Empirical and modeling study of emotional state dynamics in social videogame paradigms

The objective of this work was to study the dynamics of human emotional states in the process of social interaction in a virtual environment. The previously developed for this purpose prototypes of the virtual actor (NPC) and its virtual environment simulator “Teleport” underwent significant re-design and modification. The experimental platform was re-implemented and used in experiments with college student participants, combining electromyography, emotion recognition in facial recordings and model-based game log analysis in a social videogame paradigm. Participants interacted with two virtual actors implemented based on the eBICA cognitive architecture (Samsonovich, 2013, 2018). Positive correlations were found between eBICA model predictions and participant affects extracted from their facial expressions and facial muscle activity. Affective dynamics of social phenomena, such as the establishment of partnership or an act of betrayal, were characterized and found consistent with the model predictions. Other findings include a gradually developing emotional reaction, possibly due to the integration of appraisals of game events. Overall, obtained results confirm the eBICA model, suggesting its further extension and refinement.     

A real‐world rational agent: unifying old and new AI

Explanations of cognitive processes provided by traditional artificial intelligence were based on the notion of the knowledge level. This perspective has been challenged by new AI that proposes an approach based on embodied systems that interact with the real‐world. We demonstrate that these two views can be unified. Our argument is based on the assumption that knowledge level explanations can be defined in the context of Bayesian theory while the goals of new AI are captured by using a well established robot based model of learning and problem solving, called Distributed Adaptive Control (DAC). In our analysis we consider random foraging and we prove that minor modifications of the DAC architecture renders a model that is equivalent to a Bayesian analysis of this task. Subsequently, we compare this enhanced, “rational,” model to its “non‐rational” predecessor and a further control condition using both simulated and real robots, in a variety of environments. Our results show that the changes made to the DAC architecture, in order to unify the perspectives of old and new AI, also lead to a significant improvement in random foraging.     

Drivers’ self-reported responses to a potentially realistic fabricated road sign message

This article seeks to understand the potential response of drivers when they encounter compromised Dynamic Message Signs (DMS). The findings are built on the self-reported response of 4,706 participants in a Stated Preference (SP) survey conducted between November 2018 and December 2018 in the United States. The findings show the response of drivers to the “Downtown Under Terrorist Attack” message falls into route divergence, speed change, and distraction, and the likelihood of route divergence, distraction, and a slowdown is significantly more than either stopping or speeding up. The possibility of a response, however, varies depending on socioeconomic characteristics, attitudinal characteristics, and driving behavior. It is highlighted (1) female and young drivers are more probable to detour, to change speed, or to be distracted, (2) drivers who are familiar with DMS, encounter it frequently, or pay attention to its content, have a higher chance of detouring or changing speed, while they are less likely to be distracted, and (3) technology-friendly drivers are likely to detour or slow down. From the distraction model, it is further inferred that drivers are distracted cognitively, visually, and manually. The findings have implications for researchers and federal, state, and local agencies who are aware of the consequences of cybersecurity threats for the operation and profitability of the transport network. They, for example, assist transport planners in prioritizing equipment security efforts and resource allocation to the areas of greatest risk, and help to prepare contingency plans based on drivers’ behavioral response.     

Design and Sociocultural Evolution: Theoretical and Practical Considerations

The two approaches described here may clarify the role of design in sociocultural evolution by making best use of information already available. The first, holistic in nature, explores possible advantages of a convergence between the design, systems, and social evolution communities which, to date, have worked largely in isolation of one another. The benefits of juxtaposing the three disciplines are examined by reviewing three works on social evolution for their insights into design practice. The second approach is reductionist in nature, and proposes working across the evolutionary literatures of disciplines contiguous with design, again in order to quickly inform design practice. The two approaches are considered complementary rather than exclusionary.     

道德决策快的智能机器让人更信任：能力感知的中介作用

本研究旨在探究智能机器的道德决策速度是否以及如何影响人们对其的信任程度。研究分别以智能机器与人类为道德决策主体,采用2（决策速度）×2（决策内容）的被试间设计进行研究发现,对于智能机器和人类,道德性决策均会使人们对其信任,而快速道德决策提高了人们对智能机器的信任程度;此外,研究发现能力感知是智能机器道德决策速度影响人们对其信任程度的中介机制。研究表明人们对智能机器与人类的道德决策速度知觉存在差异。     

Metaphilosophical Criteria for Worldview Comparison

Philosophy lacks criteria to evaluate its philosophical theories. To fill this gap, this essay introduces nine criteria to compare worldviews, classified in three broad categories: objective criteria (objective consistency, scientificity, scope), subjective criteria (subjective consistency, personal utility, emotionality), and intersubjective criteria (intersubjective consistency, collective utility, narrativity). The essay first defines what a worldview is and exposes the heuristic used in the quest for criteria. After describing each criterion individually, it shows what happens when each of them is violated. From the criteria, it derives assessment tests to compare and improve different worldviews. These include the is‐ought, ought‐act, and is‐act first‐order tests; the critical and dialectical second‐order tests; the mixed‐questions and first‐second‐order third‐order tests; and the we‐I, we‐it, and it‐I tests. The essay then applies these criteria and tests to a concrete example, comparing the Flying Spaghetti Monster deity with Intelligent Design. For another application, it draws more general fruitful suggestions for the dialogue between science and religion.     

Subjective judgements influencing Christian beliefs about biological origins

Christians hold divergent views about cosmological and biological origins. Creationists read the early chapters of the Biblical book of Genesis literally, postulating a young earth and a limited role for mutation and natural selection in the development of biological diversity. Theistic Evolutionists accept current scientific accounts of biological evolution, seeing these processes as the mechanisms of God’s creative purpose. Advocates of Intelligent Design doubt whether the complexity and fitness-for-purpose of many aspects of the physical and biological world could have come about without the intervention of a Designer.

Examining the basis of these positions could help their adherents to be less zealous and divisive. Creationists could accept that their beliefs arise not principally from science, but from their hermeneutic stance, and that this stance is not necessarily correct, nor integral to receiving the Bible's theological teaching. Theistic Evolutionists could accept that excluding the possibility of God directly intervening at points in prehistory is illogical, given their belief in the incarnation, miracles and the efficacy of prayer.

The Creationist and Theistic Evolution positions share a strong desire to defend God’s honour and a sense that they more comfortably fit an authentic picture of God. These powerful affective judgements, while not irrational, do not constitute compelling logical arguments. A dispassionate evaluation of their validity and strength could be of much benefit. Advocates of Intelligent Design could admit that scepticism about the adequacy of current scientific explanations does not logically entail an insistence that direct intervention by a designer must have occurred: the explanatory power of science has been underestimated before. All parties are encouraged to accept that a detailed account of biological history is inaccessible and likely to remain so. A due humility is commended.     

AN ALGORITHMIC INFORMATION THEORY CHALLENGE TO INTELLIGENT DESIGN

William Dembski claims to have established a decision process to determine when highly unlikely events observed in the natural world are due to Intelligent Design. This article argues that, as no implementable randomness test is superior to a universal Martin‐Löf test, this test should be used to replace Dembski's decision process. Furthermore, Dembski's decision process is flawed, as natural explanations are eliminated before chance. Dembski also introduces a fourth law of thermodynamics, his “law of conservation of information,” to argue that information cannot increase by natural processes. However, this article, using algorithmic information theory, shows that this law is no more than the second law of thermodynamics. The article concludes that any discussions on the possibilities of design interventions in nature should be articulated in terms of the algorithmic information theory approach to randomness and its robust decision process.     

Reporting a program evaluation: Needs,program plan,intervention, and decisions

The approach to intervention programs varies depending on the methodological perspective adopted. This means that health professionals lack clear guidelines regarding how best to proceed, and it hinders the accumulation of knowledge. The aim of this paper is to set out the essential and common aspects that should be included in any program evaluation report, thereby providing a useful guide for the professional regardless of the procedural approach used. Furthermore, the paper seeks to integrate the different methodologies and illustrate their complementarity, this being a key aspect in terms of real intervention contexts, which are constantly changing. The aspects to be included are presented in relation to the main stages of the evaluation process: needs, objectives and design (prior to the intervention), implementation (during the intervention), and outcomes (after the intervention). For each of these stages the paper describes the elements on which decisions should be based, highlighting the role of empirical evidence gathered through the application of instruments to defined samples and according to a given procedure.