The Effect of Prosody on Distributional Learning in 12‐ to 13‐Month‐Old Infants

Distributional information is a potential cue for learning syntactic categories. Recent studies demonstrate a developmental trajectory in the level of abstraction of distributional learning in young infants. Here we investigate the effect of prosody on infants' learning of adjacent relations between words. Twelve‐ to thirteen‐month‐old infants were exposed to an artificial language comprised of 3‐word‐sentences of the form aXb and cYd, where X and Y words differed in the number of syllables. Training sentences contained a prosodic boundary between either the first and the second word or the second and the third word. Subsequently, infants were tested on novel test sentences that contained new X and Y words and also contained a flat prosody with no grouping cues. Infants successfully discriminated between novel grammatical and ungrammatical sentences, suggesting that the learned adjacent relations can be abstracted across words and prosodic conditions. Under the conditions tested, prosody may be only a weak constraint on syntactic categorization. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social intuition as a form of implicit learning: Sequences of body movements are learned less explicitly than letter sequences

In the current paper, we first evaluate the suitability of traditional serial reaction time (SRT) and artificial grammar learning (AGL) experiments for measuring implicit learning of social signals. We then report the results of a novel sequence learning task which combines aspects of the SRT and AGL paradigms to meet our suggested criteria for how implicit learning experiments can be adapted to increase their relevance to situations of social intuition. The sequences followed standard finite-state grammars. Sequence learning and consciousness of acquired knowledge were compared between 2 groups of 24 participants viewing either sequences of individually presented letters or sequences of body-posture pictures, which were described as series of yoga movements. Participants in both conditions showed above-chance classification accuracy, indicating that sequence learning had occurred in both stimulus conditions. This shows that sequence learning can still be found when learning procedures reflect the characteristics of social intuition. Rule awareness was measured using trial-by-trial evaluation of decision strategy (Dienes & Scott, 2005; Scott & Dienes, 2008). For letters, sequence classification was best on trials where participants reported responding on the basis of explicit rules or memory, indicating some explicit learning in this condition. For body-posture, classification was not above chance on these types of trial, but instead showed a trend to be best on those trials where participants reported that their responses were based on intuition, familiarity, or random choice, suggesting that learning was more implicit. Results therefore indicate that the use of traditional stimuli in research on sequence learning might underestimate the extent to which learning is implicit in domains such as social learning, contributing to ongoing debate about levels of conscious awareness in implicit learning.     

Dissociable neural systems of sequence learning

Although current theories all point to distinct neural systems for sequence learning, no consensus has been reached on which factors crucially define this distinction. Dissociable judgment-linked versus motor-linked and implicit versus explicit neural systems have been proposed. This paper reviews these two distinctions, yet concludes that these traditional dichotomies prove insufficient to account for all data on sequence learning and its neural organization. Instead, a broader theoretical framework is necessary providing a more continuous means of dissociating sequence learning systems. We argue that a more recent theory, dissociating multidimensional versus unidimensional neural systems, might provide such framework, and we discuss this theory in relation to more general principles of associative learning and recent imaging findings.     

Hacia las máquinas conscientes

Resumen

Se propone un bosquejo de teoría para el estudio del fenómeno de la consciencia desde un punto de vista unificador—natural y artificial—basado en el análisis de la mente como un fenómeno de control. Se incluye una justificación de la investigación en consciencia artificial no como imitación mecánica de la consciencia natural, sino por las propiedades de que puede dotar a un sistema técnico. Se describe la evolución no biomimética de las estructuras básicas de control y se analizan las estrategias más actuales para el desarrollo de máquinas conscientes.     

If robots R–US,who am I: Online ‘Christian’ responses to artificial intelligence

In this paper, I present responses to GRIN technologies drawn from Christian posts on the Internet, to answer the following research questions: 1. Which approach to imago Dei informs the online Christian response to artificial intelligence and artificial life (AI/AL)? and 2. To what extent does the preference for a particular approach emerge from a desire to construct the Self? Drawing upon Herzfeld (2002) discussion of AI and theological approaches to understanding the meaning of imago Dei, or humankind made in the image of God, it is shown that the Christian response to AI and AL is elaborated mostly through the functionalist and substantive approaches. It also largely constructs the GRN future as a Hell scenario. With reference to Bhabha's postcolonial model of ambivalence, it is argued that this response is motivated by a desire to regain control over the discursive construction of the Self, which for some, is challenged by AI and AL.     

平面几何图形内隐学习的优势效应

在人工语法范式下,以平面几何图形为材料。探讨平面几何图形内隐和外显学习的特点,并增设性别变量以了解内隐和外显学习的性别差异。以108名在校大学生为被试,分内隐和外显学习组,每组男女各半。结果表明：1、指导语上不存在主效应,即平面几何图形内隐学习存在优势效应。2、性别变量不存在主效应,即男女在学习能力上性别差异不显著。3、单元变量上存在主效应,单元二的成绩好于单元一。实验结果再次证明了内隐学习优势效应的普遍存在。     

学习和记忆的无意识研究

内隐学习和内隐记忆的研究代表了人类学习和记忆的无意识过程。在过去的40年里,内隐学习和内隐记忆的研究经历了：研究对象从人工材料走向真实生活,理论观点从分离走向协同,研究方法从单一走向多样化,以及人工神经网络模型中学习和记忆过程的模拟等。它不仅对学习和记忆本身的心理机制得到了更多的理解,而且还为整个心理学特别是认知心理学的研究开辟了广阔的前景。具体表现为多重记忆的划分、无意识研究的异军突起、研究方法的突破扩展和交叉学科的融会贯通     

A performance comparison between shallow and deeper neural networks supervised classification of tomosynthesis breast lesions images

Computer Aided Decision (CAD) systems, based on 3D tomosynthesis imaging, could support radiologists in classifying different kinds of breast lesions and then improve the diagnosis of breast cancer (BC) with a lower X-ray dose than in Computer Tomography (CT) systems.In previous work, several Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architectures were evaluated to discriminate four different classes of lesions considering high-resolution images automatically segmented: (a) irregular opacity lesions, (b) regular opacity lesions, (c) stellar opacity lesions and (d) no-lesions. In this paper, instead, we use the same previously extracted relevant Regions of Interest (ROIs) containing the lesions, but we propose and evaluate two different approaches to better discriminate among the four classes.In this work, we evaluate and compare the performance of two different frameworks both considering supervised classifiers topologies. The first framework is feature-based, and consider morphological and textural hand-crafted features, extracted from each ROI, as input to optimised Artificial Neural Network (ANN) classifiers. The second framework, instead, considers non-neural classifiers based on automatically computed features evaluating the classification performance extracting several sets of features using different Convolutional Neural Network models.Final results show that the second framework, based on features computed automatically by CNN architectures performs better than the first approach, in terms of accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity.     

EXISTENTIAL HOPE AND EXISTENTIAL DESPAIR IN AI APOCALYPTICISM AND TRANSHUMANISM

Drawing on observations from on‐ and offline fieldwork among transhumanists and artificial superintelligence/singularity‐focused groups, this article will explore an anthropology of anxiety around the hoped for, or feared, posthuman future. It will lay out some of the varieties of existential hope and existential despair found in these discussions about predicted events such as the “end of the world” and place them within an anthropological theoretical framework. Two examples will be considered. First, the optimism observed at a transhumanist event will be examined to emphasize the positive affective aspects of certain apocalypse scenarios, especially those with an implicit eschatological direction. Second, an online location where examples of existential despair can be noted will be explored further to demonstrate the kinds of negative responses to certain superintelligence/singularity ideas. These examples of existential hope and despair will demonstrate the intrinsic role of anxiety in ideas about a future artificial intelligence apocalypse.     

内隐学习中的知识习得及其无意识性测量*

本研究采用经典的人工语法范式,并引入迁移任务探讨在记忆和规则探索两种指导语条件下,被试所习得的究竟是规则还是组块？同时采用结构知识主观测量的方法,对内隐学习习得知识的无意识性进行测量。结果发现记忆指导语条件下的被试能成功区分合法串和非法串,即出现语法学习效应,但规则探索指导语条件下的被试并没有表现出语法或组块学习效应,结构知识的主观测量发现这种内隐学习的优势效应主要来自无意识结构知识的贡献;在迁移研究中发现附带学习组和有意学习组均在迁移任务上表现出语法学习效应,这表明在人工语法学习中所获得的语法规则是抽象的和可迁移的。