25 research outputs found

    Going Beyond the "Synthetic Method": New Paradigms Cross-Fertilizing Robotics and Cognitive Neuroscience

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    In so-called ethorobotics and robot-supported social cognitive neurosciences, robots are used as scientific tools to study animal behavior and cognition. Building on previous epistemological analyses of biorobotics, in this article it is argued that these two research fields, widely differing from one another in the kinds of robots involved and in the research questions addressed, share a common methodology, which significantly differs from the "synthetic method" that, until recently, dominated biorobotics. The methodological novelty of this strategy, the research opportunities that it opens, and the theoretical and technological challenges that it gives rise to, will be discussed with reference to the peculiarities of the two research fields. Some broad methodological issues related to the generalization of results concerning robot-animal interaction to theoretical conclusions on animal-animal interaction will be identified and discussed

    Mapping Change Logbook

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    The Mapping Change Logbook is an online mind-map of key findings and a selection of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources that enriched our research with concepts and experiments that engage the tool of critical mapping. In 4 STATIONS we have arranged 11 ENTRIES: short texts of +/- 1,600 words, written by our team, that base on inputs from the 2 workshops and our research. This booklet captures these entries. In addition, we plugged 60 DETOURS to the entries: short descriptions and links to relevant works that we highlight under 9 filters: map/image, mobilizer, workshop, scholarly, interview/podcast, field/prep note, music, video/ film, counterimaginary. The pages of these Detours in the web-logbook are only a windowsill that provides a synopsis (often a quote from descriptions by the respective authors on the sourced site) and the link to the work on the original server where it can be explored. Therefore, the Detours can only be viewed online, yet a list can be found as annex at the end of this booklet. To view the Mapping Change Logbook online visit: www.mapping-change.labor-k.org/overview

    Perceptual Effects in Physically Based Animation with Rigid and Deformable Objects

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    We perform four psychophysical studies to investigate the perceptual effect of factors in the rendering and simulation stages of physically based animation production. Our study provides helpful insights in how to improve visual plausibility or reduce computational cost, which may allow artists to adjust their designs to enhance or minimize the perceived deformation in a model, or to choose a more efficient dynamics model and simpler mesh used in simulation without harming the visual plausibility. In our first study, we find that appearance can potentially influence people’s sensitivity to differences of deformation as well as subjective rating of softness. Further analysis shows that, in simple scenarios, the effect of low-level visual details in appearance can be dominant, even if high-level information delivered by appearance has the opposite implication. Another experiment shows that as the number of objects in a scenario increases, objects are perceived to be stiffer. In the second study, we quantitatively measure how different low-level visual details can influence people’s perceived stiffness of a deformable sphere under physically based simulation. We find that checkerboard pattern with certain combinations of spatial frequency and contrast can reduce the perceived stiffness. Our study further shows that adding a high-contrast checkerboard background can reduce such effect. In our third study, we discover that the resolution of a mesh used in the simulation of deformable objects can be reduced to a certain level without being noticed. For complex deformation, it is easier for people to recognize such reduction. Lastly, we verify two hypotheses which are assumed to be true only intuitively in many rigid body simulations in our third study. I: In large scale rigid body simulation, viewers may not be able to perceive distortion incurred by an approximated simulation method. II: Fixing objects under a pile of objects does not affect the visual plausibility. Our analysis of results supports the truthfulness of the hypotheses under certain simulation environments, but discovers four factors which may affect the authenticity of these hypotheses: number of collisions simulated simultaneously, homogeneity of colliding object pairs, distance from scene under simulation to camera position, and simulation method used

    A virtual agent to sustaining children's engagement in language learning

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    In this thesis we aimed to explore the potential of gamification - defined as “the use of game elements in non-game contexts” [30] - in increasing children's (aged 5 to 6) engagement with the task. This is mainly due to the fact that our world is living a technological era, and videogames are an example of this engagement by being able to maintain children’s (and adults) engagement for hours straight. For the purpose of limiting complexity, we only addressed the feedback element by introducing it with an anthropomorphic virtual agent (human-like aspect), because research shows that virtual agents (VA’s) can influence behavioural change [17], or even induce emotions on humans both through the use of feedback provided and their facial expressions, which can interpreted in the same way as of humans’ [2]. By pairing the VA with the gamification concept, we wanted to 1) create a VA that is likely to be well-received by children (appearance and behaviour), and 2) have the immediate feedback that games have, so we can give children an assessment of their actions in real-time, as opposed to waiting for feedback from someone (traditional teaching), and with this give students more chances to succeed [32, 43]. Our final system consisted on a virtual environment, where children formed words that corresponded to a given image. In order to measure the impact that the VA had on engagement, the system was developed in two versions: one version of the system was limited to provide a simple feedback environment, where the VA provided feedback, by responding with simple phrases (i.e. “correct” or “incorrect”); for the second version, the VA had a more complex approach where it tried to encourage children to complete the word – a motivational feedback - even when they weren’t succeeding. Lastly we conducted a field study with two groups of children, where one group tested the version with the simple feedback, and the other group tested the ‘motivational’ version of the system. We used a quantitative approach to analyze the collected data that measured the engagement, based on the number of tasks (words) completed and time spent with system. The results of the evaluation showed that the use of motivational feedback may carry a positive effect on engaging children

    ONLINE EXPERIENCES OF ADOLESCENTS WITH ASPERGER’S SYNDROME AND HIGH-FUNCTIONING AUTISM

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    This study investigated the online experiences of 10 adolescents with Asperger's Disorder (AD). This study was exploratory in nature and employed a qualitative approach. Three research questions guided this study: (a) What are the positive and negative online experiences of youth with ASD?, (b) What are the perceptions of online interactions in comparison to offline interactions held by youth with ASD?, and (c) What experiences with social connectedness and cyberbullying do youth with ASD have as a result of Internet usage? Four themes and 14 subthemes emerged during the process of analyzing the data: (a) Benefits of Internet Usage (Social, Emotional, Educational, and Interests); (b) Bringing People Closer (Reducing the Miles in Between, Accessibility to People, and Easier Communication); (c) Negative Social Interactions (Negativity, Trolling, and Cyberbullying); (d) Combating Negative Social Interactions (Prevention, Avoid/Ignore/Leave, Support of Peers, Seek Help from Adults/Authority Figures). Results from this study suggest that youth with ASD generally have positive experiences on the Internet. These positive experiences translate into many benefits that impact the development of youth with ASD. When faced with social experiences online, participants demonstrated how perceptive and resourceful they can be in finding ways to solve their problems. These findings demonstrate the potential for youth with ASD to learn, grow, and overcome various ASD symptomologies through online interactions and activities

    Digital Theatre: A "Live" and Mediated Art Form Expanding Perceptions of Body, Place, and Community

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    This work discusses Digital Theatre, a type of performance which utilizes both "live" actors and co-present audiences along with digital media to create a hybrid art form revitalizing theatre for contemporary audiences. This work surveys a wide range of digital performances (with "live" and digital elements, limited interactivity/participation and spoken words) and identifies the group collectively as Digital Theatre, an art form with the flexibility and reach of digital data and the sense of community found in "live" theatre. I offer performance examples from Mark Reaney, David Saltz, Troika Ranch, Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre, Flying Karamazov Brothers, Talking Birds, Yacov Sharir, Studio Z, George Coates Performance Group, and ArtGrid. (The technologies utilized in performances include: video-conferencing, media projection, MIDI control, motion capture, VR animation, and AI). Rather than looking at these productions as isolated events, I identify them as a movement and link the use of digital techniques to continuing theatrical tradition of utilizing new technologies on the stage. The work ties many of the aesthetic choices explored in theatrical past by the likes of Piscator, Svoboda, Craig, and in Bauhaus and Futurist movements. While it retains the essential qualities of public human connection and imaginative thought central to theatre, Digital Theatre can cause theatrical roles to merge as it extends the performer's body, expands our concept of place, and creates new models of global community

    David Foster Wallace Learns How to Live

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    David Foster Wallace once said that “fiction is about what it is to be a human being”. But what did he mean? This question has been addressed by Marshal Boswell, Allard den Dulk, Clare Hayes-Brady, and Jamie Redgate; who have all added to our understanding by reading Wallace’s work through the ideas of dualism, existentialism, post-structural linguistics, and cognitive historicism. But, in my view, we have not got to the heart of the matter. In this thesis, I use Harold Bloom’s theory of misreading to address the ideas that have influenced Wallace, to unpick how he handles them, and uncover how he moves beyond them. By only reading his novels, I pay more attention than previously given to these tensions, allowing us to develop a deeper understanding of what drives his characters, how they shape each other, and how they create the force of Wallace’s human being. I read The Broom of the System as a novel that challenges the uncertainty of post-structural thought by turning away from the ontological foundations of postmodern fiction and choosing to believe in the certainty of reality. After that, I read Infinite Jest as a novel that continues to develop these ideas. But, this time, I see Wallace challenging the uncertainty of post-structural thought by encouraging the reader to love one of the book’s protagonists, Hal Incandenza. I then read The Pale King as a novel that turns to the root causes of our post-structural and postmodern world, the narcissism of modernist ideas and traditional values. In this novel, I see Wallace working to relinquish that narcissism. With these ideas of belief, love, and the relinquishment of narcissism, then, I suggest that, to Wallace, fiction and being human is about learning how to live

    \u27What\u27s in a List?\u27 Cultural Techniques, Logistics, Poeisis

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    This research explores the list as a cultural and communicative form. Inspired by the ubiquity of rankings, bullet points and registries in contemporary ‘list culture,’ and by Jack Goody’s famous question ‘What’s in a list?’ (1977), I ask: how can this seemingly innocuous form be studied? What does its analysis tell us about historical and contemporary media environments and logistical networks? What can studying this unconventional object bring to media studies? I offer four intersecting arguments. The first proposes that media studies benefits from the incorporation of approaches and concepts that I group together as ‘media materialism.’ Approaches such as media archaeology, associated theories of cultural techniques, actor-network theory and logistical media studies give a more accurate account of media environments because they address more than the institutions, texts and audiences that are the traditional foci of North American media studies. The second argument presents the list as an example of what media materialism makes available. I position listing as a cultural technique that processes distinctions foundational to concepts and categories of social and imaginative life. The third argument proposes that lists cannot be easily dismissed or endorsed. Their complicated and often contradictory operations demand a precise tracing of how they function. The fourth argues that lists endure in our thoughts, texts, and programs because they negotiate tensions and paradoxes that have beguiled humans for centuries, e.g. between entropy and order or wonder and horror. These arguments are developed in four chapters. The first traces the list as a format that structures knowledge in popular music. The second maps listing as a cultural technique of administration in Nazi Germany. I show the Nazi census to be a limit case of a way of seeing and doing, what I term a ‘logistical worldview,’ that can be traced to fifteenth century double-entry bookkeeping. The third explores algorithmic lists of code and protocol in digital culture. These function not only administratively but also in ways that reveal a poetic capacity. The latter is the focus of the final chapter, which uses the words of Jorge Luis Borges and the images of Chris Marker to show the list as an imaginative form that clears a space for Heideggerian poeisis

    Changing disabling places

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    This thesis documents, develops and demonstrates a novel form of praxis in relation to disability in Scottish Higher Education. 'Praxis', as I use the term in this thesis, refers to an ongoing, irreducible, collective process through which is enacted, in one and the same process: 'knowledgementing' (the construction and legitimation of knowledge claims); 'radical reflexivity' (the bringing to awareness and critical problematisation of interests served by what is thought, said and done by all relevant parties); and 'ideologically progressive social action' (the pursuit of emancipatory process and just outcomes and the contesting of'external and internal' institutional oppression). The meaning of praxis is explicated in this thesis and demonstrated in action with reference to disability in Scottish Higher Education. Particular attention is paid to explicating and demonstrating the conceptual unity of praxis and the interconnectivity in actuality of the practices, procedures and policies which disable in assemblages or apparatuses, as Foucault uses the terms. The interconnectivity of the praxis is, it is claimed, the key to unlocking the interconnectivity of the assemblages which produce and maintain disability in Scottish Higher Education. The thesis traces the connections between the various elements of the assemblage producing a novel account (and new knowledges) which, it is claimed, could only have been derived as a result of the praxis and which can also account for the knowledges presented in previous research into disability in British Higher Education, locating these studies as part of the disabling assemblage. The thesis concludes by drawing out wider implications of praxis for conventional research, for psychology and social science
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