On the Progression of Belief

Based on weighted possible-world semantics, Belle and Lakemeyer recently proposed the logic DS, a probabilistic extension of a modal variant of the situation calculus with a model of belief. The logic has many desirable properties like full introspection and it is able to precisely capture the beliefs of a probabilistic knowledge base in terms of the notion of only-believing. While the proposal is intuitively appealing, it is unclear how to do planning with such logic. The reason behind this is that the logic lacks projection reasoning mechanisms. Projection reasoning, in general, is to decide what holds after actions. Two main solutions to projection exist: regression and progression. Roughly, regression reduces a query about the future to a query about the initial state while progression, on the other hand, changes the initial state according to the effects of actions and then checks whether the formula holds in the updated state. In this paper, we study projection by progression in the logic DS. It is known that the progression of a categorical knowledge base wrt a noise-free action corresponds to what is only-known after that action. We show how to progress a type of probabilistic knowledge base wrt noisy actions by the notion of only-believing after actions. Our notion of only-believing is closely related to Lin and Reiter's notion of progression.

The ROCK Tool: A Novel Method for the Structural Exploration of Schemata

Information stored in the human memory is organized in the form of mental schemata. In this paper we report on the Reproduction of Categorical Knowledge (ROCK) tool, a novel method for uncovering the structure of mental schemata of memorized information. The tool applies serial reproduction and hierarchical clustering to magnify memory bias and uncover inner configurations of fragmented information, using strength of association. We conducted behavioral experiments to test the validity of the tool. Experiment 1a demonstrated that the schematic structure of personality traits uncovered by the ROCK tool highly matched those described by the Big Five theory. This finding was replicated in Experiment 1b, focusing on a lower-level personality dimension extroversion with results aligned with personality theories. Experiment 2 assessed the ROCK tool using artificial stimuli with a pre-defined structure, created using a Markov chain model. Participants acquired the structure of the stimuli through an implicit learning procedure, and the ROCK tool was used to assess their level of recall. The results showed that the learned structure was identical to the designed structure of the stimuli. The results from both studies suggest that the ROCK tool could effectively reveal the structure of mental schemata.

Implicit Statistical Learning of Transient Categories in Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation

Research on the neural underpinnings of category-selective processes has recently received a boost with a highly sensitive behavior-free approach that combines Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation (FPVS) and EEG. However, while this research has focused on previously acquired categorical knowledge (e.g., known words vs. pseudowords), we employed this technique to examine category formation instigated implicitly by the statistical structure of the input stream. Sequences of visual stimuli (base) presented at a fast rate of 6Hz, were interleaved with oddballs, inserted periodically every 5 items. Crucially, sequences were made of stimuli that belonged to the same category and the only distinction between base and oddball items was the frequency of individual tokens within a stream. Within a few minutes of stimulation, oddballs evoked a reliable neural response at the predefined stimulation frequency of 1.2 Hz (i.e., 6/5) and its harmonics, indicating the discrimination between two locally-defined, distinct groups of items informed only by token frequency. This category-selective response was present in four different types of linguistic items (Words, Pseudowords, Nonwords, Pseudofonts) and was independent of stimulus familiarity. Our findings provide evidence for an online neural marker of implicit statistical learning emerging fast and automatically under rapid presentation conditions and highlight the potential of FPVS for this line of research. Concurrently, we demonstrate that sensitivity to statistical regularities can contaminate any oddball response in FPVS-oddball designs calling for future studies to take this phenomenon under consideration.

PENGARUH PENYULUHAN TERHADAP PETERNAK BABI DI KECAMATAN KAWANGKOAN

THE EXTENSION EFFECT ON PIG FARMERS IN KAWANGKOAN DISTRICT. This research was conducted in Kawangkoan District in March 2020. This study aimed to determine the effect of extension on pig farmers in Kawangkoan District. This research was conducted by a survey method using a questionnaire. Sample was determined by Purposive toward 40 pig farmers. Analysis of the data used in this study was the Chi-Square analysis. The variable of extension, knowledge, attitudes and skills of pig farmers was measured using an ordinal scale. Then by scoring respondents' answers or statements given, several categories of the three variables were obtained. The categorical knowledge variable was increased knowledge, quite increasing and not increasing. The results of the study using Chi-Square Analysis showed that counseling had an influence on the knowledge, attitudes and skills of pig farmers.

Revealing the information contents of memory within the stimulus information representation framework

The information contents of memory are the cornerstone of the most influential models in cognition. To illustrate, consider that in predictive coding, a prediction implies that specific information is propagated down from memory through the visual hierarchy. Likewise, recognizing the input implies that sequentially accrued sensory evidence is successfully matched with memorized information (categorical knowledge). Although the existing models of prediction, memory, sensory representation and categorical decision are all implicitly cast within an information processing framework, it remains a challenge to precisely specify what this information is, and therefore where , when and how the architecture of the brain dynamically processes it to produce behaviour. Here, we review a framework that addresses these challenges for the studies of perception and categorization–stimulus information representation (SIR). We illustrate how SIR can reverse engineer the information contents of memory from behavioural and brain measures in the context of specific cognitive tasks that involve memory. We discuss two specific lessons from this approach that generally apply to memory studies: the importance of task, to constrain what the brain does, and of stimulus variations, to identify the specific information contents that are memorized, predicted, recalled and replayed. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Memory reactivation: replaying events past, present and future’.

The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Sociology

This book explores cognitive sociology as an area of inquiry focused on culture, cognition, and the social dimensions of human thought. Highlighting differing traditions, from cultural sociological perspectives focused on emphasizing group differences in categorical knowledge to neuropsychology-influenced integrative perspectives analyzing the mechanisms by which cultural processes enter into individual minds, this volume brings together prominent scholars from sociology and other disciplines to feature the key tensions, debates, and directions in the field. The volume is organized into seven parts. The first three parts are organized around general theoretical, interdisciplinary, and methodological contributions. Part I addresses theoretical foundations that forge cognitive sociology and its relationships to cultural sociology and to cognitive science. Part II emphasizes perspectives from other fields that inform an interdisciplinary cognitive social science. Part III highlights methodological developments in cognitive sociological analysis. The next four parts focus on employing cognitive sociology to examine the sociocultural organization of specific cognitive processes. Part IV analyzes the sociology of perception and attention. Part V explores the sociocultural framing of meaning through oppositions, language, analogies, and metaphor. Part VI looks at the social construction of categories, boundaries, and identities. Part VII examines collective experiences of time and memory.

Orthogonal Representations of Reward Magnitude, Certainty, and Volatility in the Macaque Orbitofrontal Cortex

Categorical knowledge about the probabilistic and volatile nature of resource availability can improve foraging strategies, yet we have little understanding of how the brain represents such knowledge. Neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of macaques encode several decision variables (e.g., reward magnitude, probability) that could influence choice behavior. Here we investigated whether OFC neurons also represent two aspects of reward predictability: certainty and volatility. Rhesus monkeys performed a visual stimulus-reward association task in which a set of simple shapes preceded the delivery of reward, and they learned the nature of each shape’s reward association along two dimensions. One involved the certainty of a reward outcome; rewards can be either deterministic (and therefore certain) or probabilistic (uncertain). A second dimension reflected the volatility of an outcome; reward schedules can be either stable over time or volatile. During stimulus presentation, the activity of OFC neurons reflected both categorical certainty and categorical volatility, in addition to reward magnitude. These three characteristics were represented orthogonally by three distinct neural populations of similar size. These findings point to a more general role for OFC in processing reward information than one restricted to encoding parametric valuations such as reward magnitude and probability.