique outperforms Yelp's proprietary filter, as well as baseline techniques from recommender systems. Copyright © 2016, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org).},
keywords = {Aggregation techniques, Artificial intelligence, Behavioral research, Big data, Co-operative behaviors, Cognitive systems, Computer games, Computer programming, Computer systems programming, Data mining, Hybrid systems, Incentive structure, On-line communities, Online rating systems, Online systems, Population statistics, Prisoners' Dilemma, Rating, Social networking (online), User participation},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
An important problem with online communities in general, and online rating systems in particular, is uncooperative behavior: lack of user participation, dishonest contributions. This may be due to an incentive structure akin to a Prisoners' Dilemma (PD). We show that introducing an explicit social network to PD games fosters cooperative behavior, and use this insight to design a new aggregation technique for online rating systems. Using a dataset of ratings from Yelp, we show that our aggregation technique outperforms Yelp's proprietary filter, as well as baseline techniques from recommender systems. Copyright © 2016, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org).
5.
Davoust, A.; Esfandiari, B.
User participation and honesty in online rating systems: What a social network can do Proceedings Article
In: AAAI Workshop - Technical Report, pp. 477–483, AI Access Foundation, 2016, ISBN: 978-1-57735-759-9.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Aggregation techniques, Artificial intelligence, Behavioral research, Big data, Co-operative behaviors, Cognitive systems, Computer games, Computer programming, Computer systems programming, Data mining, Hybrid systems, Incentive structure, On-line communities, Online rating systems, Online systems, Population statistics, Prisoners' Dilemma, Rating, Social networking (online), User participation
@inproceedings{davoustUserParticipationHonesty2016,
title = {User participation and honesty in online rating systems: What a social network can do},
author = {A. Davoust and B. Esfandiari},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85021919921&partnerID=40&md5=6a33a1ab6d3b6ddd037240f4f664b6fe},
isbn = {978-1-57735-759-9},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
booktitle = {AAAI Workshop - Technical Report},
volume = {WS-16-01 - WS-16-15},
pages = {477–483},
publisher = {AI Access Foundation},
abstract = {An important problem with online communities in general, and online rating systems in particular, is uncooperative behavior: lack of user participation, dishonest contributions. This may be due to an incentive structure akin to a Prisoners' Dilemma (PD). We show that introducing an explicit social network to PD games fosters cooperative behavior, and use this insight to design a new aggregation technique for online rating systems. Using a dataset of ratings from Yelp, we show that our aggregation technique outperforms Yelp's proprietary filter, as well as baseline techniques from recommender systems. Copyright © 2016, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org).},
keywords = {Aggregation techniques, Artificial intelligence, Behavioral research, Big data, Co-operative behaviors, Cognitive systems, Computer games, Computer programming, Computer systems programming, Data mining, Hybrid systems, Incentive structure, On-line communities, Online rating systems, Online systems, Population statistics, Prisoners' Dilemma, Rating, Social networking (online), User participation},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
An important problem with online communities in general, and online rating systems in particular, is uncooperative behavior: lack of user participation, dishonest contributions. This may be due to an incentive structure akin to a Prisoners' Dilemma (PD). We show that introducing an explicit social network to PD games fosters cooperative behavior, and use this insight to design a new aggregation technique for online rating systems. Using a dataset of ratings from Yelp, we show that our aggregation technique outperforms Yelp's proprietary filter, as well as baseline techniques from recommender systems. Copyright © 2016, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org).