An Evolutionary Analysis of Learned Attention

Humans and many other species selectively attend to stimuli or stimulus dimensions—but why should an animal constrain information input in this way? To investigate the adaptive functions of attention, we used a genetic algorithm to evolve simple connectionist networks that had to make categorization decisions in a variety of environmental structures. The results of these simulations show that while learned attention is not universally adaptive, its benefit is not restricted to the reduction of input complexity in order to keep it within an organism's processing capacity limitations. Instead, being able to shift attention provides adaptive benefit by allowing faster learning with fewer errors in a range of ecologically plausible environments.     

THE MODERN INVENTION OF “SCIENCE‐AND‐RELIGION”: WHAT FOLLOWS?

I am grateful to the four reviewers of The Territories of Science and Religion for their careful and insightful readings of the book, and their kind words about it. They all got the central arguments pretty much right, and thus any critical comments are not the result of fundamental misunderstandings. While there are some common themes in the assessments, each reviewer, happily, has offered a distinct perspective on the book. For this reason I will deal with their comments in turn, but with a focus throughout on a generally expressed concern about the broader implications of the book's historical analysis, and what positive or concrete proposals might follow from it.     

When to (or not to) trust intelligent machines: Insights from an evolutionary game theory analysis of trust in repeated games

The actions of intelligent agents, such as chatbots, recommender systems, and virtual assistants are typically not fully transparent to the user. Consequently, users take the risk that such agents act in ways opposed to the users’ preferences or goals. It is often argued that people use trust as a cognitive shortcut to reduce the complexity of such interactions. Here we formalise this by using the methods of evolutionary game theory to study the viability of trust-based strategies in repeated games. These are reciprocal strategies that cooperate as long as the other player is observed to be cooperating. Unlike classic reciprocal strategies, once mutual cooperation has been observed for a threshold number of rounds they stop checking their co-player’s behaviour every round, and instead only check it with some probability. By doing so, they reduce the opportunity cost of verifying whether the action of their co-player was actually cooperative. We demonstrate that these trust-based strategies can outcompete strategies that are always conditional, such as Tit-for-Tat, when the opportunity cost is non-negligible. We argue that this cost is likely to be greater when the interaction is between people and intelligent agents, because of the reduced transparency of the agent. Consequently, we expect people to use trust-based strategies more frequently in interactions with intelligent agents. Our results provide new, important insights into the design of mechanisms for facilitating interactions between humans and intelligent agents, where trust is an essential factor.     

Bio-inspired computational object classification model for object recognition

Human beings can effortlessly perceive stimuli through their sensory systems to learn, understand, recognize and act on our environment or context. Over the years, efforts have been made to enable cybernetic entities to be close to performing human perception tasks; and in general, to bring artificial intelligence closer to human intelligence.Neuroscience and other cognitive sciences provide evidence and explanations of the functioning of certain aspects of visual perception in the human brain. Visual perception is a complex process, and its has been divided into several parts. Object classification is one of those parts; it is necessary for carrying out the declarative interpretation of the environment. This article deals with the object classification problem.In this article, we propose a computational model of visual classification of objects based on neuroscience, it consists of two modular systems: a visual processing system, in charge of the extraction of characteristics; and a perception sub-system, which performs the classification of objects based on the features extracted by the visual processing system.With the results obtained, a set of aspects are analyzed using similarity and dissimilarity matrices. Also based on the neuroscientific evidence and the results obtained from this research, some aspects are suggested for consideration to improve the work in the future and bring us closer to performing the task of visual classification as humans do.     

The role of mental rotation in TetrisTM gameplay: An ACT-R computational cognitive model

The mental rotation ability is an essential spatial reasoning skill in human cognition and has proven to be an essential predictor of mathematical and STEM skills, critical and computational thinking. Despite its importance, little is known about when and how mental rotation processes are activated in games explicitly targeting spatial reasoning tasks. In particular, the relationship between spatial abilities and Tetris^TM has been analysed several times in the literature. However, these analyses have shown contrasting results between the effectiveness of Tetris-based training activities to improve mental rotation skills. In this work, we studied whether, and under what conditions, such ability is used in the Tetris^TM game by explicitly modelling mental rotation via an ACT-R based cognitive model controlling a virtual agent. The obtained results show meaningful insights into the activation of mental rotation during game dynamics. The study suggests the necessity to adapt game dynamics in order to force the activation of this process and, therefore, can be of inspiration to design learning activities based on Tetris^TM or re-design the game itself to improve its educational effectiveness.     

Personality traits associated with problematic and non-problematic massively multiplayer online role playing game use

This research investigated the associations between personality traits and both normal and problematic massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPGs) play, as measured by a self report scale. A total of 225 participants completed the online questionnaire, 66 of whom played MMORPGs. Correlational analyses indicated that low levels of functional impulsivity and agreeableness alongside high levels of verbal aggression and video game dependency were associated with greater amount of time spent playing MMORPGs. When comparing problematic and non-problematic MMORPG players directly, problematic players were found to be lower in self regulation, dysfunctional impulsivity and agreeableness, suggesting that these traits may be important in the development and maintenance of problematic MMORPG use.     

Levels of theory‐of‐mind reasoning in competitive games

The literature on recursive theory of mind (TOM) reasoning in interactive decision making (reasoning of the type “I think that you think that I think…”) has been pessimistic, suggesting that adults attribute to others levels of reasoning that are low and slow to increase with learning. In four experiments with college‐age adults playing sequential games, we examined whether choices and predictions were consistent with believing that others pursue their immediate self‐interest, or with believing that others reason through their own decision making, with fixed‐sum games that were simpler and more competitive. This manipulation led to higher‐level default TOM reasoning; indeed, reasoning against a lower‐level opponent was frequently consistent with assuming the opponent's reasoning to be higher‐level, leading to sub‐optimal choices. We conclude that TOM reasoning is not of a low level in all game settings; rather, individuals may display effective TOM reasoning, reflecting realistic assumptions about their opponents, in competitive and relatively simple games. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preference for online social interactions among young people: Direct and indirect effects of emotional intelligence

The social skills model of generalized problematic internet use predicts that individuals who perceive themselves as having low social competencies are at risk to develop a preference for online social interactions (POSI), which, in turn, might lead to compulsive use of Internet communication services. The present study aims to investigate if self-reported emotional intelligence (EI)—interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities—has an effect on POSI levels, and if this effect is mediated by the subjective importance attached to the major controllability (RC) and reduced non-verbal cues (RNVC) of computer mediated communication. 192 high schools and college students were recruited. Results from structural equation modeling show that Intrapersonal EI predicts both RC and RNVC, which, in turn, predicts the level of POSI. A partial mediation effect was found. On the other hand, Interpersonal EI is significantly associated with POSI, but this association cannot be explained by RC and RNVC. Its effect on POSI seems to be either direct or explained by variables not considered in the present study.     

Personality,Parental, and Media Influences on Aggressive Personality and Violent Crime in Young Adults

Debate remains regarding the interaction between predictor variables for aggression, including family environment, media violence, and personality. The current study examined the contributions of gender and personality, exposure to physical abuse and violence in the family, and exposure to media violence in both television and in video games on violent criminal activity. Data from young adults (n = 355) indicated that personality characteristics and direct physical abuse significantly predicted violent crime. Exposure to television and video game violence were not significant predictors of violent crime. These results elucidate the complex interplay between multiple factors related to the etiology of violent crime. These results also call into question the belief that media violence is involved in the etiology of violent crime.