Extracting aspects of determiner meaning from dialogue in a virtual world environment

We use data from a virtual world game for automated learning of words and grammatical constructions and their meanings. The language data are an integral part of the social interaction in the game and consist of chat dialogue, which is only constrained by the cultural context, as set by the nature of the provided virtual environment. Building on previous work, where we extracted a vocabulary for concrete objects in the game by making use of the non-linguistic context, we now target NP/DP grammar, in particular determiners. We assume that we have captured the meanings of a set of determiners if we can predict which determiner will be used in a particular context. To this end we train a classifier that predicts the choice of a determiner on the basis of features from the linguistic and non-linguistic context.Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Rubicon grant, project nr. 446-09-011

Social learning and verbal communication with humanoid robots

Trabajo presentado a la IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, celebrada en New York (US) en 2001.The paper discusses issues in the design of openended and grounded communication with humanoid robots. A number of design principles and design maxims are proposed. The key idea of the paper is that social learning can play a crucial role in bootstrapping a humanoid robot into lnguistic culture.N

An agent-based model studying the acquisition of a language system of logical constructions

This paper presents an agent-based model that studies the emergence and evolution of a language system of logical constructions, i.e. a vocabulary and a set of grammatical constructions that allows the expression of logical combinations of categories. The model assumes the agents have a common vocabulary for basic categories, the ability to construct logical combinations of categories using Boolean functions, and some general purpose cognitive capacities for invention, adoption, induction and adaptation. But it does not assume the agents have a vocabulary for Boolean functions nor grammatical constructions for expressing such logical combinations of categories through language. The results of the experiments we have performed show that a language system of logical constructions emerges as a result of a process of selforganisation of the individual agents’ interactions when these agents adapt their preferences for vocabulary and grammatical constructions to those they observe are used more often by the rest of the population, and that such a language system is transmitted from one generation to the next.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The challenges of participatory research with 'tech-savvy' youth

This paper focuses on participatory research and how it can be understood and employed when researching children and youth. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretically and empirically grounded discussion of participatory research methodologies with respect to investigating the dynamic and evolving phenomenon of young people growing up in networked societies. Initially, we review the nature of participatory research and how other researchers have endeavoured to involve young people (children and youth) in their research projects. Our review of these approaches aims to elucidate what we see as recurring and emerging issues with respect to the methodological design of involving young people as co-researchers. In the light of these issues and in keeping with our aim, we offer a case study of our own research project that seeks to understand the ways in which high school students use new media and network ICT systems (Internet, mobile phone applications, social networking sites) to construct identities, form social relations, and engage in creative practices as part of their everyday lives. The article concludes by offering an assessment of our tripartite model of participatory research that may benefit other researchers who share a similar interest in youth and new media

Towards a critical game based pedagogy

This thesis outlines and examines core concepts of game-based learning as identified by James Paul Gee, and Kurt Squire, among other scholars. These findings are then connected to the contemporary, transformative threshold concepts of composition—as explored in Naming What We Know. This connection seeks to argue game-based pedagogy may be an invaluable tool for introducing critical perspectives to composition students in order to better equip them with critical thinking strategies and cultural critiques, while improving their writing skills. A theoretical framework is presented in the form of four “Pillars” of a Critical Game-Based Pedagogy: Literacy, Identity, Social Learning, and Multimodality—all key components of critical game-based curricula, which centers expanded definitions of literacy, resists social constructions, encourages cooperation, and practices a wide variety of multimedia composition strategies. The concluding discussion attempts to illustrate these concepts through anecdotal reflections on teaching, particular games, and their relationship to digital humanities—including a supplementary digital platform hosting this research

Directional adposition use in English, Swedish and Finnish

Directional adpositions such as to the left of describe where a Figure is in relation to a Ground. English and Swedish directional adpositions refer to the location of a Figure in relation to a Ground, whether both are static or in motion. In contrast, the Finnish directional adpositions edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) solely describe the location of a moving Figure in relation to a moving Ground (Nikanne, 2003). When using directional adpositions, a frame of reference must be assumed for interpreting the meaning of directional adpositions. For example, the meaning of to the left of in English can be based on a relative (speaker or listener based) reference frame or an intrinsic (object based) reference frame (Levinson, 1996). When a Figure and a Ground are both in motion, it is possible for a Figure to be described as being behind or in front of the Ground, even if neither have intrinsic features. As shown by Walker (in preparation), there are good reasons to assume that in the latter case a motion based reference frame is involved. This means that if Finnish speakers would use edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) more frequently in situations where both the Figure and Ground are in motion, a difference in reference frame use between Finnish on one hand and English and Swedish on the other could be expected. We asked native English, Swedish and Finnish speakers’ to select adpositions from a language specific list to describe the location of a Figure relative to a Ground when both were shown to be moving on a computer screen. We were interested in any differences between Finnish, English and Swedish speakers. All languages showed a predominant use of directional spatial adpositions referring to the lexical concepts TO THE LEFT OF, TO THE RIGHT OF, ABOVE and BELOW. There were no differences between the languages in directional adpositions use or reference frame use, including reference frame use based on motion. We conclude that despite differences in the grammars of the languages involved, and potential differences in reference frame system use, the three languages investigated encode Figure location in relation to Ground location in a similar way when both are in motion. Levinson, S. C. (1996). Frames of reference and Molyneux’s question: Crosslingiuistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M.A. Peterson, L. Nadel & M.F. Garrett (Eds.) Language and Space (pp.109-170). Massachusetts: MIT Press. Nikanne, U. (2003). How Finnish postpositions see the axis system. In E. van der Zee & J. Slack (Eds.), Representing direction in language and space. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Walker, C. (in preparation). Motion encoding in language, the use of spatial locatives in a motion context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Lincoln, Lincoln. United Kingdo

The technological mediation of mathematics and its learning

This paper examines the extent to which mathematical knowledge, and its related pedagogy, is inextricably linked to the tools – physical, virtual, cultural – in which it is expressed. Our goal is to focus on a few exemplars of computational tools, and to describe with some illustrative examples, how mathematical meanings are shaped by their use. We begin with an appraisal of the role of digital technologies, and our rationale for focusing on them. We present four categories of digital tool-use that distinguish their differing potential to shape mathematical cognition. The four categories are: i. dynamic and graphical tools, ii. tools that outsource processing power, iii. new representational infrastructures, and iv. the implications of highbandwidth connectivity on the nature of mathematics activity. In conclusion, we draw out the implications of this analysis for mathematical epistemology and the mathematical meanings students develop. We also underline the central importance of design, both of the tools themselves and the activities in which they are embedded

Missing "the little things that make you human": medical students' experiences of digital teaching and learning

Recent decades have seen a significant global scale-up in the training of doctors with an increased pressure on training resources. This thesis began with a question about how scalable digital materials could be designed to support medical students’ learning of clinical reasoning - the process of making informed judgements about the likely causes and best action to be taken when faced with a clinical problem. My initial research was underpinned by an assumption that it would be possible to design digital tools that students would find as motivating as face-to-face encounters. However, my early empirical work using design research raised doubts about that and caused me to take a step back and examine medical students’ digital learning engagement more generally. In this thesis, I ask the question: why, and in what ways, is digital learning engagement different from face-to-face learning engagement? I test a hypothesis about digital learning engagement that is derived from Silvan Tomkins’ Script Theory, using a series of repertory grid interviews with clinical medical students. I have taken an ontological position on the human mind, arguing that it is an embodied entity that actively scans the environment looking for meaning, and in which learning is driven by curiosity but motivated by the affective response of interest-excitement. Although Tomkins provides my main theoretical framework, I have triangulated his ideas with George Kelly’s Personal Construct Psychology, partly to add extra metaphorical depth, but also because Kelly’s theory offers a logic of enquiry and a method that I did not find in Tomkins. I also draw on Alexander Bain’s ontological description of the embodied mind, but update this with more contemporary ideas about perception and curiosity. My script theoretical hypothesis was not supported by the empirical data, because it was based on a false assumption that students’ engagement with digital learning was superficial. However, several important findings emerged. Medical students, on the whole, appreciate the convenience and safety of digital learning but do not actually enjoy it. Students experience digital learning as lonely and perceptually poor, and they explicitly link this to difficulty in sustaining attention. I contextualise these findings within the idea of the embodied, curious, affect-susceptible mind, and argue that a sense of place is important for learning, as is the real presence of others. Learning in three-dimensional “real” worlds allows students to derive meanings from place and person that support the affective response of interest-excitement. This, in turn, supports sustained attention. I argue that when considering learning media, we should distinguish between the efficient and the human, identifying the contexts in which the efficiency gains of digital media outweigh the de-humanising nature of digital learning, and continuing to value the human attributes of face-to-face teaching and learning

The Talking Heads experiment: Origins of words and meanings

The Talking Heads Experiment, conducted in the years 1999-2001, was the first large-scale experiment in which open populations of situated embodied agents created for the first time ever a new shared vocabulary by playing language games about real world scenes in front of them. The agents could teleport to different physical sites in the world through the Internet. Sites, in Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, Tokyo, London, Cambridge and several other locations were linked into the network. Humans could interact with the robotic agents either on site or remotely through the Internet and thus influence the evolving ontologies and languages of the artificial agents. The present book describes in detail the motivation, the cognitive mechanisms used by the agents, the various installations of the Talking Heads, the experimental results that were obtained, and the interaction with humans. It also provides a perspective on what happened in the field after these initial groundbreaking experiments. The book is invaluable reading for anyone interested in the history of agent-based models of language evolution and the future of Artificial Intelligence