Evolution of Human-like Social Grooming Strategies regarding Richness and Group Size

Human beings tend to cooperate with close friends, therefore they have to construct strong social relationships to recieve cooperation from others. Therefore they should have acquired their strategies of social relationship construction through an evolutionary process. The behavior of social relationship construction is know as "social grooming." In this paper, we show that there are four classes including a human-like strategy in evolutionary dynamics of social grooming strategies based on an evolutionary game simulation. Social relationship strengths (as measured by frequency of social grooming) often show a much skewed distribution (a power law distribution). It may be due to time costs constraints on social grooming, because the costs are too large to ignore for having many strong social relationships. Evolution of humans' strategies of construction of social relationships may explain the origin of human intelligence based on a social brain hypothesis. We constructed an individual-based model to explore the evolutionary dynamics of social grooming strategies. The model is based on behavior to win over others by strengthening social relationships with cooperators. The results of evolutionary simulations show the four classes of evolutionary dynamics. The results depend on total resources and the ratio of each cooperator's resource to the number of cooperators. One of the four classes is similar to a human strategy, i.e. the strategies based on the Yule--Simon process of power law.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure

Sustainability of a Virtual Community: Integrating Individual and Structural Dynamics

This study investigates how virtual communities retain active members and maintain sustainability as they grow in size. By integrating the individual and structural dynamics of a virtual community, this study develops a multi-level research model that explores how structural factors (i.e., membership and clique sizes) at the community level interact with individual factors (i.e., the extent of use of collaborative tools, the strength of emotional ties, and shared information resources) to predict an active member’s intention to stay. We tested the proposed cross-level hypotheses using survey data collected from 164 participants and 15 virtual communities. The results of this study emphasize the need to consider individual and structural dynamics simultaneously to understand virtual communities’ sustainability. Results indicate that membership size does not directly influence an active member’s intention to stay but that it exerts an indirect effect by strengthening the positive relationship between the extent of use of collaborative tools and shared information resources. This study supports the notion that, because members form cliques, the strength of emotional ties among individuals in a virtual community does not decrease despite an increase in membership size. Notably, the results suggest that, in a virtual community, a large clique size may weaken the relationship between the strength of emotional ties and the intention to stay

Adapting robot behavior to user preferences in assistive scenarios

Robotic assistants have inspired numerous books and science fiction movies. In the real world, these kinds of devices are a growing need in amongst the elderly, who while life continue requiring more assistance. While life expectancy is increasing, life quality is not necessarily doing so. Thus, we may find ourselves and our loved ones being dependent and needing another person to perform the most basic tasks, which has a strong psychological impact. Accordingly, assistive robots may be the definitive tool to give more quality of life by empowering dependent people and extending their independent living. Assisting users to perform daily activities requires adapting to them and their needs, as they might not be able to adapt to the robot. This thesis tackles adaptation and personalization issues through user preferences. We 'focus on physical tasks that involve close contact, as these present interesting challenges, and are of great importance for he user. Therefore, three tasks are mainly used throughout the thesis: assistive feeding, shoe fitting, and jacket dressing. We first describe a framework for robot behavior adaptation that illustrates how robots should be personalized for and by end- users or their assistants. Using this framework, non-technical users determine how !he robot should behave. Then, we define the concept of preference for assistive robotics scenarios and establish a taxonomy, which includes hierarchies and groups of preferences, grounding definitions and concepts. We then show how the preferences in the taxonomy are used with Al planning systems to adapt the robot behavior to the preferences of the user obtained from simple questions. Our algorithms allow for long-term adaptations as well as to cope with misinformed user models. We further integrate the methods with low-level motion primitives that provide a more robust adaptation and behavior while lowering the number of needed actions and demonstrations. Moreover, we perform a deeper analysis in Planning and preferences with the introduction of new algorithms to provide preference suggestions in planning domains. The thesis then concludes with a user study that evaluates the use of the preferences in the three real assistive robotics scenarios. The experiments show a clear understanding of the preferences of users, who were able to assess the impact of their preferences on the behavior of the robot. In summary, we provide tools and algorithms to design the robotic assistants of the future. Assistants that should be able to adapt to the assisted user needs and preferences, just as human assistants do nowadays.Els assistents robòtics han inspirat nombrosos llibres i pel·lícules de ciència-ficció al llarg de la història. Però tornant al món real, aquest tipus de dispositius s'estan tornant una necessitat per a una societat que envelleix a un ritme ràpid i que, per tant, requerirà més i més assistència. Mentre l'esperança de vida augmenta, la qualitat de vida no necessàriament ho fa. Per tant, ens podem trobar a nosaltres mateixos i als nostres estimats en una situació de dependència, necessitant una altra persona per poder fer les tasques més bàsiques, cosa que té un gran impacte psicològic. En conseqüència, els robots assistencials poden ser l'eina definitiva per proporcionar una millor qualitat de vida empoderant els usuaris i allargant la seva capacitat de viure independentment. L'assistència a persones per realitzar tasques diàries requereix adaptar-se a elles i les seves necessitats, donat que aquests usuaris no poden adaptar-se al robot. En aquesta tesi, abordem el problema de l'adaptació i la personalització d'un robot mitjançant preferències de l'usuari. Ens centrem en tasques físiques, que involucren contacte amb la persona, per les seves dificultats i importància per a l'usuari. Per aquest motiu, la tesi utilitzarà principalment tres tasques com a exemple: donar menjar, posar una sabata i vestir una jaqueta. Comencem definint un marc (framework) per a la personalització del comportament del robot que defineix com s'han de personalitzar els robots per usuaris i pels seus assistents. Amb aquest marc, usuaris sense coneixements tècnics són capaços de definir com s'ha de comportar el robot. Posteriorment definim el concepte de preferència per a robots assistencials i establim una taxonomia que inclou jerarquies i grups de preferències, els quals fonamenten les definicions i conceptes. Després mostrem com les preferències de la taxonomia s'utilitzen amb sistemes planificadors amb IA per adaptar el comportament del robot a les preferències de l'usuari, que s'obtenen mitjançant preguntes simples. Els nostres algorismes permeten l'adaptació a llarg termini, així com fer front a models d'usuari mal inferits. Aquests mètodes són integrats amb primitives a baix nivell que proporcionen una adaptació i comportament més robusts a la mateixa vegada que disminueixen el nombre d'accions i demostracions necessàries. També fem una anàlisi més profunda de l'ús de les preferències amb planificadors amb la introducció de nous algorismes per fer suggeriments de preferències en dominis de planificació. La tesi conclou amb un estudi amb usuaris que avalua l'ús de les preferències en les tres tasques assistencials. Els experiments demostren un clar enteniment de les preferències per part dels usuaris, que van ser capaços de discernir quan les seves preferències eren utilitzades. En resum, proporcionem eines i algorismes per dissenyar els assistents robòtics del futur. Uns assistents que haurien de ser capaços d'adaptar-se a les preferències i necessitats de l'usuari que assisteixen, tal com els assistents humans fan avui en dia

Adapting robot behavior to user preferences in assistive scenarios

Aplicat embargament des de la data de defensa fins el 24 de juliol de 2020Robotic assistants have inspired numerous books and science fiction movies. In the real world, these kinds of devices are a growing need in amongst the elderly, who while life continue requiring more assistance. While life expectancy is increasing, life quality is not necessarily doing so. Thus, we may find ourselves and our loved ones being dependent and needing another person to perform the most basic tasks, which has a strong psychological impact. Accordingly, assistive robots may be the definitive tool to give more quality of life by empowering dependent people and extending their independent living. Assisting users to perform daily activities requires adapting to them and their needs, as they might not be able to adapt to the robot. This thesis tackles adaptation and personalization issues through user preferences. We 'focus on physical tasks that involve close contact, as these present interesting challenges, and are of great importance for he user. Therefore, three tasks are mainly used throughout the thesis: assistive feeding, shoe fitting, and jacket dressing. We first describe a framework for robot behavior adaptation that illustrates how robots should be personalized for and by end- users or their assistants. Using this framework, non-technical users determine how !he robot should behave. Then, we define the concept of preference for assistive robotics scenarios and establish a taxonomy, which includes hierarchies and groups of preferences, grounding definitions and concepts. We then show how the preferences in the taxonomy are used with Al planning systems to adapt the robot behavior to the preferences of the user obtained from simple questions. Our algorithms allow for long-term adaptations as well as to cope with misinformed user models. We further integrate the methods with low-level motion primitives that provide a more robust adaptation and behavior while lowering the number of needed actions and demonstrations. Moreover, we perform a deeper analysis in Planning and preferences with the introduction of new algorithms to provide preference suggestions in planning domains. The thesis then concludes with a user study that evaluates the use of the preferences in the three real assistive robotics scenarios. The experiments show a clear understanding of the preferences of users, who were able to assess the impact of their preferences on the behavior of the robot. In summary, we provide tools and algorithms to design the robotic assistants of the future. Assistants that should be able to adapt to the assisted user needs and preferences, just as human assistants do nowadays.Els assistents robòtics han inspirat nombrosos llibres i pel·lícules de ciència-ficció al llarg de la història. Però tornant al món real, aquest tipus de dispositius s'estan tornant una necessitat per a una societat que envelleix a un ritme ràpid i que, per tant, requerirà més i més assistència. Mentre l'esperança de vida augmenta, la qualitat de vida no necessàriament ho fa. Per tant, ens podem trobar a nosaltres mateixos i als nostres estimats en una situació de dependència, necessitant una altra persona per poder fer les tasques més bàsiques, cosa que té un gran impacte psicològic. En conseqüència, els robots assistencials poden ser l'eina definitiva per proporcionar una millor qualitat de vida empoderant els usuaris i allargant la seva capacitat de viure independentment. L'assistència a persones per realitzar tasques diàries requereix adaptar-se a elles i les seves necessitats, donat que aquests usuaris no poden adaptar-se al robot. En aquesta tesi, abordem el problema de l'adaptació i la personalització d'un robot mitjançant preferències de l'usuari. Ens centrem en tasques físiques, que involucren contacte amb la persona, per les seves dificultats i importància per a l'usuari. Per aquest motiu, la tesi utilitzarà principalment tres tasques com a exemple: donar menjar, posar una sabata i vestir una jaqueta. Comencem definint un marc (framework) per a la personalització del comportament del robot que defineix com s'han de personalitzar els robots per usuaris i pels seus assistents. Amb aquest marc, usuaris sense coneixements tècnics són capaços de definir com s'ha de comportar el robot. Posteriorment definim el concepte de preferència per a robots assistencials i establim una taxonomia que inclou jerarquies i grups de preferències, els quals fonamenten les definicions i conceptes. Després mostrem com les preferències de la taxonomia s'utilitzen amb sistemes planificadors amb IA per adaptar el comportament del robot a les preferències de l'usuari, que s'obtenen mitjançant preguntes simples. Els nostres algorismes permeten l'adaptació a llarg termini, així com fer front a models d'usuari mal inferits. Aquests mètodes són integrats amb primitives a baix nivell que proporcionen una adaptació i comportament més robusts a la mateixa vegada que disminueixen el nombre d'accions i demostracions necessàries. També fem una anàlisi més profunda de l'ús de les preferències amb planificadors amb la introducció de nous algorismes per fer suggeriments de preferències en dominis de planificació. La tesi conclou amb un estudi amb usuaris que avalua l'ús de les preferències en les tres tasques assistencials. Els experiments demostren un clar enteniment de les preferències per part dels usuaris, que van ser capaços de discernir quan les seves preferències eren utilitzades. En resum, proporcionem eines i algorismes per dissenyar els assistents robòtics del futur. Uns assistents que haurien de ser capaços d'adaptar-se a les preferències i necessitats de l'usuari que assisteixen, tal com els assistents humans fan avui en dia.Postprint (published version

Pressure, Threat, and Fear in the Classroom: Pupils' and Teachers' Perceptions of Soft Failure in an 11+ Context

This thesis concerns both pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions and reactions to soft failure. Whilst there is widespread agreement that errors and impasses in the classroom can be pedagogically useful, pupils do not always respond positively to soft failure, potentially limiting their learning. Teachers, whilst keen to support pupils experiencing temporary academic setbacks, can unintentionally cement perceptions that errors should be avoided, leading to a co-construction between teacher and pupil of a classroom climate that is unfriendly to error making. In taking a bio ecological and interdisciplinary approach, this thesis addresses a gap in error climate studies through examining the intersection of sociocultural and psychological factors that impact perceptions of, and reactions to, soft failure. This thesis argues that pupils’ reactions to soft failure are imprinted, not only with immediate classroom proximal processes, but also from processes within the home, wider values, and ideologies. Drawing upon the case study genre and bound by the entry and exit points of a selective education system, findings from observations and interviews with Y7 and Y5 pupils suggest the facilitation of classroom peer ecologies orientated towards performance and demonstrating success. Through conceptualising gender as heteroglossic, Y7 grammar school girls were seen to enact masculine, highly competitive performances which reinforced a pressured climate where negative evaluation and soft failure was feared. However, these findings are complicated by pupils’ divergent and fluctuating responses and reactions to soft failure, situated and contextualised by teachers’ error handling, classroom organisation and school processes. Therefore, to establish when soft failure matters for pupils, this thesis explores the interplay of competing values, goals, and interactions. In doing so, the antecedents of soft failure adaptivity are identified, with the perceived threat to pupils’ dignity – which I reason must be understood in an adolescent context — argued as the fulcrum on which soft failure appraisals are made

Evolving in Groups : Individualism and Holism in Evolutionary Explanation of Human Social Behaviour

The main topic of the dissertation is to clarify the relationship between groups and individuals in the evolutionary explanation of human social behaviour. To the extent that we can understand human social behavioural traits as adaptations, are they adaptations of individuals (explanatory individualism) or groups (explanatory holism)? I will distinguish three different causal dimensions in an evolutionary explanation: proximate, developmental, and evolutionary proper. An evolutionary explanation makes (implicit) assumptions about how the behaviour is produced (the proximate dimension), and how it is reproduced (the developmental dimension). Both can involve either individual causal factors only or include supra-individual social factors. The main issue in the evolutionary dimension is whether group selection is an important factor in evolution. The group selection controversy is not, however, only about the nature of selection in the hierarchical biological organization, but also about the two other dimensions, as I will argue. The first topic that I discuss is what evolutionary explanation of a behavioural trait is. I will develop an evolutionary functionalist account of how to individuate a behavioural trait, and I will discuss adaptationism in this context. I will show that there are three distinct defensible ideas of what an evolutionary function of a trait is, all of which are relevant. I will also distinguish between psychological, agentive, and behavioural traits in the human context, arguing that our usual way of classifying behaviour into traits is biased by folk psychology. After this, I will demonstrate how behavioural traits may be interactive traits that emerge in interaction and are not reducible to individual traits. This entails a non-individualist approach to adaptations even without group selection. As for the developmental dimension, I will discuss culture and innateness within the Extended Synthesis interpretation of evolution. I will discuss the complexities in understanding the roles of culture in evolution, and how exactly culture contributes to holism. My main interest in this context is, however, innateness and nativist evolutionary psychology. I will develop a new definition for innateness and defend nativism, understood in this sense, as a plausible methodological choice, while at the same time I will highlight reasons for holistic alternatives of evolutionary psychology. Finally, I will discuss the group selection controversy. I will clarify some of the confusions in the debate using my work in the previous chapters about the other dimensions and their relevance to selection. In particular, I will clarify the difference between kin selection and group selection, and the controversy over group adaptations.Ihminen on sosiaalinen olento, jonka evoluutio tapahtui osana yhteisöjä, yksilöryhmiä. Kun tarkastellaan ihmisen sosiaalista käyttäytymistä evoluution näkökulmasta, tulisiko käyttäytymispiirteitä tarkastella yksilötason sopeutumina sosiaalisessa ympäristössä vai ryhmätason sopeutumina? Vastaus tähän riippuu siitä, millaiset evolutiiviset selitysmallit osoittautuvat toimiviksi. Toimivuuden selvittämiseen liittyy kuitenkin metodologisia ja tieteenfilosofisia kysymyksiä esimerkiksi käytettyjen mallien tulkinnasta ja taustaoletuksista. Tämän väitöskirjan keskeinen tavoite on selventää yksilön ja yhteisön suhdetta tällaisissa malleissa ja oletuksissa. Erottelen kysymyksessä kolme osaa: käyttäytymisen tuottavaan mekanistiseen perustaan liittyvät oletukset, käyttäytymistaipumusten periytymisen tapaan liittyvät oletukset sekä oletukset siitä, millä biologisen organisaation tasolla luonnonvalintaa tapahtuu – yksilöiden vai myös ryhmien tasolla. Evolutiivisen selittämisen näkökulmasta kysymys valinnan tasoista on keskeinen. Se on myös teoreettisten kiistojen kohde. Pääargumenttini on, että mekanismeihin ja periytymiseen liittyvät oletukset yksilöistä ja ryhmistä vaikuttavat tähän kysymykseen tavoilla, joita ei ole riittävästi huomioitu. Mekanistista perustaa koskeva argumenttini on seuraava. Yksilön käyttäytyminen voi olla sosiaalisessa kontekstissa evolutiivisesti ymmärrettävää vain osana yksilöiden välistä vuorovaikusta, jossa käyttäytymisen evolutiivinen hyöty riippuu muiden yksilöiden käyttäytymisestä. Tällöin evolutiivinen kilpailu tapahtuu vuorovaikutusmuotojen eli vuorovaikutteisten piirteiden välillä. Yksilötason valinta kohdistuu yksilön valmiuksiin osallistua tällaisiin vuorovaikutuksiin. Vuorovaikutteiset piirteet ovat kuitenkin yliyksilöllisiä. Tämä tarkoittaa, että evoluutiossa voi syntyä yliyksilöllisiä sopeutumia ilman ryhmävalintaakin. Toisaalta eri vuorovaikutusryhmien välillä tapahtuva valikoituminen voidaan tulkita ryhmävalinnan muodoksi. Periytymisen tapaan liittyvän kysymyksen voi yksinkertaistaa kysymykseksi siitä, ovatko käyttäytymispiirteet synnynnäisiä vai sosiokulttuurisen ympäristön tuottamia. Tämä vastakkainasettelu on kuitenkin harhaanjohtava, sillä geneettiset ja ympäristölliset syyt kietoutuvat toisiinsa yksilönkehityksessä paljon tiiviimmin, ja kiistat aiheen ympärillä ovat usein jäsentymättömiä. Synnynnäisyyden käsitteen käyttö esimerkiksi evoluutiopsykologian tarpeisiin edellyttää käsitteen uudelleenmäärittelyä. Annan tällaisen määritelmän ja esitän, että synnynnäisyyteen keskittyminen voi olla perusteltu metodologinen valinta. Mutta kulttuurikaan ei ole relevanttia vain nykynäkökulmasta. Kulttuurisuus oli ihmisen evolutiivisen kehityksen ympäristön keskeinen piirre. Esitän, että jaetut kulttuuriset tekijät yksilönkehityksessä loivat samanlaisia yhteyksiä yksiöiden välille kuin geneettinen sukulaisuus sukulaisvalinnan teorian mukaan. Valikoituminen kulttuurin kontekstissa voi suosia yliyksilöllisiä sopeutumia. Tätäkin voi pitää ryhmävalinnan muotona

Embodiment in Evolution and Culture

From its beginnings, the theory of evolution has unsettled fundamental anthropological assumptions about the place of human beings in nature. The integration of human origins into natural history by Darwinism was countered by the philosophical anthropologies of the 20th century. Their attempts were to hold on even more resolutely to the special status of humans as beings 'open towards the world'. Today, evolutionary and philosophical anthropology have moved closer together via the paradigm of embodiment. Building on embodied cognitive science, this volume aims to establish how far the human mind and human cultural cognition can be attributed to the structures of human existence, structures which have emerged in the course of evolution and have in turn been affected by culture. The traditional dualism of nature and culture is transformed into an explanation of an evolutionary process in which body and mind are understood to be intertwined and mutually constitutive

Social World Sensing via Social Image Analysis from Social Media

Social imagery, the visuals shared by users via various platforms and applications, may be analyzed to elicit something of massmind (and individual) thinking. This work involves the exploration of seven topics from various subject areas (global public health, environmentalism, human rights, political expression, and human predation) through social imagery and data from social media. The coding techniques involve manual coding, the integration of multiple social data streams, computational text analysis, data visualizations, and other combinations of approaches.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1037/thumbnail.jp