Modeling Social Learning: An Agent-Based Approach

Learning is the process of acquiring or modifying knowledge, behavior, or skills. The ability to learn is inherent to humans, animals, and plants, and even machines are provided with algorithms that could mimic in a restricted way the processes of learning. Humans learn from the time they are born until they die because of a continuous process of interaction between them and their environment. Behavioral Psychology Theories and Social Learning Theories study behavior learned from the environment and social interactions through stimulus-response. Some computer approaches to modeling human behavior attempted to represent the learning and decision-making processes using agent-based models. This dissertation develops a computer model for social learning that allows agents to exhibit behavior learned through social interactions and their environment. The use of an agent-based model allows representing a complex human system in a computer environment. Behavioral Psychology Theories and Social Learning Theories provide the explanatory theoretical framework. The learning processes are implemented using the Rescorla-Wagner Model. The learning structure is implemented using an adaptation of Agent Zero. The decision-making process is implemented using a threshold equation. A use case in youth gang homicides is developed, calibrated, validated, and used for policing and decision making through simulation of multiple case scenarios. The simulation results show the model accuracy in representing learning and decision-making processes similar to those exhibited in the complex human system represented

An analysis of the distinction between voluntary and involuntary behaviour in psychology

Psychology, as a separate scientific discipline, was derived from philosophy and physiology and, in part, adopted their concepts and language. Initially psychology perceived its subject matter to be volition, among other mental constructs. In response to internal tensions, involving methodology, more intense interest was given to the study of behaviour. Behaviouristic psychology proposed the abolition of mental constructs, and sought to interpret behaviour in mechanistic terms. Two powerful methods were developed to study behaviour objectively; the classical and instrumental conditioning procedures. The use of the two conditioning procedures generated much controversy concerning the classification of behaviour as well as the necessary and sufficient conditions for learning.However, the behavioural taxonomy generated by its scientific study has been inadequately formulated and there have been fundamental confusions about the concept of behaviour itself. These confusions have been highlighted by the recent experimental data from two important areas of research in the experimental study of learning; (i) autoshaping (ii) the operant conditioning of autonomic responses. These data challenge the widely held view that all behaviour may be classified, after Skinner, as operants or respondents.ConventionaL psychological wisdom has conflated the concepts of 'voluntary' and 'involuntary' with the concepts of 'operant' and 'respondent', respectively. 'Respondents' by definition have specifiable antecedents, whereas 'operants' do not. The inability to note specific antecedents to instrumental behaviour is reflected in the original studies using animals by Thorndike. Instrumental (operant) behaviour was seen as 'impulsive', 'emitted' or 'spontaneous' - terms which have traditionally been associated with voluntary behaviour. Inadvertently, under the influence of Skinner, the vitalistic connotations of the operant were hidden from view and protected from criticism. Concomitant with these developments, the role of the central nervous system in the production and control of movement is being re-interpreted by neurophysiologists. In this field mentalistic and vitalistic accounts of behaviour have emerged at the highest levels. Although physical accounts of behaviour do not have logical priority over mental accounts, the former have the advantage of being more open to direct experimental investigation. The apparent paradox of a so-called mechanistic, physicalistic psychology and physiology accounting for behaviour in terms of vitalistic and mentalistic concepts prompted this analysis of the distinction between voluntary and involuntary behaviour.An historical approach is adopted which draws on both primary and secondary sources in psychology, physiology, philosophy and medicine. References to voluntary and involuntary processes from the early Greeks to the present day, are summarized and their relationship with the broader intellectual issues is broached. The distinction between voluntary and involuntary behaviours arose early in western intellectual history and the concept of 'voluntary behaviour' was discussed, largely within the context of moral responsibility. At various times the mentalistic concepts of soul, mind and free-will were proposed as its source.The idea that voluntary movement issued from the 'free-will' received its greatest support from Christian theology. Ecclesiastical monopoly of educated thought ensured that this interpretation of behaviour was firmly established in the institutions of western culture. With the rise of western science, the language of this view and its connotations intruded into the language of the disciplines of modern philosophy and physiology, among others. The term 'voluntary', referring to behaviour, has undergone numerous and subtle changes in meaning, and the separation of voluntary and involuntary behaviour parallels several other important conceptual dichotomies. Two of these are the'mind-body problem' and the 'mechanism vs vitalism' debate. Contemporary literature in the fields of psychology, physiology and philosophy reflects the fact that these conceptual issues have not been resolved, as once was thought; but are active points of debate.Psychology is presently changing its understanding of behaviour, and today the voluntary-involuntary distinction may be maintained by the operational definition of a voluntary response being an 'instructed response'. Instructed responses as voluntary responses have been extensively used in both experimental and clinical studies of behaviour. This operational definition, in contrast to others, has brought the voluntary response under direct experimental scrutiny and deprived it of its 'uncaused' attribute. Its use has produced much needed empirical data concerning the metric parameters of movement.No one method of study or theoretical model is likely to explain behaviour in the·near future, and such an explanation will not be derived from experimental evidence alone. It is suggested that future interpretations of behaviour will use concepts derived from such technical fields as engineering and cybernetics as well as from psychology and physiology. Perhaps no current conceptual analysis can give us even partial insight into the future development of self-regulating machines; the future development of such machines, however may shed light onto our current concepts

Modeling the Synchronization of Multimodal Perceptions as a Basis for the Emergence of Deterministic Behaviors.

Living organisms have either innate or acquired mechanisms for reacting to percepts with an appropriate behavior e.g., by escaping from the source of a perception detected as threat, or conversely by approaching a target perceived as potential food. In the case of artifacts, such capabilities must be built in through either wired connections or software. The problem addressed here is to define a neural basis for such behaviors to be possibly learned by bio-inspired artifacts. Toward this end, a thought experiment involving an autonomous vehicle is first simulated as a random search. The stochastic decision tree that drives this behavior is then transformed into a plastic neuronal circuit. This leads the vehicle to adopt a deterministic behavior by learning and applying a causality rule just as a conscious human driver would do. From there, a principle of using synchronized multimodal perceptions in association with the Hebb principle of wiring together neuronal cells is induced. This overall framework is implemented as a virtual machine i.e., a concept widely used in software engineering. It is argued that such an interface situated at a meso-scale level between abstracted micro-circuits representing synaptic plasticity, on one hand, and that of the emergence of behaviors, on the other, allows for a strict delineation of successive levels of complexity. More specifically, isolating levels allows for simulating yet unknown processes of cognition independently of their underlying neurological grounding

Biology of drives - A report of an NRP work session

Concepts and experimental data on biological mechanisms of drives, motivation, reinforcement, and learnin

Neural Coordination of Distinct Motor Learning Strategies: Latent Neurofunctional Mechanisms Elucidated via Computational Modeling

In this dissertation, a neurofunctional theory of learning is presented as an extension of functional analysis. This new theory clarifies the distinction— via applied quantitative analysis— between functionally intrinsic (essential) mechanistic structures and irrelevant structural details. This thesis is supported by a review of the relevant literature to provide historical context and sufficient scientific background. Further, the scope of this thesis is elucidated by two questions that are posed from a neurofunctional perspective— (1) how can specialized neuromorphology contribute to the functional dynamics of neural learning processes? (2) Can large-scale neurofunctional pathways emerge via inter-network communication between disparate neural circuits? These questions motivate the specific aims of this dissertation. Each aim is addressed by posing a relevant hypothesis, which is then tested via a neurocomputational experiment. In each experiment, computational techniques are leveraged to elucidate specific mechanisms that underlie neurofunctional learning processes. For instance, the role of specialized neuromorphology is investigated via the development of a computational model that replicates the neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie cholinergic interneurons’ regulation of dopamine in the striatum during reinforcement learning. Another research direction focuses on the emergence of large-scale neurofunctional pathways that connect the cerebellum and basal ganglia— this study also involves the construction of a neurocomputational model. The results of each study illustrate the capability of neurocomputational models to replicate functional learning dynamics of human subjects during a variety of motor adaptation tasks. Finally, the significance— and some potential applications— of neurofunctional theory are discussed

Animal characters and characterisation in science fiction: A scientific contextualist stylistic approach

From mechanomorphic ants to slovenly rats and raining fish-lizards, this thesis explores connections between the scientific contexts of behaviourism, entropy and Gaia theory and sf’s animal characters. I position this research within the contextualist school of stylistics, arguing that such an approach is necessary not only because of sf’s constitutive relationship with science (Parrinder 1979, Landon 2014), but also because the genre’s privileging of ideas over character development means flat characters predominate in sf (Amis 1960, Gunn 2002). To conduct my analyses, I employ Culpeper’s (2001) framework, the most comprehensive characterisation framework, and amend its categories for use with animal characters. This framework is combined with a variety of corpus linguistic methods which have been at the forefront of stylistic explorations of literary character (Archer & McIntyre 2010, Bednarek 2011, Mahlberg 2012, Balossi 2014). My focus on scientific contexts and animal characters addresses large gaps in stylistics research. It is the first attempt within stylistics to consider the influence of scientific contexts on characterisation, the first to engage exclusively with animal characters, and the first to rework a characterisation framework for use with animal characters. In addition, this research attempts to connect stylistics with the contemporary field of animal studies research

Considerations in designing a cybernetic simple 'learning' model; and an overview of the problem of modelling learning

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Learning is viewed as a central feature of living systems and must be manifested in any artifact that claims to exhibit general intelligence. The central aims of the thesis are twofold: (1) - To review and critically assess the empirical and theoretical aspects of learning as have been addressed in a multitude of disciplines, with the aim of extracting fundamental features and elements. (2) - To develop a more systematic approach to the cybernetic modelling of learning than has been achieved hitherto. In pursuit of aim (1) above the following discussions are included: Historical and Philosophical backgrounds; Natural learning, both physiological and psychological aspects; Hierarchies of learning identified in the evolutionary, functional and developmental senses; An extensive section on the general problem of modelling of learning and the formal tools, is included as a link between aims (1) and (2). Following this a systematic and historically oriented study of cybernetic and other related approaches to the problem of modelling of learning is presented. This then leads to the development of a state-of-the-art general purpose experimental cybernetic learning model. The programming and use of this model is also fully described, including an elaborate scheme for the manifestation of simple learning