Components Interoperability through Mediating Connector Patterns

A key objective for ubiquitous environments is to enable system interoperability between system's components that are highly heterogeneous. In particular, the challenge is to embed in the system architecture the necessary support to cope with behavioral diversity in order to allow components to coordinate and communicate. The continuously evolving environment further asks for an automated and on-the-fly approach. In this paper we present the design building blocks for the dynamic and on-the-fly interoperability between heterogeneous components. Specifically, we describe an Architectural Pattern called Mediating Connector, that is the key enabler for communication. In addition, we present a set of Basic Mediator Patterns, that describe the basic mismatches which can occur when components try to interact, and their corresponding solutions.Comment: In Proceedings WCSI 2010, arXiv:1010.233

Reanalyzing language expectations: Native language knowledge modulates the sensitivity to intervening cues during anticipatory processing

Issue Online:21 September 2018We investigated how native language experience shapes anticipatory language processing. Two groups of bilinguals (either Spanish or Basque natives) performed a word matching task (WordMT) and a picture matching task (PictureMT). They indicated whether the stimuli they visually perceived matched with the noun they heard. Spanish noun endings were either diagnostic of the gender (transparent) or ambiguous (opaque). ERPs were time-locked to an intervening gender-marked determiner preceding the predicted noun. The determiner always gender agreed with the following noun but could also introduce a mismatching noun, so that it was not fully task diagnostic. Evoked brain activity time-locked to the determiner was considered as reflecting updating/reanalysis of the task-relevant preactivated representation. We focused on the timing of this effect by estimating the comparison between a gender-congruent and a gender-incongruent determiner. In the WordMT, both groups showed a late N400 effect. Crucially, only Basque natives displayed an earlier P200 effect for determiners preceding transparent nouns. In the PictureMT, both groups showed an early P200 effect for determiners preceding opaque nouns. The determiners of transparent nouns triggered a negative effect at similar to 430 ms in Spanish natives, but at similar to 550 ms in Basque natives. This pattern of results supports a "retracing hypothesis" according to which the neurocognitive system navigates through the intermediate (sublexical and lexical) linguistic representations available from previous processing to evaluate the need of an update in the linguistic expectation concerning a target lexical item.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (grant PSI2015‐65694‐P to N. M.), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres/Units of Excellence in R&D (grant SEV‐2015‐490

Representing tools as hand movements: Early and somatotopic visuomotor transformations

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Naturally-occurring sleep choice and time of day effects on p-beauty contest outcomes

We explore the behavioral consequences of sleep loss and time-of-day (circadian) effects on a particular type of decision making. Subject sleep is monitored for the week prior to a decision experiment, which is then conducted at 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. A validated circadian preference instrument allows us to randomly assign subjects to a more or less preferred time-of-day session. The well-known p-beauty contest (a.k.a., the guessing game) is administered to examine how sleep loss and circadian mismatch affect subject reasoning and learning. We find that the subject responses are consistent with significantly lower levels of iterative reasoning when ‘sleep deprived’ or at non-optimal times-of-day. A non-linear effect is estimated to indicate that too much sleep also leads to choices consistent with lower levels of reasoning, with an apparent optimum at close to 7 hours sleep per night. However, repeated play shows that sleep loss and non-optimal times-of-day do not affect learning or adaptation in response to information feedback. Our results apply to environments where anticipation is important, such as in coordination games, stock trading, driving, etc. These findings have important implications for the millions of adults considered sleep deprived, as well as those employed in shift work occupations. Key Words:

Interactions Between Visual Working Memory, Attention, and Color Categories:A Pupillometry Study

Recent studies have found that visual working memory (VWM) for color shows a categorical bias: observers typically remember colors as more prototypical to the category they belong to than they actually are. Here, we further examine color-category effects on VWM using pupillometry. Participants remembered a color for later reproduction on a color wheel. During the retention interval, a colored probe was presented, and we measured the pupil constriction in response to this probe, assuming that the strength of constriction reflects the visual saliency of the probe. We found that the pupil initially constricted most strongly for non-matching colors that were maximally different from the memorized color; this likely reflects a lack of visual adaptation for these colors, which renders them more salient than memory-matching colors (which were shown before). Strikingly, this effect reversed later in time, such that pupil constriction was more prolonged for memory-matching colors as compared to non-matching colors; this likely reflects that memory-matching colors capture attention more strongly, and perhaps for a longer time, than non-matching colors do. We found no effects of color categories on pupil constriction: after controlling for color distance, (non-matching) colors from the same category as the memory color did not result in a different pupil response as compared to colors from a different category; however, we did find that behavioral responses were biased by color categories. In summary, we found that pupil constriction to colored probes reflects both visual adaptation and VWM content, but, unlike behavioral measures, is not notably affected by color categories

Tau Be or not Tau Be? - A Perspective on Service Compatibility and Substitutability

One of the main open research issues in Service Oriented Computing is to propose automated techniques to analyse service interfaces. A first problem, called compatibility, aims at determining whether a set of services (two in this paper) can be composed together and interact with each other as expected. Another related problem is to check the substitutability of one service with another. These problems are especially difficult when behavioural descriptions (i.e., message calls and their ordering) are taken into account in service interfaces. Interfaces should capture as faithfully as possible the service behaviour to make their automated analysis possible while not exhibiting implementation details. In this position paper, we choose Labelled Transition Systems to specify the behavioural part of service interfaces. In particular, we show that internal behaviours (tau transitions) are necessary in these transition systems in order to detect subtle errors that may occur when composing a set of services together. We also show that tau transitions should be handled differently in the compatibility and substitutability problem: the former problem requires to check if the compatibility is preserved every time a tau transition is traversed in one interface, whereas the latter requires a precise analysis of tau branchings in order to make the substitution preserve the properties (e.g., a compatibility notion) which were ensured before replacement.Comment: In Proceedings WCSI 2010, arXiv:1010.233

Dynamic System Adaptation by Constraint Orchestration

For Paradigm models, evolution is just-in-time specified coordination conducted by a special reusable component McPal. Evolution can be treated consistently and on-the-fly through Paradigm's constraint orchestration, also for originally unforeseen evolution. UML-like diagrams visually supplement such migration, as is illustrated for the case of a critical section solution evolving into a pipeline architecture.Comment: 19 page

Matching consistency effects in persuasion: distinguishing between consistent and mixed framed messages

Dissertação de Mestrado realizada sob a orientação do Professor Doutor Filipe Loureiro apresentada no Ispa – Instituto Universitário para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Social e das Organizações.Alinhar o conteúdo de mensagens com características dos destinatários (i.e., matching) é uma estratégia persuasiva frequentemente associada a atitudes favoráveis e intenções comportamentais. Contrariamente a estudos anteriores focados em exposições a mensagens únicas, adotamos uma abordagem original. Controlámos diferenças de necessidade de cognição (NC) e expusemos os participantes a dois anúncios. Nas condições consistentes, as mensagens de ambos os anúncios alinhavam-se ou não ao traço de extroversão. Nas condições inconsistentes, uma alinhava-se e a outro não (ou vice-versa). Previsões em relação às atitudes nas condições consistentes foram contrariadas. Especificamente, anúncios matching consistentes não resultaram em atitudes mais favoráveis, desafiando o efeito de favorabilidade para mensagens matching, habitualmente retratado na literatura. Diferenças na certeza das atitudes com base na consistência dos anúncios também não foram confirmadas. Esperávamos que as condições consistentes promovessem níveis mais elevados de certeza, mas não encontrámos diferenças na certeza entre condições consistentes e inconsistentes. Adicionalmente, indivíduos com NC elevado não relataram maior certeza. Assim, os resultados contrariaram estudos anteriores que relacionam a inconsistência à redução da certeza e o NC elevado ao aumento da certeza. Apesar de não apoiarem as nossas previsões em relação às atitudes e certeza, os dados obtidos revelaram uma relação significativa entre ambas. As atitudes exerceram uma influência notável nas intenções comportamentais, especialmente quando os indivíduos estavam muito certos das suas atitudes, reforçando evidencias anteriores da existência desta moderação. De forma exploratória, descobrimos padrões interessantes nas condições inconsistentes, com variações em NC a resultarem em efeitos distintos nas três variáveis em estudo.ABSTRACT: Aligning message content with recipients’ characteristics (i.e., matching), is a persuasive strategy often associated with favorable attitudes and behavioral intentions. Unlike previous research focusing on single message exposures, we employed a unique approach. We controlled for differences in need for cognition (NC) and exposed participants to two advertisements. In consistent conditions the frames of both advertisements either consistently matched or mismatched their extroversion trait. In inconsistent conditions, one matched and the other mismatched (or vice versa). Our predictions regarding attitudes in response to the exposure of consistent frames were contradicted. Specifically, consistent matching advertisements did not yield more favorable attitudes, challenging the established literature showing a favorability effect for matching messages. Anticipated differences in attitude certainty based on ads consistency were also not supported. We expected consistent conditions to lead to higher certainty levels, but our results revealed no difference in certainty between consistent and inconsistent conditions. Furthermore, we did not find that high NC individuals reported greater certainty than low NC individuals. These findings contrast previous literature linking inconsistency to reduced certainty and high NC to increased certainty. Despite not providing support to our predictions regarding attitudes or attitude certainty, obtained data revealed a significant relationship between the two. Attitudes notably influenced behavioral intentions, particularly when individuals were highly certain about their attitudes, thus reinforcing prior evidence supporting the existence of this moderation. In an exploratory endeavor of the inconsistent conditions, we uncovered interesting patterns, with variations in NC leading to distinct effects across the three variables under study

Inhibition in the dynamics of selective attention: an integrative model for negative priming

We introduce a computational model of the negative priming (NP) effect that includes perception, memory, attention, decision making, and action. The model is designed to provide a coherent picture across competing theories of NP. The model is formulated in terms of abstract dynamics for the activations of features, their binding into object entities, their semantic categorization as well as related memories and appropriate reactions. The dynamic variables interact in a connectionist network which is shown to be adaptable to a variety of experimental paradigms. We find that selective attention can be modeled by means of inhibitory processes and by a threshold dynamics. From the necessity of quantifying the experimental paradigms, we conclude that the specificity of the experimental paradigm must be taken into account when predicting the nature of the NP effect