Cogprints: No conditions. Results ordered -Date, Title. 2018-01-17T14:27:33ZEPrintshttp://cogprints.org/images/sitelogo.gifhttp://cogprints.org/2011-03-11T22:26:07Z2011-03-11T22:26:07Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7230This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/72302011-03-11T22:26:07ZEmergence of Orderliness in Mind: A Probabilistic Causal ApproachThe current study concentrates to figure out how orderliness emerges possibly in the
mind. A research emulation with random data was usable for generation of the hypothesis. The
resulted hypothesis assumed that in a novel situation, quality of a stimulus evokes what kinds of
flip-flop dynamic persons generate, and the flip-flop dynamic results in what kind of overt
orderliness the persons produce. The variables between were the imaginary word, the concrete
word, and the abstract word; planning, organizing, and arranging; the sentence without a regular
arrangement, the deficient sentence, and the proper sentence. Structured observation was the
method to obtain data. The number of the participants was 100 (53 men, 47 women). Matrix
calculus was applicable to research causation with probabilities. Reliability was assed with
Cronbach’s α-coefficient, and validity with χ2-test. The hypothesis corroborated, and the causal
flip-flop dynamic referred to the direction that the same causal system dynamic deals with
dissimilar referents in the mind, and results in different outputs. The essential result of the
research was the causal flip-flop where after the inputs the process causes the process, and back
again to the modified absorption before the outputs.Ed.D R J Laasonenraimojuhanilaasonen142@gmail.com2011-02-16T19:48:55Z2011-03-11T08:57:45Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7030This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/70302011-02-16T19:48:55ZFolge dem weißen Kaninchen –Ein Roboterhase als VokabeltrainerIm Folgenden werden die Ergebnisse einer Fallstudie zur Evaluation der user experience und
Motivationsfunktion eines Vokabeltrainers in Form eines Roboterhasen präsentiert. Die Ergebnisse
zeigen, dass die Schüler einer fünften Klasse, die mit dem Hasen lernten, die Anwendung sowohl
hinsichtlich des Ease of Use und der Perceived Usefulness als hoch einschätzten, als auch die
hedonische und pragmatische Qualität des Roboterhasen Nabaztag als hoch bewertet wurde. Zudem
waren die Schüler, die mit dem Roboter lernten anschließend in einer positiveren Stimmung als die, die
nach der traditionellen Methode lernten. Nach einer Woche konnte bei den Schülern, die mit dem
Nabaztag gelernt hatten, eine durchschnittlich höhere Zahl an erinnerten Vokabeln festgestellt werden
als bei der Kontrollgruppe. Die Tatsache, dass die Schüler nicht nur Bereitschaft zeigten, den Nabaztag
erneut zu benutzen, sondern ihn auch an Freunde weiterempfehlen würden, zeigt, zusammen mit den
Ergebnissen der erfassten Skalen, dass die Applikation eine grundlegende Voraussetzung für die
Entstehung von Motivation und Nutzungsspaß erfüllt.
Mr. Lucas Carstenslucas.carstens@stud.uni-due.deMr. Ulrich Schächtleulrich.schächtle@stud.uni-due.deMrs. Clarissa M. Salisburyclarissa.salisbury@stud.uni-due.deMrs. Sabrina C. Eimlersabrina.eimler@uni-due.deMrs. Astrid M. von der Püttenastrid.von-der-putten@uni-due.deProf.Dr. Nicole C. Krämernicole.kraemer@uni-due.de2010-08-06T11:19:18Z2011-03-11T08:57:39Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6910This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/69102010-08-06T11:19:18ZIntegration, Information Thresholds, and Arrangement in
Mindamic: A Probabilistic Causation AnalysisThe objective of the research was to scrutinize probabilistic
causalities between integration, information thresholds, and
arrangement in mind dynamic. Data obtained from videotaped
sessions with structured observation. The participants had to
accomplish four tasks. The participants were 39 females, and 83
males. Reliability and validity assessed as probabilities. The
frequencies converted into probability matrices, and sampling
without replacement was necessary. Thereafter, a causal state
space originated, and maintained through Householder matrices.
The Bayes formula with joint distributions in a matrix form
applied to result in the start matrix for the causal dynamic.
The reduced start array matrix powered from 1 to 6. There are
the probabilistic causalities between the integration, the
thresholds, and the arrangement. Theoretic results show. It is
the entire mind of the persons strives to form patterns for the
causal functioning, continuously. Furthermore, the whole mind
conveys mental contents under the same patterns. The patterns
remain but the contents of the processes differ during the
mindamic.Ed.D. Raimo J Laasonenraimojuhanilaasonen142@gmail.com2010-06-06T14:34:19Z2011-03-11T08:57:37Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6852This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/68522010-06-06T14:34:19ZLandscape in the Economy of Conspicuous Consumptions
Psychological states side by side with the bounded rational expectations among social agents contributes to the pattern of consumptions in economic system. One of the psychological states are the envy – a tendency to emulate any gaps with other agents’ properties. The evolutionary game theoretic works on conspicuous consumption are explored by growing the micro-view of economic agency in lattice-based populations, the landscape of consumptions. The emerged macro-view of multiple equilibria is shown in computational simulative demonstrations altogether with the spatial clustered agents based upon the emerged agents’ economic profiles. Hokky Situngkirhs@compsoc.bandungfe.net2010-10-18T11:00:24Z2011-03-11T08:57:45Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7047This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/70472010-10-18T11:00:24ZDer Aufbau sozialer Beziehungen mit einem Roboter. Eine Beobachtungsstudie im FeldRoboter nehmen in letzter Zeit vermehrt Einzug in verschiedene Lebensbereiche. Es werden nicht nur Haushaltsroboter, die staubsaugen, oder Roboter, die vorrangig Entertainment-Zwecken dienen, angeboten, sondern in einigen Altenheimen werden Roboter bereits eingesetzt, um Senioren Gesellschaft zu leisten. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht die Studie als Teil des EU Forschungsprojektes SERA (Social Engagement with Robots and Agents), ob und inwiefern soziale Beziehungen zu Robotern aufgebaut werden. In einer Beobachtungsstudie und einem anschließenden qualitativen Interview wurden drei weibliche Teilnehmer (zwischen 50 und 65 Jahren) über eine Woche in der Interaktion mit einem Nabaztag beobachtet. Dieser Roboter in Hasenform wurde für die Studie so programmiert, dass er mit den Untersuchungsteilnehmerinnen Dialoge rund um das Thema Gesundheit und Fitness führen konnte. Der Roboter nutzte Sprachoutput, der Input von Seiten der Teilnehmerinnen wurde über Ja/Nein Knöpfe vorgenommen. Mit einer Webcam wurden 66 Interaktionen aufgezeichnet. Die kategorienbasierte Auswertung der Transkripte zeigte z.B., dass der Nabaztag häufig natürlich-sprachlich adressiert wurde und ihm beispielsweise alltägliches Verhalten erklärt wurde, obwohl die Probandinnen wussten, dass der Roboter sie nicht verstehen kann, da eine Interaktion nur über die Knöpfe möglich war. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass durchaus Beziehungen aufgebaut werden und lassen Schlüsse über die soziale Natur des Menschen zu. Astrid M. von der Püttenastrid.von-der-putten@uni-due.deSabrina C. Eimlersabrina.eimler@uni-due.deProf.Dr. Nicole C. Krämernicole.kraemer@uni-due.deTina Ganstertina.ganster@stud.uni-due.deLaura Hoffmannlaura.hoffmann@stud.uni-due.de2011-05-02T17:16:16Z2011-05-02T17:16:16Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7267This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/72672011-05-02T17:16:16ZLife is an Adventure! An agent-based reconciliation of narrative and scientific worldviews
The scientific worldview is based on laws, which are supposed to be certain, objective, and independent of time and context. The narrative worldview found in literature, myth and religion, is based on stories, which relate the events experienced by a subject in a particular context with an uncertain outcome. This paper argues that the concept of “agent”, supported by the theories of evolution, cybernetics and complex adaptive systems, allows us to reconcile scientific and narrative perspectives. An agent follows a course of action through its environment with the aim of maximizing its fitness. Navigation along that course combines the strategies of regulation, exploitation and exploration, but needs to cope with often-unforeseen diversions. These can be positive (affordances, opportunities), negative (disturbances, dangers) or neutral (surprises). The resulting sequence of encounters and actions can be conceptualized as an adventure. Thus, the agent appears to play the role of the hero in a tale of challenge and mystery that is very similar to the "monomyth", the basic storyline that underlies all myths and fairy tales according to Campbell [1949]. This narrative dynamics is driven forward in particular by the alternation between prospect (the ability to foresee diversions) and mystery (the possibility of achieving an as yet absent prospect), two aspects of the environment that are particularly attractive to agents. This dynamics generalizes the scientific notion of a deterministic trajectory by introducing a variable “horizon of knowability”: the agent is never fully certain of its further course, but can anticipate depending on its degree of prospect.Francis Heylighenfheyligh@vub.ac.be2009-01-06T00:00:55Z2011-03-11T08:57:17Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6310This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/63102009-01-06T00:00:55ZA Theory of Reaction Time DistributionsWe develop a general theory of reaction time ({RT}) distributions in psychological experiments, deriving from the distribution of the quotient of two normal random variables, that of the task difficulty (top-down information), and that of the external evidence that becomes available to solve it (bottom-up information). The theory is capable of accounting for results from a variety of models of reaction time distributions and it makes novel predictions. It provides a unified account of known changes in the shape of the distributions depending on properties of the task and of the participants, and it predicts additional changes that should be observed. We show that a number of known properties of {RT} distributions are homogeneously accounted for by variations in the value of two easily interpretable parameters, the coefficients of variation of the two normal variables. The predictions of the theory are compared with those of many families of distributions that have been proposed to account for {RT}s, indicating our theory provides a significantly better account of the data across tasks and modalities. In addition, a new methodology for analyzing {RT} data is derived from the theory, and we illustrate how it can be used to disentagle top-down and bottom-up effects in an experiment. Finally, we show how the theory links to neurobiological models of response latencies.Dr Fermin Moscoso del Prado Martinfermosc@gmail.com2008-06-27T01:44:01Z2011-03-11T08:57:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6111This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61112008-06-27T01:44:01ZHow Body and Soul Interact with the Spiritual Mind Cognitive Linguistics as an enterprise provides new theoretical and methodological instruments in understanding the relationship between people’s thoughts and the language they use. Spiritual and religious experiences (particularly the ones involving some type of revelation from or communication with a transcendent being) are especially interesting since they involve some type of external, physically invisible force or agent, contributing an “ineffable” quality to the phenomenon. However, people can and do describe such events, and metaphors and blends pervade the representations of certain concepts of the transcendental when attempting to talk about such abstract ideas. One of the main tenants of Cognitive Linguistics is that people’s views about themselves and the world around them are deeply rooted in their conceptual systems, created by their experiences and their bodily interactions with the world, whether they be physical, psychological or social.
People who practice spirituality reach certain states by means of personal or collective rituals, such as prayer, meditation, and bodily procedures involving discipline, as is the case of fasting or re-understanding pain. When they then communicate certain religious and spiritual concepts, they are revealing a great deal about themselves and their world and the way they interact with it. Concepts dealing with people’s system of beliefs are very “meaningful” for the individual, and the more entrenched a frame of mind is, the less plastic it is, a fact confirmed by the neurosciences which claim that it is difficult to break down and reconstruct certain synaptic structures of the brain.
But how do people who have had such awesome experiences represent these supernatural encounters and their states of being? What is the relationship between the concepts of body and soul in devotees who torture their bodies, who have out of body experiences or who describe a body possessed by other spirits? What does the language they use say about the individuals’ concept of themselves and their world?
I will present some of my own research data containing conceptual metaphors and blends collected in various sacred texts and during a series of interviews of people who claim to have had such supernatural experiences. The data includes linguistic expressions as well as gesture. Moreover, the interviewees were asked to draw on paper certain experiences of spiritual nature and then to describe their pictures. My investigation will try to shed new light on the phenomenology of spiritual experiences and personhood, using cognitive linguistics as a prime tool of analysis.
Vito Evolaevola@unipa.it2008-06-27T01:43:55Z2008-06-27T01:43:55Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6110This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61102008-06-27T01:43:55ZMultimodal Semiotics of Representing God and the Self:
a Cognitive Linguistic View of Metaphors and Gestures
in Religious Discourse
I will explore some of my conclusions concerning conceptual metaphors collected during a series of interviews, in particular with two Christian street preachers. The data includes speech, gesture, and commented drawings of God, themselves and paradise.
Some of the metaphors analyzed are: metaphors for God (FATHER, SHEPHERD, LOVER, etc); GOOD/GOD IS UP; BAD IS DOWN; STRICT FATHER vs. NURTURING PARENT; MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY. This data demonstrates that the more entrenched a frame of mind is, the less plastic it is, because the primary source domain of our habitual conceptual metaphor will always motivate any other “laminated domain mappings”, or blends, especially for such meaningful concepts like personhood or belief systems.
My investigation will try to shed new light on the phenomenology of religious experiences and personhood, using cognitive linguistics as a prime tool of analysis.
Vito Evolaevola@unipa.it2008-12-04T17:28:55Z2011-03-11T08:57:17Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6288This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/62882008-12-04T17:28:55ZCooperative Categorization: Coordination of Reference and Categories in Learning a Joint Prediction TaskWe investigated the interaction of structure and convention in the emergence of schemes for joint reference in the context of indirect category learning. Participants worked individually or in dyads to learn a set of functionally-defined categories, instantiated as supposed alien creatures. The perceptual structure of these categories was complex: one function could be predicted by a unidimensional rule but the other was defined by a family-resemblance substructure. In addition to the main function-prediction task, each learner worked individually to sort the exemplars (pre- and post-function prediction) and in an individual prediction test that yielded selective attention data. Dyadic learners predicted the functional features with significantly greater accuracy compared to individual learners. This dyadic advantage was even greater for predicting the simple rule-based function compared to the FR function. Also, the post-task sorts produced by dyadic learners correlated more closely to the true categories than did those of individual learners.John Voiklisjv37@columbia.eduJames Cortercorter@tc.edu2008-06-27T01:44:06Z2011-03-11T08:57:09Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6112This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/61122008-06-27T01:44:06ZMultimodal Semiotics of Spiritual Experiences: Representing Beliefs, Metaphors, and ActionsTraditionally, spiritual experiences have been considered "ineffable," but metaphors pervade the representations of certain concepts of the transcendental in an attempt to talk about such abstract ideas. Whether it be during the description of a vision or simply talking about morality, people use conceptual metaphors to reason and talk about these concepts. Many representations of God, spirits, or the afterlife are culturally based, but whereas some may differ based on individual experiences, others seem to have a more universal character. From a phenomenological point of view, it seems that the descriptions are contingent and not necessary, that is, the language a believer is exposed to may influence, but not condition a priori, his or her own spiritual experience as Constructivists have thought. People's views about themselves and the world around them are deeply rooted in their conceptual systems, which are created by their experiences and their bodily interactions with the world, whether it's having to do with gravity in the case of UP and DOWN, or what our individual and social concepts are. When people talk about religious and spiritual concepts, they are revealing a great deal about their world and themselves and the way they interact with it. Concepts dealing with people's system of beliefs are very "meaningful" for the individual, and the more entrenched a frame of mind is, the less plastic it is, a fact confirmed by the neurosciences, which claim that it is difficult to break down and reconstruct certain synaptic structures of the brain. How do today's common "faithful" relate to certain metaphors about spiritual concepts transmitted by their faiths? What do these metaphors say about the individuals' concepts of themselves and their world? I will explore some of my own conclusions concerning conceptual metaphors and figurative language collected in various sacred texts and during a series of interviews of religious people with different backgrounds of religious systems. The data include linguistic expressions as well as gesture. Moreover, the interviewees were asked to draw on paper certain experiences of religious nature and then to describe their pictures. My investigation will try to shed new light on the phenomenology of religious experiences and personhood, using cognitive linguistics as a prime tool of analysis.Vito Evolaevola@berkeley.edu2008-01-08T00:29:36Z2011-03-11T08:57:02Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5890This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/58902008-01-08T00:29:36ZHow to have results from ConversationsThe difficulty of emergence is not the complexity but the recursivity of its working. That is why there are so many debates to know whether structure generates strategy or strategy generates structure. In fact all we know is that networking allows conversations and that conversations help creating structure, that is a system embedding procedures and technologies; in other words, the network is the tool, the conversation the use of the tool and the structure the result of this use. The use is starting from the identification of a problem, its solving and the decision making. The system itself resulting from such a process, it will be necessary to bootstrap this process starting from a network, a conversation or a nascent or already existing structure.
Mr. Guy Benchimolb.guy@noos.fr2007-05-08Z2011-03-11T08:56:50Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5509This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/55092007-05-08ZThe Ribbon of Love: Fuzzy-Ruled Agents in Artificial Societies
The paper brings two motivations to the theoretical explorations of social analysis. The first is to enrich the agent based computational sociology by incorporating the fuzzy set theory in to the computational modeling. This is conducted by showing the importance to include the fuzziness into artificial agent’s considerations and her way acquiring and articulate information. This is continued with the second motives to bring the Darwinian sexual selection theory – as it has been developed broadly in evolutionary psychology – into the analysis of social system including cultural analysis and other broad aspects of sociological fields. The two was combined in one computational model construction showing the fuzziness of mating choice, and how to have computational tools to explain broad fields of social realms. The paper ends with some opened further computer program development. Hokky Situngkir2008-12-04T17:29:35Z2011-03-11T08:57:16Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6287This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/62872008-12-04T17:29:35ZAn Emergentist Account of Collective Cognition in Collaborative Problem Solving As a first step toward an emergentist theory of collective cognition in collaborative problem solving, we present a proto-theoretical account of how one might conceive and model the intersubjective processes that organize collective cognition into one or another--convergent, divergent, or tensive--cognitive regime. To explore the sufficiency of our emergentist proposal we instantiate a minimalist model of intersubjective convergence and simulate the tuning of collective cognition using data from an empirical study of small-group, collaborative problem solving. Using the results of this empirical simulation, we test a number of preliminary hypotheses with regard to patterns of interaction, how those patterns affect a cognitive regime, and how that cognitive regime affects the efficacy of a problem-solving group.John Voiklisjv37@columbia.eduManu Kapurmanu_kapur@hotmail.comCharles Kinzerkinzer@tc.columbia.eduJohn Blackblack@tc.columbia.edu2006-07-23Z2011-03-11T08:56:32Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5011This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/50112006-07-23ZEVIDENCE FOR "UNERTAN SYNDROME" AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN MINDA new family exhibiting “Unertan Sydnrome” was discovered. The pedigree analysis showed marriages between relatives. This family was similar to the first one (see Tan, 2006a), providing a firm evidence for the new syndrome. The affected children showed habitual quadrupedal walking gait, that is, they walked on wrists and feet with straight legs and arms. Their heads and bodies were mildly flexed; they exhibited mild cerebellar signs, and severe mental retardation. The pedigree demonstrated a typical autosomal-recessive inheritance. The genetic nature of
this syndrome suggests a backward stage in human evolution (devolution), which would be consistent with theories of punctuated evolution. The results reflected a
new theory on the evolution of human beings. That is, the evolution of humans would in fact be the evolution of the extensor motor system, responsible for upright posture, against the gravitational forces. This would be coupled with the emergence of the human mind, which can be considered a reflexion of the human motor system, in accord with the psychomotor theory (see Tan, 2005a). The
most important characteristic of the newly emerged human mind was the resistance against gravitational forces. This was the resistive mind, the origins of human creativity.Prof. Dr. Uner Tan2006-12-03Z2011-03-11T08:56:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5262This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/52622006-12-03ZThe Clash of PerceptionsThis study challenges Samuel Huntington’s well-known clash of civilizations paradigm based on a philosophical reasoning of cognitive proofs. The authors propose the clash of perceptions, an alternative paradigm that better reflects the complexity of individual and collective interactions. Building on case studies and recent cognitive science and informatics research, this paradigm offers greater insight into the dynamics of international relations. In the first section, the authors explain the conceptual and methodological limits of Huntington’s paradigm before proposing in the second section a new approach geared toward individual and group phenomena aiming to model the clash of perceptions. New concepts such as percepts, misperception, misconception and perception prototypes are introduced in order to explain this complex process. These concepts help better understand the complexity of conflict among individuals, groups and nation states.Dr. Newton HowardDr. Mathieu Guidère2006-04-16Z2011-03-11T08:56:23Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4838This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/48382006-04-16ZThe Clash of PerceptionsThis study challenges Samuel Huntington’s well-known clash of civilizations paradigm based on a philosophical reasoning of cognitive proofs. The authors propose the clash of perceptions, an alternative paradigm that better reflects the complexity of individual and collective interactions. Building on case studies and recent cognitive science and informatics research, this paradigm offers greater insight into the dynamics of international relations. In the first section, the authors explain the conceptual and methodological limits of Huntington’s paradigm before proposing in the second section a new approach geared toward individual and group phenomena aiming to model the clash of perceptions. New concepts such as percepts, misperception, misconception and perception prototypes are introduced in order to explain this complex process. These concepts help better understand the complexity of conflict among individuals, groups and nation states.Dr. Newton HowardDr. Mathieu Guidère2006-01-06Z2011-03-11T08:56:18Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4678This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/46782006-01-06ZTheorizing CorruptionThe aim of this paper is to gain the broad explanation of corruption using simple computational model. We elaborated further the model of corruption described previously in Situngkir (2003b), with some additions in model’s properties. We performed hundreds of experiments computationally using Swarm and constructed the explanation of corruption based upon these results. We show that corruption should be understood as complex social-phenomena, which relates not only with economical aspect, but also with many other social and anthropological aspects. Deni KhanafiahHokky Situngkir2007-03-06Z2011-03-11T08:56:47Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5433This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/54332007-03-06ZDoes Meaning Evolove?A common method of improving how well understood a theory is, is by comparing it to another theory which has been better developed. Radical interpretation is a theory which attempts to explain how communication has meaning. Radical interpretation is treated as another time dependent theory and compared to the time dependent theory of biological evolution. Several similarities and differences are uncovered. Biological evolution can be gradual or punctuated. Whether radical interpretation is gradual or punctuated depends on how the question is framed: on the coarse-grained time scale it proceeds gradually, but on the fine-grained time scale it proceeds by punctuated equilibria. Biological evolution proceeds by natural selection, the counterpart to this is the increase in both correspondence and coherence. Exaption, mutations, and spandrels have counterparts metaphor, speech errors, and puns respectively. Homologous and analogs have direct counterparts in specific words. The most important differences originate from the existence of a unit of inheritance (the traditional gene) occurring in biological evolution - there is no such unit in language.Mark D.Roberts2004-05-24Z2011-03-11T08:55:36Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3641This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/36412004-05-24ZSocial Balance Theory: Revisiting Heider’s Balance Theory for many agents
We construct a model based on Heider’s social balance theory to analyze the interpersonal network among social agents. The model of social balance theory provides us an interesting tool to see how a social group evolves to the possible balance state. We introduce the balance index that can be used to measure social balance in macro structure level (global balance index) or in micro structure (local balance index) to see how the local balance index influences the global balance structure. Several experiments are done and we discover how the social group can form separation of subgroups in a group or strengthening a social group while emphasizing the structure theorem and social mitosis previously introduced. Mr Hokky SitungkirMr Deni Khanafiah2004-08-25Z2011-03-11T08:55:40Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3771This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/37712004-08-25ZEVOLUTIONARY STABLE PROPERTIES OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN INDONESIAThe major idea is to use memetics as an analytical tool on viewing how the existing political parties towards General Election 2004 creating formation of their presidential candidacy, ideology behind it, the change of political atmosphere it will bring, etc. into a compact evolutionary model that exhibits fitness of each political party within population of a society. The strategy used is through transforming polling statistical language into evolutionary stable language of dynamical system. Here, memetic method is applied as an evolutionary computational tool.Mr Hokky SitungkirMr Deni KhanafiahMr Tiktik Sartika2004-04-07Z2011-03-11T08:55:30Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3535This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/35352004-04-07ZTopology of large-scale engineering problem-solving networksThe last few years have led to a series of discoveries that uncovered statistical properties that are common
to a variety of diverse real-world social, information, biological, and technological networks. The goal of the
present paper is to investigate the statistical properties of networks of people engaged in distributed problem
solving and discuss their significance. We show that problem-solving networks have properties ~sparseness,
small world, scaling regimes! that are like those displayed by information, biological, and technological
networks. More importantly, we demonstrate a previously unreported difference between the distribution of
incoming and outgoing links of directed networks. Specifically, the incoming link distributions have sharp
cutoffs that are substantially lower than those of the outgoing link distributions ~sometimes the outgoing
cutoffs are not even present!. This asymmetry can be explained by considering the dynamical interactions that
take place in distributed problem solving and may be related to differences between each actor’s capacity to
process information provided by others and the actor’s capacity to transmit information over the network. We
conjecture that the asymmetric link distribution is likely to hold for other human or nonhuman directed
networks when nodes represent information processing and using elements.Dan BrahaYaneer Bar-Yam2005-04-14Z2011-03-11T08:55:52Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4142This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/41422005-04-14ZEarly imitation and the emergence of a sense of agencyJacqueline Nadel2005-04-14Z2011-03-11T08:55:50Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/4070This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/40702005-04-14ZOn the linguistic implications of context-bound adult-infant interactionsThis poster presents a study of the linguistic information potentially available in adult speech directed to 3-month-old infants. The repetitive nature of the speech directed to young infants and the ecological context of the adult-infant natural interaction setting are analyzed in the light of the “Ecological theory of language acquisition” proposed by Lacerda et al. (2004, this volume). The analysis of transcripts of adult-infant interaction sessions suggests that enough information to derive general noun associations may be available as a consequence of the particular context of the adult-infant interactions during the early stages of the language acquisition process.Francisco LacerdaEllen MarklundLisa LagerkvistLisa GustavssonEeva KlintforsUlla Sundberg2006-08-01Z2011-03-11T08:55:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3902This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/39022006-08-01ZHomi Jehangir Bhabha as a Knowledge Generating System: A Longitudinal Cognition StudyQuantitative analysis of the events of synchronous references in the research papers followed throughout the publishing career of an individual scientist revealed interesting highlights on the knowledge-generating-system. In the case study of Homi Jehangir Bhabha first quinquennium and fifth quinquennium of his research career had low Self-references; third quinquennium and fourth quinquennium had moderate Self-references; whereas second quinquennium had highest Self-references. The two major clusters of Self-references occurring during the second and third quinquennium were indicators of active periods of knowledgegenerating and faster communications.T. SwarnaV.L. Kalyanevkalyane@yahoo.comE.R. PrakasanVijai Kumar2004-03-18Z2011-03-11T08:55:30Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3507This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/35072004-03-18ZOn Massive Conflict: Macro-Micro LinkMicro and macro properties of social system should be taken as relative poles of a two dimensional continuum since every debate on social system will however shift to the discussion on the two levels of description. This is consistently used as perspective to see massive social conflict. We propose analysis of the emerging conflict on its micro-causations by using computer simulations. We construct a dynamical model based on some propositions on massive conflict based upon the individual’s degree of membership to collective identity she has whether to mobilize or not. The simulations result the possibilities to see the linkage of the macro-micro properties in the case of massive conflict and suggestions on how to cope with massive conflict or even to resolve it. The paper is an endeavor to a more comprehensive methodology on how to cope with conflict on research and theory development.Hokky Situngkir2003-07-25Z2011-03-11T08:55:19Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3083This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/30832003-07-25ZSources of Measurement Error in an ECG Examination: Implications for Performance-Based AssessmentsObjective: To assess the sources of measurement error in an electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation examination given in a third-year internal medicine clerkship.
Design: Three successive generalizability studies were conducted. 1) Multiple faculty rated student responses to a previously administered exam. 2) The rating criteria were revised and study 1 was repeated. 3) The examination was converted into an extended matching format including multiple cases with the same underlying cardiac problem.
Results: The discrepancies among raters (main effects and interactions) were dwarfed by the error associated with case specificity. The largest source of the differences among raters was in rating student errors of commission rather than student errors of omission. Revisions in the rating criteria may have helped increase inter-rater reliability slightly however, due to case specificity, it had little impact on the overall reliability of the exam. The third study indicated the majority of the variability in student performance across cases was in performance across cases within the same type of cardiac problem rather than between different types of cardiac problems.
Conclusions: Case specificity was the overwhelming source of measurement error. The variation among cases came mainly from discrepancies in performance between examples of the same cardiac problem rather than from differences in performance across different types of cardiac problems. This suggests it is necessary to include a large number of cases even if the goal is to assess performance on only a few types of cardiac problems.
David J. Solomon Ph.D.Gary Ferenchick MD2004-11-29Z2011-03-11T08:55:44Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3963This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/39632004-11-29ZImproving behaviour classification consistency: a technique from biological taxonomyQuantitative behaviour analysis requires the classification of behaviour to produce the basic data. In practice, much of this work will be performed by multiple observers, and maximising inter-observer consistency is of particular importance.
Another discipline where consistency in classification is vital is biological taxonomy. A classification tool of great utility, the binary key, is designed to simplify the classification decision process and ensure consistent identification of proper categories.
We show how this same decision-making tool - the binary key - can be used to promote consistency in the classification of behaviour. The construction of a binary key also ensures that the categories in which behaviour is classified are complete and non-overlapping. We discuss the general principles of design of binary keys, and illustrate their
construction and use with a practical example from education research.Timo A. NieminenSerene Hyun-Jin ChoiMark BahrNan Bahr2004-11-29Z2011-03-11T08:55:45Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3969This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/39692004-11-29ZTHE "POWER" OF TEXT PRODUCTION ACTIVITY IN COLLABORATIVE MODELING : NINE RECOMMENDATIONS TO MAKE A COMPUTER SUPPORTED SITUATION WORK Language is not a direct translation of a speaker’s or writer’s knowledge or intentions. Various complex processes and strategies are involved in serving the needs of the audience: planning the message, describing some features of a model and not others, organizing an argument, adapting to the knowledge of the reader, meeting linguistic constraints, etc. As a consequence, when communicating about a model, or about knowledge, there is a complex interaction between knowledge and language. In this contribution, we address the question of the role of language in modeling, in the specific case of collaboration over a distance, via electronic exchange of written textual information. What are the problems/dimensions a language user has to deal with when communicating a (mental) model? What is the relationship between the nature of the knowledge to be communicated and linguistic production? What is the relationship between representations and produced text? In what sense can interactive learning systems serve as mediators or as obstacles to these processes? Denis AlamargotJerry Andriessen2003-11-30Z2011-03-11T08:55:24Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3287This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/32872003-11-30ZA New Account of Personalization and Effective CommunicationTo contribute to understanding of information economies of daily life, this paper explores over the past millennium given names of a large number of persons. Analysts have long both condemned and praised mass media as a source of common culture, national unity, or shared symbolic experiences. Names, however, indicate a large decline in shared symbolic experience over the past two centuries, a decline that the growth of mass media does not appear to have affected significantly. Study of names also shows that action and personal relationships, along with time horizon, are central aspects of effective communication across a large population. The observed preference for personalization over the past two centuries and the importance of action and personal relationships to effective communication are aspects of information economies that are likely to have continuing significance for industry developments, economic statistics, and public policy.Dr. Douglas Galbi2000-10-24Z2011-03-11T08:54:25Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1051This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/10512000-10-24ZBehavior and the General Evolutionary ProcessBehavior analysis is properly part of evolutionary biology, because only evolutionary theory can explain the origins of behavior and because behavior analysis follows the same mode of explanation as evolutionary theory. The resemblance among operant shaping, cultural evolution, and genetic evolution appears clearly only in the light of a general concept of evolutionary process. Every evolutionary process consists of three elements: variation, recurrence, and selection. Evolutionarily significant variation occurs among substitutable variants within a pool. These variants are defined by differences in their environmental effects. Although the metaphor of copying characterizes recurrence in genetic evolution, replication is only one type of recurrence. In cultural and operant evolution, mechanisms like stimulus control and induction cause the recurrence of the variants. Selection occurs when recurrence is differential. Differences in environmental effects produce differences in recurrence, and those differences feed back to affect the composition of the pool of variants. This general view of evolutionary process clarifies the distinction between proximate and ultimate explanations of behavior. Genetic, cultural, and operant evolution all admit of this distinction, because they all distinguish advantageous mechanisms from a history of advantage. Proximate explanations deal with the ?expression? of variants, whereas ultimate explanations deal with the feedback from environmental effects to the frequencies of variants in the pool. The three evolutionary processes may be seen as nested: cultural evolution within genetic evolution, and operant evolution within cultural evolution. A complete understanding of human behavior requires constructing six types of explanation: proximate and ultimate explanations in all three processes.William M. Baum2000-06-14Z2011-03-11T08:53:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/149This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1492000-06-14ZTHE MIND AND BRAIN SCHOLAR AS A HITCH-HIKER IN POST-GUTENBERG GALAXY: PUBLISHING AT 2000 AND BEYONDElectronic journal (e-journal) publishing has started to change the ways we think about publish-ing. However, many scholars and scientists in the mind and brain sciences are still ignorant of the new possibilities and on-going debates. This paper will provide a summary of the issues in-volved, give an update of the current discussion, and supply practical information on issues re-lated to e- journal publishing and self-archiving relevant for the mind and brain sciences. Issues such as differences between traditional and e-journal publishing, open archive initiatives, world-wide conventions, quality control, costs involved in e-journal publishing, and copyright questions will be addressed. Practical hints on how to self-archive, how to submit to the e-journal Psycolo-quy, how to create an open research archive, and where to find information relevant to e-publishing will be supplied.Brigitte StemmerMarianne CorreYves Joanette2001-02-12Z2011-03-11T08:54:29Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1296This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/12962001-02-12ZDuplication of modules facilitates the evolution of functional specializationThe evolution of simulated robots with three different architectures is studied. We compared a non-modular feed forward network, a hardwired modular and a duplication-based modular motor control network. We conclude that both modular architectures outperform the non-modular architecture, both in terms of rate of adaptation as well as the level of adaptation achieved. The main difference between the hardwired and duplication-based modular architectures is that in the latter the modules reached a much higher degree of functional specialization of their motor control units with regard to high level behavioral functions. The hardwired architectures reach the same level of performance, but have a more distributed assignment of functional tasks to the motor control units. We conclude that the mechanism through which functional specialization is achieved is similar to the mechanism proposed for the evolution of duplicated genes. It is found that the duplication of multifunctional modules first leads to a change in the regulation of the module, leading to a differentiation of the functional context in which the module is used. Then the module adapts to the new functional context. After this second step the system is locked into a functionally specialized state. We suggest that functional specialization may be an evolutionary absorption state.Raffaele Calabretta2001-02-12Z2011-03-11T08:54:32Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1304This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/13042001-02-12ZDuplication of modules facilitates the evolution of functional specializationThe evolution of simulated robots with three different architectures is studied. We compared a non-modular feed forward network, a hardwired modular and a duplication-based modular motor control network. We conclude that both modular architectures outperform the non-modular architecture, both in terms of rate of adaptation as well as the level of adaptation achieved. The main difference between the hardwired and duplication-based modular architectures is that in the latter the modules reached a much higher degree of functional specialization of their motor control units with regard to high level behavioral functions. The hardwired architectures reach the same level of performance, but have a more distributed assignment of functional tasks to the motor control units. We conclude that the mechanism through which functional specialization is achieved is similar to the mechanism proposed for the evolution of duplicated genes. It is found that the duplication of multifunctional modules first leads to a change in the regulation of the module, leading to a differentiation of the functional context in which the module is used. Then the module adapts to the new functional context. After this second step the system is locked into a functionally specialized state. We suggest that functional specialization may be an evolutionary absorption state.Raffaele CalabrettaStefano NolfiDomenico ParisiGunter P. Wagner1999-07-16Z2011-03-11T08:53:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/183This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1831999-07-16ZThe Fifth InfluenceThis article is a theoretical consideration on the role of sensory pleasure and mental joy as optimizers of behavior. It ends with an axiomatic proposal. When they compare the human body to its environment, Philosophers recognise the cosmos as the Large Infinite, and the atomic particles as the Small Infinite. The human brain reaches such a degree of complexity that it may be considered as a third infinite in the universe, a Complex Infinite. It follows that any force capable of moving such an infinite deserves a place among the forces of the universe. Physicists have recognized four forces, the gravitational, the electromagnetic, the weak, and the strong nuclear force. Forces are defined in four dimentions (reversible or not in time) and it is postulated that these forces are valid and applicable everywhere. Pleasure and displeasure, the affective axis of consciousness, can move the infinitely complex into action and no human brain can avoid the trend to maximize its pleasure. Therefore, we suggest, axiomatically, that the affective capability of consciousness operates in a way similar to the four forces of the Physics, i.e. influences the behavior of conscious agents in a way similar to the way the four forces influence masses and particles. However, since a mental phenomenon is dimensioneless we propose to call the affective capability of consciousness the fifth influence rather than the fifth force.Michel CabanacRemi A. CabanacHarold T. Hammel2000-02-09Z2011-03-11T08:53:41Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/139This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1392000-02-09ZThe theory of the organism-environment system: III. Role of efferent influences on receptors in the formation of knowledge.The present article is an attempt to give - in the frame of the theory of the organism-environment system (Jarvilehto 1998a) - a new interpretation to the role of efferent influences on receptor activity and to the functions of senses in the formation of knowledge. It is argued, on the basis of experimental evidence and theoretical considerations, that the senses are not transmitters of environmental information, but they create a direct connection between the organism and the environment, which makes the development of a dynamic living system, the organism-environment system, possible. In this connection process the efferent influences on receptor activity are of particular significance, because with their help the receptors may be adjusted in relation to the parts of the environment which are most important in the achievement of behavioral results. Perception is the process of joining of new parts of the environment to the organism-environment system; thus, the formation of knowledge by perception is based on reorganization (widening and differentiation) of the organism-environment system, and not on transmission of information from the environment. With the help of the efferent influences on receptors each organism creates its own peculiar world which is simultaneously subjective and objective. The present considerations have far reaching influences as well on experimental work in neurophysiology and psychology of perception as on philosophical considerations of knowledge formation.Timo Jarvilehto2000-01-31Z2011-03-11T08:53:53Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/398This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3982000-01-31ZRadical Interpretation Described using Terms from Biological Evolution.A common method of improving how well understood a theory is, is by comparing it to another theory which has been better developed. Radical interpretation is a theory which attempts to explain how communication has meaning. Radical interpretation is treated as another time dependent theory and compared to the time dependent theory of biological evolution. Several similarities and differences are uncovered. Biological evolution can be gradual or punctuated. Whether radical interpretation is gradual or punctuated depends on how the question is framed: on the coarse-grained time scale it proceeds gradually, but on the fine-grained time scale it proceeds by punctuated equilibria. Biological evolution proceeds by natural selection, the counterpart to this is the increase in both correspondence and coherence. Exaption, mutations, and spandrels have counterparts metaphor, speech errors, and puns respectively. Homologous and analogs have direct counterparts in specific words. The most important differences originate from the existence of a unit of inheritance (the traditional gene) occurring in biological evolution - there is no such unit in language.Mark D.Roberts1998-08-27Z2011-03-11T08:53:43Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/172This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1721998-08-27ZThe Secrets of FacesThis is a comment on an article by Perrett et al., on the same issue of Nature, investigating face perception. With computer graphics, Perrett and colleagues have produced exaggerated male and female faces, and asked people to rate them with respect to femininity or masculinity, and personality traits such as intelligence, emotionality and so on. The key question is: what informations do faces (and sexual signals in general) convey? One view, supported by Perrett and colleagues, is that all aspects of sexual signals convey important information about partner quality. We suggest instead that the interaction between the signal and the receiver's nervous system can result in the evolution of sexual traits not linked to partner quality.Magnus EnquistStefano Ghirlanda1998-06-18Z2011-03-11T08:54:12Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/690This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6901998-06-18ZFacial beauty and fractal geometryWhat is it that makes a face beautiful? Average faces obtained by photographic (Galton 1878) or digital (Langlois & Roggman 1990) blending are judged attractive but not optimally attractive (Alley & Cunningham 1991) --- digital exaggerations of deviations from average face blends can lead to higher attractiveness ratings (Perrett, May, & Yoshikawa 1994). My novel approach to face design does not involve blending at all. Instead, the image of a female face with high ratings is composed from a fractal geometry based on rotated squares and powers of two. The corresponding geometric rules are more specific than those previously used by artists such as Leonardo and Duerer. They yield a short algorithmic description of all facial characteristics, many of which are compactly encodable with the help of simple feature detectors similar to those found in mammalian brains. This suggests that a face's beauty correlates with simplicity relative to the subjective observer's way of encoding it.Juergen Schmidhuber1998-10-20Z2011-03-11T08:53:51Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/365This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/3651998-10-20ZTHE THEORY OF THE ORGANISM-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEM: II. SIGNIFICANCE OF NERVOUS ACTIVITY IN THE ORGANISM-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMThe relation between mental processes and brain activity is studied from the point of view of the theory of the organism-environment system. It is argued that the systemic point of view leads to a new kind of definition of the primary tasks of neurophysiology and to a new understanding of the traditional neurophysiological concepts. Neurophysiology is restored to its place as a part of biology: its task is the study of neurons as living units, not as computer chips. Neurons are living units which are organised as metabolic systems in connection with other neurons; they are not units which would carry out some psychological functions or maintain states which are typical only of the whole organism-environment system. Psychological processes, on the other hand, are processes always comprising the whole organism-environment system.Timo Jarvilehto1998-03-24Z2011-03-11T08:53:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/164This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1641998-03-24ZCo-Evolution of Language-Size and the Critical PeriodSpecies evolve, very slowly, through selection of genes which give rise to phenotypes well adapted to their environments. The cultures, including the languages, of human communities evolve, much faster, maintaining at least a minimum level of adaptedness to the external, non- cultural environment. In the phylogenetic evolution of species, the transmission of information across generations is via copying of molecules, and innovation is by mutation and sexual recombination. In cultural evolution, the transmission of information across generations is by learning, and innovation is by sporadic invention or borrowing from other cultures. This much is the foundational bedrock of evolutionary theory. But things get more complicated; there can be gene-culture co-evolution. Prior to the rise of culture, the physical environment is the only force shaping biological evolution from outside the organism, and cultures themselves are clearly constrained by the evolved biological characteristics of their members. But cultures become part of the external environment, and influence the course of biological evolution. For example, altruistic cultures with developed medical knowledge reduce the cost to the individual of carrying genes disposing to certain pathologies (such as diabetes); and such genes become more widespread in the populations maintaining such cultures. Assortative mating can affect biological evolution, and particular cultures may influence the factors which are sorted for in mating. (For a careful discussion of the effects of cultural evolution on natural selection, see Cavalli-Sforza and Bodmer, 1971:774- 804). This paper examines mechanisms involved in the co-evolution of a biological trait, the critical period for language acquisition, and a property of human cultures, the size of their languages. A gene/culture interaction will be shown that can be described as a kind of symbiosis, but perhaps more aptly as an `arms race'. In this introduction, we will sketch the basic mechanics of the interaction in very broad terms; the rest of the paper will explain and justify the details. The implications of our model for second language acquisition are given toward the end of the paper.James R HurfordSimon Kirby1998-05-06Z2011-03-11T08:54:10Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/656This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6561998-05-06ZInnate Talents: Reality Or Myth?Talents that selectively facilitate the acquisition of high levels of skill are said to be present in some children but not others. The evidence for this includes biological correlates of specific abilities, certain rare abilities in autistic savants, and the seemingly spontaneous emergence of exceptional abilities in young children, but there is also contrary evidence indicating an absence of early precursors for high skill levels in young people. An analysis of positive and negative evidence and arguments suggests that differences in early experiences, preferences, opportunities, habits, training and practice are the real determinants of excellence.Michael J. A. HoweJane W. DavidsonJohn A. Sloboda1998-09-28Z2011-03-11T08:54:15Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/741This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7411998-09-28ZSketch of Reflexive Game TheoryThis work gives a short description of the theory of agents endowed with reflexion and some applications of this theory for modeling human choice. Unlike classical game theory, this theory has been constructed for prediction of the agents' real choices rather than the optimal decision making.Vladimir A. Lefebvre2008-05-11T02:59:21Z2011-03-11T08:57:06Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6031This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/60312008-05-11T02:59:21ZOn Behavior of Persons Who Eventually Find
Themselves as Situation Leaders:
A Causation AnalysisThe research is sequel to former attempts to
study how the mental organizers of the persons
produce possible causalities in behavior. An
observation category system was the device to
find out causal processual relation. The number
of the situation leaders was 35 out of whom 25
were men and 10 women. Reliability,
subjectivity, and validity of observation were
assessed in a novel way. The analysis with
probabilities included a Bayesian application
and an application of Gram-Schmidt process. The
results indicated different types of causal
processes exist between the mental organizer,
the overt behavior, and the right outcome.
The leaders utilize their mental organizers and
find the right outcome in the most probable way.
One of the flaws, however, was the lack of the
clear causalities between the organizer and the
overt behavior. A problem that has a wider
meaning, too.Ed.D. Raimo J Laasonenpostmaster@rjl.pp.fi1999-01-07Z2011-03-11T08:54:02Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/528This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5281999-01-07ZExploiting qualitative knowledge to enhance skill acquisitionOne of the most interesting problems faced by Artificial Intelligence researchers is to reproduce a capability typical of living beings: that of learning to perform motor tasks, a problem known as skill acquisition. A very difficult purpose because the overwhole behavior of an agent is the result of quite a complex activity, involving sensory, planning and motor processing. In this paper, I present a novel approach for acquiring new skills, named Soft Teaching, that is characterized by a learning by experience process, in which an agent exploits a symbolic, qualitative description of the task to perform, that cannot, however, be used directly for control purposes. A specific Soft Teaching technique, named Symmetries, was implemented and tested against a continuous-domained version of well-known pole-balancing.Cristina Baroglio1998-11-23Z2011-03-11T08:54:16Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/758This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7581998-11-23ZRevealing User Behaviour on the World-Wide WebThis paper presents the results of a qualitative study of user behaviour on the World-Wide Web. Eight participants were filmed whilst performing user-defined tasks and then asked to review the video-taped session during prompted recall. This data forms the basis for a series of descriptions of user behaviour and the postulation of a number of underlying cognitive mechanisms. Our results indicate that people: lack ready made search strategies, prefer alternatives that are visible, immediately available and familiar, choose the path of least resistance, exhibit social forms of behaviour, engage in parallel activities, object to misleadingly presented information, have trouble orienting, are late in using appropriate strategies, are sensitive to matters of time, and are emotionally involved in the activity. The paper ends with a discussion of how these results can contribute to our understanding of hypermedia.David de LeonJana Holsánová1998-03-06Z2011-03-11T08:54:06Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/610This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6101998-03-06ZFrom 1924 to 1996 and into the Future: Operation Analytic BehaviorismOperation analytic behaviorism provides the framework for a taxonomy of behavior based on the investigative methods followed (the operations carried out) in research. Such a taxonomy enables those fuller descriptions that yield explanation and some degree of "prediction" and "control." Based on the functional definition of the environmental events that couple with events in the individual's activity, operation-analysis identifies experimental operations that parallel and are congruent with behaviors as they occur outside the experimental context. The major classes of operations described include measurement operations, probe operations, paradigmatic operations, and categoric operations. The last include setting operations and other operations (e.g., subject selection) related to the already identified variables that define the interactive field within which any behavior occurs. Recategorization of psychological/behavioral findings within this taxonomy replaces the rubrics ("emotion," "cognition," "thinking,""memory") and shows the identity of processes that have been unnecessarily distinguished from one another. Operation-analysis forms require that both the design and report of an experiment give a full and clear account of each procedure followed (including many often overlooked), enabling the replication of the experiment and the demonstration of the relationship of each procedure to the problem studied and to its theoretical context.W S Verplanck1998-06-22Z2011-03-11T08:54:12Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/703This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7031998-06-22ZTowards a Design-Based Analysis of Emotional Episodeshe design-based approach is a methodology for investigating mechanisms capable of generating mental phenomena, whether introspectively or externally observed, and whether they occur in humans, other animals or robots. The study of designs satisfying requirements for autonomous agency can provide new deep theoretical insights at the information processing level of description of mental mechanisms. Designs for working systems (whether on paper or implemented on computers) can systematically explicate old explanatory concepts and generate new concepts that allow new and richer interpretations of human phenomena. To illustrate this, some aspects of human grief are analysed in terms of a particular information processing architecture being explored in our research group. We do not claim that this architecture is part of the causal structure of the human mind; rather, it represents an early stage in the iterative search for a deeper and more general architecture, capable of explaining more phenomena. However even the current early design provides an interpretative ground for some familiar phenomena, including characteristic features of certain emotional episodes, particularly the phenomenon of perturbance (a partial or total loss of control of attention). The paper attempts to expound and illustrate the design-based approach to cognitive science and philosophy, to demonstrate the potential effectiveness of the approach in generating interpretative possibilities, and to provide first steps towards an information processing account of `perturbant', emotional episodes.Ian WrightAaron SlomanLuc Beaudoin1998-02-05Z2011-03-11T08:54:05Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/591This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5911998-02-05ZMathematical Principles of Reinforcement: Based on the Correlation of Behaviour with Incentives in Short-Term MemoryEffective conditioning requires a correlation between the experimenter's definition of a response and an organism's, but an animal's perception of its behavior differs from ours. Various definitions of the response are explored experimentally using the slopes of learning curves to infer which comes closest to the organism's definition. The resulting exponentially weighted moving average provides a model of memory which grounds a quantitative theory of reinforcement in which incentives excite behavior and focus the excitement on the responses present in memory at the same time. The correlation between the organism's memory and the behavior measured by the experimenter is given by coupling coefficients derived for various schedules of reinforcement. For simple schedules these coefficients can be concatenated to predict the effects of complex schedules and can be inserted into a generic model of arousal and temporal constraint to predict response rates under any scheduling arrangement. According to the theory, the decay of memory is response-indexed rather than time-indexed. Incentives displace memory for the responses that occur before them and may truncate the representation of the response that brings them about. This contiguity-weighted correlation model bridges opposing views of the reinforcement process and can be extended in a straightforward way to the classical conditioning of stimuli. Placing the short-term memory of behavior in so central a role provides a behavioral account of a key cognitive process.Peter Killeen2006-09-25Z2011-03-11T08:56:37Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/5178This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/51782006-09-25ZAre Null Results Becoming an Endangered Species in Marketing?Editorial procedures in the social and biomedical sciences are said to promote studies that falsely reject the null hypothesis. This problem may also exist in major marketing journals. Of 692 papers using statistical significance tests sampled from the Journal of Marketing, Journal of
Marketing Research, and Journal of Consumer Research between 1974 and 1989, only 7.8% failed to reject the null hypothesis. The percentage of null results declined by one-half from the 1970s to the 1980s. The JM and the JMR registered marked decreases. The small percentage of insignificant results could not be explained as being due to inadequate statistical power.
Various scholars have claimed that editorial policies in the social and medical sciences are biased against studies reporting null results, and thus encourage the proliferation of Type 1 errors (erroneous rejection of the null hypothesis). Greenwald (1975, p. 15) maintains that Type I publication errors are underestimated to the extent that they are: “. . . frightening, even calling into question the scientific basis for much published literature.”
Our paper examines the publication frequency of null results in marketing. First, we discuss how editorial policies might foster an atmosphere receptive to Type I error proliferation. Second, we review the evidence on the publication of null results in the social and biomedical sciences. Third, we report on an empirical investigation of the publication frequency of null results in the marketing literature. Fourth, we examine power levels for statistically insignificant findings in marketing to see if they are underpowered and thus less deserving of publication. Finally, we provide suggestions to facilitate the publication of null results. Raymond HubbardJ. Scott Armstrong1998-03-04Z2011-03-11T08:54:06Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/608This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6081998-03-04ZVerbal concept "mediators" as simple operantsA series of experiments is summarized, in historical rather than logical order. The results of these experiments indicate that one type of verbal operant, the notate, a discriminated verbal response [For the usage of the terms response and stimulus, see stimulus (3), in the writers glossary (Verplanck, 1957). See also, Stimulus III (Verplanck, 1954); and Gibson (1960).] by a subject to stimuli experimentally presented, occurs in at least four kinds of situations, "concept-identification," "problem-solving," "association" and "conditioning." In two of these it becomes chained with other such operants, to form the notant--a fuller verbal statement about the environment, or the monent--a self-administered instruction, that is, an SD for further behavior. All three classes of operant, each behaving slightly differently from one another in behavior, seem to constitute the behavioral basis of statements about "hypotheses." Unlike "mediating responses," or "processes," these verbal behaviors are not theoretically inferred, or indirectly manipulated, but rather are subject to direct experimental investigation. The relationship of their strength to the strength of the behaviors that they control is demonstrable.W S Verplanck1998-03-04Z2011-03-11T08:54:06Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/607This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6071998-03-04ZThe Egg Revealed"Problem Solving" needs either a brief and summary appraisal or an extended one--too long for the space likely to be allotted. Written lucidly and persuasively, it demonstrates that Dr. Skinner can define and analyze a broad set of behaviors using a limited set of behavioral terms and concepts. Believers will find it convincing, even brilliant. Behaviorists who have worked on problem solving, who have observed their subjects carefully, and who have collected data analytically--especially those who have also labored to clarify the technical terminology of behaviorism operationally--will find it a good deal less than persuasive. Glib, superficial and misleading are more appropriate terms. Closely argued and exemplified points are followed by one liners, such as: "But to speak of the purpose of an act is simply to refer to its characteristic consequences." That cannot survive critical examination.W S Verplanck1998-12-03Z2011-03-11T08:54:16Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/762This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7621998-12-03ZNeophobia and water intake after repeated pairings of novel flavors with toxicosisThe ability of rats (a) to acquire a generalized neophobia and (b) to maintain total daily fluid intake (by increasing intake of plain water) during the neophobia, was assessed. Rats trained to drink on a 23 1/2-hr water deprivation schedule were presented with a series of novel-flavored drinking solutions at 4-day intervals. Fifteen min of exposure to the novel flavor was followed first by 15 min of access to plain water, and then by an injection of lithium chloride. A saline-injected group and a noncontingent lithium chloride-injected group served as controls. Re-exposure to flavors did not occur between presentations of novel flavors. The rats in the group receiving novel flavors paired with toxicosis not only showed suppressed intake of all subsequent novel flavors after several pairings, but also eventually showed suppressed intake of plain water, which was limited to the days of novel-flavor presentation.Mark B. KristalMelissa Ann SteuerJ. Ken NishitaLawrence C. Peters2000-06-07Z2011-03-11T08:54:21Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/858This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/8582000-06-07ZLearning Theory and the Evolutionary AnalogyIn this article, past comparisons of learning and evolution as analogous processes are discussed and some inaccuracies and omissions in those discussions are pointed out. The evolutionary analogy is examined for its ability to suggest solutions to five fundamental theoretical issues about learning - superstitions, why a reinforcer has the effect it does, the relationship among various procedures yielding learning, the relevance of the matching law to the problem of what reinforces an avoidance response, and whether behavioral and cognitive views of learning can be reconciled. In each case it is argued that the analogy is instructive.Marion Blute1998-12-03Z2011-03-11T08:54:16Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/761This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/7611998-12-03ZLearning in escape/avoidance tasks in female rats does not vary with reproductive conditionTo determine whether the development of novel stimulus-response associations by the mother during the periparturient period is attributable to a general facilitation of learning produced by the hormonal milieu during that period, learning ability under various reproductive conditions was assessed in two tasks unrelated to the periparturitional situation. The two tasks, selected because they equalized the various groups for motivation and performance variables, were acquisition of a water-maze escape (including two reversals), and acquisition and retention of an unsignalled shuttlebox shock avoidance. The groups tested in the water maze were a midpregnant group, an immediately prepartum group, and an immediately postpartum group. In the shuttlebox, the same conditions (different rats) were compared, together with a nonpregnant estrus condition, and a nonpregnant diestrus condition. The results of both experiments indicate that although learning occurred, the characteristics of acquisition and retention were not influenced by reproductive condition.Mark B. KristalSeymour AxelrodMichael Noonan1998-03-04Z2011-03-11T08:54:06Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/606This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6061998-03-04ZHow do you track down rumors?Many departments have found one or another form of sensitivity training a valuable if not indispensable method for training their students. In almost all cases, it is a powerful and effective tool, designed and used for the betterment in some way of its participants. Such sensitivity-training groups have been employed by some departments successfully at the undergraduate as well as graduate level. The outcomes have been sufficiently satisfactory so that many students are required to participate in groups as part of the educational process. The rumors are to the effect that other departments have encountered serious consequences of intensive sensitivity training for some participants, such that several departments had forbidden that its students engage in T grouping. "Hard" data would be, to put it mildly, hard to come by. But some rumors, especially when they relate to the relationship of the profession to the public, and of faculty members to their students, are disquieting to the degree that requires some investigation--at least an investigation that is sufficient to help us reach a decision whether there should be a full and adequately designed and controlled study. Result: An attempt, not to get precise data, but solely to determine whether there was any fire whatsoever under the smoke--to determine whether it is indeed smoke, or merely local fogging conditions; that is, to track down the rumors. Method: A letter of inquiry was sent to the chairman of all graduate departments that offer degrees in psychology--over 300 of them--with a postcard enabling response by check, and a request for comment and amplification in letters. The postcard tried to determine whether the department chairman had heard such rumors, whether his department had had "incidents," and whether he thought "we have no responsibility."W S Verplanck2000-12-12Z2011-03-11T08:54:27Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1148This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/11482000-12-12ZA Review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior I had intended this review not specifically as a criticism of Skinner's speculations regarding language, but rather as a more general critique of behaviorist (I would now prefer to say "empiricist") speculation as to the nature of higher mental processes. My reason for discussing Skinner's book in such detail was that it was the most careful and thoroughgoing presentation of such speculations, an evaluation that I feel is still accurate. Therefore, if the conclusions I attempted to substantiate in the review are correct, as I believe they are, then Skinner's work can be regarded as, in effect, a reductio ad absurdum of behaviorist assumptions. My personal view is that it is a definite merit, not a defect, of Skinner's work that it can be used for this purpose, and it was for this reason that I tried to deal with it fairly exhaustively. I do not see how his proposals can be improved upon, aside from occasional details and oversights, within the framework of the general assumptions that he accepts. I do not, in other words, see any way in which his proposals can be substantially improved within the general framework of behaviorist or neobehaviorist, or, more generally, empiricist ideas that has dominated much of modern linguistics, psychology, and philosophy. The conclusion that I hoped to establish in the review, by discussing these speculations in their most explicit and detailed form, was that the general point of view was largely mythology, and that its widespread acceptance is not the result of empirical support, persuasive reasoning, or the absence of a plausible alternative.Noam Chomsky1998-03-04Z2011-03-11T08:54:06Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/605This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6051998-03-04ZComparative psychology This chapter was prepared following a series of visits to laboratories and field stations where comparative psychology is under very active investigation. What has been observed, taken with this year's publications in the psychological, ethological, and biological journals, and the chapters of previous Annual Reviews, has given the chapter its form. The advances in the past year in the topics usually allocated most space in this chapter, and that most psychologists think of when they think of comparative psychology at all have not been great. Some might have been advances if they had appeared when the experimental work was completed. Another paper provides a discussion of brain weights in more or less association with the report of some experiments on learning; the relation established is one of simple contiguity in the pages of a paper. Little new appears on hoarding; investigations of bird navigation seem to have reached an impasse, where the only theory that seems adequate to the facts is untenable. [For a popularized summary, see Carthy.] The quasi-monopoly of the experimental study of sex behavior in the male boojum, or rat, held by Beach and his colleagues, has been broken with the appearance of an excellent monograph by Larrson. The general picture is a familiar one: advances have occurred, but at glacial pace; work on familiar variables inches along. A different picture arises, however, if the work of ethologists and zoologists in the field of behavior is examined in its own context rather than according to psychologists' ideas of what should be important. Here the advances in the last year--in the last few years--have been rapid, remarkable, and of direct relevance to psychologists, whether comparative, experimental, social, or clinical. Ethologists, mostly European zoologists, study the behavior of a number of species from an objective (in the Watsonian or Pavlovian sense) point of view that does not exclude an active interest in physiological correlates of behavior. Previous chapters in this Annual Review will have familiarized the reader with some of their work, but they have placed, I think, undue stress on a few sets of investigations and misleadingly emphasized some now obsolete parts of ethological theorizing. What follows is based not only on the current publications of ethologists, but also on visits to their laboratories, and on many and long discussions with them.W S Verplanck1998-03-04Z2011-03-11T08:54:06Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/604This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6041998-03-04ZThe operant conditioning of human motor behaviorA very large body of experimental results have accumulated in the field of operant, or instrumental, conditioning of the rat, the pigeon, and of other experimental animals. The application to human behavior of the laws generated by such research is most often done by the use of theory. An alternative method is to demonstrate that the manipulation of classes of empirically defined variables that produce specific and highly characteristic changes in the behavior of small experimental animals in Skinner boxes produce similar changes in the behavior of college students. This paper reports procedures for the direct application of the variables defining the paradigm for operant conditioning to human behavior and shows that human beings act very much indeed like experimental animals when they are subjected to the same experimental treatments. It suggests that direct application of conditioning principles to some categories of human behavior may be justified. The procedures are simple and they may be followed by anyone, with a minimum of equipment. That it is possible to condition human motor behavior will surprise few who are concerned with behavior theory. Nevertheless, it has not always been clear what behaviors will act as "responses," what events will prove to be "reinforcing stimuli," or exactly what procedures would most readily yield reproducible results. This paper describes methods that have been worded out for easy and rapid operant conditioning of motor behavior in humans, states characteristic findings, and reports sample results. Developed in a series of exploratory experiments in an elementary laboratory course in psychology, the methods may have a wider utility. W S Verplanck1998-02-27Z2011-03-11T08:54:06Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/602This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6021998-02-27ZThe operant, from rat to man: an introduction to some recent experiments on human behavior.Virtually all psychologists accept the premise that human behavior is orderly. The order that they see, however, varies considerably from group to group, and the aspects of behavior in which these orders appear differ as well. The clinician and the personality psychologist observe their fellow men and see need-presses, repressions, and aggressive drives. The experimental psychologist finds his order in the rates at which nonsense syllables are learned, or at which conditioned eyelid reflexes are acquired. If he is physiologically oriented, he is apt to concern himself with muscle twitches and even with the secretion of saliva. It is in terms of such variables that psychologists have set their descriptions of, and their predictions about, the actions of people. All of us, whether psychologists or not, observe people acting. We learn rules of "practical psychology." Some of us, especially the novelists and playwrights, do a remarkably good job of giving plausible accounts of behavior, often in terms that seem pertinent. These writers, however, do not employ the language used by psychologists at either end of the spectrum. They describe ordinary, everyday behavior, and describe it well, but not by using the conceptualizations that psychologists seem to have found useful, nor even terms that can be readily translated into such conceptualizations. The psychologist's efforts tend to be limited in their usefulness to the description and prediction of the behavior of people whose behavior is awry, or of people who are engaged in the strange and unusual activities demanded of them in a laboratory of experimental psychology. Dale Carnegie, practical politicians, and, perhaps, everybody but psychologists, concern themselves with simple, ordinary, everyday behavior. One reason for this situation is, perhaps, the lack of methods of conceptualizing behavior, or of abstracting relevant aspects of behavior for study that are not clinic- or laboratory-bound. This lack of methods is due, perhaps, to a conviction that ordinary behavior is too complex and is determined by too many variables to make possible the discovery of any order except by the application of theory. What I desire to do here is to introduce some concepts, and to describe some experiments derived from them, that suggest that the orderliness of human behavior may be more accessible than has been hitherto assumed. These experiments may accordingly suggest new direction for research on human behavior.W.S. Verplanck1998-02-26Z2011-03-11T08:54:06Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/601This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/6011998-02-26ZBurrhus F. SkinnerIn dealing with Skinner, we are concerned with a theorist who now espouses no theory, a systematist whose system is still developing, and a constructive thinker some of whose most important contributions have been those of a critic. In the course of his writings, Skinner has presented the results of a comprehensive experimental program, and elaborated a theory of behavior based upon it. Since its publication in comprehensive form in The Behavior of Organisms, he has, one may infer from more recent writings, modified it greatly by eliminating several central concepts without substituting others. These publications are not sufficient to enable us to analyze the system in its current status, so that we will restrict ourselves to its earlier form. From an examination of this theory, we may learn something of the reasons for its alteration, and perhaps reveal some relationships between the adequacy of the theory as it was stated and the procedures which were followed in its construction. That portions of the theory as it was presented in 1938 no longer find complete acceptance is not relevant to our purpose; much may be learned from autopsies. The revision of Sinner's theoretical views has not extended downward to his basic assumptions with respect to the nature of psychological theory, nor to the elementary statements of much of his data language and of the basic laws of behavior. The systematic position is unchanged. It is largely at the level at which complex concepts are introduced that revisions have been made.W S Verplanck1998-02-26Z2011-03-11T08:53:42Zhttp://cogprints.org/id/eprint/163This item is in the repository with the URL: http://cogprints.org/id/eprint/1631998-02-26ZEating and drinking as a function of maintenance scheduleAnimals without water do not eat as much food as usual, and hungry animals do not drink much water (4, 8, 13, 16, 17, 20). Animals drink more after meals than at other times. The dog and hen (13) and the rat (20) show a drop in food intake during water deprivation. Dogs (5, 11) and rats (20) similarly drop in water intake during food deprivation. Rats drink more after a period of water deprivation during which food is available than after a similar period with no food available (17). The corresponding case for food intake apparently has not been investigated. After protracted periods of food or water deprivation, rats exceed in both drinking and eating their average value before deprivation (4). No systematic sets of data are available on these phenomena as they are encountered in studies of learning, although their signifigance for theoretical formulations of "motivation" and learning has not escaped some investigators (9, p.234; 22). Recent studies on "drive interaction," "drive discrimination," and on "cognitions" have involved the control of the behavior of food-deprived and of water-deprived rats by food and water placed in goal boxes and alleys (21). These have not had uniform results, so that it is pertinent to examine the matter more closely. Today's learning theorists are in fair agreement on a definition of "drive." This concept is an intervening variable, explicitly involving two sets of operations and implicitly a third.2 The first operations establish drives; e.g., for hunger and thirst, the animal is deprived of food and water, respectively, for a stated number of hours. The second class of operations is the measurement of classes of behavior (running, bar pressing, eating) that vary with the duration of the preceding deprivation. The third, implicit, operation is that of satiation, usually giving the animal access to food and water long enough so that it neither eats nor drinks for a specified period. "Satiation" operations vary considerably. In this experiment, the operations are depriving the animal of food or water, or both, through stated intervals of time following free feeding and free drinking. The measure of behavior chosen is the total weight, in grams, of food and water ingested by the animal in the first hour following the period of deprivation. The adequacy of these measures has been established by others (1, p.128; 2, 7, 15, 18, 19). The general plan of the experiment and the values of the variables investigated have been chosen to provide data useful for the interpretation of experimental data in the field of learning.W S VerplanckJ R Hayes