La Teoría de la Asignación Categorial Sobre el Pensamiento Analógico: un Desafío a la Teoría de la Proyección de Estructura

The dominant theory of analogical thinking since the 1980s is the structure mapping theory. In this paper, a new theory about reasoning by analogy is presented: the category assignment theory. It is argued that this theory is able to explain better than the first how a specific type of analogies are interpreted and evaluated, namely, those in which the facts compared constitute examples of a schema-governed category. The arguments presented are accompanied by brief descriptions of the studies that provided support for the new theory. The responses of the structure-mapping theory to the objections raised by the category proposal are discussed.La teoría dominante sobre el pensamiento analógico desde los 80 hasta la actualidad es la teoría de proyección de estructura. En este trabajo se presenta una nueva teoría sobre el razonamiento por analogía: la teoría de la asignación categorial. Se argumenta que esta teoría es capaz de explicar mejor que la primera cómo se interpretan y evalúan un tipo específico de analogías, a saber, aquellas en las que los hechos comparados constituyen ejemplares de una categoría relacional de esquema. Los argumentos presentados son acompañados por breves descripciones de los estudios que brindan apoyo a la nueva teoría. Se discuten las respuestas de la teoría de proyección de estructura a las objeciones formuladas por la teoría de la asignación categorial

The Understanding of Visual Metaphors by the Congenitally Blind

Results from a narrow set of empirical studies suggest that blind individuals’ comprehension of metaphorical expressions does not differ from that of sighted participants. However, prominent accounts of metaphor comprehension yield different predictions about the blind’s ability to comprehend visual metaphors. While conceptual metaphor theory leads to predicting that blind individuals should lag behind their sighted peers in making sense of this particular kind of utterances, from traditional accounts of analogical reasoning it follows that blind individuals’ ability to comprehend the literal meaning of visual concepts might be sufficient to support their metaphorical application. In Experiment 1, 20 sighted and 20 congenitally blind participants were asked to select the most appropriate meaning for visual, grasping and filler metaphorical expressions. Results failed to reveal group differences for any type of metaphorical expressions. In order to implement a more stringent test of blind individuals’ ability to understand visual metaphors, in Experiment 2 blind and sighted participants were presented with very novel figurative expressions, as indicated by low or no occurrence in the “Google” corpus. In line with the results of Experiment 1, blind participants’ comprehension of visual metaphors was both high in absolute terms and comparable to that of sighted participants. We advance some speculations about the mechanisms by which blind individuals comprehend visual metaphors and we discuss the implications of these results for current theories of metaphor

Promoting Spontaneous Analogical Transfer by Idealizing TargetRepresentations

Recent results demonstrate that inducing an abstractrepresentation of target analogs at retrieval time aids access toanalogous situations with mismatching surface features (i.e.,the late abstraction principle). A limitation of currentimplementations of this principle is that they either require theexternal provision of target-specific information or demandvery high intellectual engagement. Experiment 1 demonstratedthat constructing an idealized situation model of a targetproblem increases the rate of correct solutions compared toconstructing either concrete simulations or no simulations.Experiment 2 confirmed that these results were based on anadvantage for accessing the base analog, and not merely on anadvantage of idealized simulations for understanding the targetproblem in its own terms. This target idealization strategy hasbroader applicability than prior interventions based on the lateabstraction principle, because it can be achieved by a greaterproportion of participants and without the need to receivetarget-specific information

Retrieving a Distant Analog From Memory in Daily Life is Very Unlikely, Evenin Optimal Conditions of Encoding

Against the typical results from laboratory studies, it has beensuggested that retrieving distant analogs might be easy in real-life, where we tend to encode familiar situations with expert-like schemas. In each of two experiments, we formed twogroups of participants who, as determined by a questionnairepresented during a first session, had reported that they haveexperienced an event corresponding to a schema-governedcategory (Experiment 1) or to a system of schema-governedcategories (Experiment 2). While the episodes reported by oneof the groups belonged to the same domain as the target analogto be presented during the second session, those of the othergroup belonged to a different thematic domain. During atemporally and contextually separated session, the experimenterspresented both groups with a target analog belonging to theschema-governed category for which participants had reporteda base analog. Participants had to retrieve an autobiographicalepisode that they considered analogous to the situationpresented by the experimenter. In line with traditional studies,we found that retrieving distant instances of relationalcategories is much more difficult than retrieving closeinstances

Influence of the prediction model complexity on the performance of model predictive anti-jerk control for on-board electric powertrains

Anti-jerk controllers compensate for the torsional oscillations of automotive drivetrains, caused by swift variations of the traction torque. In the literature model predictive control (MPC) technology has been applied to anti-jerk control problems, by using a variety of prediction models. However, an analysis of the influence of the prediction model complexity on anti-jerk control performance is still missing. To cover the gap, this study proposes six anti-jerk MPC formulations, which are based on different prediction models and are fine-tuned through a unified optimization routine. Their performance is assessed over multiple tip-in and tip-out maneuvers by means of an objective indicator. Results show that: i) low number of prediction steps and short discretization time provide the best performance in the considered nominal tip-in test; ii) the consideration of the drivetrain backlash in the prediction model is beneficial in all test cases; iii) the inclusion of tire slip formulations makes the system more robust with respect to vehicle speed variations and enhances the vehicle behavior in tip-out tests; however, it deteriorates performance in the other scenarios; and iv) the inclusion of a simplified tire relaxation formulation does not bring any particular benefit

RoboEye, an Efficient, Reliable and Safe Semi-Autonomous Gaze Driven Wheelchair for Domestic Use

Any severe motor disability is a condition that limits the ability to interact with the environment, even the domestic one, caused by the loss of control over one's mobility. This work presents RoboEYE, a power wheelchair designed to allow users to move easily and autonomously within their homes. To achieve this goal, an innovative, cost-effective and user-friendly control system was designed, in which a non-invasive eye tracker, a monitor, and a 3D camera represent some of the core elements. RoboEYE integrates functionalities from the mobile robotics field into a standard power wheelchair, with the main advantage of providing the user with two driving options and comfortable navigation. The most intuitive and direct modality foresees the continuous control of frontal and angular wheelchair velocities by gazing at different areas of the monitor. The second, semi-autonomous modality allows navigation toward a selected point in the environment by just pointing and activating the wished destination while the system autonomously plans and follows the trajectory that brings the wheelchair to that point. The purpose of this work was to develop the control structure and driving interface designs of the aforementioned driving modalities taking into account also uncertainties in gaze detection and other sources of uncertainty related to the components to ensure user safety. Furthermore, the driving modalities, in particular the semi-autonomous one, were modeled and qualified through numerical simulations and experimental verification by testing volunteers, who are regular users of standard electric wheelchairs, to verify the efficiency, reliability and safety of the proposed system for domestic use. RoboEYE resulted suitable for environments with narrow passages wider than 1 m, which is comparable with a standard domestic door and due to its properties with large commercialization potential

3D human body pose estimation by SuperQuadrics

This paper presents a method for 3D Human Body pose estimation. 3D real data of the searched object is acquired by a multi-camera system and segmented by a special preprocessing algorithm based on clothing analysis. The human body model is built by nine SuperQuadrics (SQ) with a-priori known anthropometric scaling and shape parameters. The pose is estimated hierarchically by RANSAC-object search with a least square fitting 3D point cloud to SQ models: at first the body, and then the limbs. The solution is verified by evaluating the matching score, i.e. the number of inliers corresponding to a-piori chosen distance threshold, and comparing this score with admissible inlier threshold for the body and limbs. This method can be used for 3D object recognition, localization and pose estimation of Human Body