Artificial Intelligence &; Games: Should Computational Psychology be Revalued?

The aims of this paper are threefold: To show that game-playing (GP), the discipline of Artificial Intelligence (AI) concerned with the development of automated game players, has a strong epistemological relevance within both AI and the vast area of cognitive sciences. In this context games can be seen as a way of securely reducing (segmenting) real-world complexity, thus creating the laboratory environment necessary for testing the diverse types and facets of intelligence produced by computer models. This paper aims to promote the belief that games represent an excellent tool for the project of computational psychology (CP).  To underline how, despite this, GP has mainly adopted an engineering-inspired methodology and in doing so has distorted the framework of cognitive functionalism. Many successes (i.e. chess, checkers) have been achieved refusing human-like reasoning. The AI has appeared to work well despite ignoring an intrinsic motivation, that of creating an explanatory link between machines and mind.  To assert that substantial improvements in GP may be obtained in the future only by renewed interest in human-inspired models of reasoning and in other cognitive studies. In fact, if we increase the complexity of games (from NP-Completeness to AI-Completeness) in order to reproduce real-life problems, computer science techniques enter an impasse. Many of AI’s recent GP experiences can be shown to validate this.  The lack of consistent philosophical foundations for cognitive AI and the minimal philosophical commitment of AI investigation are two of the major reasons that play an important role in explaining why CP has been overlooked.     

A six-factor structure of personality-descriptive adjectives: solutions from psycholexical studies in seven languages

Standard psycholexical studies of personality structure have produced a similar 6-factor solution in 7 languages (Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish). The authors report the content of these personality dimensions and interpret them as follows: (a) a variant of Extraversion, defined by sociability and liveliness (though not by bravery and toughness); (b) a variant of Agreeableness, defined by gentleness, patience, and agreeableness (but also including anger and ill temper at its negative pole); (c) Conscientiousness (emphasizing organization and discipline rather than moral conscience); (d) Emotionality (containing anxiety, vulnerability, sentimentality, lack of bravery, and lack of toughness, but not anger or ill temper); (e) Honesty-Humility; (f) Intellect/Imagination/Unconventionality. A potential reorganization of the Big Five factor structure is discussed.     

Naive optics: Predicting and perceiving reflections in mirrors

Undergraduate students predicted what would be made visible by a planar mirror. A paper-and-pencil task confirmed previous findings that when approaching a mirror from the side, participants expected to see their reflection in the mirror earlier than they actually would. This early response was found for all mirrors when the observer moved horizontally--even when the mirror was placed on the floor or the ceiling--but not when the observer moved vertically (in a lift). The data support the hypothesis that many people imagine the world in the mirror as rotated around the vertical axis. When participants had to judge manipulated mirror reflections according to their naturalness, a high degree of tolerance was found. In contrast to the prediction task, a rotation around the vertical axis was judged to be less natural than other distortions. The authors conclude that perceptual knowledge and predictive knowledge lead to different patterns of errors. ((c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conversation and Behavior Games in the Pragmatics of Dialogue

In this article we present the bases for a computational theory of the cognitive processes underlying human communication. The core of the article is devoted to the analysis of the phases in which the process of comprehension of a communicative act can be logically divided: (1) literal meaning, where the reconstruction of the mental states literally expressed by the actor takes place: (2) speaker's meaning, where the partner reconstructs the communicative intentions of the actor; (3) communicative effect, where the partner possibly modifies his own beliefs and intentions; (4) reaction, where the intentions for the generation of the response are produced; and (5) response, where an overt response is constructed. The model appears to be compatible with relevant facts about human behavior. Our hypothesis is that, through communication, an actor tries to exploit the motivational structures of a partner so that the desired goal is generated. A second point is that social behavior requires that cooperation be maintained at some level. In the case of communication, cooperation is, in general, pursued even when the partner does not adhere to the actor's goals, and therefore no cooperation occurs at the behavioral level. This important distinction is reflected in the two kinds of game we introduce to account for communication. The main concept implied in communication is that two agents overtly reach a situation of shared mental states. Our model deals with sharedness through two primitives: shared beliefs and communicative intentions.     

A Twin Study of the Relationships among Inattention, Hyperactivity/Impulsivity and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Problems

We investigated the etiological relationships between the three ADHD dimensions of Inattentive Problems (INP), Hyperactivity-Impulsivity Problems (HIP) and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) as measured by the CBCL 6–18 questionnaire. Multivariate models were applied to 398 twin pairs (374 boys and 422 girls) aged 8 to 17 years (M?=?13.06, SD?=?2.59) belonging to the population-based Italian Twin Registry. The INP, HIP and SCT problem scores were moderately-to-substantially (range 0.29–0.47) intercorrelated. The best fitting model showed that these 3 dimensions are correlated both at the genetic (correlations’ range: 0.65–0.83) and the environmental (correlations: 0.29 and 0.44) levels, but they are also distinct. While SCT showed moderate heritability and large non-shared environmental influences, variance for both INP and HIP was substantially explained by genetic influences. We also found evidence of negative sibling interaction for INP, implying that a given behavior in one twin leads to an opposite behavior in the co-twin. Our results support at the etiological level the findings of previous psychometric and longitudinal studies of ADHD, which yielded evidence of the 3 distinct—albeit correlated—problem dimensions of inattentiveness, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and sluggish cognitive tempo.     

Factorial and Construct Validity of FACES IV Among Italian Adolescents

The aims of this study were to evaluate the reliability, validity and factorial structure of Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale, Version IV (FACES IV), investigate the relevance of sex and age on family functioning and study the relationship between family functioning and adolescents’ perception of parent and peer attachment. The sample consisted of 1,416 participants (672 women, 744 men, M_age = 17.38 years; age range = 13–22 years) divided into three age groups: 13–15, 16–18, and 19–22 years. Factor analysis confirmed the dimensions formulated to define the construct of family functioning: all the items of each dimension were loaded in the same factor with a correlation of at least 0.30. Groups differed with regard to the age on Cohesion, Enmeshed and Rigid scales: Younger adolescents (age 13–15 years) showed significantly higher scores than adolescents (age 16–18 and 19–22). Sex differences revealed that females had a higher mean score on Cohesion and Flexibility, whereas males had a higher mean score on Disengaged, Enmeshed and Chaotic. Correlations between FACES IV and Parent and Peer Attachment Scale demonstrated the convergent validity of the FACES IV. Data confirmed the validity of FACES IV’s Italian version and suggested that the Circumplex Model has a cross-cultural applicability and it could be a useful instrument in the Italian context.     

Pure left neglect for Arabic numerals

Arabic numerals are diffused and language-free representations of number magnitude. To be effectively processed, the digits composing Arabic numerals must be spatially arranged along a left-to-right axis. We studied one patient (AK) to show that left neglect, after right hemisphere damage, can selectively impair the computation of the spatial frames underpinning recognition and understanding of Arabic numerals, without impairing the spatial frames for coding alphabetic strings or for coding environmental spatial information. The presence in our brain of these specific and precise spatial frames must be rooted in the paramount importance of Arabic numerals processing in our everyday activities.     

Are Arithmetic Networks Interdependent In Number-Matching Task?

Addition and multiplication facts are retrieved from a network-like structure, as shown by data from number-matching tasks. Even if several evidences (e.g., cross-operation confusion effect) suggest that these networks are interrelated, the interdependency between addition and multiplication networks could be influenced by the type of task used (e.g., verification task). The present study aimed to investigate whether the addition and multiplication networks were interdependent or separate using a number-matching task. Eighty participants were divided in four groups. The Groups A (x, x, x) and B (+, +, +) performed the task in which only one arithmetic interference effect was implemented through three sessions (pure condition). The Groups C (x, x, +) and D (+, +, x) performed the same task in which the same arithmetic interference effect appeared in the first and second sessions, while a different arithmetic problem was presented in the last session (mixed condition). In the last session, the interference effect in the mixed condition was higher than that in the pure condition. The results argued more for an independency of addition and multiplication networks than for their interdependency.     

Impulsivity and reward sensitivity within the pen model: A test of discriminant hypotheses

Impulsivity and reward sensitivity are often treated as interchangeable constructs. This conflation may be traced back to Gray’s interpretation of impulsivity as the trait level manifestation of the Behavioral Activation System (BAS), that mediates sensitivity to rewards. In this study (N = 696) we evaluated discriminant hypotheses regarding the relationships between BAS-mediated reward sensitivity, impulsivity and Eysenck’s PEN superfactors. We hypothesized that reward sensitivity would be mainly linked with Extraversion, and that impulsivity would be primarily connected with Psychoticism. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling and equality constraints tests. Results mostly supported our expectations: reward sensitivity was more strongly related to Extraversion than to the other PEN superfactors, while impulsivity was more strongly related to Psychoticism and Neuroticism. Implications for BAS and impulsivity research are discussed.