Graph-based ontology reasoning for formal verification of BREEAM rules

Globally, the need to check regulation compliance for sustainability has become central in the delivery of construction projects. This is partly due to policies by various governments requiring existing and new buildings to comply with certain standards or regulations. However, the verification of whether a building complies with any particular standard or regulation has proven challenging in practice. The purpose of formal verification is to prove that under a certain set of assumptions, a building will adhere to a certain set of requirements, for example the minimum performance standards of key environmental issues. Compliance checking requires different criteria often difficult to straightforwardly define and combine in an integrated fashion for providing holistic interpretation to facilitate easy decision-making. Such criteria, their various flows and combinations can easily be dealt with using conceptual graph theories and Semantic Web concepts which allow rules to be imbued to facilitate reasoning. The aim of this study is to tap on conceptual graphs and Semantic Web concepts to develop a system for checking Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) sustainability standard compliance in the French construction industry. A conceptual graph-based framework that formally describes BREEAM requirements and visually analyse compliance checking processes has been proposed. When implemented in a software that integrates conceptual graphs and Semantic Web knowledge, automatic reasoning allows both the logical specification and the visual interpretation to be displayed and further provides a semantic support for compliance checking information.     

Is ideology the enemy of inquiry? Examining the link between political orientation and lack of interest in novel data

Four studies examined the relationship between political orientation and data selection. In each study participants were given the opportunity to select data from a large data set addressing a specific issue: the justness of the world (Pilot Study), the efficacy of social safety nets (Studies 1–3), and the benefits of social media (Study 3). Participants were given no knowledge of what the data would tell them in advance. More conservative participants selected less data, and in Study 3 this relationship was partly accounted for by an increased tendency to question the value of science as a way of learning about the world. These findings may reveal one factor contributing to political polarization: an asymmetrical interest in scientific data.     

Learning to search: From weak methods to domain-specific heuristics

Learning from experience involves three distinct components—generating behavior, assigning credit, and modifying behavior. We discuss these components in the context of learning search heuristics, along with the types of learning that can occur. We then focus on SAGE, a system that improves its search strategies with practice. The program is implemented as a production system, and learns by creating and strengthening rules for proposing moves. SAGE incorporates five different heuristics for assigning credit and blame, and employs a discrimination process to direct its search through the space of rules. The system has shown its generality by learning heuristics for directing search in six different task domains. In addition to improving its search behavior on practice problems, SAGE is able to transfer its expertise to scaled-up versions of a task, and in one case, transfers its acquired search strategy to problems with different initial and goal states.     

Identification and conceptualization of procedural chunks in chess

When it comes to cognitive architecture and human information processing, chunks are one of the best known and most recognized constructs. Nevertheless, the nature of chunks is still very elusive, especially when it comes to chunks in procedural knowledge. This study deals with basic features of procedural information processing and examines the manifestation of chunks in procedural knowledge. The participants' task was to reconstruct sequences of chess moves. Chess was chosen as an experimental domain, because of its complexity, well-defined rules and standardized measure of chess player strength. From the results we conclude that short-term memory capacity is determined by the combination of the size and amount of procedural chunks recalled to the short-term memory. We have shown that on average, participants with more specialized knowledge operated faster and with larger chunks of procedural information than participants with less specialized knowledge. We have shown that in procedural information processing, the level of expertise and the sorting order of the retrieved information are important factors that influence the amount of procedural chunks retained in the short-term memory. Therefore, the capacity of short-term memory in complex situations cannot be expressed as a simple concept.     

The Influence of Unrestricted Information Exchange on Willingness to Share Information With Outsiders

This study addressed how engaging in different forms of information exchange within a group is related to group members' willingness to share risk information with outsiders. Drawing from social exchange theories, we focused on 3 unrestricted forms of information exchange: pure‐generalized, group‐generalized, and productive. We hypothesized that individuals' intentions to share information with outsiders would be associated positively with engagement in pure or group‐generalized exchanges and negatively with productive exchange. The hypotheses were supported with data from a national survey of U.S. growers (N = 452) that examined their information‐sharing behaviors with other parties inside and outside their local region. The findings have broad implications for understanding information sharing within and across groups.     

The relationship between information processing style and information seeking,and its moderation by affect and perceived usefulness: Analysis vs. procrastination

We examined the relationship between information processing style and information seeking, and its moderation by anxiety and information utility. Information about Salmonella, a potentially commonplace disease, was presented to 2960 adults. Two types of information processing were examined: preferences for analytical or heuristic processing, and preferences for immediate or delayed processing. Information seeking was captured by measuring the number of additional pieces of information sought by participants. Preferences for analytical information processing were associated positively and directly with information seeking. Heuristic information processing was associated negatively and directly with information seeking. The positive relationship between preferences for delayed decision making and information seeking was moderated by anxiety and by information utility. Anxiety reduced the tendency to seek additional information. Information utility increased the likelihood of information seeking. The findings indicate that low levels of anxiety could prompt information seeking. However, information seeking occurred even when information was perceived as useful and sufficient, suggesting that it can be a form of procrastination rather than a useful contribution to effective decision making.     

Factors affecting perceived safety and enjoyment based on driver experience

A positive driving experience, especially for older drivers, increases the attention to the emotional dimensions of driving, such as the driver’s perceived safety. Therefore, this study empirically presents factors affecting driver experience and compares them between older and younger drivers. Consequently, we conducted a face-to-face survey on elderly and young drivers and analyzed the data of 246 drivers using structural equation modeling. The analysis presented measurements and structural model evaluations. Considering the analysis, it was found that driving-related information and car-exterior context affect the perceived safety and enjoyment of a driver’s experience. Additionally, car-exterior context exerts a greater influence on the perceived safety and enjoyment of the elderly drivers’ group than the young drivers’ group. The results of this study will empirically contribute to the satisfaction of driver experience and perceived safety improvement in the future. It also provides a basis for the development of driving interfaces to improve the quality of the driving experience of the elderly.