scholarly journals Memory inception and preservation in slime moulds: the quest for a common mechanism

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1774) ◽  
pp. 20180368 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Boussard ◽  
J. Delescluse ◽  
A. Pérez-Escudero ◽  
A. Dussutour
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Cognitive Architectures ◽  
Dormant Stage ◽  
Dormancy Period ◽  
Slime Moulds ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Optimal Decision Making ◽  
Past Experiences

Learning and memory are indisputably key features of animal success. Using information about past experiences is critical for optimal decision-making in a fluctuating environment. Those abilities are usually believed to be limited to organisms with a nervous system, precluding their existence in non-neural organisms. However, recent studies showed that the slime mouldPhysarum polycephalum, despite being unicellular, displays habituation, a simple form of learning. In this paper, we studied the possible substrate of both short- and long-term habituation in slime moulds. We habituated slime moulds to sodium, a known repellent, using a 6 day training and turned them into a dormant state named sclerotia. Those slime moulds were then revived and tested for habituation. We showed that information acquired during the training was preserved through the dormant stage as slime moulds still showed habituation after a one-month dormancy period. Chemical analyses indicated a continuous uptake of sodium during the process of habituation and showed that sodium was retained throughout the dormant stage. Lastly, we showed that memory inception via constrained absorption of sodium for 2 h elicited habituation. Our results suggest that slime moulds absorbed the repellent and used it as a ‘circulating memory’.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Liquid brains, solid brains: How distributed cognitive architectures process information’.

Markov Decision Models for Optimal Decision Making in Bottlenecks Identification and Mitigation

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Li ◽  
Qing Chang ◽  
Xiaoning Jin ◽  
Jun Ni
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Policy ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Stochastic Methods ◽  
Bottleneck Analysis ◽  
Markov Decision Models ◽  
Markov Decision ◽  
Optimal Decision Making

Existing methods for bottleneck detection can be categorized into two: methods based on stochastic analysis and methods based on data-driven analysis. The stochastic methods are accurate in estimating bottlenecks in long term, ignoring the current improvement opportunities, while the data-driven methods tend to do the opposite. In this paper, we develop an optimal policy to integrate the two methods based on Markov decision theory. The characterization of the optimal policy is provided. In addition, to implement the policy, the optimal frequency for carrying out bottleneck analysis is investigated. Numerical experiment is performed to validate the effectiveness of the optimal policy and compare it to the existing methods.

scholarly journals MERLIN a Cognitive Architecture for Service Robots

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 5989
Author(s):  
Miguel Á. González-Santamarta ◽  
Francisco J. Rodríguez-Lera ◽  
Claudia Álvarez-Aparicio ◽  
Ángel M. Guerrero-Higueras ◽  
Camino Fernández-Llamas
Keyword(s):  
Operating System ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Service Robots ◽  
Hybrid Architecture ◽  
Cognitive Architectures ◽  
Robot Operating System ◽  
Robot Behavior ◽  
Short And Long Term

Many social robots deployed in public spaces hide hybrid cognitive architectures for dealing with daily tasks. Mostly, two main blocks sustain these hybrid architectures for robot behavior generation: deliberative and behavioral-based mechanisms. Robot Operating System offers different solutions for implementing these blocks, however, some issues arise when both are released in the robot. This paper presents a software engineering approach for normalizing the process of integrating them and presenting them as a fully cognitive architecture named MERLIN. Providing implementation details and diagrams for established the architecture, this research tests empirically the proposed solution using a variation from the challenge defined in the SciRoc @home competition. The results validate the usability of our approach and show MERLIN as a hybrid architecture ready for short and long-term tasks, showing better results than using a by default approach, particularly when it is deployed in highly interactive scenarios.

scholarly journals Rats exhibit similar biases in foraging and intertemporal choice tasks

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A Kane ◽  
Aaron M Bornstein ◽  
Amitai Shenhav ◽  
Robert C Wilson ◽  
Nathaniel D Daw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Hyperbolic Discounting ◽  
Time Preferences ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Similar Time ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Choice Tasks ◽  
Exponential Discounting

Animals, including humans, consistently exhibit myopia in two different contexts: foraging, in which they harvest locally beyond what is predicted by optimal foraging theory, and intertemporal choice, in which they exhibit a preference for immediate vs. delayed rewards beyond what is predicted by rational (exponential) discounting. Despite the similarity in behavior between these two contexts, previous efforts to reconcile these observations in terms of a consistent pattern of time preferences have failed. Here, via extensive behavioral testing and quantitative modeling, we show that rats exhibit similar time preferences in both contexts: they prefer immediate vs. delayed rewards and they are sensitive to opportunity costs of delays to future decisions. Further, a quasi-hyperbolic discounting model, a form of hyperbolic discounting with separate components for short- and long-term rewards, explains individual rats’ time preferences across both contexts, providing evidence for a common mechanism for myopic behavior in foraging and intertemporal choice.

scholarly journals Rats exhibit similar biases in foraging and intertemporal choice tasks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A. Kane ◽  
Aaron M. Bornstein ◽  
Amitai Shenhav ◽  
Robert C. Wilson ◽  
Nathaniel D. Daw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intertemporal Choice ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Hyperbolic Discounting ◽  
Time Preferences ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Similar Time ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Choice Tasks ◽  
Exponential Discounting

AbstractAnimals, including humans, consistently exhibit myopia in two different contexts: foraging, in which they harvest locally beyond what is predicted by optimal foraging theory, and intertemporal choice, in which they exhibit a preference for immediate vs. delayed rewards beyond what is predicted by rational (exponential) discounting. Despite the similarity in behavior between these two contexts, previous efforts to reconcile these observations in terms of a consistent pattern of time preferences have failed. Here, via extensive behavioral testing and quantitative modeling, we show that rats exhibit similar time preferences in both contexts: they prefer immediate vs. delayed rewards and they are sensitive to opportunity costs — delays to future decisions. Further, a quasi-hyperbolic discounting model, a form of hyperbolic discounting with separate components for short-and long-term rewards, explains individual rats’ time preferences across both contexts, providing evidence for a common mechanism for myopic behavior in foraging and intertemporal choice.

scholarly journals Sustainable organizational development and reflection: A good combination?

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 364-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marita Naudé
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Development ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Global Business ◽  
Business Environments ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Innovative Resources ◽  
Past Experiences

In the current global business environment companies continually face a range of very complex and multi-faceted challenges. Consequently, directors, members of corporate boards and managers need to implement innovative resources, capabilities and strategies to ensure both short and long term success and survival. One possible strategy is a tridimensional approach to Sustainable Development (SD) which includes economic, social and environmental dimensions at an equal level combined with practical SD initiatives, programs and strategies. In addition, reflection is a crucial skill in fast changing business environments as managers and practitioners who use reflection take more thoughtful, purposeful and value-driven action. The author accepts that reflection is a deliberate and complex analytical process to integrate knowledge with the demands of the situation as part of innovative practice, to integrate past experiences and consider influence of future hopes and fears to open a range of possible alternatives while simultaneously taking into account other people’s perspectives. The paper highlights the possibility to combine SD and reflection and describes generic guidelines to enhance practical implementation and highlights both management and research implications relevant to a practical context.

scholarly journals Uncertainty and Demand for Insurance: A Theoretical Model of How Self-Control Manages the Optimal Decision-Making

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Adamo ◽  
Andrea P. Malizia
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Insurance Sector ◽  
Demand For Insurance ◽  
Choice Making ◽  
Optimal Decision Making ◽  
The Individual

With the present work, we aim to mark a beginning line on the study of decision-making of potential consumers in the insurance sector, with the long-term purpose of defining the optimal cognitive processes to be undertaken when deciding whether to purchase insurance or not. Decision-making in conditions of uncertainty is influenced by the dual-self model doers/planner integrated with the hot–cold states and prospect utility function. Thus, we present a theoretical model of choice-making to evaluate the level of optimal self-control necessary to be exerted if the individual is either in the hot or in the cold state depending on the arousal. This theoretical choice-making model lays the ground for the decision journey by following the long-term utility and avoiding gross mistakes that could lead the consumer not to insure, when the odds suggest doing it, or vice versa, in situations when it would not be necessary.

Short- and Long-Term Results of Total vs Subtotal Thyroid- ectomies in the Surgical Treatment of Graves' Disease

Swiss Surgery ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert ◽  
Mariéthoz ◽  
Pache ◽  
Bertin ◽  
Caulfield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve ◽  
Nerve Palsy ◽  
Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Palsy ◽  
Laryngeal Nerve ◽  
Long Term Results ◽  
Graves Disease ◽  
Laryngeal Nerve Palsy ◽  
Short And Long Term

Objective: Approximately one out of five patients with Graves' disease (GD) undergoes a thyroidectomy after a mean period of 18 months of medical treatment. This retrospective and non-randomized study from a teaching hospital compares short- and long-term results of total (TT) and subtotal thyroidectomies (ST) for this disease. Methods: From 1987 to 1997, 94 patients were operated for GD. Thirty-three patients underwent a TT (mostly since 1993) and 61 a ST (keeping 4 to 8 grams of thyroid tissue - mean 6 g). All patients had received propylthiouracil and/or neo-mercazole and were in a euthyroid state at the time of surgery; they also took potassium iodide (lugol) for ten days before surgery. Results: There were no deaths. Transient hypocalcemia (< 3 months) occurred in 32 patients (15 TT and 17 ST) and persistent hypocalcemia in 8 having had TT. Two patients developed transient recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy after ST (< 3 months). After a median follow-up period of seven years (1-15) with five patients lost to follow-up, 41 patients having had a ST are in a hypothyroid state (73%), thirteen are euthyroid (23%), and two suffered recurrent hyperthyroidism, requiring completion of thyroidectomy. All 33 patients having had TT - with follow-ups averaging two years (0.5-8) - are receiving thyroxin substitution. Conclusions: There were no instances of persistent recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy in either group, but persistent hypoparathyroidism occurred more frequently after TT. Long after ST, hypothyroidism developed in nearly three of four cases, whereas euthyroidy was maintained in only one-fourth; recurrent hyperthyroidy was rare.

Short- and long-term memory tasks predict working memory performance, and vice versa.

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Neath ◽  
Jean Saint-Aubin ◽  
Tamra J. Bireta ◽  
Andrew J. Gabel ◽  
Chelsea G. Hudson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Short And Long Term
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