A CONNECTIONIST ABM OF SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION PROCESSES

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (06) ◽  
pp. 1250077 ◽  
Author(s):  
DIRK VAN ROOY
Keyword(s):  
Social Influence ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Extensive Research Program ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

This paper introduces a connectionist Agent-Based Model (cABM) that incorporates detailed, micro-level understanding of social influence processes derived from laboratory studies and that aims to contextualize these processes in such a way that it becomes possible to model multidirectional, dynamic influences in extended social networks. At the micro-level, agent processes are simulated by recurrent auto-associative networks, an architecture that has a proven ability to simulate a variety of individual psychological and memory processes [D. Van Rooy, F. Van Overwalle, T. Vanhoomissen, C. Labiouse and R. French, Psychol. Rev. 110, 536 (2003)]. At the macro-level, these individual networks are combined into a "community of networks" so that they can exchange their individual information with each other by transmitting information on the same concepts from one net to another. This essentially creates a network structure that reflects a social system in which (a collection of) nodes represent individual agents and the links between agents the mutual social influences that connect them [B. Hazlehurst, and E. Hutchins, Lang. Cogn. Process. 13, 373 (1998)]. The network structure itself is dynamic and shaped by the interactions between the individual agents through simple processes of social adaptation. Through simulations, the cABM generates a number of novel predictions that broadly address three main issues: (1) the consequences of the interaction between multiple sources and targets of social influence (2) the dynamic development of social influence over time and (3) collective and individual opinion trajectories over time. Some of the predictions regarding individual level processes have been tested and confirmed in laboratory experiments. In a extensive research program, data is currently being collected from real groups that will allow validating the predictions of cABM regarding aggregate outcomes.

Personality change and environmental concerns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher James Hopwood ◽  
Ted Schwaba ◽  
Wiebke Bleidorn
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
German Population ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Sustainable Behavior ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

Personal concerns about climate change and the environment are a powerful motivator of sustainable behavior. People’s level of concern varies as a function of a variety of social and individual factors. Using data from 58,748 participants from a nationally representative German sample, we tested preregistered hypotheses about factors that impact concerns about the environment over time. We found that environmental concerns increased modestly from 2009-2017 in the German population. However, individuals in middle adulthood tended to be more concerned and showed more consistent increases in concern over time than younger or older people. Consistent with previous research, Big Five personality traits were correlated with environmental concerns. We present novel evidence that increases in concern were related to increases in the personality traits neuroticism and openness to experience. Indeed, changes in openness explained roughly 50% of the variance in changes in environmental concerns. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the individual level factors associated with changes in environmental concerns over time, towards the promotion of more sustainable behavior at the individual level.

Perceived marketization in Poland: Translating key concepts of institutional anomie theory to the micro level

2021 ◽  
pp. 147737082199685
Author(s):  
Jacek Bieliński ◽  
Andreas Hövermann
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Institutional Anomie Theory ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Anomie Theory ◽  
Representative Random Sample ◽  
Order Factor ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
The Individual

Institutional anomie theory (IAT) describes the potentially criminogenic impact of economically dominated social institutions. Although originally cast at the macro level of society, more efforts have emerged lately to capture the IAT framework on the individual level, resulting in a need for appropriate measures representing the presumed marketization processes. Our study addresses this need by offering a theoretically derived, comprehensive measure of the individual-level instantiation of an anomic culture depicted in IAT, that is, ‘marketized mentality’. Structural equation models testing for the single higher-order factor marketized mentality are calculated with a representative random sample of Poland’s population. Finally, the implications and limitations resulting from the analyses are discussed.

Canada’s changing innovation landscape

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Razib Alam ◽  
Bonwoo Koo ◽  
Brian Paul Cozzarin
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Destination Country ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Patent Classification ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Our objective is to study Canada’s patenting activity over time in aggregate terms by destination country, by assignee and destination country, and by diversification by country of destination. We collect bibliographic patent data from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We identify 19,957 matched Canada–US patents, 34,032 Canada-only patents, and 43,656 US-only patents from 1980 to 2014. Telecommunications dominates in terms of International Patent Classification technologies for US-only and Canada–US patents. At the firm level, the greatest number of matched Canada–US patents were granted in the field of telecommunications, at the university level in pharmaceuticals, at the government level in control and instrumentation technology, and at the individual level in civil engineering. We use entropy to quantify technological diversification and find that diversification indices decline over time for Canada and the USA; however, all US indices decline at a faster rate.

Simulating an Incentive Framework for Scientific Production by Means of Adaptive Agents

2014 ◽  
pp. 221-238
Author(s):  
Gabriel Franklin ◽  
Tibérius O. Bonates
Keyword(s):  
Incentive Mechanism ◽  
Scientific Production ◽  
Agent Based Simulation ◽  
Adaptive Agents ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Original Target ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Individual

This chapter describes an agent-based simulation of an incentive mechanism for scientific production. In the proposed framework, a central agency is responsible for devising and enforcing a policy consisting of performance-based incentives in an attempt to induce a global positive behavior of a group of researchers, in terms of number and type of scientific publications. The macro-level incentive mechanism triggers micro-level actions that, once intensified by social interactions, lead to certain patterns of behavior from individual agents (researchers). Positive reinforcement from receiving incentives (as well as negative reinforcement from not receiving them) shape the behavior of agents in the course of the simulation. The authors show, by means of computational experiments, that a policy devised to act at the individual level might induce a single global behavior that can, depending on the values of certain parameters, be distinct from the original target and have an overall negative effect. The agent-based simulation provides an objective way of assessing the quantitative effect that different policies might induce on the behavior of individual researchers when it comes to their preferences regarding scientific publications.

scholarly journals Discordant Chronic Conditions and Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Associations Among Middle-Aged and Older Couples

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney A Polenick ◽  
Kira S Birditt ◽  
Angela Turkelson ◽  
Benjamin C Bugajski ◽  
Helen C Kales
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Marital Quality ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Older Couples ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Objectives Individuals often manage chronic conditions in middle and later life that may diminish well-being. Little is known, however, about discordant conditions (i.e., two or more conditions with competing self-management requirements) among older couples and their links to depressive symptoms. We considered discordant conditions at both the individual level and the couple level (i.e., between spouses), along with their long-term implications for depressive symptoms. Methods The U.S. sample included 1,116 middle-aged and older couples drawn from five waves (2006–2014) of the Health and Retirement Study. Longitudinal actor-partner interdependence models evaluated whether individual-level and couple-level discordant chronic health conditions were concurrently linked to depressive symptoms, and whether these associations became stronger over time. Models controlled for age, minority status, education, prior wave depressive symptoms, and each partner’s baseline report of negative marital quality and number of chronic conditions in each wave. Results Wives and husbands reported significantly greater depressive symptoms when they had individual-level discordant conditions about 2 years after baseline, and these links intensified over time. Beyond this association, husbands had significantly greater depressive symptoms when there were couple-level discordant conditions. Discussion Individual-level and couple-level discordant conditions may have lasting implications for depressive symptoms during midlife and older adulthood.

Macroscopic Modeling of Information Flow in an Agent-Based Electronic Health Record System

2011 ◽  
pp. 305-334
Author(s):  
Ben Tse
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Health Record ◽  
Electronic Health Record System ◽  
Health Record ◽  
Record System ◽  
Macroscopic Modeling ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Patient Health ◽  
Electronic Health ◽  
The Individual

This chapter presents an architecture, or general framework, for an agent-based electronic health record system (ABEHRS) to provide health information access and retrieval among different medical services facilities. The agent system’s behaviors are analyzed using the simulation approach and the mathematical modeling approach. The key concept promoted by ABEHRS is to allow patient health records to autonomously move through the computer network uniting scattered and distributed data into one consistent and complete data set or patient health record. ABEHRS is an example of multi-agent swarm system, which is composed of many simple agents and a system that is able to self-organize. The ultimate goal is that the reader should appreciate the benefits of using mobile agents and the importance of studying agent behaviors at the system level and at the individual level.

The Development of Distinct Choice Process Segments over Time: A Stochastic Modeling Approach

1982 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald R. Lehmann ◽  
William L. Moore ◽  
Terry Elrod
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Stochastic Modeling ◽  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Response Behavior ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

This paper examines Howard's (1963) typology dividing decision making into extensive problem solving (ESP), limited problem solving (LSP), and routinized response behavior (RRB). Specifically, the amount of information accessed in a longitudinal experiment is studied. Information acquisition is modeled stochastically at the individual level, and the existence of two segments (LSP and RRB) is tested in a nested-model framework.

ANALYZING THE AGENT-BASED MODEL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

2003 ◽  
Vol 06 (03) ◽  
pp. 331-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUTAKA I. LEON SUEMATSU ◽  
KEIKI TAKADAMA ◽  
NORBERTO E. NAWA ◽  
KATSUNORI SHIMOHARA ◽  
OSAMU KATAI
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Internal Structure ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Agent-based models (ABMs) have been attracting the attention of researchers in the social sciences, becoming a prominent paradigm in the study of complex social systems. Although a great number of models have been proposed for studying a variety of social phenomena, no general agent design methodology is available. Moreover, it is difficult to validate the accuracy of these models. For this reason, we believe that some guidelines for ABMs design must be devised; therefore, this paper is a first attempt to analyze the levels of ABMs, identify and classify several aspects that should be considered when designing ABMs. Through our analysis, the following implications have been found: (1) there are two levels in designing ABMs: the individual level, related to the design of the agents' internal structure, and the collective level, which concerns the design of the agent society or macro-dynamics of the model; and (2) the mechanisms of these levels strongly affect the outcomes of the models.

Aggregation in agent-based models of economies

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott E. Page
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Points ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Agent Based Models ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Emergent Phenomenon ◽  
Learning Rules ◽  
Equilibrium Approach ◽  
Micro Level

AbstractAgent-based models are often described as bottom-up because macro-level phenomena emerge from the micro-level interactions of agents. These macro-level phenomena include fixed points, cycles, dynamic patterns, and long transients. In this paper, I explore the link between micro-level characteristics—learning rules, diversity, network structure, and externalities—and the macro-level patterns they produce. I focus on why we need agent-level modeling, on how these models produce emergent phenomenon, and on how agent-based models help understand outcomes of social systems in a way that differs from the analytic, equilibrium approach.

scholarly journals A HYBRID MODEL FOR STUDYING SPATIAL ASPECTS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
BENJAMIN J. BINDER ◽  
JOSHUA V. ROSS ◽  
MATTHEW J. SIMPSON
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Hybrid Model ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Infectious Agents ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Spread Of Infection

AbstractWe consider a hybrid model, created by coupling a continuum and an agent-based model of infectious disease. The framework of the hybrid model provides a mechanism to study the spread of infection at both the individual and population levels. This approach captures the stochastic spatial heterogeneity at the individual level, which is directly related to deterministic population level properties. This facilitates the study of spatial aspects of the epidemic process. A spatial analysis, involving counting the number of infectious agents in equally sized bins, reveals when the spatial domain is nonhomogeneous.

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