scholarly journals Building Bayesian Cognitive Models of Visual Foraging

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair D F Clarke ◽  
Amelia R. Hunt ◽  
Anna Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Multilevel Model ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Run Length ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Visual Foraging ◽  
Human Foraging ◽  
Existing Data

Foraging entails finding multiple targets sequentially. In humans and other animals, a key observation has been a tendency to forage in `runs' of the same target type. This tendency is context-sensitive, and in humans, it is strongest when the targets are difficult to distinguish from the distractors. Many important questions have yet to be addressed about this and other tendencies in human foraging, and a key limitation is a lack of precise measures of foraging behaviour. The standard measures tend to be run statistics, such as the maximum run length and the number of runs. But these measures are not only interdependent, they are also constrained by the number and distribution of targets, confounding any inferences about the effects of these aspects of the environment on foraging. Moreover, run statistics are underspecified about the underlying cognitive processes determining foraging behaviour. We present an alternative approach: modelling foraging as a procedure of generative sampling without replacement, implemented in a Bayesian multilevel model. This allows us to break behaviour down into a number of biases that influence target selection, such as the proximity of targets and a bias for selecting targets in runs, in a way that is not dependent on the number of targets present. Our method thereby facilitates direct comparison of specific foraging tendencies between search environments that differ in theoretically important dimensions. We demonstrate the use of our model with simulation examples and re-analysis of existing data. We believe our model will provide deeper insights into visual foraging and provide a foundation for further modelling work in this area.

How Does Mindfulness Affect Cognition? A Reflection on Confounding Issues Surrounding Mindfulness-based Intervention Research Targeting Cognitive Outcomes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R Vago ◽  
Resh Gupta ◽  
Sara Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Methodological Quality ◽  
Cognitive Outcomes ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Existing Data

One potential pathway by which mindfulness-based meditation improves health outcomes is through changes in cognitive functioning. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) was conducted with a focus on assessing the state of the evidence for effects on cognitive processes and associated assays. Here, we comment on confounding issues surrounding the reporting of these and related findings, including 1) criteria that appropriately define an MBI; 2) limitations of assays used to measure cognition; and 3) methodological quality of MBI trials and reporting of findings. Because these issues contribute to potentially distorted interpretations of existing data, we offer constructive means for interpretation and recommendations for moving the field of mindfulness research forward regarding the effects on cognition.

scholarly journals Neither mindful nor mindless, but minded: habits, ecological psychology, and skilled performance

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Segundo-Ortin ◽  
Manuel Heras-Escribano
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Ecological Psychology ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Skilled Performance ◽  
New Information ◽  
Skilled Action ◽  
Conscious Attention ◽  
Computational Processes

AbstractA widely shared assumption in the literature about skilled motor behavior is that any action that is not blindly automatic and mechanical must be the product of computational processes upon mental representations. To counter this assumption, in this paper we offer a radical embodied (non-representational) account of skilled action that combines ecological psychology and the Deweyan theory of habits. According to our proposal, skilful performance can be understood as composed of sequences of mutually coherent, task-specific perceptual-motor habits. Such habits play a crucial role in simplifying both our exploration of the perceptual environment and our decision-making. However, we argue that what keeps habits situated, precluding them from becoming rote and automatic, are not mental representations but the agent's conscious attention to the affordances of the environment. It is because the agent is not acting on autopilot but constantly searching for new information for affordances that she can control her behavior, adapting previously learned habits to the current circumstances. We defend that our account provides the resources needed to understand how skilled action can be intelligent (flexible, adaptive, context-sensitive) without having any representational cognitive processes built into them.

Could Emotions Be Modelled through Information Processing?

2015 ◽  
pp. 63-82
Author(s):  
Ebrahim Oshni Alvandi
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Emotional Agents ◽  
The Brain

One way to evaluate cognitive processes in living or nonliving systems is by using the notion of “information processing”. Emotions as cognitive processes orient human beings to recognize, express and display themselves or their wellbeing through dynamical and adaptive form of information processing. In addition, humans behave or act emotionally in an embodied environment. The brain embeds symbols, meaning and purposes for emotions as well. So any model of natural or autonomous emotional agents/systems needs to consider the embodied features of emotions that are processed in an informational channel of the brain or a processing system. This analytical and explanatory study described in this chapter uses the pragmatic notion of information to develop a theoretical model for emotions that attempts to synthesize some essential aspects of human emotional processing. The model holds context-sensitive and purpose-based features of emotional pattering in the brain. The role of memory is discussed and an idea of control parameters that have roles in processing environmental variables in emotional patterning is introduced.

scholarly journals Dynamics of attentional and oculomotor orienting in visual foraging tasks

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182091935
Author(s):  
Jérôme Tagu ◽  
Árni Kristjánsson
Keyword(s):  
Target Selection ◽  
High Amplitude ◽  
Realistic Model ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Visual Environment ◽  
Visual Orientation ◽  
New Information ◽  
Visual Foraging ◽  
Basic Characteristics

A vast amount of research has been carried out to understand how humans visually search for targets in their environment. However, this research has typically involved search for one unique target among several distractors. Although this line of research has yielded important insights into the basic characteristics of how humans explore their visual environment, this may not be a very realistic model for everyday visual orientation. Recently, researchers have used multi-target displays to assess orienting in the visual field. Eye movements in such tasks are, however, less well understood. Here, we investigated oculomotor dynamics during four visual foraging tasks differing in target crypticity (feature-based foraging vs. conjunction-based foraging) and the effector type being used for target selection (mouse foraging vs. gaze foraging). Our results show that both target crypticity and effector type affect foraging strategies. These changes are reflected in oculomotor dynamics, feature foraging being associated with focal exploration (long fixations and short-amplitude saccades), and conjunction foraging with ambient exploration (short fixations and high-amplitude saccades). These results provide important new information for existing accounts of visual attention and oculomotor control and emphasise the usefulness of foraging tasks for a better understanding of how humans orient in the visual environment.

Could Emotions Be Modelled through Information Processing?

2016 ◽  
pp. 1348-1367
Author(s):  
Ebrahim Oshni Alvandi
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Emotional Agents ◽  
The Brain

One way to evaluate cognitive processes in living or nonliving systems is by using the notion of “information processing”. Emotions as cognitive processes orient human beings to recognize, express and display themselves or their wellbeing through dynamical and adaptive form of information processing. In addition, humans behave or act emotionally in an embodied environment. The brain embeds symbols, meaning and purposes for emotions as well. So any model of natural or autonomous emotional agents/systems needs to consider the embodied features of emotions that are processed in an informational channel of the brain or a processing system. This analytical and explanatory study described in this chapter uses the pragmatic notion of information to develop a theoretical model for emotions that attempts to synthesize some essential aspects of human emotional processing. The model holds context-sensitive and purpose-based features of emotional pattering in the brain. The role of memory is discussed and an idea of control parameters that have roles in processing environmental variables in emotional patterning is introduced.

scholarly journals A serious game to explore human foraging in a 3D environment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valter Prpic ◽  
Isabelle Kniestedt ◽  
Elizabeth Camilleri ◽  
Marcello Gómez Maureira ◽  
Arni Kristjansson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Serious Game ◽  
Mobile Platforms ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
3D Environment ◽  
Feature Conjunction ◽  
Single Target ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
Human Foraging

Traditional search tasks have taught us much about vision and attention. Recently, several groups have begun to use multiple-target search to explore more complex and temporally extended “foraging” behaviour. Many of these new foraging tasks, however, maintain the simplified 2D displays and response demands associated with traditional, single-target visual search. In this respect, they may fail to capture important aspects of real-world search or foraging behaviour. In the current paper, we present a serious game for mobile platforms in which human participants play the role of an animal foraging for food in a simulated 3D environment. Game settings can be adjusted, so that, for example, custom target and distractor items can be uploaded, and task parameters, such as the number of target categories or target/distractor ratio are all easy to modify. We demonstrate how the app can be used to address specific research questions by conducting two human foraging experiments. Our results indicate that in this 3D environment, a standard feature/conjunction manipulation does not lead to a reduction in foraging runs, as it is known to do in simple, 2D foraging tasks. Differences in foraging behaviour are discussed in terms of environment structure, task demands and attentional constraints.

scholarly journals The P3b differentiates parallel physical and rule-based updating of a sensory model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Schwartze ◽  
Francesca I. Bellotti ◽  
Sonja A. Kotz
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Internal Model ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Cognitive Components ◽  
Rule Change ◽  
Central Tenet ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Sensitive Marker

AbstractThe capacity to form and update mental representations of the type and timing of sensory events is a central tenet of adaptive behavior in a dynamically changing environment. An internal model of stimulus contingencies provides a means to optimize behavior through predictive adjustments based on past to future events. To this end, neural and cognitive processes rely on systematic relations between events and use these rules to optimize information processing. The P3 complex of the event-related potential of the electroencephalogram (ERP/EEG) is a well-established and extensively tested index of such mechanisms. Here we investigated the P3b sensitivity to auditory stimulus deviations associated with two updating operations: physical change (switching stimulus pitches) and rule change (switching additive and subtractive target stimulus counting). Participants listened to a variant of the classical oddball sequence consisting of frequent standard (600 Hz) and two equally probable less frequent deviant tones (660 Hz, 540 Hz), keeping count of the deviant tones and switching between addition and subtraction with a pitch change. The results indicate specific amplitude modulations, confirming the P3b as a context-sensitive marker of physical and cognitive components of an internal model. This suggests that the P3b can be used as a differential marker of predictive coding mechanisms.

The Confidence Database

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dobromir Rahnev ◽  
Kobe Desender ◽  
Alan L. F. Lee ◽  
William T. Adler ◽  
David Aguilar-Lleyda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Large Database ◽  
Large Collection ◽  
Perceptual Memory ◽  
Software Packages ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Precise Estimation ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Existing Data

Understanding how people rate their confidence is critical for characterizing a wide range of perceptual, memory, motor, and cognitive processes. However, as in many other fields, progress has been slowed by the difficulty of collecting new data and the unavailability of existing data. To address this issue, we created a large database of confidence studies spanning a broad set of paradigms, participant populations, and fields of study. The data from each study are structured in a common, easy-to-use format that can be easily imported and analyzed in multiple software packages. Each dataset is further accompanied by an explanation regarding the nature of the collected data. At the time of publication, the Confidence Database (available at osf.io/s46pr) contained 145 datasets with data from over 8,700 participants and almost 4 million trials. The database will remain open for new submissions indefinitely and is expected to continue to grow. We show the usefulness of this large collection of datasets in four different analyses that provide precise estimation for several foundational confidence-related effects and lead to new findings that depend on the availability of large quantity of data. This Confidence Database will continue to enable new discoveries and can serve as a blueprint for similar databases in related fields.

scholarly journals An alternative approach to modelling a cosmic void and its effect on the cosmic microwave background

2019 ◽  
Vol 488 (3) ◽  
pp. 4081-4092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Do Young Kim ◽  
Anthony N Lasenby ◽  
Michael P Hobson
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Cosmic Microwave Background ◽  
Cold Spot ◽  
Spherically Symmetric ◽  
Microwave Background ◽  
Planck Data ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Spherically Symmetric Solutions ◽  
Existing Data ◽  
Cmb Temperature

ABSTRACT We apply our tetrad-based approach for constructing spherically symmetric solutions in general relativity to modelling a void, and compare it with the standard Lemaître–Tolman–Bondi (LTB) formalism. In particular, we highlight the importance of considering the velocity as well as the density profile in constraining voids. We apply our approach to construct models for the void observed in the direction of Draco in the WISE–2MASS galaxy survey, and a corresponding cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature decrement in the Planck data in the same direction. We find that the present-day density and velocity profiles of the void are not well constrained by the existing data, so that void models produced from the two approaches can differ substantially while remaining broadly consistent with the observations. We repeat our analysis to construct void models for the CMB Cold Spot, but show that although a single void can account for the WISE–2MASS galaxy survey data, it is not capable of producing a CMB temperature decrement sufficiently deep to be consistent with Planck CMB data.

Implications of the Genographic Project for Molecular Anthropologists

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ripan Malhi
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Important Implication ◽  
Field Component ◽  
Genetic Ancestry ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Molecular Anthropology ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Future ◽  
Existing Data

Many molecular anthropologists no longer incorporate a field component into their research; rather, they rely on analyzing existing data sets and/or on collaborating with field researchers to obtain samples for analysis. This trend in molecular anthropology, combined with the aggressive agenda of the Genographic Project, has an important implication for the future of the discipline. If Native American communities are exposed to genetic ancestry research largely through the Genographic Project, they are less likely to see that there are multiple ways for Native American communities to interact with genetic researchers. Molecular anthropologists are in a position to offer an alternative approach to research by pursuing enduring and mutually beneficial collaborative projects with Native American communities.

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