Negative Results in Computer Vision: A Perspective

A negative result is when the outcome of an experiment or a model is not what is expected or when a hypothesis does not hold. Despite being often overlooked in the scientific community, negative results are results and they carry value. While this topic has been extensively discussed in other fields such as social sciences and biosciences, less attention has been paid to it in the computer vision community. The unique characteristics of computer vision, particularly its experimental aspect, call for a special treatment of this matter. In this paper, I will address what makes negative results important, how they should be disseminated and incentivized, and what lessons can be learned from cognitive vision research in this regard. Further, I will discuss issues such as computer vision and human vision interaction, experimental design and statistical hypothesis testing, explanatory versus predictive modeling, performance evaluation, model comparison, as well as computer vision research culture

Positive and negative results concerning the Gromov-Lawson-Rosenberg conjecture

The Gromov-Lawson-Rosenberg-conjecture for a group G states that a closed spin manifold M^n (n>4) with fundamental group G admits a metric with positive scalar curvature if and only if its C^*-index A(M) in KO_n(C^*_r(G)) vanishes. We prove this for groups G with low-dimensional classifying space, provided the assembly map for G is injective. On the other hand, we construct a spin manifold with no metric with scal>0 but so that already its KO-orientation in KO_*(B pi_1(M)) vanishes. Therefore a corresponding weakened version or the GLR-conjecture is wrong. Last we address non-orientable manifolds. We give a reformulation of the minimal surface method of Schoen and Yau (extended to dimension 8) and introduce a non-orientable version of it. We then construct a manifold M whose orientation cover admits a metric of positive scalar curvature but where M itself does not. M is also a counterexample to a twisted analog of the GLR-conjecture because its twisted index vanishes.Comment: References corrected, AMS-LaTeX2e, 20 page

Negative results in the theory of games with lexicographic utilities

When players may have lexicographic utilities, there are: (i) extensive games having a non-empty set of equilibria but empty sets of sequentially rational, sequential and perfect equilibria (ii) normal form games having a non-empty set of equilibria but an empty set of proper equilibria and no stable set of equilibria and (iii) two extensive games having the same normal form representation and disjoint sets of sequential equilibria.lexicographic expected utility

Negative Results in European Psychology Journals

Psychologists have long speculated that the research literature is largely dominated by positive findings, but yet there is little data to justify these speculations. The present study investigates the extent to which negative findings exist in the literature by reviewing articles published in five European psychology journals. While no temporal change was observed, the results indicate that almost all (95.4%) articles published in 2001, 2006 and 2011 found support for at least one tested hypothesis. Moreover, a sizable number (73%) of papers found support for all tested hypotheses. It is argued that the lack of negative findings can have a detrimental effect on the ability to systemize scientific knowledge, the way science is practiced, and the rate of replications in psychology. Publishing positive findings may be very important for making progress in our field, but negative findings are also crucial for maintaining its scientific integrity. When we base our conclusions on results that support our predictions and ignore data to the contrary, we run the risk of creating a biased view of reality that gives us little confidence in the validity and applicability of our findings

Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine

CONTRIBUTING REVIEWERS: A peer-reviewed journal would not survive without the generous time and insightful comments of the reviewers, whose efforts often go unrecognized. Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine has been blessed by the support of highly-qualified peer reviewers, and the Editor-in-Chief, Bjorn Olsen, and staff of the journal would like to show their appreciation by thanking the following for their invaluable assistance with review of manuscripts for the journal in Volume 12 (2013)