mHealth Research Applied to Regulated and Unregulated Behavioral Health Sciences

Behavioral scientists are developing new methods and frameworks that leverage mobile health technologies to optimize individual level behavior change. Pervasive sensors and mobile apps allow researchers to passively observe human behaviors “in the wild” 24/7 which supports delivery of personalized interventions in the real-world environment. This is all possible because these technologies contain an incredible array of sensors that allow applications to constantly record user location and can contextualize current environmental conditions through barometers, thermometers, and ambient light sensors and can also capture audio and video of the user and their surroundings through multiple integrated high-definition cameras and microphones. These tools are a game changer in behavioral health research and, not surprisingly, introduce new ethical, regulatory/legal and social implications described in this article

Cognitive Deficit of Deep Learning in Numerosity

Subitizing, or the sense of small natural numbers, is an innate cognitive function of humans and primates; it responds to visual stimuli prior to the development of any symbolic skills, language or arithmetic. Given successes of deep learning (DL) in tasks of visual intelligence and given the primitivity of number sense, a tantalizing question is whether DL can comprehend numbers and perform subitizing. But somewhat disappointingly, extensive experiments of the type of cognitive psychology demonstrate that the examples-driven black box DL cannot see through superficial variations in visual representations and distill the abstract notion of natural number, a task that children perform with high accuracy and confidence. The failure is apparently due to the learning method not the CNN computational machinery itself. A recurrent neural network capable of subitizing does exist, which we construct by encoding a mechanism of mathematical morphology into the CNN convolutional kernels. Also, we investigate, using subitizing as a test bed, the ways to aid the black box DL by cognitive priors derived from human insight. Our findings are mixed and interesting, pointing to both cognitive deficit of pure DL, and some measured successes of boosting DL by predetermined cognitive implements. This case study of DL in cognitive computing is meaningful for visual numerosity represents a minimum level of human intelligence.Comment: Accepted for presentation at the AAAI-1

Thinking About Fairness & Achieving Balance in Mediation

This Article identifies five sources of bias present in mediation practice: (1) categorization, (2) attribution, (3) metaphorical expression, (4) norming, and (5) framing. For each of these cognitive efficiencies, which contribute to bias in mediation, the author provides practice recommendations. Finally, the author suggests that the Article be read as a proposal for further thought and inquiry to improve the fairness of mediators

Religion in Schools? The Importance of Recognizing the Impact of Religious Experiences

The school environment is a place of forced contact between diverse peoples. It is the perfect environment to nurture the diverse identities present. The influences on identity (i.e., language, ethnicity, religion, etc.) shape how students perceive information and learn. Some educators use these influences to help them instruct students. However, often overlooked is the influence of religious practices on language use and behavior in classrooms. This paper argues that the significance of understanding the religious practices of students is equally as important for planning instruction as knowing any other aspect of their culture, (i.e., the students’ native language(s)). Framed by principles of interfaith dialogue, the paper highlights a few examples of language use and behavior at the intersection of religion and education. The author argues that using the religious beliefs of students as strengths of their identity might eliminate some of the misunderstandings in the classroom and help establish an environment of mutual acceptance which might lead to deeper learning. Additionally, dialogue that includes aspects of religious practices might help students makes sense of the world and foster collaboration in the larger society

Biological learning and artificial intelligence

It was once taken for granted that learning in animals and man could be explained with a simple set of general learning rules, but over the last hundred years, a substantial amount of evidence has been accumulated that points in a quite different direction. In animal learning theory, the laws of learning are no longer considered general. Instead, it has been necessary to explain behaviour in terms of a large set of interacting learning mechanisms and innate behaviours. Artificial intelligence is now on the edge of making the transition from general theories to a view of intelligence that is based on anamalgamate of interacting systems. In the light of the evidence from animal learning theory, such a transition is to be highly desired