Alle Publikationen
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2018
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(2018): The role of a "common is moral" heuristic in the stability and change of moral norms. In: Journal of experimental psychology. General 147 (2), S. 228-242. DOI: 10.1037/xge0000365
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28891657 Abstract: Moral norms are fundamental for virtually all social interactions, including cooperation. Moral norms develop and change, but the mechanisms underlying when, and how, such changes occur are not well-described by theories of moral psychology. We tested, and confirmed, the hypothesis that the commonness of an observed behavior consistently influences its moral status, which we refer to as the common is moral (CIM) heuristic. In 9 experiments, we used an experimental model of dynamic social interaction that manipulated the commonness of altruistic and selfish behaviors to examine the change of peoples' moral judgments. We found that both altruistic and selfish behaviors were judged as more moral, and less deserving of punishment, when common than when rare, which could be explained by a classical formal model (social impact theory) of behavioral conformity. Furthermore, judgments of common versus rare behaviors were faster, indicating that they were computationally more efficient. Finally, we used agent-based computer simulations to investigate the endogenous population dynamics predicted to emerge if individuals use the CIM heuristic, and found that the CIM heuristic is sufficient for producing 2 hallmarks of real moral norms; stability and sudden changes. Our results demonstrate that commonness shapes our moral psychology through mechanisms similar to behavioral conformity with wide implications for understanding the stability and change of moral norms. (PsycINFO Database Record zitiert von: 1
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(2018): An architecture for ethical robots inspired by the simulation theory of cognition. In: COGNITIVE SYSTEMS RESEARCH 48, S. 56-66. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2017.04.002
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2017.04.002 Abstract: The expanding ability of robots to take unsupervised decisions renders it imperative that mechanisms are in place to guarantee the safety of their behaviour. Moreover, intelligent autonomous robots should be more than safe; arguably they should also be explicitly ethical. In this paper, we put forward a method for implementing ethical behaviour in robots inspired by the simulation theory of cognition. In contrast to existing frameworks for robot ethics, our approach does not rely on the verification of logic statements. Rather, it utilises internal simulations which allow the robot to simulate actions and predict their consequences. Therefore, our method is a form of robotic imagery. To demonstrate the proposed architecture, we implement a version of this architecture on a humanoid NAO robot so that it behaves according to Asimov’s laws of robotics. In a series of four experiments, using a second NAO robot as a proxy for the human, we demonstrate that the Ethical Layer enables the robot to prevent the human from coming to harm in simple test scenarios. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
2016
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(2016): A comparison of head pose and deictic pointing interaction methods for smart environments. In: International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 32 (4), S. 325-351. DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2016.1142054
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2016.1142054 Abstract: Pointing is one of the more meaningful gestures in human expression. In this article, deictic and head pose pointing methods are evaluated as interaction means, with the objective of comparing their efficiency and delivered comfort, usability, and user experience to apply them to the deployment of services in smart spaces. Standard tools and questionnaires are applied in a user study with 20 individuals who have tried a Kinect V2-enabled pointing system to a) complete a multidirectional International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9241-9 pointing task and b) test a service to command smart objects. The results show that both deictic and head pose interaction perform in a similar way, providing a throughput of 2.14 and 2.04 bits/s, respectively (comparable to joysticks or touchpads in equivalent ISO tasks). The system being quite robust to the user position in the Kinect coverage area, target size influences performance, but also learnability and the overall response when cursor visual cues are not available. From comfort, usability, and user experience responses, it can be said that deictic is perceived to perform better than head pose in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and organization, although head pose is preferred for its speed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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(2016): The Mechanisms of Emergence. In: Philosophy of the Social Sciences 34 (2), S. 260-282. DOI: 10.1177/0048393103262553
Abstract: This article focuses on emergence in social systems. The author begins by proposing a new tool to explore the mechanisms of social emergence: multi agent based computer simulation. He then draws on philosophy of mind to develop an account of social emergence that raises potential problems for the methodological individualism of both social mechanism and of multi agent simulation. He then draws on various complexity concepts to propose a set of criteria whereby one can determine whether a given social mechanism generates emergent properties, in the sense that their explanation cannot be reduced to a mechanistic account of individuals and their interactions. This combined account helps to resolve the competing claims of methodological individualists and social realists. The author's conclusion is that the scope of mechanistic explanation may be limited due to the extreme complexity of many social systems.
Keywords: complexity, Disziplin, emergence, Emergenz, Emergenz in sozialen Systemen, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Interaktion, Komplexität, Komplexitätsforschung, Künstliche Intelligenz, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), multi agent based computer simulation, multi-agent systems, Multi-Agenten-Systeme, Ontologische Differenzierungen: Tier, Mensch, Maschine, Philosophie, philosophy of mind, Realtechnik, Reflexionen über MTR, simulation, social realism, social systems, soziale Mechanismen, Soziale Systeme, Technik -
(2016): Computational Analysis and Simulation of Empathic Behaviors. A Survey of Empathy Modeling with Behavioral Signal Processing Framework. In: Current psychiatry reports 18 (5). DOI: 10.1007/s11920-016-0682-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-016-0682-5 Abstract: Empathy is an important psychological process that facilitates human communication and interaction. Enhancement of empathy has profound significance in a range of applications. In this paper, we review emerging directions of research on computational analysis of empathy expression and perception as well as empathic interactions, including their simulation. We summarize the work on empathic expres- sion analysis by the targeted signal modalities (e.g., text, au- dio, and facial expressions). We categorize empathy simula- tion studies into theory-based emotion space modeling or application-driven user and context modeling. We summarize challenges in computational study of empathy including con- ceptual framing and understanding of empathy, data availability, appropriate use and validation of machine learn- ing techniques, and behavior signal processing. Finally, we propose a unified view of empathy computation and offer a series of open problems for future research.
2015
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(2015): Modeling culture in intelligent virtual agents. In: Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 30 (5), S. 931-962. DOI: 10.1007/s10458-015-9312-6
Abstract: This work addresses the challenge of creating virtual agents that are able to portray culturally appropriate behavior when interacting with other agents or humans. Because culture influences how people perceive their social reality it is important to have agent models that explicitly consider social elements, such as existing relational factors. We addressed this necessity by integrating culture into a novel model for simulating human social behavior. With this model, we operationalized a particular dimension of culture—individualism versus collectivism—within the context of an interactive narrative scenario that is part of an agent-based tool for intercultural training. Using this scenario we conducted a cross-cultural study in which participants from a collectivistic country (Portugal) were compared with participants from an individualistic country (the Netherlands) in the way they perceived and interacted with agents whose behavior was either individualistic or collectivistic, according to the configuration of the proposed model. In the obtained results, Portuguese subjects rated the collectivistic agents more positively than the Dutch but both countries had a similarly positive opinion about the individualistic agents. This experiment sheds new light on how people from different countries differ when assessing the social appropriateness of virtual agents, while also raising new research questions on this matter.
Keywords: Agent-based Modelling, cross-cultural, culturally appropriate behavior, Culture, Disziplin, Favoriten, individual vs collective, individuell, intercultural training, kollektiv, Kultur, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Modelle/Theorien, Modellierung, simulation, social appropriateness, social importance dynamics, virtual agents 2014
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(2014): Towards robust task execution for domestic service robots. In: Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems 76 (1), S. 5-33. DOI: 10.1007/s10846-013-0005-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-013-0005-6 Abstract: In the field of domestic service robots, recovery from faults is crucial to promote user acceptance. In this context we will focus, in particular, on some specific faults which arise from interaction of the robot with its real world environment. In these situations even a well modelled robot may fail to perform its tasks successfully due to external faults which occur while interacting. We reason along the most frequent failures in typical scenarios which we have observed in real-world demonstrations and competitions using the autonomous service robot Jenny. We propose four different fault classes caused by disturbances, imperfect perception, inadequate planning or chaining of action sequences. The faults are first classified and then mapped to a small number of fault handling techniques partly known, partly extended by us. In addition to existing techniques we present two approaches to handle external faults from inadequate descriptions of the planner operator class. The first approach uses naive physics concepts to find information about detected external faults. The second approach is simulation based, utilising a single simulation that shows a manipulated object’s behaviour for successfully completing an action. The approach uses the N-Bins learning algorithm to suggest a releasing state of the object that avoids the occurrence of external faults. We apply the proposed approaches to the scenarios where a robot performs the pick-and-place manipulation tasks. The results of these applications show that both approaches hold great promises for handling external faults in domestic service robotics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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(2014): The role of selective attention and action selection in the development of multiple action capabilities. In: Connection Science 26 (4), S. 389-402. DOI: 10.1080/09540091.2014.942597
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09540091.2014.942597 Abstract: In this paper we illustrate how the capacity to select the most appropriate actions when handling contexts affording multiple conflicting actions can be solved either through a selective attention strategy (in which the stimuli affording alternative actions are filtered out at the perceptual level through top-down regulation) or at later processing stages through an action selection strategy (through the suppression of the premotor information eliciting alternative actions). By carrying out a series of experiments in which a neuro-robot develops an ability to choose between conflicting actions, we were able to identify the conditions that lead to the development of solutions based on one strategy or another. Overall, the results indicate that the selective attention strategy constitutes the most simple and straightforward mechanism enabling the acquisition of such capacities. Moreover, the characteristics of the adaptive/learning process influence whether the adaptive robot converges towards a selective attention and/or action selection strategy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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(2014): Social Autopoiesis?. In: CONSTRUCTIVIST FOUNDATIONS (9/2), S. 153-166
Abstract: In previous papers, I suggested six rules proposed by Varela, Maturana and Uribe as a validation test to assess the autopoietic nature of a complex dynamic system. Identifying possible non-biological autopoietic systems is harder than merely assessing self-organization, existence of embodied boundaries and some observable autonomous behavioural capabilities: any rigorous assessment should include a close observation of the "intra-boundaries" phenomenology in terms of components' self-production, their spatial distribution and the temporal occurrence of interaction events. >Problem . Under which physical and components' relational conditions can some social systems be properly considered as autopoietic unities compliant with the six rules? >Results . Dynamic systems can be classified according to "degrees of autonomous behaviour" that they may acquire as a result of the emergence of organizational closure (i.e., autonomy). Also, the different "degrees of attainable systemic autonomy" depend on the "degrees of autonomy" shown by a system's dynamic components. For human social systems, a necessary balance between individuals' autonomy and the heteronomous behaviour brought about on people by social norms (laws, culture, tradition or coercion) sets limits to the "degree of systemic autonomy" that human organizations may acquire. Therefore social systems, defined as dynamic systems composed of physical agents, could not attain the high "levels of systemic autonomy" ascribable to autopoietic systems without constraining the autonomy of agents to "levels" that are incompatible with spontaneous human behaviour. Also, social organizations seen as composed of physical agents interacting in physical space cannot be construed as autopoietic systems. Alternatively, if seen as composed of "process-like" entities, where agents participate as actors within processes, some social systems could be described as autopoietic wholes existing in the abstract space in which we distinguish interactions between processes, provided that we can assess compliance with the rules for some specific cases. >Implications . These conclusions contribute to the debate on the possible autopoietic nature of some human social systems and to grasping the opportunity to shift focus to the more interesting issue of the "degrees of systemic autonomy" that human organizations could acquire (if needed) without imposing unbearable limitations on the autonomy of human actors. Also, the conceptual framework of this explanatory approach could be used in practical terms to assist the development of new dynamic modelling languages capable of simulating social systems.
Keywords: autonomy, Autopoiesis, causation, complex dynamic system, degrees of autonomous behaviour, Disziplin, heteronomy, Luhmann, Maturana, Multi-Agenten-Systeme, organizational closure, Philosophie, self-organization, simulating social systems, simulation, social system, social systems, Soziologie, Technikphilosophie, Varela 2011
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(2011): Beyond the Carrot and Stick Approach to Enforcement: An Agent-Based Model. In: European Conference on Cognitive Science
Abstract: As specified by Axelrod in his seminal work An Evolutionary Approach to Norms (Axelrod, 1986), punishment is a key mechanism to achieve the necessary social control and to enforce social norms in a self-regulated society. In this paper, we distinguish between two enforcing mechanisms, punishment and sanction, focusing on the specific ways in which they favour the emergence and maintenance of cooperation. In particular, by punishment we refer to a practice that works only by imposing a cost, while by sanction we indicate a practice that also signals the existence of a norm and that its violation is not condoned. To achieve this, we have developed a normative agent able both to punish and sanction offenders and to be affected by these enforcing mechanisms itself.The results obtained through agent-based simulation show that sanction is more effective and makes the population more resilient to sudden changes than mere punishment.
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