1,721,021 research outputs found
Augmented societies with mirror worlds
No full textComputing systems can function as augmentation of individual humans as well as of human societies. In this contribution, we take mirror worlds as a conceptual blueprint to envision future smart environments in which the physical and the virtual layers are blended into each other. We suggest that pervasive computing technologies can be used to create a coupling between these layers, so that actions or, more generally, events in the physical layer would have an effect in the virtual layer and viceversa. On top of this, wearable technologies and augmented reality techniques enable new forms of user interaction with the smart environment and with other users. Mirror worlds so conceived will enable temporal, individual, and social augmentations. We conclude by elaborating on some possible consequences at the societal level
The mirror world: Preparing for mixed-reality living
No full textA new kind of smart space is emerging in which digital, physical, and social layers are strongly intertwined. These spaces extend the classic assistive functionality of ambient intelligence toward more proactive possibilities, where the smart environment not only monitors people as they perform tasks but also influences their plans and intentions. The authors explore this concept of the smart space as a mirror world, looking in particular at how it will affect our cognitive abilities and noting some of the research challenges that will need to be addressed. This department is part of a special issue on smart spaces
Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain
No full textThe capacity for abstract thought is one of the hallmarks of human cognition. However, the mechanisms underlying the ability to form and use abstract concepts like "fantasy" and "grace" have not been elucidated yet. This theme issue brings together developmental, social and cognitive psychologists, linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, philosophers, and computer scientists to present theoretical insights and novel evidence on how abstract concepts are acquired, used and represented in the brain. Many of the contributions conceive concepts as grounded in sensorimotor systems and constrained by bodily mechanisms and structures.
The theme issue develops along two main axes, related to the most promising research directions on abstract concepts. The axes focus on (1) the different kinds of abstract concepts (numbers, emotions, evaluative concepts like moral and aesthetic ones, social concepts); (2) the role played by perception and action, language and sociality, and inner processes (emotions, interoception, metacognition), in grounding abstract concepts. Most papers adopt a cognitive science / neuroscience approach, but the theme also includes studies on development, on social cognition, and on how linguistic diversity shapes abstract concepts. Overall, the theme issue provides an integrated theoretical account that highlights the importance of language, sociality, and inner processes for abstract concepts, and that offers new methodological tools to investigate them
Indici visivi e giudizi impliciti di proprietà. Uno studio sperimentale
No full textPsychological evidence has shown that even small children rely on a number of physical cues of agent-object relationship to determine objects’ ownership. These studies however typically assume that object-ownership is an abstract concept that is inferred from salient visual stimuli leaving open how such concept is represented. In two experiments, we used the same context to determine whether different visual cues (spatial proximity and temporal priority) ground the sense of object-ownership as measured by a sensibility judg-ment task. Results show that subjects were faster when the objects were located in the peripersonal space of the character to whom ownership was a scribed by the sentence and when there was a match between the “first finder ” and the sentence subject. Overall our data provide initial evidence that a basic sense of ownership is partially grounded in perceptual experiences
Abstract concepts, language and sociality. From acquisition to inner speech
Full text linkThe problem of representation of abstract concepts, such as “freedom” and “justice”, has become particularly crucial in recent years, due to the increased success of embodied and grounded views of cognition. We will present a novel view on abstract concepts and abstract words. Since abstract concepts do not have single objects as referents, children and adults might rely more on input from others in learning them; we therefore suggest that linguistic and social experience play an important role for abstract concepts. We will discuss evidence obtained in our and other labs showing that processing of abstract concepts evokes linguistic interaction and social experiences, leading to the activation of the mouth motor system. We will discuss the possible mechanisms that underlie this activation. Mouth activation can be due to re-enactment of the experience of conceptual acquisition, which occurred through the mediation of language. Alternatively, it could be due to the re-explanation of the word meaning, possibly through inner speech. Finally, it can be due to a metacognitive process revealing low confidence on the meaning of our concepts. This process induces in us the need to rely on others to ask/negotiate conceptual meaning. We conclude that with abstract concepts words work as social tools: they extend our thinking abilities and push us to rely on others to integrate our knowledge
What I See is What You Say: Coordination in a Shared Environment with Behavioral Implicit Communication
No full textCoordination between multiple autonomous agents is a major issue for open multi-agent systems. This paper proposes the notion of Behavioral Implicit Communication (BIC) originally devised in human and animal societies as a different and critical coordination mechanism also for artificial agents. BIC is a parasitical form of communication that exploits both some environmental properties and the agents’ capacity to interpret each other's actions. In this paper we abstract from the agents' architecture to focus on the interaction mediated by the environment. To implement BIC in artificial societies two environmental properties are necessary: the “observability” of the software agents' actions and the “traceability” of the environment. The goal of this paper is to address the first property defining a model of observation mediated by the environment. From the viewpoint of the agents, a crucial distinction is proposed between the environment and the artifacts they can use. Both the environment and the artifacts can affect the visibility of agents in several respects and facilitate different forms of implicit communication between them. A typology of environments and examples of observation based coordination with and without implicit communication are described
Cues of control modulate the ascription of object ownership
Full text linkKnowing whether an object is owned and by whom is essential to avoid costly conflicts. We hypothesize that everyday interactions around objects are influenced by a minimal sense of object ownership grounded on respect of possession. In particular, we hypothesize that tracking object ownership can be influenced by any cue that predicts
the establishment of individual physical control over objects. To test this hypothesis we used an indirect method to determine whether visual cues of physical control like spatial proximity to an object, temporal priority in seeing it, and touching it influence this minimal sense of object ownership. In Experiment 1 participants were shown neutral object located on a table, in the reaching space of one of two characters. In Experiment 2 one character found the object first; then another character appeared and saw the object. In Experiments 3 and 4, spatial proximity, temporal priority, and touch are pitted against each other to assess their relative weight. After having seen the scenes, participants were required to judge the sensibility of sentences in which ownership of the object was ascribed to one of the two characters. Responses were faster when the objects were located in the reaching space of the characterto whom ownership was ascribed in the sentence and when ownership was ascribed to the character who finds the object first. When contrasting the relevant cues, results indicate that touch is stronger than temporal priority in modulating the ascription of object ownership. However, all these effects were also influenced by contextual social cues like the gender of both characters and participants, the presence of a third-party observer, and the co-presence of characters. Consistent with our hypothesis, our results provide evidence that many different cues of physical control influence the ascription of ownership in daily social contexts
A Conceptual Framework for Self-Organising MAS
No full textIn this seminal paper, we sketch a general conceptual framework for self-organising systems (SOSs) that encompasses both stigmergy and MAS coordination, and potentially promotes models of self-organisation for MASs where interaction between cognitive agents is mediated by the environment, by means of artifacts provided by the agent infrastructure. Along this line, we first introduce the notions of Behavioural Implicit Communication (BIC) as a generalisation of stigmergy, and of shared environment (s-env) as a MAS environment promoting forms of observation-based coordination (such as BIC-based ones) that exploit cognitive capabilities of intelligent agents to achieve MAS self-organisation
Coordination Artifacts: Environment-based Coordination for Intelligent Agents
No full textDirect interaction and explicit communication are not always the best approaches for achieving coherent systemic behaviour in the context of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). This is evident when taking into account recent approaches dealing with environment-based coordination such as stigmergy and, more generally, mediated interaction. In this paper we propose a conceptual, formal and engineering framework based on the notion of coordination artifact, which aims at generally systematising implicit communication and environment-based coordination for heterogeneous, possibly intelligent agents. The features and benefits of our approach are exemplified in the Follow-me situation, where an agent's action/plan is considered as a model for the action/plan of other agents. We model this class of problems in terms of coordination artifacts, from simple to more challenging cases, stressing the advantages with respect to more “standard” MAS approaches
“Exhibitionists” and “Voyeurs” do it better: A Shared Environment Approach for Flexible Coordination with Tacit Messages
No full textCoordination between multiple autonomous agents is a major issue for open multi-agent systems. This paper proposes the notion of Behavioural Implicit Communication (BIC) originally devised in human and animal societies as a new and critical coordination mechanism also for artificial agents. BIC is a parasitical form of communication that exploits both some environmental properties and the agents' capacity to interpret their actions. In this paper we abstract from the agents' architecture to focus on the interaction mediated by the environment. Observability of the environment — and in particular of agents' actions — is crucial for implementing BIC-based form of coordination in artificial societies. Accordingly in this paper we introduce an abstract model of environment providing services to enhance observation power of agents, enabling BIC and other form of observation-based coordination. Also, we describe a typology of environments and examples of observation based coordination with and without implicit communication
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