Dynamics, Adaptation and Control for Mental Models:A Cognitive Architecture

In this chapter, an overview of the wide variety of occurrences of mental models in the literature is discussed. They are classified according to two dimensions obtaining four categories of mental models: static-dynamic and world-mental, where static refers to mental models for static world states or for static mental states and dynamic refers to mental models for world processes or for mental processes. In addition, distinctions are made for what can be done by mental models: they can, for example, be (1) used for internal simulation, they can be (2) adapted, and these processes can be (3) controlled. This leads to a global three-level cognitive architecture covering these three ways of handling mental models. It is discussed that in this cognitive architecture reflection principles play an important role to define the interactions between the different levels.</p

The rhythm that unites: an empirical investigation into synchrony, ritual, and hierarchy

Synchrony, or rhythmic bodily unison activities such as drumming or cadence marching, has attracted growing scholarly interest. Among laboratory subjects, synchrony elicits prosocial responses, including altruism and empathy. In light of such findings, researchers in social psychology and the bio-cultural study of religion have suggested that synchrony played a role in humanity’s evolutionary history by engendering collectivistic commitments and social cohesion. These models propose that synchrony enhances cohesion by making people feel united. However, such models overlook the importance of differentiated social relations, such as hierarchies. This dissertation builds on this insight by drawing on neuroscience, coordination dynamics, social psychology, anthropology, and ritual studies to generate a complex model of synchrony, ritual, and social hierarchy, which is then tested in an experimental study. In the hypothesized model, shared motor unison suppresses the brain’s ability to distinguish cognitively between self-caused and exogenous motor acts, resulting in subjective self-other overlap. During synchrony each participant is dynamically entrained to a group mean rhythm; this “immanent authority” prevents any one participant from unilaterally dictating the rhythm, flattening relative hierarchy. As a ritualized behavior, synchrony therefore paradigmatically evokes shared ideals of equality and unity. However, when lab participants were assigned to either a synchrony or asynchrony manipulation and given a collaborative task requiring complex coordination, synchrony predicted a marginally lower degree of collaboration and significantly lower interpersonal satisfaction. These findings imply that unity and equality can undercut group cohesion if the collective agenda is a shared goal that requires interpersonal coordination. My results emphasize that, despite the inevitable tensions associated with social hierarchy, complementary roles and hierarchy are vital for certain aspects of social cohesion. Ritual and convention institute social boundaries that can be adroitly negotiated, even as egalitarian effervescence such as communitas (in the sense of Victor Turner) facilitates social unity and inspires affective commitments. These findings corroborate theories in ritual studies and sociology that caution both against excessive emphasis on inner emotive states (such as empathy) and against excessively rigid conventions or roles. An organic balance between unity and functional differentiation is vital for genuinely robust, long-term social cohesion.2018-06-21T00:00:00

Artificial cognitive architecture with self-learning and self-optimization capabilities. Case studies in micromachining processes

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Ingeniería Informática. Fecha de lectura : 22-09-201

Seven Computations of the Social Brain

The social environment presents the human brain with the most complex of information processing demands. The computations that the brain must perform occur in parallel, combine social and nonsocial cues, produce verbal and non-verbal signals, and involve multiple cognitive systems; including memory, attention, emotion, learning. This occurs dynamically and at timescales ranging from milliseconds to years. Here, we propose that during social interactions, seven core operations interact to underwrite coherent social functioning; these operations accumulate evidence efficiently – from multiple modalities – when inferring what to do next. We deconstruct the social brain and outline the key components entailed for successful human social interaction. These include (1) social perception; (2) social inferences, such as mentalizing; (3) social learning; (4) social signaling through verbal and non-verbal cues; (5) social drives (e.g., how to increase one’s status); (6) determining the social identity of agents, including oneself; and (7) minimizing uncertainty within the current social context by integrating sensory signals and inferences. We argue that while it is important to examine these distinct aspects of social inference, to understand the true nature of the human social brain, we must also explain how the brain integrates information from the social world

Creative Arts-Based Parents Training Program for Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study evaluated the impact of the Creative Arts-based Parents’ Training (CAPT) program. The 6-week long, creative arts therapy-based program and its impact on parental stress and sense of competence for parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was examined. Korean Parenting Stress Index Short-Form (K-PSI-SF) and Korean-Parenting Efficacy Test (K-PET) were used as quantitative measurements. Qualitative data were also collected for the experimental group (n = 17) using questionnaires, art journaling, and a 30 min focus group interview. The control group (n = 15) only participated in quantitative measurements. There was no difference in age between the experimental and control groups, t(25)=1.38, p=.19 and there was no difference in gender breakdown between groups, p=.86. There was a significant difference in the change in K-PSI-SF scores favoring the experimental group, and, t(17)=-2.72, p=.014 after controlling for inequality of variances; yet, there was no statistical significance found between groups t(30)=.912, p=.369 in K-PET scores. The experimental group reported positive experiences of both psychoeducational and creative arts-based parts of the program. Participants highlighted the CAPT program as helping them (1) improve social connection; (2) create new opportunities to be child-focused; (3) understand play for communication and connection; (4) understand the importance of emotion for child development; and (5) improve access to individualized information. The CAPT program seems a promising supplementary parent-training program

A Design Exploration of Affective Gaming

Physiological sensing has been a prominent fixture in games user research (GUR) since the late 1990s, when researchers began to explore its potential to enhance and understand experience within digital game play. Since these early days, it has been widely argued that “affective gaming”—in which gameplay is influenced by a player’s emotional state—can enhance player experience by integrating physiological sensors into play. In this thesis, I conduct a design exploration of the field of affective gaming by first, systematically exploring the field and creating a framework (the affective game loop) to classify existing literature; and second by presenting two design probes, to probe and explore the design space of affective games contextualized within the affective game loop: In the Same Boat and Commons Sense. The systematic review explored this unique design space of affective gaming, opening up future avenues for exploration. The affective game loop was created as a way to classify the physiological signals and sensors most commonly used in prior literature within the context of how they are mapped into the gameplay itself. Findings suggest that the physiological input mappings can be more action-based (e.g., affecting mechanics in the game such as the movement of the character) or more context-based (e.g., affecting things like environmental or difficulty variables in the game). Findings also suggested that while the field has been around for decades, there is still yet to be any commercial successes, so does physiological interaction really heighten player experience? This question instigated the design of the two probes, exploring ways to implement these mappings and effectively heighten player experience. In the Same Boat (Design Probe One) is an embodied mirroring game designed to promote an intimate interaction, using players’ breathing rate and facial expressions to control movement of a canoe down a river. Findings suggest that playing In the Same Boat fostered the development of affiliation between the players, and that while embodied controls were less intuitive, people enjoyed them more, indicating the potential of embodied controls to foster social closeness in synchronized play over a distance. Commons Sense (Design Probe Two) is a communication modality intended to heighten audience engagement and effectively capture and communicate the audience experience, using a webcam-based heart rate detection software that takes an average of each spectator’s heart rate as input to affect in-game variables such as lighting and sound design, and game difficulty. Findings suggest that Commons Sense successfully facilitated the communication of audience response in an online entertainment context—where these social cues and signals are inherently diminished. In addition, Commons Sense is a communication modality that can both enhance a play experience while offering a novel way to communicate. Overall, findings from this design exploration shows that affective games offer a novel way to deliver a rich gameplay experience for the player

Increasing adolescent interest in computing through the use of social cognitive career theory

While empirical research efforts are sufficient to provide evidence of the role of most constructs in the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), this dissertation shifts the research focus and finds serious shortcomings in defining the construct of computer technology learning experiences design. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate whether, and to what extent, the proposed SCCT-enhanced framework can increase self-efficacy and interest of pre-college and college students in computer-based technology through the newly proposed “Learning Experiences” construct; in particular, whether it can reduce the gender gaps. As a result of a comprehensive literature review, the dissertation connects learning, instructional design and career development theories in a holistic fashion identifying and synthesizing gaps with corresponding interventions concerning learning experiences. Subsequently, the study carries out an evolutionary re-design of SCCT in multiple iterations with the incorporation of theoretical findings until a revised SCCT framework is proposed utilizing interventions used in best practices. Accordingly, eight hypotheses are formulated to answer all research questions. A multi-phase experiment of four rounds is designed to study the impact of the revised “learning experiences” on self-efficacy, outcome expectations and technology interest. The data collection process is cumulative in nature with numerous refinements that leads to a scale which is confidently replicated for future research and theory evolution with few refinements. Next, an extensive statistical analysis is conducted to test all hypotheses. All hypothesized relationships between SCCT constructs and technology interest are substantiated, proving the effectiveness of the refined learning model. It is concluded that the redefined “learning experiences” construct has three key dimensions with social integration as the most powerful predictor. It is also inferred that, while the new combined interventions appear to be more powerful predictors of pre-college and college student interest in computer technology than variables derived from SCCT traditional sources, using the new model has a limited impact on reducing the gender gap; it can be attributed to a time-factor in experimental design