A Survey of Monte Carlo Tree Search Methods

Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) is a recently proposed search method that combines the precision of tree search with the generality of random sampling. It has received considerable interest due to its spectacular success in the difficult problem of computer Go, but has also proved beneficial in a range of other domains. This paper is a survey of the literature to date, intended to provide a snapshot of the state of the art after the first five years of MCTS research. We outline the core algorithm's derivation, impart some structure on the many variations and enhancements that have been proposed, and summarize the results from the key game and nongame domains to which MCTS methods have been applied. A number of open research questions indicate that the field is ripe for future work

Developing an Ecologically Valid Measure of Creativity for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Overview: The subject of this thesis is creativity in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Part 1 provides a literature review of studies measuring creative thinking and the quality of creative ideas in children and adults with ASD. Both meta-analytic and narrative techniques are used to synthesise a profile of creativity in ASD. Recommendations are made to address the methodological limitations of the studies and more comprehensively and validly study creative performance in individuals with ASD. Part 2 presents an empirical paper describing the development and piloting of a new ecologically valid measure of creativity in children with ASD. Three tasks are investigated in relation to their psychometric properties: interrater and test-retest reliability; criterion and construct validity; and measure acceptability. Preliminary between-group comparisons are made to explore creative performance in children with and without ASD and observe how task conditions moderate these effects. A critical appraisal of the research project is put forward in Part 3. It offers a number of reflections on the process of developing the creativity tasks and scoring criteria as well as expanding upon limitations of the study. Further, it considers broader conceptual themes relating to research in the fields of creativity and ASD and the parallels with engaging in a creative research process. Finally, recommendations for future development of the task battery are made

The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools

In a survey of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers, a majority say digital tools encourage students to be more invested in their writing by encouraging personal expression and providing a wider audience for their work. Most also say digital tools make teaching writing easier, despite an increasingly ambiguous line between formal and informal writing and students' poor understanding of issues such as plagiarism and fair use

Marketing Communications and Environmental Turbulence: A Complexity Theory View

This paper investigates how the choice of different marketing communications activities is influenced by the nature of the company’s external environment, when viewing the environment through a complexity theory lens. A qualitative, case method, using depth interviews, investigated the marketing communications activities in four companies in order to identify the promotional activities adopted in more successful firms in turbulent and stable environments. The results showed that the more successful company, in a turbulent market, subtly uses some destabilizing promotional activities but also makes use of some stabilizing promotional activities. This paper is of benefit by emphasizing a new way to consider promotional activities in companies

VGM-RNN: Recurrent Neural Networks for Video Game Music Generation

The recent explosion of interest in deep neural networks has affected and in some cases reinvigorated work in fields as diverse as natural language processing, image recognition, speech recognition and many more. For sequence learning tasks, recurrent neural networks and in particular LSTM-based networks have shown promising results. Recently there has been interest – for example in the research by Google’s Magenta team – in applying so-called “language modeling” recurrent neural networks to musical tasks, including for the automatic generation of original music. In this work we demonstrate our own LSTM-based music language modeling recurrent network. We show that it is able to learn musical features from a MIDI dataset and generate output that is musically interesting while demonstrating features of melody, harmony and rhythm. We source our dataset from VGMusic.com, a collection of user-submitted MIDI transcriptions of video game songs, and attempt to generate output which emulates this kind of music

Education for a Changing World: A Mixed-Methods Study of Cognitive Flexibility in Rwandan Primary Schools

In 2016, Rwanda followed the example of numerous African countries and introduced a competence-based curriculum for all levels of its education system (Mushimijimana, 2016; Ngendahayo & Askell-Williams, 2016). Such curriculum explicitly promotes skills for adaptability like creativity, innovation and problem solving, so as to prepare the Rwandan population for an uncertain future and a changing world (Rwanda Education Board & MINEDUC, 2015). However, little is currently known about how these competencies improve, and especially in low-resource educational settings. This thesis therefore aims to address this gap by examining the measurement and development of Rwandan pupils’ skills for adaptability, their relationship with other learning outcomes and the current practices that may aid their growth in public primary schools. To achieve this, the research adopted a psychological lens to focus on the development of Rwandan children’s cognitive flexibility, which Diamond (2014) describes as “creatively ‘thinking outside the box’, seeing anything from different perspectives, and quickly and flexibly adapting to changed circumstances” (p. 206). The empirical study also drew on theories concerning both educational quality and child development to frame the inquiry, specifically the Implementing Education Quality in Low-Income Countries (EdQual) model (Tikly, 2011) and Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1986). The mixed-methods research design included fieldwork conducted over 4-5 months during 2018 in four public primary schools serving low-income households in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. The quantitative component of the study comprised capturing data from a cross-section of 306 pupils randomly selected from age-in-grade learners in both Primary 1 and 4 classes. Each child was assessed one-to-one in their mother tongue by a trained Rwandan enumerator using adapted versions of two established psychological tests to measure their cognitive flexibility. Pupils were also assessed for their broader psychological development (executive function), non-verbal reasoning and basic literacy skills. In addition, they were briefly surveyed with age-appropriate tools to ascertain information concerning their home situation and prior schooling experiences. Following conclusion of the pupil assessments, semi-structured interviews and observations were undertaken with head and classroom teachers to address the qualitative aspect of the research. In particular, the interviews aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions and attitudes regarding pupils’ cognitive competencies, while the lesson observations looked to identify existing practices that could enhance learners’ cognitive flexibility. Statistical analyses in Stata revealed that both measures of cognitive flexibility showed good reliability and a significant correlation with medium effect size. Learners in Primary 4 performed significantly better than those in Primary 1 but, given the cross-sectional nature of the research, the cause of this difference and whether it results from formal education or other factors remains unknown. Disaggregating the data by cohort, Primary 4 children from single-parent families scored significantly higher than those from two-parent households and there was some, albeit limited, evidence that could suggest higher cognitive flexibility among children from poorer households. Regarding wider learning outcomes, pupils’ cognitive flexibility significantly predicted their non-verbal reasoning and executive function, and vice versa. Contrary to wider literature, however, there was limited evidence of any significant association between their cognitive flexibility and their reading skills. Qualitative data from the interviews were analysed in NVivo and revealed that teachers perceived skills for adaptability as conferring a mix of individual and collective benefits, to build originality, self-reliance and independence in learners’ everyday lives, and more responsible citizens who can contribute to Rwanda’s national development. Within the classroom, teachers used group-based activities to encourage collaboration and a range of techniques, learning aids and materials, often sourced from their own homes, to impress on children the practical relevance of their education. Frequent switching between English and Kinyarwanda in lessons might also inadvertently nurture pupils’ cognitive flexibility, albeit at a possible cost to their wider learning. The findings of the study provide a valuable contribution to growing global research on children’s psychological development in lower-income settings. Using mixed methods among different stakeholders in several schools also offered multiple perspectives for better understanding the processes through which learners acquire and build important cognitive competencies, not least their creativity, innovation and problem solving. By way of limitations, the use of cross-sectional rather than longitudinal data precluded any claims around causality and future research could examine any possible interactions with the pupils’ numeracy skills. In conclusion, this thesis draws on both quantitative and qualitative data to argue that child psychology provides an important basis to understand, research and foster learners’ 21st century competencies, even in lower-income countries where evidence remains scant. Specifically, it proposes that cognitive flexibility, the capacity to think creatively, adapt quickly and adopt different perspectives, presents a valuable framework for nurturing essential skills that offer wide socio-economic benefits in settings like Rwanda. Implications from the study include increasing pre-primary schooling and expanding the resources, planning and training available to implement the new curriculum effectively and thereby support children’s more diverse educational competencies. Similarly, the thesis identifies the need to maximise learner-teacher continuity and pedagogies like group-based exercises for pupils to leave school equipped with the skills to think ‘outside the box’, understand different points of view and adapt for life in the rapidly changing world.Economic and Social Research Council (award ES/J500033/1) and Trinity College, Cambridg