An Evolutionary Learning Approach for Adaptive Negotiation Agents

Developing effective and efficient negotiation mechanisms for real-world applications such as e-Business is challenging since negotiations in such a context are characterised by combinatorially complex negotiation spaces, tough deadlines, very limited information about the opponents, and volatile negotiator preferences. Accordingly, practical negotiation systems should be empowered by effective learning mechanisms to acquire dynamic domain knowledge from the possibly changing negotiation contexts. This paper illustrates our adaptive negotiation agents which are underpinned by robust evolutionary learning mechanisms to deal with complex and dynamic negotiation contexts. Our experimental results show that GA-based adaptive negotiation agents outperform a theoretically optimal negotiation mechanism which guarantees Pareto optimal. Our research work opens the door to the development of practical negotiation systems for real-world applications

You get what you pay for: Incentives and Selection in the Education System

We analyse worker self-selection with a special focus on teachers. The point of the paper is that worker composition is generally endogenous, due to worker selfselection. In a first step we analyse lab experimental data to provide causal evidence on particular sorting patterns. This evidence sets the stage for our field data analysis, which focuses specifically on selection patterns of teachers. We find that teachers are more risk averse than employees in other professions, which indicates that relatively risk averse individuals sort into teaching occupations under the current system. Using survey measures on trust and reciprocity we also find that teachers trust more and are less negatively reciprocal than other employees. Finally, we establish differences in personality based on the Big Five concept.labour organization;

You get what you pay for: Incentives and Selection in the Education System

We analyse worker self-selection with a special focus on teachers. The point of the paper is that worker composition is generally endogenous, due to worker self-selection. In a first step we analyse lab experimental data to provide causal evidence on particular sorting patterns. This evidence sets the stage for our field data analysis, which focuses specifically on selection patterns of teachers. We find that teachers are more risk averse than employees in other professions, which indicates that relatively risk averse individuals sort into teaching occupations under the current system. Using survey measures on trust and reciprocity we also find that teachers trust more and are less negatively reciprocal than other employees. Finally, we establish differences in personality based on the Big Five concept.education, training and the labour market;

The Epistemic Value of Expert Autonomy

According to an influential Enlightenment ideal, one shouldn't rely epistemically on other people's say-so, at least not if one is in a position to evaluate the relevant evidence for oneself. However, in much recent work in social epistemology, we are urged to dispense with this ideal, which is seen as stemming from a misguided focus on isolated individuals to the exclusion of groups and communities. In this paper, I argue that that an emphasis on the social nature of inquiry should not lead us to entirely abandon the Enlightenment ideal of epistemically autonomous agents. Specifically, I suggest that it is an appropriate ideal for those who serve as experts in a given epistemic community, and develop a notion of expert acceptance to make sense of this. I go on to show that, all other things being equal, this kind of epistemic autonomy among experts makes their joint testimony more reliable, which in turn brings epistemic benefits both to laypeople and to experts in other fields

How to Add Apples and Pears: Non-Symmetric Nash Bargaining and the Generalized Joint Surplus

We generalize the equivalence of the non-symmetric Nash bargaining solution and the linear division of the joint surplus when bargainers use different utility scales. This equivalence in the general case requires the surplus each agent receives to be expressed in compatible, or comparable, units. This result is valid in the case of bargaining over multiple-issues. In addition, we discuss the requirements on the curvatures of the agents’ utility functions, or, in other words, on the bargainers’ attitudes towards risk.Bargaining Problems, Non-Symmetric Nash Bargaining Solution, Linear Sharing

Evaluating Engagement in Digital Narratives from Facial Data

Engagement researchers indicate that the engagement level of people in a narrative has an influence on people's subsequent story-related attitudes and beliefs, which helps psychologists understand people's social behaviours and personal experience. With the arrival of multimedia, the digital narrative combines multimedia features (e.g. varying images, music and voiceover) with traditional storytelling. Research on digital narratives has been widely used in helping students gain problem-solving and presentation skills as well as supporting child psychologists investigating children's social understanding such as family/peer relationships through completing their digital narratives. However, there is little study on the effect of multimedia features in digital narratives on the engagement level of people. This research focuses on measuring the levels of engagement of people in digital narratives and specifically on understanding the media effect of digital narratives on people's engagement levels. Measurement tools are developed and validated through analyses of facial data from different age groups (children and young adults) in watching stories with different media features of digital narratives. Data sources used in this research include a questionnaire with Smileyometer scale and the observation of each participant's facial behaviours

Opinion Dynamics and Communication Networks

This paper examines the interplay of opinion exchange dynamics and communication network formation. An opinion formation procedure is introduced which is based on an abstract representation of opinions as $k$--dimensional bit--strings. Individuals interact if the difference in the opinion strings is below a defined similarity threshold $d_I$. Depending on $d_I$, different behaviour of the population is observed: low values result in a state of highly fragmented opinions and higher values yield consensus. The first contribution of this research is to identify the values of parameters $d_I$ and $k$, such that the transition between fragmented opinions and homogeneity takes place. Then, we look at this transition from two perspectives: first by studying the group size distribution and second by analysing the communication network that is formed by the interactions that take place during the simulation. The emerging networks are classified by statistical means and we find that non--trivial social structures emerge from simple rules for individual communication. Generating networks allows to compare model outcomes with real--world communication patterns.Comment: 14 pages 6 figure