SOUL : A Cognitive Parser

In this paper, we introduce a new model of human sentence processing. The psychological issues addressed include the use of lexical information, specifically subcategorization information, during the initial stage of syntactic structure assembly, the issue of linear parsing, i.e. immediate attach?ment of words to the sentence structure, within a head-driven grammar framewoik, and the resolution of attachment ambi?guities. W e will demonsu^te that the variety of psycholinguis?tic phenomena can be accounted for by the assumption of principled behavior of linguistic signs, which are implemented in an object-oriented fashion. The model provides a serial implementation of Parametrized Head Attachment

Integrating World Knowledge with Cognitive Parsing

The work presented in this article builds on the account of cognitive parsing given by the SOUL system (Konieczny & Strube, 1995), an object-oriented implementation of Parameterized Head Attachment (Konieczny et al, 1991) based on Head-Driven Phrase-Structure Grammar (Pollard & Sag, 1994). We describe how the initial semantic representation proposed by the parser is translated into a logical form suitable for inference, thus making it possible to integrate world knowledge with cognitive parsing. As a semantic and knowledge representation system we use the most expressive implemented logic for natural language understanding. Episodic Logic (Hwang & Schubert, 1993), and its computational implementation, Epilog (Schaeffer et al, 1991)

Molting incidents of Hyalomma spp. carrying human pathogens in Germany under different weather conditions

Background Hyalomma marginatum and H. rufipes are two-host tick species, which are mainly distributed in southern Europe, Africa to central Asia but may also be found in Central and Northern Europe through introduction by migratory birds. Methods Ticks were collected while feeding or crawling on animals and humans, or from the environment, in different regions in Germany, between 2019 and 2021 in a citizen science study and from 2022 to 2023 in the wake of this study. Results From 2019 to 2023, a total of 212 Hyalomma adult ticks were detected in Germany. This included 132 H. marginatum and 43 H. rufipes ticks sent to research institutions and 37 photographic records that were only identified to genus level. The number of detected ticks varied over the years, with the highest number of 119 specimens recorded in 2019, followed by 57 in 2020. Most of the specimens were collected from horses, while some were collected from other animals, humans or found crawling on human clothes or other objects inside or outside houses. The screening of 175 specimens for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and of 132 specimens for Babesia/Theileria spp. by PCR gave negative results, while human-pathogenic Rickettsia were detected in 44% (77/175) of the total samples. Subsequent amplicon sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of representative samples determined the species of 41 Rickettsia aeschlimannii and one R. slovaca sequences. Conclusions Analysis of climatic factors indicated a significantly higher probability of Hyalomma occurrence at locations with higher average spring temperature during the years 2019 and 2020 compared to randomly generated pseudo-absence locations. Dry and hot conditions probably facilitated Hyalomma nymphs’ survival and molting into adults during these years

Update and prognosis of <i>Dermacentor</i> distribution in Germany: Nationwide occurrence of <i>Dermacentor reticulatus</i>.

A considerable range expansion of Dermacentor reticulatus has been observed in several European countries, which is concerning in the light of its vector function for several pathogens, including Babesia canis and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). The present study provides an update on the distribution of Dermacentor ticks in Germany, using a citizen science approach. Ticks were collected by citizens from March 2020 to May 2021, and submitted along with information on the date and location of collection, potential hosts and details about the circumstances of discovery. In total, 3,292 Dermacentor specimens were received, of which 76.4% (2,515/3,292) were identified as D. reticulatus and 23.0% (758/3,292) as D. marginatus, while 0.6% (19/3,292) were too damaged for species-level identification. Dermacentor reticulatus was received from all federal states of Germany. Maxent species distribution models predicted suitable environmental conditions for D. reticulatus throughout Germany. Findings on the vegetation or on pastured animals without travel history confirmed the occurrence of this tick species as far north as the most northern German federal state Schleswig-Holstein. In contrast, the distribution of D. marginatus still appears to be limited to southwestern Germany, although the northward shift of the distribution limit observed in the preceding citizen science study, as compared with previous published distributions, was confirmed. This shift was also predicted by Maxent species distribution models, reflecting the broader distribution of the tick occurrence data contributed by citizens. Most D. reticulatus ticks were found on dogs (1,311/1,960, 66.9%), while D. marginatus was mainly discovered on hoofed animals (197/621, 31.7%) and humans (182/621, 29.3%). Human tick bites were reported in 0.7% (14/1,960) of host-assigned D. reticulatus and 3.4% (21/621) of host-assigned D. marginatus. Further studies to investigate an increasing endemisation of Babesia canis in Germany as well as the relevance of D. reticulatus for TBEV spread throughout the country, e.g., by traveling dogs, are urgently needed. In view of the activity of D. reticulatus during winter or the colder months, which complements that of Ixodes ricinus, a year-round tick protection of at least dogs is strongly recommended

Turning the Shelves: Empirical Findings and Space Syntax Analyses of Two Virtual Supermarket Variations Judgements of Building Complexity and Navigability in Virtual Reality

Finding a product in a new supermarket is a complex, cognitive process. Earlier studies (Kalff & Strube, 2009, Gil et al., 2009)indicate that shopper’s path choice decisions in such environments are strongly influenced by their background knowledge: the placement of products in a store, especially the collocation of semantically similar types of products (e.g., tinned sweetcorn found with tinned goods rather then fresh corn‐on‐the‐cob). Supermarkets provide an apparently spatially homogenous environment, and it could therefore be expected that a shop’s content (the products) and their placement are the paramount factor in shopper movement, with only limited effects of spatial configuration. In the present study, the spatial structure of a virtual supermarket was systematically varied to investigate cognitive processes and behaviour in unusual building configurations. The study builds upon experiments in a regular supermarket, which serve as a baseline case. In a between‐participant design 41 participants completed a search task in two different virtual supermarket environments. For 21 participants the supermarket shelves were turned towards them at a 45° angle when entering the store, providing high visual access to product categories and products from the main aisle. For 20 participants the shelves were placed in the opposite direction. Both the turning angle of the shelves and the level of congruence between expected and actual location of a product had a significant impact on search times. Environmental features were analysed using space syntax techniques both at the global level of the store, and at the level of individual pairs of start and goal locations for each product, including step depth and isovist measures (particular emphasis is on the visual properties of each product’s location). The area of the main aisle, as visible from each product, as well as the compactness of the isovist generated from the product location, proved to be significant predictors of shopper’s search time. It is suggested that this may reflect the importance of having visual access to a product from relatively long lines of sight. Contrary to the initial hypothesis that higher visual access to a product always yields lower search times, we find that it can also provide distraction. Partialling out these geometric variables for an ANOVA analysis (analysis of variance) reveals that they strongly contribute to the obtained difference of search time between the two layout conditions, and they also have a moderating effect on the influence of background knowledge on search performance. Further analysis suggests that participants rely on different path choice strategies that appear to be influenced by local features of geometry as well as inter‐product similarity at choice points such as corridor intersections. A qualitative analysis of movement trajectories and verbal reports from the study participants was conducted and found to characterize typical decision patterns and possible underlying reasoning along a product search path. In conclusion, despite the predicted strong effect of shopper’s preferences and their prior product knowledge, the spatial layout of the shop was still shown to have a consistent effect upon the selection of search paths and search duration

Modelling Motivation and Action Control in Cognitive Systems

The traditional way to define – and model – cognition, from the mid-fifties onward, has been to focus on deliberation, i.e., on those inferential processes that operate on well-defined symbolic mental representations in order to get a task accomplished that would require intelligence for human beings to solve. Consequently, AI programs, as well as computer models of psychological processes, were largely confined to a world of symbols. Only a few projects attempted to overcome these limitations and take a step towards more realistic interaction, such as Winograd’s famous SHRDLU (Winograd, 1972). Still, the seminal work accomplished in GPS (Newell &amp; Simon, 1963) and STRIPS (Fikes &amp; Nilsson, 1971) continues to be the anchor point for most of AI and cognitive science alike. Recent years, however, have brought a veritable paradigm shift: interaction with the ‘real’ environment – physical, or human users, or other ‘agents ’ – has been brought to the fore; and ‘situatedness ’ (Suchman, 1987) and the ability for communication and co-operation (as in distributed AI) have become important criteria. The basic nature of biological cognitive systems, including humans, has been recognise

Everyday Navigation in Real and Virtual Environments Informed by Semantic Knowledge

The effect of semantic knowledge on performing an everyday wayfinding task was investigated in real and virtual grocery stores. Participants had to search for 15 food items exhibiting varying degrees of congruency with background knowledge with respect to their placement in a mid-sized supermarket. Food categories and the congruency of categories with the placement of pertinent food items was assessed pre-experimentally using a card-sorting task with customers and store managers. Experiment 1 was conducted in a real supermarket (tracing participants by means of RFID techniques) and replicated in the same market as a virtual environment (Exp. 2), allowing insights into potential differences. Exp. 3 used a VR variation where all the pictures on the shelves of the VR supermarket were replaced with printed labels. Results regarding semantic knowledge yielded stable and fairly high effect sizes across experimental conditions, revealing that semantic congruency with shopping goods ’ placements made the search for food items much more efficient. The results show that even abstract background knowledge (semantic categories) may be involved in human navigation