Behavior-based robotics as a tool for synthesis of artificial behavior and analysis of natural behavior

Work in behavior-based systems focuses on functional modeling, that is, the synthesis of life-like and/or biologically inspired behavior that is robust, repeatable and adaptive. Inspiration from cognitive science, neuroscience and biology drives the development of new methods and models in behavior-based robotics, and the results tie together several related fields including artificial life, evolutionary computation, and multi-agent systems. Ideas from artificial intelligence and engineering continue to be explored actively and applied to behavior-based robots as their role in animal modeling and practical applications is being developed.     

Effect of time and space uncertainty on a vigilance task

Two groups, each of 12 Ss, were instructed to detect increments in light level from displays of one or five lights. Signals appeared in regular and in irregular intervals. The display was flashed on simultaneously for 0.8 sec every 3.2 sec. Signal detection was superior with a display of one light than with a display of five lights. For two extreme response criteria, there was a decrement of false alarms and an increment of beta during a run. These changes were not dependent upon time and spatial uncertainty. There were no systematic changes in correct detections and d’ during a run. No difference was found between central and peripheral light positions. Correlation of measures was also examined.     

Adaptation effects on evoked electrical taste

In spite of a clear increment in absolute thresholds as an effect of self-adaptation, the electrically provoked taste sensation does not show a reduction in subjective intensity during the protracted stimulation time. Chemical cross-adaptation effects on the threshold and suprathreshold levels of electrical taste are observed only when the adapting solutions are electrolytes regardless of their taste qualities. It seems that the stability of perceived intensity during current flow is principally due to some irritation of the sensitive tissue of the tongue, whereas cross-adaptation effects may be attributed to the potential changes across the excitable membranes caused by electrical properties of adapting electrolytic solutions.     

Integrating personality and career adaptability into vocational interest space

The relations between interests, personality and career adaptability were explored in two separate studies. In the first study, the RIASEC measure Occupational Preference Scale was applied along with personality inventories HEXACO-PI-(R)-100 and IPIP-50 on a sample of 602 university students and young adults. In the second study, PGI-Short, HEXACO-60 and Career Adapt-Abilities Scale were applied on a sample of 981 high-school graduates. Results from both studies were discussed together, and general conclusions about overlapping of interests, personality and career adaptability domains were drawn on the basis of correlational analyses and property vector fitting. Both studies have shown weak to moderate relations between interests and personality. In the HEXACO framework, it was found that Openness to Experience was positively related to creative interests, Emotionality was positively related to social interests and negatively related to technical interests, Extraversion was positively related to social and managing interests, and Honesty–Humility was negatively related to interests for business and finance. In the Big Five framework, Agreeableness was related to Social and Artistic interests, and Intellect to Artistic interests. The HEXACO personality domains showed predictive advantage for explaining interests in comparison to Big Five dimensions. The relation between career adaptability and interests was weak, and almost negligible when personality was included in hierarchical regression analysis. Career adaptability was weakly related to highly prestigious interests. Adaptability facets Concern, Control and Confidence were oriented toward data pole of interest space. The general factor of interests was weakly correlated with Openness Extraversion, Career Adaptability, and adaptability facets Confidence and Curiosity. Observed findings are as expected and in line with previous research.     

Emotion Regulation and Coping Strategies in Pedagogical Students with Different Attachment Styles

Abstract : Emotion regulation (ER) and coping strategies were compared in 242 pedagogical students from the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, with different attachment styles: secure (51.3%), fearful (31.9%), preoccupied (14.2%), and dismissive (2.7%). The students’ ages ranged from 18 to 24 years ( M = 19.02; SD = .92), and the majority were female (95.0%). They completed three questionnaires assessing their attachment styles and their use of ER and coping strategies. It was determined that the students used the majority of ER and coping strategies sometimes. Somewhat different patterns in the use of ER and coping strategies were, however, present in each attachment‐based group. Significant differences between these groups appeared in their use of the ER strategies of social support, suppression, and comfort eating, and in the coping strategies of seeking social support and escaping or avoiding stressful situations.     

Three Naive Questions: Addressed to the Modern Educational Optimism

This paper aims to question anew the popular and supposedly self-evident affirmation of education, in its modern incarnation as in its historical notion. The “naive” questions suggest that we have recently taken for granted that education ought to be for the masses, that it ought to be upbringing, and that it is better than ignorance. Drawing on the tradition that calls such an understanding of education into question, the author shows that the hidden costs of disregarding such reflection end up, camouflaged and smuggled, taxing the current debates regarding generally accepted education strategies. The characteristic feeling of the currently accepted model of education being in chronic crisis is less a testament to an absence of alternative approaches than to a lack of thorough self-reflection.     

Social-Psychological Interventions for Intergroup Reconciliation: An Emotion Regulation Perspective

Intergroup reconciliation is a requirement for lasting peace in the context of intergroup conflicts. In this article, we offer an emotion regulation perspective on social-psychological interventions aimed at facilitating intergroup reconciliation. In the first section of the article, we conceptualize intergroup reconciliation as an emotion-regulation process involving positive affective change and offer a framework that integrates the emotion regulation and intergroup reconciliation literatures. In the sections that follow, we review social-psychological interventions that involve changes in beliefs and identity and assess their effects on specific intergroup emotions pertinent for intergroup reconciliation. More specifically, we focus our discussion on specific reconciliation-oriented intervention strategies and their relation to emotions pertinent for facilitating reconciliation, including intergroup hatred, anger, guilt, hope, and empathy. In the final section, we consider key implications and growth points for the field of intergroup reconciliation.     

Six Challenges for Ethical Conduct in Science

The realities of human agency and decision making pose serious challenges for research ethics. This article explores six major challenges that require more attention in the ethics education of students and scientists and in the research on ethical conduct in science. The first of them is the routinization of action, which makes the detection of ethical issues difficult. The social governance of action creates ethical problems related to power. The heuristic nature of human decision making implies the risk of ethical bias. The moral disengagement mechanisms represent a human tendency to evade personal responsibility. The greatest challenge of all might be the situational variation in people’s ethical behaviour. Even minor situational factors have a surprisingly strong influence on our actions. Furthermore, finally, the nature of ethics itself also causes problems: instead of clear answers, we receive a multitude of theories and intuitions that may sometimes be contradictory. All these features of action and ethics represent significant risks for ethical conduct in science. I claim that they have to be managed within the everyday practices of science and addressed explicitly in research ethics education. I analyse them and suggest some ways in which their risks can be alleviated.     

Institutional Origins of Subjective Well-Being: Estimating the Effects of Economic Freedom on National Happiness

We exploit the cross-country differences in economic freedom to examine the link between the quality of institutions and subjective well-being. Using Veenhoven’s happiness dataset, the evidence suggests countries with better economic institutions and higher level of economic freedom, captured by the security of property rights, open markets and more limited government, are significantly more likely to experience greater subjective well-being after controlling for structural confounders of national subjective well-being such as income, unemployment, inequality, social capital and life satisfaction. The effect of institutions on cross-national happiness is both significant and robust to different model specifications, estimation techniques and possible sources of endogeneity. Furthermore, our panel data analysis reveals that over time higher levels of economic freedom are associated with decreasing subjective well-being after controlling for state dependence and income.     

The Structure of Adolescent Affective Well-Being: The Case of the PANAS Among Serbian Adolescents

The structure of affective well-being and the relationship between positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) have rarely been examined among adolescents. The aim of the present research was to investigate the question of bipolarity versus independence of PA and NA as measured by the PANAS across three studies in adolescent samples. The results of Study 1 (N = 1038) showed that a two-factor structure of the PANAS, with correlated PA and NA and allowed correlated errors between similarly worded items provided the best fit to data. Study 2 included three independent samples (total N = 1071), and showed that PA and NA differed in terms of their relationship to various well-being indicators. Study 3 (N = 482) tested the predictive validity of PA and NA in a 5 month follow-up design, and showed that both PA and NA had independent predictive benefits for depression, risky behaviors and life satisfaction, and that PA had no unique role in the prediction of stress and anxiety, while NA had no unique role in the prediction of academic achievement. The results of the present research provided strong support for the relative independence of PA and NA as measured by the PANAS among adolescents.