2,291 research outputs found

    Predicting User Choices in Interactive Narratives using Indexter\u27s Pairwise Event Salience Hypothesis

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    Indexter is a plan-based model of narrative that incorporates cognitive scientific theories about the salience—or prominence in memory—of narrative events. A pair of Indexter events can share up to five indices with one another: protagonist, time, space, causality, and intentionality. The pairwise event salience hypothesis states that when a past event shares one or more of these indices with the most recently narrated event, that past event is more salient, or easier to recall, than an event which shares none of them. In this study we demonstrate that we can predict user choices based on the salience of past events. Specifically, we investigate the hypothesis that when users are given a choice between two events in an interactive narrative, they are more likely to choose the one which makes the previous events in the story more salient according to this theory

    Perceptual fail: Female power, mobile technologies and images of self

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    Like a biological species, images of self have descended and modified throughout their journey down the ages, interweaving and recharging their viability with the necessary interjections from culture, tools and technology. Part of this journey has seen images of self also become an intrinsic function within the narratives about female power; consider Helen of Troy “a face that launched a thousand ships” (Marlowe, 1604) or Kim Kardashian (KUWTK) who heralded in the mass mediated ‘selfie’ as a social practice. The interweaving process itself sees the image oscillate between naturalized ‘icon’ and idealized ‘symbol’ of what the person looked like and/or aspired to become. These public images can confirm or constitute beauty ideals as well as influence (via imitation) behaviour and mannerisms, and as such the viewers belief in the veracity of the representative image also becomes intrinsically political manipulating the associated narratives and fostering prejudice (Dobson 2015, Korsmeyer 2004, Pollock 2003). The selfie is arguably ‘a sui generis,’ whilst it is a mediated photographic image of self, it contains its own codes of communication and decorum that fostered the formation of numerous new digital communities and influenced new media aesthetics . For example the selfie is both of nature (it is still a time based piece of documentation) and known to be perceptually untrue (filtered, modified and full of artifice). The paper will seek to demonstrate how selfie culture is infused both by considerable levels of perceptual failings that are now central to contemporary celebrity culture and its’ notion of glamour which in turn is intrinsically linked (but not solely defined) by the province of feminine desire for reinvention, transformation or “self-sexualisation” (Hall, West and McIntyre, 2012). The subject, like the Kardashians or selfies, is divisive. In conclusion this paper will explore the paradox of the perceptual failings at play within selfie culture more broadly, like ‘Reality TV’ selfies are infamously fake yet seem to provide Debord’s (1967) illusory cultural opiate whilst fulfilling a cultural longing. Questions then emerge when considering the narrative impact of these trends on engendered power structures and the traditional status of illusion and narrative fiction

    Invisible Force: Information Warfare and the Future of Conflict

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    The year is 2030. Large swaths of the world are destabilized. Famine is rampant due to the aftermath of the long legacy of failed globalization. Citizens from poorer countries are migrating to escape famine, war, climate change, and lack of opportunity created by failed states. Wealthier countries, worried about resource scarcity, close themselves off to the refugees. Amid all of this, quantum computing has been achieved, resulting in infinitely faster processing of more information than ever before. Quantum technology and a fracturing of the global alliances enable global elite to exercise control over information - resulting in a segmented Internet. Nations are now ruled by technocratic elites, some who remain committed to individual liberty and privacy, and others who extract data as a raw material from the lives of individuals, with no restrictions on its use other than profit. By 2030, the nature of information war has changed. Combined with new, ubiquitous technology and levels of individual customization from data extraction, people don’t even realize they’re being manipulated.https://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/aci_books/1023/thumbnail.jp

    Literariness Revisited: Deviation vs. Entrenched Ideas

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    ‘Literariness’ basically means foregrounding. In this study it means: presenting a view that deviates from entrenched opinions. A poem by Emily Dickinson was manipulated: apart from the original version we constructed two versions which changed to entrenched ideas. Readers rated their reactions on 6 aesthetic dimensions, each comprising 5 Likert scales. Finally, they compared the three versions

    Large Language Model as Attributed Training Data Generator: A Tale of Diversity and Bias

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    Large language models (LLMs) have been recently leveraged as training data generators for various natural language processing (NLP) tasks. While previous research has explored different approaches to training models using generated data, they generally rely on simple class-conditional prompts, which may limit the diversity of the generated data and inherit systematic biases of LLM. Thus, we investigate training data generation with diversely attributed prompts (e.g., specifying attributes like length and style), which have the potential to yield diverse and attributed generated data. Our investigation focuses on datasets with high cardinality and diverse domains, wherein we demonstrate that attributed prompts outperform simple class-conditional prompts in terms of the resulting model's performance. Additionally, we present a comprehensive empirical study on data generation encompassing vital aspects like bias, diversity, and efficiency, and highlight three key observations: firstly, synthetic datasets generated by simple prompts exhibit significant biases, such as regional bias; secondly, attribute diversity plays a pivotal role in enhancing model performance; lastly, attributed prompts achieve the performance of simple class-conditional prompts while utilizing only 5\% of the querying cost of ChatGPT associated with the latter. We release the generated dataset and used prompts to facilitate future research. The data and code will be available on \url{https://github.com/yueyu1030/AttrPrompt}.Comment: Work in progress. A shorter version is accepted to the ICML DMLR worksho

    How the use of information and communication technology enables school teachers to generate educational outcomes: case of South Africa

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    Problem Statement: ICT is said to improve educational efficiencies and aids in addressing educational shortcomings in the developing world context. Although ICT holds the potential to greatly improve teaching, why and how ICT has the probability of transforming teaching, for actors and within the developing world context remains uncertain. The potential impact of these tools may be affected by contextual and socio-cultural factors. Socio-cultural factors may have a negative consequence on students' learning and can increase educational inequalities, especially in developing countries. The challenge is that existing research does not clearly explain how educational outcomes are generated through the use of ICT within the social-cultural context of teachers. Purpose of the research: The objective of this study was to examine how educational outcomes are generated through the use of ICT in a developing world context, at a micro-level – an individual. The aim was to investigate how the use of ICT enables opportunities for school teachers to generate educational outcomes. Research approach: The study adopted an interpretive approach using a qualitative method. The study adopted a case study method. The study drew on the Capability Approach (CA) as supplemented by individual differences conceptual framework and taxonomy of ICT affordances as a theoretical lens to explain why and how ICT affects teaching, for whom and in what context. The study analysed the patterns between opportunities determined by affordances, individual differences that affect how ICT is used and educational outcomes. The study used a purposive sampling method to select seven schools. From the seven schools, fifteen teachers, seven principals, seven ICT coordinators or personnel in charge of ICT, and two heads of e-Learning in Western Cape education districts. Data was obtained through background documents, semistructured interviews and direct observations of teachers. Key findings: ICT enabled teachers to generate three outcomes: (i) teaching capability outcomes that led to improvements in content delivery, communication, and lesson preparation relating directly to teaching, (ii) basic human capability outcomes led to the needs of the teachers regarding their well-being being met (iii) communication capability outcomes led to teaching communities consisting of teachers that share resources and expertise. Individual differences of teachers, personal data (such as age, ICT skills training, education and level of expertise in the subject taught), social factors (rules and policies), shaping and influencing factors (such as personality type and role model) and environmental context (such as habits, customs, beliefs and cultural values) determined how teachers used ICT to enable capabilities. Various factors (such as infrastructure, learner engagement and excitement as well as ICT skills training) affected the choice of teachers to act on the opportunities afforded by ICT to generate educational outcomes. The value of the study: The study makes three contributions. First, the research suggests theoretical propositions for explaining how the use of ICT enables teachers to produce educational outcomes. The study developed a conceptual framework by integrating Amartya Sen's CA, individual differences conceptual framework and taxonomy of affordance to explain how educational outcomes are generated through the use of ICT in the developing world context. The study found the ICT artefact, features, supportive function (such as training and support) and affordances enabled opportunities, the teachers acted on these opportunities to generate efficiencies in teaching, their well-being and the broader educational community within the context of individual differences. Second, the study provides recommendations for planners and implementers to address issues on the actual realisation of ICT benefits by creating effective strategies that aim at improving implementation of ICT in schools. These strategies should look at the opportunities generated from ICT and how teachers use these opportunities to achieve educational outcomes. Additionally, recommendations were provided for e-Learning coordinators who wish to deploy ICT and integrate it into schools' curricula to equip teachers with all the components of TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge). Additionally, e-Learning coordinators should provide a space for teachers to experiment, highlighting existing practices and providing support to achieve their personal goals, which are part of their value system. Third, empirical evidence and theory in this thesis contribute to the knowledge of ICT in education assessments by offering a better explanation of the capability outcomes in ICT in the education field
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