General intelligence disentangled via a generality metric for natural and artificial intelligence

Success in all sorts of situations is the most classical interpretation of general intelligence. Under limited resources, however, the capability of an agent must necessarily be limited too, and generality needs to be understood as comprehensive performance up to a level of difficulty. The degree of generality then refers to the way an agent’s capability is distributed as a function of task difficulty. This dissects the notion of general intelligence into two non-populational measures, generality and capability, which we apply to individuals and groups of humans, other animals and AI systems, on several cognitive and perceptual tests. Our results indicate that generality and capability can decouple at the individual level: very specialised agents can show high capability and vice versa. The metrics also decouple at the population level, and we rarely see diminishing returns in generality for those groups of high capability. We relate the individual measure of generality to traditional notions of general intelligence and cognitive efficiency in humans, collectives, non-human animals and machines. The choice of the difficulty function now plays a prominent role in this new conception of generality, which brings a quantitative tool for shedding light on long-standing questions about the evolution of general intelligence and the evaluation of progress in Artificial General Intelligence.

Cognitive Efficiency and Fitness-to-Drive along the Lifespan: The Mediation Effect of Visuospatial Transformations

The way people represent and transform visuospatial information affects everyday activities including driving behavior. Mental rotation and perspective taking have recently been found to predict cognitive prerequisites for fitness-to-drive (FtD). We argue that the relationship between general cognitive status and FtD is mediated by spatial transformation skills. Here, we investigated the performance in the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) and the Perspective-Taking Test (PT) of 175 male active drivers (aged from 18 to 91 years), by administering the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to measure their global cognitive functioning. All participants were submitted to a computerized driving assessment measuring resilience of attention (DT), reaction speed (RS), motor speed (MS), and perceptual speed (ATAVT). Significant results were found for the effect of global cognitive functioning on perceptual speed through the full mediation of both mental rotation and perspective-taking skills. The indirect effect of global cognitive functioning through mental rotation was only found to significantly predict resilience of attention whereas the indirect effect mediated by perspective taking only was found to significantly predict perceptual speed. Finally, the negative effect of age was found on each driving measure. Results presented here, which are limited to male drivers, suggest that general cognitive efficiency is linked to spatial mental transformation skills and, in turn, to driving-related cognitive tasks, contributing to fitness-to-drive in the lifespan.

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY: TEXTUAL INFORMATION DRIVEN SPATIAL UNDERSTANDING AND REPRESENTATION FOR USER INTERFACE DESIGN OF 3D MODELING TOOLS

The same information has different cognitive difficulty in different representation forms, especially in the field of interaction design. Thus, Scientists pay attention to the design effectiveness based on visual perception. This study focuses on two problems: 1) The relationship between textual comprehension, spatial understanding and cognitive accuracy of text information; 2) The transformation differences of cognitive elements from text information to 3D image information. First, we conduct an experiment to show the cognitive transformation difference of text elements and 3D image elements. Then, we take the design of "Logoup" 3D modeling software (This is programming driven 3D modeling software) as an example, and applies the experimental results in this study to the interface design of the software. By setting up horizontal and vertical reference planes in the real-time rendering area of the software, we can improve the cognitive efficiency and user experience of users and provide non-professional 3D modeling skill of users with an entrance to create 3D shapes.

Children With Reduced Cognitive Efficiency and Addition of Natural Numbers up to 20: A Case Study

The study deals with teaching and learning the addition of natural numbers up to 20 in the first two years of primary school. The first part presents the theoretical background for addition of natural numbers, the procedural and conceptual approach to addition, and the theory of the additive triad. The causes of the difficulties some children have with the field of the addition of natural numbers are outlined, and the issue of reduced cognitive efficiency is briefly introduced as one of the causes. The second part of the study presents a case study of a girl (7 years old) who experienced difficulty in learning addition. The approaches to and results of remedial tutoring completed by the girl are described. In the discussion, the issue of the addition of natural numbers is incorporated into a broader pedagogical context.

Add to cart: an investigation of the efficiency of social comparisons to thin-ideal images in the context of online shopping

Recently, researchers have investigated the cognitive efficiency of social comparisons young women make to thin-ideal images. However, results have been mixed and methodology problematic (e.g. low ecological validity, lack of consideration for ethnicity). The purpose of the present study was to address these issues. Ninety-six Caucasian undergraduate females were exposed to thin-ideal images. These images were presented in the context of an online shopping experience, to create a more ecologically valid context. To investigate cognitive efficiency, cognitive load was manipulated by having participants memorize the colours of the models’ clothing items. Participants did not experience a decrease in appearance satisfaction when under high cognitive load, suggesting inefficiency. In contrast, an observed increase in negative mood under high load conditions may suggest efficiency. However, potential alternative explanations for this latter result include the non-specificity of the mood measure, the context the images were presented in, and task difficulty

Add to cart: an investigation of the efficiency of social comparisons to thin-ideal images in the context of online shopping

Recently, researchers have investigated the cognitive efficiency of social comparisons young women make to thin-ideal images. However, results have been mixed and methodology problematic (e.g. low ecological validity, lack of consideration for ethnicity). The purpose of the present study was to address these issues. Ninety-six Caucasian undergraduate females were exposed to thin-ideal images. These images were presented in the context of an online shopping experience, to create a more ecologically valid context. To investigate cognitive efficiency, cognitive load was manipulated by having participants memorize the colours of the models’ clothing items. Participants did not experience a decrease in appearance satisfaction when under high cognitive load, suggesting inefficiency. In contrast, an observed increase in negative mood under high load conditions may suggest efficiency. However, potential alternative explanations for this latter result include the non-specificity of the mood measure, the context the images were presented in, and task difficulty

A study of effect of Centella asiatica on oxidative markers in the hippocampus of offsprings born to alcohol-fed pregnant rats and the correlation with their cognitive functions

Objectives Alcohol consumption causes several harmful effects on the organs, which is hugely understated. Many deformities occur in the fetus when pregnant mothers indulge in alcoholism. Alcohol is a known teratogen, hence organ formation, particularly development of parts brain critical for cognitive function may be affected. The oxidative brain damage also could contribute to reduced cognitive efficiency of brain exposed to alcohol. In this study, effect of Centella asiatica in relieving the oxidative brain damage in offspring of alcohol fed mother rats was evaluated. Methods In this study we fed alcohol (5 g/kg body weight, 30% w/v) to a group of pregnant Wistar rats during gestation period, and another group served as control. Four groups of rats (n = 6 each) were selected from the offspring of these mother rats. The groups were, control, positive (treated) control, untreated and treated from alcohol-fed mother. Their cognitive parameters were tested in water maze, shuttle box and compared. Further their oxidative status was evaluated by estimating malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonyl, total antioxidants and glutathione reductase (GSH) in hippocampus. Results The results suggested that there was significantly high cognitive performance in maze test and shuttle box memory retention in rats treated with C. asiatica water extract and the antioxidant levels were high in their hippocampus. Conclusions The outcome of the study suggested that C. asiatica produced beneficial effects in reversing the alcohol induced brain damage in pregnancy.