Skill transfer through goal-driven representation mapping

In this paper, we present an approach to transfer that involves analogical mapping of symbols across different domains. We relate this mechanism to Icarus, a theory of the human cognitive architecture. Our system can transfer skills across domains hypothesizing maps between representations, improving performance in novel domains. Unlike previous approaches to analogical transfer, our method uses an explanatory analysis that compares how well a new domain theory explains previous solutions under different mapping hypotheses. We present experimental evidence that the new mechanism improves transfer over Icarus’ basic learning processes. Moreover, we argue that the same features which distinguish Icarus from other architectures support representation mapping in a natural way and operate synergistically with it. These features enable our analogy system to translate a map among concepts into a map between skills, and to support transfer even if two domains are only partially analogous. We also discuss our system’s relation to other work on analogy and outline directions for future research.     

Speaking to Pictures

A review of Peter Steele’s Plenty, a book in which each poem is faced by a colour plate of the painting or object which sparked it off. Hollander’s ecphrasis and Krieger’s ekphrasis are held in – possibly unresolvable – dialectic by Steele’s poems. The only resolution which one can find is one of wit rather than of philosophy.

Adults' attitudes about assignments of household chores to male and female children

Data from a 1979 national sample of 3944 adults in the United States were analyzed for the purpose of identifying traditional and nontraditional sex role assignments of household chores. Among the eight chores observed, the proportion of the sample making nontraditional assignments ranged from a high of 90% to a low of 67%. With respect to explanations of traditional/nontraditional sex roles, observations included relationships between adults' age, sex, marital, family, and economic statuses, their assignments of chores to male and female children, and their attitudes about adults' sex roles. Males, older persons, and poor persons were more traditional in assigning chores than were females, the young, and the middle class. No differences were observed in chores assigned by married and single persons, or by married persons with and without children.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1988 annual conference of the Western Social Science Association.     

Crisis Assessment and Psychiatric Hospitalization of Children and Adolescents in State Custody

We investigated the clinical characteristics and placement decisions among a group of children who were wards of the state and had been evaluated for a crisis assessment. The sample consisted of 383 children and adolescents (ages 2-20 years) who were wards of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). This study retrospectively reviewed the symptoms, risk factors, functioning and co-morbid variables, and placement or system characteristics of these children using a structured assessment tool, the Childhood Severity of Psychiatric Illness (CSPI). Results indicated that risk behaviors as rated on the CSPI, including suicidality, dangerousness, and runaway tendency, were significant predictors of psychiatric hospitalization. The importance of more widespread usage of standardized assessment tools in evaluating children's mental health needs is discussed.     

Anxiety management and applied relaxation in reducing general anxiety

Sixty-three generally anxious subjects were assigned to anxiety management training, applied relaxation training, relaxation-only, placebo and untreated control conditions. After 6 weeks of treatment, anxiety management training led to reductions on a variety of self-report measures of state and trait anxiety and decreases in maladaptive cognitions during a laboratory stress procedure. On several measures, subjects in anxiety management training differed from relaxation-only and placebo subjects as well as untreated controls. However, treatment effects did not extend to performance and physiological measures of anxiety. Applied relaxation training, which in contrast to anxiety management training lacks structured rehearsal involving the recognition and reduction of tension cues during the treatment sessions, resulted in less consistent decreases in measures of general anxiety.