Probabilistic Hybrid Action Models for Predicting Concurrent Percept-driven Robot Behavior

This article develops Probabilistic Hybrid Action Models (PHAMs), a realistic causal model for predicting the behavior generated by modern percept-driven robot plans. PHAMs represent aspects of robot behavior that cannot be represented by most action models used in AI planning: the temporal structure of continuous control processes, their non-deterministic effects, several modes of their interferences, and the achievement of triggering conditions in closed-loop robot plans. The main contributions of this article are: (1) PHAMs, a model of concurrent percept-driven behavior, its formalization, and proofs that the model generates probably, qualitatively accurate predictions; and (2) a resource-efficient inference method for PHAMs based on sampling projections from probabilistic action models and state descriptions. We show how PHAMs can be applied to planning the course of action of an autonomous robot office courier based on analytical and experimental results

Conceptual dependency as the language of thought

Roger Schank's research in AI takes seriously the ideas that understanding natural language involves mapping its expressions into an internal representation scheme and that these internal representations have a syntax appropriate for computational operations. It therefore falls within the computational approach to the study of mind. This paper discusses certain aspects of Schank's approach in order to assess its potential adequacy as a (partial) model of cognition. This version of the Language of Thought hypothesis encounters some of the same difficulties that arise for Fodor's account.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43836/1/11229_2004_Article_BF00413665.pd

Perspectives on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Executive Functions, Working Memory, and Language Disabilities

The conceptualization of the nature of attention deficit hyper-activity disorder (ADHD) has changed in the last decade. ADHD is now viewed as a neurologically based condition with primary deficits in executive functions and working memory (WM). Students with ADHD have deficits in discourse organization, inferring, and monitoring that are related to their executive function and WM deficits. A large number of students with ADHD also have comorbid reading and language disabilities that exist in addition to the deficits directly associated with the ADHD. Comprehensive evaluation of students with ADHD is essential to address their specific learning need

New Perspectives on the System Usage Construct

Information systems are designed to support human and organizational purposes. To achieve their ends, information systems must be used. Although this may seem to be self-evident, there are many aspects of systems usage that are not so, and yet, in spite of this, there has been little intense conceptual scrutiny of this construct in past research. The objective of this thesis, therefore, is to develop new in-depth perspectives for studying system usage. Drawing on critical realist assumptions and studies of research diversity, I explain how epistemological factors enable while ontological factors constrain the diversity of meanings of system usage, and I build on this reasoning to advance a systematic approach for conceptualizing and measuring system usage in an appropriate way for a given research context. To demonstrate the approach and judge its usefulness, I carry out three empirical studies to test whether measures of system usage that are selected according to the proposed approach provide more explanatory power and lead to more coherent results in specific research contexts than other measures of system usage. Exploring the relationship between system usage and user task performance among 804 users of spreadsheet software, the experiments reveal support for the usefulness of the approach and demonstrate how it can enable researchers to conceptualize and measure system usage in an appropriate manner for a given research context. Together, the conceptual approach and empirical studies contribute by: (1) providing a systematic way to conceptualize and measure system usage for a given study context, (2) revealing rich new directions for research on the nature of system usage, its antecedents, and its consequences, and (3) suggesting a new approach for construct development and investigation in IS research

Balance theory, unit relations, and attribution: The underlying integrity of Heiderian theory.

Fritz Heider's (1958c) book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations and the handful of articles preceding it (e.g., Heider, 1944, Heider, 1946; Heider & Simmel, 1944) provide the cornerstone—and a major part of the foundation—of research and theory in social perception. Two very influential theories in social psychology, the causal attribution and psychological balance theories, grew out of the ideas and analysis of this seminal work. Heider himself viewed these developments as one may view a mildly wayward child, with a mixture of pleasure and a sense of regret (Heider, 1983). Heider had considered his ideas to be all of a piece, a relatively unified and coherent theory of social perception. Subsequent researchers had taken smaller bites and developed midrange theories, slightly out of the context of Heider's other ideas. Part of this result may be laid at the feet of Heider himself. None of the articles, and not even the 1958 book, fully developed the ideas, their connections, or his larger vision. Before the publication of his influential book, Heider's best-known papers were two—one on causal attribution (Heider, 1944) and one on balance (Heider, 1954/1958b)—both of which were available in the widely read Tagiuri and Petrullo (1958) volume on person perception

The role of prediction in social neuroscience

Research has shown that the brain is constantly making predictions about future events. Theories of prediction in perception, action and learning suggest that the brain serves to reduce the discrepancies between expectation and actual experience, i.e., by reducing the prediction error. Forward models of action and perception propose the generation of a predictive internal representation of the expected sensory outcome, which is matched to the actual sensory feedback. Shared neural representations have been found when experiencing one's own and observing other's actions, rewards, errors, and emotions such as fear and pain. These general principles of the “predictive brain” are well established and have already begun to be applied to social aspects of cognition. The application and relevance of these predictive principles to social cognition are discussed in this article. Evidence is presented to argue that simple non-social cognitive processes can be extended to explain complex cognitive processes required for social interaction, with common neural activity seen for both social and non-social cognitions. A number of studies are included which demonstrate that bottom-up sensory input and top-down expectancies can be modulated by social information. The concept of competing social forward models and a partially distinct category of social prediction errors are introduced. The evolutionary implications of a “social predictive brain” are also mentioned, along with the implications on psychopathology. The review presents a number of testable hypotheses and novel comparisons that aim to stimulate further discussion and integration between currently disparate fields of research, with regard to computational models, behavioral and neurophysiological data. This promotes a relatively new platform for inquiry in social neuroscience with implications in social learning, theory of mind, empathy, the evolution of the social brain, and potential strategies for treating social cognitive deficits

Mental content : consequences of the embodied mind paradigm

The central difference between objectivist cognitivist semantics and embodied cognition consists in the fact that the latter is, in contrast to the former, mindful of binding meaning to context-sensitive mental systems. According to Lakoff/Johnson's experientialism, conceptual structures arise from preconceptual kinesthetic image-schematic and basic-level structures. Gallese and Lakoff introduced the notion of exploiting sensorimotor structures for higherlevel cognition. Three different types of X-schemas realise three types of environmentally embedded simulation: Areas that control movements in peri-personal space; canonical neurons of the ventral premotor cortex that fire when a graspable object is represented; the firing of mirror neurons while perceiving certain movements of conspecifics. ..