Sparse Representations for Fast, One-Shot Learning

Humans rapidly and reliably learn many kinds of regularities and generalizations. We propose a novel model of fast learning that exploits the properties of sparse representations and the constraints imposed by a plausible hardware mechanism. To demonstrate our approach we describe a computational model of acquisition in the domain of morphophonology. We encapsulate phonological information as bidirectional boolean constraint relations operating on the classical linguistic representations of speech sounds in term of distinctive features. The performance model is described as a hardware mechanism that incrementally enforces the constraints. Phonological behavior arises from the action of this mechanism. Constraints are induced from a corpus of common English nouns and verbs. The induction algorithm compiles the corpus into increasingly sophisticated constraints. The algorithm yields one-shot learning from a few examples. Our model has been implemented as a computer program. The program exhibits phonological behavior similar to that of young children. As a bonus the constraints that are acquired can be interpreted as classical linguistic rules

A Computational Model for the Acquisition and Use of Phonological Knowledge

Does knowledge of language consist of symbolic rules? How do children learn and use their linguistic knowledge? To elucidate these questions, we present a computational model that acquires phonological knowledge from a corpus of common English nouns and verbs. In our model the phonological knowledge is encapsulated as boolean constraints operating on classical linguistic representations of speech sounds in term of distinctive features. The learning algorithm compiles a corpus of words into increasingly sophisticated constraints. The algorithm is incremental, greedy, and fast. It yields one-shot learning of phonological constraints from a few examples. Our system exhibits behavior similar to that of young children learning phonological knowledge. As a bonus the constraints can be interpreted as classical linguistic rules. The computational model can be implemented by a surprisingly simple hardware mechanism. Our mechanism also sheds light on a fundamental AI question: How are signals related to symbols

The Role of Preferences in Disagreements over Scientific Hypothesis: An Empirical Inquiry into Environmental and Economic Decision Making

The Porter hypothesis suggests that environmental regulations, such as restricting firms to reduce pollution, stimulates innovations and create a win-win situation for the environment and for firms. It has received a great deal of attention from academics as well as bureaucrats who disagree about the applicability of the Porter hypothesis. This study tests if part of such disagreement can be explained by a preference-expectation relationship and if people are more likely to believe in a scientific hypothesis that appeals to their preferences. The results show that individuals' who care more about the environment are more likely to believe in the Porter hypothesis. We also discuss the capacity of economic methodology to mitigate a preference-expectation bias and how it relates to the current practice in environmental economics.Porter Hypothesis, Subjective Beliefs, Economic Methodology

Independent- Feb. 14, 1995

https://neiudc.neiu.edu/independent/1132/thumbnail.jp

Columbia Chronicle (11/22/1982)

Student newspaper from November 22, 1982 entitled Columbia Chronicle. This issue is 12 pages and is listed as Volume 12, Number 6. Editor: Maryanne Giustinohttps://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cadc_chronicle/1044/thumbnail.jp

Modeling human and organizational behavior using a relation-centric multi-agent system design paradigm

Today's modeling and simulation communities are being challenged to create rich, detailed models incorporating human decision-making and organizational behavior. Recent advances in distributed artificial intelligence and complex systems theory have demonstrated that such ill-defined problems can be effectively modeled with agent-based simulation techniques using multiple, autonomoous, adaptive entities. RELATE, a relation-centric design paradigm for multi-agent systems (MAS), is presented to assist developers incorporate MAS solutions into their simulations. RELATe focuses the designer on six key concepts of MAS simulations: relationships, environment, laws, agents, things, and effectors. A library of Java classes is presented which enables the user to rapidly prototype an agent-based simulation. This library utilizes the Java programming language to support cross-platform and web based designs. All Java classes and interfaces are fully documented using HTML Javadoc format. Two reference cases are provided that allow for easy code reuse and modification. Finally, an existing metworked DIS-Java-VRML simulation was modified to demonstrate the ability to utilize the RELATE library to add agents to existing applications. LCDR Kim Roddy focused on the development and refinement of the RELATE design paradigm, while LT Mike Dickson focused on the actual Java implementation. Joint work was conducted on all research and reference caseshttp://www.archive.org/details/modelinghumanorg00roddU.S. Navy (U.S.N.) author

Are Love Songs Lyrically Gendered? A Content Analysis of Gender-Specific Speech Features in Song Lyrics

Do gender-specific conversational speech patterns appear in the lyrics of male and female artists? To answer this question, chapter 1 first reviews sociolinguistic methods and describes evidence for gender-specific speech characteristics as well as for some of the differences in power dynamics between men and women that the use of these characteristics reveals. It then discusses the similarity of lyrics and speech, reviews some of the current literature on the effects of music on behavior, and provides a motivation for the study that is described in chapter 2. This study looks at the lyrics of 179 romantic songs sung by male and female artists from three genres (country, pop, and rock) across three time periods (1958-1960, 1985-1987, and 2012-2014). As is done in content-analysis studies, each song was evaluated for its number of words, filler words, self-referential pronouns (“I” and “me”), inclusive pronouns (“you and I” and “we”), terms of endearment, love references, and sexual references. Narrative coding techniques were used to evaluate songs for evidence of speaker confidence or agency, and for requests. Results demonstrated primarily several significant changes over time, but few significant differences due to gender. It may be necessary to have face-to-face interactions in order for these gender-specific speech characteristics to emerge and the songs do not provide such a context. Alternatively, it may be that the lyrics of successful songs by female artists are not representative of everyday women’s speech

Why prosodies aren\u2019t always present: Insights into the idiom principle

Phraseological units, ranging from fixed collocations to idioms, are often defined as non-compositional strings, which reflects their formal characteristics but not their semantic traits. Semantic analysability \u2013 the ability to derive the meaning of the whole from the individual meanings of the components \u2013 is also a characteristic of phraseological units, but one that tends to be reserved for idioms. Drawing from extensive work into the relationship between metaphor, idiom and phraseology (Philip forthcoming), this contribution will demonstrate how semantic prosody interacts with semantic analysability. Semantic analysability operates along a continuum, and it will be seen that the more phraseological meaning is distanced from the meanings of its component parts, the more pronounced and important the semantic prosody becomes. Comprehensive discussion on the terminology used is included, as are detailed examples of the lexical items examined