Cogmic space for narrative-based world representation

Representing a world or a physical/social environment in an agent’s cognitive system is essential for creating human-like artificial intelligence. This study takes a story-centered approach to this issue. In this context, a story refers to an internal representation involving a narrative structure, which is assumed to be a common form of organizing past, present, future, and fictional events and situations. In the artificial intelligence field, a story or narrative is traditionally treated as a symbolic representation. However, a symbolic story representation is limited in its representational power to construct a rich world. For example, a symbolic story representation is unfit to handle the sensory/bodily dimension of a world. In search of a computational theory for narrative-based world representation, this study proposes the conceptual framework of a Cogmic Space for a comic strip-like representation of a world. In the proposed framework, a story is positioned as a mid-level representation, in which the conceptual and sensory/bodily dimensions of a world are unified. The events and their background situations that constitute a story are unified into a sequence of panels. Based on this structure, a representation (i.e., a story) and the represented environment are connected via an isomorphism of their temporal, spatial, and relational structures. Furthermore, the framework of a Cogmic Space is associated with the generative aspect of representations, which is conceptualized in terms of unconscious- and conscious-level processes/representations. Finally, a proof-of-concept implementation is presented to provide a concrete account of the proposed framework.     

Cybersemiotics and the Question of Semiotic and Informational Thresholds

The present article discusses various suggestions for a philosophical framework for a transdisciplinary information science or a semiotic doctrine. These are: the mechanical materialistic, the pan-informational, the Luhmanian second order cybernetic approach, Peircian biosemiotics and finally the pan-semiotic approach. The limitations of each are analyzed. The conclusion is that we will not have to choose between either a cybernetic-informational or a semiotic approach. A combination of a Peircian-based biosemiotics with autopoiesis theory, second order cybernetics and information science is suggested in a five-leveled cybersemiotic framework. The five levels are 1) a level of Firstness, 2) a level of mechanical matter, energy and force as Secondness, 3) a cybernetic and thermodynamic level of information and signal, 4) a level of sign games in living systems, and 5) a level of conscious language games in self-conscious social humans.     

On the a priori and a posteriori assessment of probabilities

We argue that in spite of their apparent dissimilarity, the methodologies employed in the a priori and a posteriori assessment of probabilities can both be justified by appeal to a single principle of inductive reasoning, viz., the principle of symmetry. The difference between these two methodologies consists in the way in which information about the single-trial probabilities in a repeatable chance process is extracted from the constraints imposed by this principle. In the case of a posteriori reasoning, these constraints inform the analysis by fixing an a posteriori determinant of the probabilities, whereas, in the case of a priori reasoning, they imply certain claims which then serve as the basis for subsequent probabilistic deductions. In a given context of inquiry, the particular form which a priori or a posteriori reason may take depends, in large part, on the strength of the underlying symmetry assumed: the stronger the symmetry, the more information can be acquired a priori and the less information about the long-run behavior of the process is needed for an a posteriori assessment of the probabilities. In the context of this framework, frequency-based reasoning emerges as a limiting case of a posteriori reasoning, and reasoning about simple games of chance, as a limiting case of a priori reasoning. Between these two extremes, both a priori and a posteriori reasoning can take a variety of intermediate forms.     

Consider the source: One step in assessing premise acceptability

Premise acceptability is conceptually connected to presumption. To say that a premise is acceptable just when there is a presumption in its favor is to give a first approximation to this connection. A number of popular principles of presumption suggest that whether there is a presumption for a premise, belief, or claim depends on the sources which vouch for it. Sources consist of internal belief-generating mechanisms and external testimony. Alvin Plantinga's notion of warrant lays down four conditions upon a source for the belief which it generates to be warranted. We argue that there is a presumption for a premise, belief, or claim if and only if there is a presumption of warrant for that premise,belief or claim. This amounts to the thesis that there is a presumption for a belief from a challenger's point of view if and only if there is a presumption from that person's point of view that her cognitive faculties which have generated the belief have been functioning properly, in an appropriate cognitive environment, in accord with a segment of her design plan aimed at the truth, and that these faculties are reliable. In light of our argument for this thesis, we may legitimately claim that one way to determine that there is a presumption for a belief is to determine that there is a presumption of warrant for that belief, and thus that in determining whether there is a presumption for a belief or premise, we may consider the source.     

A perpetual state of almost

Mr. B came to analysis describing what he called a perpetual state of almost, a feeling of almost living, both intrapsychically and intersubjectively. The perpetual state of Almost is a state in-between presence with the Other and absence from the Other. It is a state in-between a sense of self, and an absence of self. This paper proposes a deeper understanding of the defensive, insulating structure of this in-between gap, examining what enabled it to change from a static, inert state into a transient, fluid one, oscillating between states of presence and absence as a vehicle for transformation.     

People Make the Place: Religious Leadership and the Identity of the Local Congregation

The identity of a congregation is more dependent on the people who gather together than on any particular constellation of structures and strategies, programs, and policies. While social processes of attraction, selection and attrition are fundamental to identity development, a paradoxical consequence is that a strong identity is unavoidably linked to a degeneration of the congregation’s vitality and to a reduction of its capacity for survival in a changing environment. The arrival of a new religious leader may help to halt the growing degeneration and incapacity by the minister becoming the center of a new cycle of attraction, selection, and attrition. However such a renewal in identity is always rife with conflict and therefore contrary to the idea of a religious congregation as a harmonious and peaceful assembly of believers.     

Towards an integrated identity in counselling psychology: Graduate,professional and academic experiences

The paper is a reflective summary of my identity as a counselling psychologist. It discusses personal life, work and training experiences. The reason I would like to publish such a work is to encourage students in Greece, where the field of Counselling Psychology is less developed, to consider this kind of specialization, as well as to continuously enhance their professional identity, assimilating both practice and research opportunities, throughout their career paths. The paper focuses on three major influences in my development and training in the field: (a) graduate experiences as a doctoral student, writing a thesis on women's professional development, (b) work experiences in a career center of a large academic institution, and (c) academic and instructional experiences in a School of Psychology, where I teach and supervise research of both undergraduate and graduate students. The above influences delineate three separate, yet integrating identities: the identity of a feminist, the identity of a practitioner, and the identity of a researcher and instructor in the academia–that is, the identity of a scientist. My intention is to show how these three identities have been well integrated all these years, improving continuously my level of work in each and every dimension.     

The reduction of psychological aggression across varied interpersonal contexts through repentance and forgiveness

Research on the resolution of interpersonal conflict has shown that forgiveness is important in reducing aggression and promoting prosocial interactions following a transgression. Although the benefits of forgiveness have been demonstrated in a variety of relationship contexts, a single theoretical model has not been tested across these different contexts. In this study, we employed an attributional framework to examine the relationship between attributions of responsibility for a transgression, repentance, emotions, forgiveness, and psychological aggression toward three different categories of transgressor: a coworker, a friend, and a romantic partner. One hundred and seven participants were asked to describe a recent transgression with a coworker, a friend, and a romantic partner. In each case, responsibility for the event, the degree to which the transgressor apologized, anger, sympathy, forgiveness, and subsequent psychological aggression toward the transgressor were measured. A basic model of aggression reduction, whereby repentance facilitates forgiveness and reduces psychological aggression, was reliable in each category of transgressor. A comparison of the models showed minor differences in how individuals respond to transgressors. Although coworkers apologized less, they were just as likely to be forgiven as romantic partners and friends. In addition, participants were least likely to respond with psychological aggression when a friend transgressed against them. This research provides a theoretical framework within which to study forgiveness and aggression across a variety of contexts. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–12, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Looking to understand: the coupling between speakers' and listeners' eye movements and its relationship to discourse comprehension

We investigated the coupling between a speaker's and a listener's eye movements. Some participants talked extemporaneously about a television show whose cast members they were viewing on a screen in front of them. Later, other participants listened to these monologues while viewing the same screen. Eye movements were recorded for all speakers and listeners. According to cross-recurrence analysis, a listener's eye movements most closely matched a speaker's eye movements at a delay of 2 sec. Indeed, the more closely a listener's eye movements were coupled with a speaker's, the better the listener did on a comprehension test. In a second experiment, low-level visual cues were used to manipulate the listeners' eye movements, and these, in turn, influenced their latencies to comprehension questions. Just as eye movements reflect the mental state of an individual, the coupling between a speaker's and a listener's eye movements reflects the success of their communication.     

The object of my aggression: Sexual objectification increases physical aggression toward women

Objectification involves reducing someone to a sexual object, rather than seeing them as a full person. Despite numerous theoretical claims that people are more aggressive toward the objectified, and empirical evidence that objectification is linked to high willingness to aggress, rape proclivity, and aggressive attitudes, no research has examined a causal link between objectification and physical aggression, particularly in the context of provocation. In two experiments, we examined this predicted link. In Experiment 1, using a 2 (objectification: no/yes) × 2 (provocation: no/yes) factorial between‐subjects design, we investigated the effects of objectification, induced via body focus during a face‐to‐face interaction, and provocation on physical aggression toward a female confederate. Our results revealed a significant main effect of provocation, a marginal main effect of objectification, and a significant interaction between these variables. In the absence of a provocation, focusing on a woman's body increased aggression toward her. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 using a video of a target woman instead of a face‐to‐face interaction. Again, our results showed a significant two‐way interaction between objectification and provocation, wherein objectification increased aggression in the absence of provocation. Overall, this research indicates that objectification can lead to heightened physical aggression toward objectified women.

     

Mimic automata: A novel formal model for mimic computing

In this paper, we aim to establish a mathematical model for mimic computing. To this end, we present a novel automaton called a mimic automaton. First, a one-dimensional cellular automaton is used for expressing some dynamic changes in the structure of a computing unit, a sequential automaton is employed to describe some state transitions, a hierarchical automaton is employed to express the different granularities of some computing units, and a probabilistic automaton is used to depict some random changes of a computing unit. Second, a mimic automaton is obtained by combining the various types of automata mentioned above in a certain logical relationship. Compared with the existing models of mimic computing, the new model portrays the operational semantics for a mimic computing system, and it can directly describe the behaviors of a system. Furthermore, the new model possesses a stronger generality.     

Transition patterns of driving style from a traditional driving environment to a connected vehicle environment: A case of an extra-long tunnel road

To provide a better understanding of individual driver’s driving style classification in a traditional and a CV environment, spatiotemporal characteristics of vehicle trajectories on a road tunnel were extracted through a driving simulator-based experiment. Speed, acceleration, and rate of acceleration changes are selected as clustering indexes. The dynamic time warping and k-means clustering were adopted to classify participants into different risk level groups. To assess the driver behavior benefits in a CV environment, an indicator BI (behavior indicator, BI) was defined based on the standard deviation of speed, the standard deviation of acceleration, and the standard deviation of the rate of acceleration change. Then, the index BI of each driver was calculated. Furthermore, this paper explored driving style classification, not in terms of traditional driving environment, but rather the transition patterns from a traditional driving environment to a CV environment. The results revealed that inside a long tunnel, 80 % of drivers benefited from a CV environment. Moreover, drivers might need training before using a CV system, especially female drivers who have low driving mileage. In addition, the results showed that the driving style of 69 % of the drivers’ transferred from a high risk-level to a low risk-level when driving in a CV environment. The study results can be expected to improve driving training education programs and also to provide a valuable reference for developing individual in-vehicle human-machine interface projects and other proactive safety countermeasures.     

Sense and Reference of Predicates: Comments on Frege’s Theory of Sense-Reference

Frege argued that a predicate was a functional expression and the reference of it a concept, which as a predicative function had one or more empty places and was thus incomplete. Frege’s view gives rise to what has been known as the paradox of the concept “horse.” In order to resolve this paradox, I argue for an opposite view which retains the point that a predicate is a function, i.e. that a predicative function is complete in a sense. Specifically speaking, a predicate performing the function of a predicate has at least one empty place and has no reference, while a predicate performing the function of a subject does not have any empty place but does have a reference. Frege not only regarded a concept with one or more empty places as the reference of a predicate but also took a set of objects without any empty place to be the extension of a concept with one or more empty places. Thus, it presents a complex relationship between the reference of a predicate and its corresponding extension, leading to disharmony in his theory. I argue that this is because there is a major defect in Frege’s theory of meaning, namely the neglect of common names. What he called extensions of concepts are actually extensions of common names, and the references of predicates and the extensions of common names have a substantial difference despite being closely related.     

Choice, changing over, and reinforcement delays

In three experiments, pigeons were used to examine the independent effects of two normally confounded delays to reinforcement associated with changing between concurrently available variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. In Experiments 1 and 2, combinations of changeover-delay durations and fixed-interval travel requirements were arranged in a changeover-key procedure. The delay from a changeover-produced stimulus change to a reinforcer was varied while the delay between the last response on one alternative and a reinforcer on the other (the total obtained delay) was held constant. Changeover rates decreased as a negative power function of the total obtained delay. The delay between a changeover-produced stimulus change had a small and inconsistent effect on changeover rates. In Experiment 3, changeover delays and fixed-interval travel requirements were arranged independently. Changeover rates decreased as a negative power function of the total obtained delay despite variations in the delay from a change in stimulus conditions to a reinforcer. Periods of high-rate responding following a changeover, however, were higher near the end of the delay from a change in stimulus conditions to a reinforcer. The results of these experiments suggest that the effects of changeover delays and travel requirements primarily result from changes in the delay between a response at one alternative and a reinforcer at the other, but the pattern of responding immediately after a changeover depends on the delay from a changeover-produced change in stimulus conditions to a reinforcer.     

Window view of nature after brief exercise improves choice reaction time and heart rate restoration

Research indicates that natural environments induce restorative effects on cognitive capacity and autonomic arousal. The present study investigates differences in choice reaction time (CRT) and heart rate responses in students (n = 9) resting with or without a window view of a modest natural environment after a physical exertion. Subjects performed a CRT-task before pedaling a spinning bike, followed by resting in a chair with either a window view of a natural environment, or no view. Heart rate was obtained during the rest-period, and the CRT task was performed again immediately after resting.Results indicated that subjects elicited significantly larger improvement in CRTs and more efficient heart rate restoration after resting with a window view, compared to resting without a view. Resting with a modest view of a natural environment after brief exercise demonstrated both a greater effect of cognitive enhancement and more efficient physiological restoration compared to resting without a view. These findings advance prior research by demonstrating both cognitive and physiological benefits from resting in a modest natural environment.     

Father regression Clinical narratives and theoretical reflections1

The author deals with love‐hate enthrallment and submission to a primitive paternal object. This is a father‐son relationship that extends through increasing degrees of ‘primitiveness’ or extremeness, and is illustrated through three different constellations that constitute a continuum. One pole of the continuum encompasses certain male patients who show a loving, de‐individuated connection to a father experienced as trustworthy, soft, and in need of protection. Further along the continuum is the case of a transsexual patient whose analysis revealed an intense ‘God‐transference’, a bondage to an idealized, feared, and ostensibly protective father‐God introject. A great part of this patient's analysis consisted in a fi erce struggle to liberate himself from this fi gure. The other end of the continuum is occupied by religious terrorists, who exemplify the most radical thralldom to a persecutory, godly object, a regressive submission that banishes woman and enthrones a cruel superego, and that ends in destruction and self‐destruction. Psychoanalytic thinking has traditionally dealt with the oedipal father and recently with the nurturing father, but there is a gap in thinking about the phallic, archaic father, and his relations with his son(s). The author aims at fi lling this gap, at the same time as she also raises the very question of ‘What is a father?’ linking it with literary and religious themes.     

How rejection of essences expresses despair

The Self and the ego in Jung's psychology are an instance of what Edmund Husserl called a 'double intentionality': one tending toward meaning is distinct from another tending toward meaning, yet they are reciprocally inseparable from each other. As perception in a present moment and memory of a past are impossible without each other, so an intending of ego and that of Self are impossible without each other. Accompanying the ego (mostly in the background) during each moment of time is a tending towards a particular Idea or essence. This reciprocity is expressed in a unique way over a lifetime and is like the relation of mother and child, and so it is important for all of us born of women to retain a sense of essences and the fullness of Self. 'Constructivism', however, is a current belief held by some feminists, and it influences both theorizing and practice in analytical psychology. It involves a rejection of essences, a revision of Jung's Idea of Self, and an attempt to conduct analysis without reference to an intentional subjective Self. Such constructivist revision expresses a despair both about essences as Ideas and about Self as intentional and subjective. It is despair over Self in a Kierkegaardian sense.     

The TeensyTap Framework for Sensorimotor Synchronization Experiments

Synchronizing movements with an external periodic stimulus, such as tapping your foot along with a metronome, is a remarkable human skill called sensorimotor synchronization. A growing body of literature investigates this process, but experiments require collecting responses with high temporal reliability, which often requires specialized hardware. The current article presents and validates TeensyTap, an inexpensive, highly functional framework with excellent timing performance. The framework uses widely available, low-cost hardware and consists of custom-written open-source software and communication protocols. TeensyTap allows running complete experiments through a graphical user interface and can simultaneously present a pacing signal (metronome), measure movements using a force-sensitive resistor, and deliver auditory feedback, with optional experimenter-specified artificial feedback delays. Movement data is communicated to a computer and saved for offline analysis in a format that allows it to be easily imported into spreadsheet programs. The present work also reports a validation experiment showing that timing performance of TeensyTap is highly accurate, ranking it among the gold standard tools available in the field. Metronome pacing signals are presented with millisecond accuracy, feedback sounds are delivered on average 2 ms following the subjects’ taps, and the timing log files produced by the device are unbiased and accurate to within a few milliseconds. The framework allows for a range of experimental questions to be addressed and, since it is open source and transparent, researchers with some technical expertise can easily adapt and extend it to accommodate a host of possible future experiments that have yet to be imagined.     

Cognitive events in a problem-solving task: a qualitative method for investigating interactivity in the 17 Animals problem

Outside the cognitive psychologist's laboratory, problem-solving is an activity that takes place in a rich web of interactions involving people and artefacts. This interactivity is constituted by fine-grained action–perception cycles, and it allows a reasoner's comprehension of the problem to emerge from a coalition of internal and external resources. Taking an ecological approach to problem-solving, this paper introduces a qualitative method, Cognitive Event Analysis, for studying the fine-grained interactivity between a problem-solving agent and his/her environment. To demonstrate the potential of this method, it is used to study a single subject solving the so-called 17 Animals problem using a material model. The fine-grained procedure allows tracking the solution to a serendipity that was brought about because of the participant's aesthetic considerations and a change in her perceptual figure-ground configuration. While a qualitative single-case method cannot prove specific models of problem-solving, it questions prevalent mentalist models, and it generates new hypotheses on insight problem-solving, because it allows the researcher to attend to outliers and to variability on a fast and fine-grained between-measurement timescale.     

Attention in the pigeon: testing for excitatory and inhibitory control by the weak elements.

In two experiments, pigeons were trained on a successive discrimination between a color and either a compound S+ or a compound S- consisting of a form superimposed on a second color. Two stimulus control tests followed discrimination training: an attention test in which the form and colors used in training were presented singly and in combination, and then a resistance-to-reinforcement test using the form element of S+ or S- and a novel form. In the attention test, the birds trained with a compound S+ responded most to the S+ compound, less to the S+ color alone, and still less to the S+ form on a dark key. Few responses were made to the negative stimulus, either alone or with the S+ form added. The birds trained with a compound S- pecked most at the S+ color and to a compound of the S+ color with the S- form added. The resistance-to-reinforcement test showed that the birds trained with a compound S+ responded more to the S+ form than to a novel form. However, the birds trained with a compound S- did not reliably respond more to a novel form than to the S- form. These findings suggested that the form element of a compound S+ gains some excitatory control, but the form element of a compound S- does not acquire inhibitory control. The possibility existed that low levels of responding to the S+ form on a dark background in the first experiment were due to use of a darkened key to separate S+ and S- periods during discrimination training. However, the essential findings were the same in a second experiment in which darkening of the chamber separated S+ and S- periods.