A note on: an empirical comparison of forgetting models

In the above paper, Nembhard and Osothsilp (2001) empirically compared several forgetting models against empirical data on production breaks. Among the models compared was the learn–forget curve model (LFCM) developed by Jaber and Bonney(1996). In previous research, several studies have shown that the LFCM is advantageous to some of the models being investigated, however, Nembhard and Osothsilp (2001) found that the LFCM showed the largest deviation from empirical data. In this commentary, we demonstrate that the poor performance of the LFCM in the study of Nembhard and Osothsilp (2001) might be attributed to an error on their part when fitting the LFCM to their empirical data

Age effects on semantic coherence: Latent semantic analysis applied to letter fluency data

Abstract in UndeterminedWe investigated age-related changes in the semantic distance between successively generated words in two letter fluency tasks differing with respect to demands placed on executive control. The semantic distance was measured by Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). The results show that older people have a larger semantic distance between successively generated items than young people, and that this effect is particularly pronounced in the more demanding fluency task. Taken together, our findings support the idea that elderly have a less distinct semantic network compared to young people while also demonstrating the feasibility of LSA as a powerful tool for delineating multifaceted aspects of semantic organization inherent in behavioural data from language production tasks

Quantifying Semantic Linguistic Maturity in Children

We propose a method to quantify semantic linguistic maturity (SELMA) based on a high dimensional semantic representation ofwords created from the co-occurrence of words in a large text corpus. The method was applied to oral narratives from 108 children aged 4;0–12;10. By comparing the SELMA measure with maturity ratings made by human raters we found that SELMA predicted the rating of semantic maturity made by human raters over and above the prediction made using a child’s age and number of words produced. We conclude that the semantic content of narratives changes in a predictable pattern with children’s age and argue that SELMA is a measure quantifying semantic linguistic maturity. The study opens up the possibility of using quantitative measures for studying the development of semantic representation in children’s narratives, and emphasizes the importance of word co-occurrences for understanding the development of meaning

Adaptive Language-based Mental Health Assessment with Item-Response Theory

Mental health issues widely vary across individuals - the manifestations of signs and symptoms can be fairly heterogeneous. Recently, language-based depression and anxiety assessments have shown promise for capturing this heterogeneous nature by evaluating a patient's own language, but such approaches require a large sample of words per person to be accurate. In this work, we introduce adaptive language-based assessment - the task of iteratively estimating an individual's psychological score based on limited language responses to questions that the model also decides to ask. To this end, we explore two statistical learning-based approaches for measurement/scoring: classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT). We find that using adaptive testing in general can significantly reduce the number of questions required to achieve high validity (r ~ 0.7) with standardized tests, bringing down from 11 total questions down to 3 for depression and 5 for anxiety. Given the combinatorial nature of the problem, we empirically evaluate multiple strategies for both the ordering and scoring objectives, introducing two new methods: a semi-supervised item response theory based method (ALIRT), and a supervised actor-critic based model. While both of the models achieve significant improvements over random and fixed orderings, we find ALIRT to be a scalable model that achieves the highest accuracy with lower numbers of questions (e.g. achieves Pearson r ~ 0.93 after only 3 questions versus asking all 11 questions). Overall, ALIRT allows prompting a reduced number of questions without compromising accuracy or overhead computational costs

Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are related to the semantic representation of written narratives of positive and negative life events

Background: We used a computational method to quantitatively investigate the relationship between personality and written narratives of life events. Agentic (i.e., self- directedness), communal (i.e., cooperativeness), and spiritual (self-transcendence) traits were of special interest because they represent individual differences in intentional val- ues and goals, in contrast to temperament traits, which describe individual differences in automatic responses to emotional stimuli. We also investigated which pronouns were most common in relation to personality constructs that were significantly related to the narratives. Methods: Personality was assessed among 79 adolescents at one point in time using the NEO Personality Inventory—Revised (NEO-PI-R) and the temperament and char- acter inventory (TCI). Six months later, adolescents were asked to write down the most positive or the most negative event that had happened to them in the last 3 months. Adolescents were explicitly instructed to answer the following questions within their narratives: What happened? Who were involved? Why do you think it happened? How did you feel when it happened? How do you think the involved persons felt? The descriptions were quantified using a computational method in which the latent semantic analysis algorithm generates a semantic representation of the narratives. Results: Only self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence were related to the semantic representation of the narratives. Moreover, cooperativeness and self- transcendence were associated with less frequent usage of singular pronouns (e.g., me respectively mine). Conclusions: Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are involved when adolescents describe positive and negative life experiences. Moreover, high levels of communal and spiritual traits are related to less self-focused narratives. Keywords: Agency, Big five, Communion, Latent semantic analysis, Life story, Semantic spaces, Pronouns, Temperament and character inventor

On the importance of AI research beyond disciplines

As the impact of AI on various scientific fields is increasing, it is crucial to embrace interdisciplinary knowledge to understand the impact of technology on society. The goal is to foster a research environment beyond disciplines that values diversity and creates, critiques and develops new conceptual and theoretical frameworks. Even though research beyond disciplines is essential for understanding complex societal issues and creating positive impact it is notoriously difficult to evaluate and is often not recognized by current academic career progression. The motivation for this paper is to engage in broad discussion across disciplines and identify guiding principles fir AI research beyond disciplines in a structured and inclusive way, revealing new perspectives and contributing to societal and human wellbeing and sustainability

Prototype effect and the persuasiveness of generalizations

An argument that makes use of a generalization activates the prototype for the category used in the generalization. We conducted two experiments that investigated how the activation of the prototype affects the persuasiveness of the argument. The results of the experiments suggest that the features of the prototype overshadow and partly overwrite the actual facts of the case. The case is, to some extent, judged as if it had the features of the prototype instead of the features it actually has. This prototype effect increases the persuasiveness of the argument in situations where the audience finds the judgment more warranted for the prototype than for the actual case (positive prototype effect), but decreases persuasiveness in situations where the audience finds the judgment less warranted for the prototype than for the actual case (negative prototype effect)