Bruce Landon: Cognitive Psychology

memory

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 05:09:54 GMT

Making memories that last a lifetime. Neurobiologists have discovered a mechanism by which the constantly changing brain retains memories.

They have found that the brain co-opts DNA methylation, the same machinery by which cells stably alter their genes to specialize during embryonic... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

memory

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:57:07 GMT

Wipe out a single memory. A single, specific memory has been wiped from the brains of rats, leaving other recollections intact, using a drug known to cause limited amnesia (U0126).

Greg Quirk, a neurophysiologist from the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico, thinks t... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

AI

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:48:45 GMT

Kurzweil issued patent for AI poetry-writing software. Ray Kurzweil has been issued the first patent for AI software capable of writing poetry.

United States Patent 7,184,949, "Basic poetry generation," issued February 27, 2007, covers "a method of analyzing an author's work, including reading a text ... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

decision making

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:46:45 GMT

Can computers make life-or-death medical decision?. A simple formula can predict how people would want to be treated in dire medical situations as accurately as their loved ones can, say researchers.... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

brain

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:45:33 GMT

TR10: Neuron Control. Karl Deisseroth's genetically engineered "light switch," which lets scientists turn selected parts of the brain on and off, may help improve treatments for depression and other disorders.... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

brain

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:34:04 GMT

Why Exercise Boosts Brainpower. aditi sends us a report from Reuters on research indicating that exercise boosts brainpower by building new brain cells in a brain region linked with memory and memory loss. Quoting: "Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a brain region called the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that is known to be affected in the age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans. Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging scans to help document the process in mice [~] and then used MRIs to look at the brains of people before and after exercise. They found the same patterns, which suggests that people also grow new brain cells when they exercise."[Slashdot]

memory

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:57:47 GMT

Study Probes Odor, Sleep and Memory Link. Researchers have found that an odor smelled while in deep sleep might help consolidate some kinds of memory if the same odor was used during learning. ... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

brain

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:56:41 GMT

Subliminal advertising leaves its mark on the brain. University College London researchers have found the first physiological evidence that invisible subliminal images do attract the brain's attention on a su... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

brain

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:55:12 GMT

Scientists say nerves use sound, not electricity. Copenhagen University researchers theorize that propagation of sonic solitons is a much more likely explanation for propagation of signal in neurons than electrical impulses.

The physicists say because the nerve membrane is made of a material simi... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

brain

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:51:30 GMT

Nanoparticle Research Offers Hope of Artificial Retinas, Prostheses. The world's first direct electrical link between nerve cells and photovoltaic nanoparticle films has been achieved by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the University of Michigan.

The development opens the doo... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

brain

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 04:31:21 GMT

Subliminal Messages Might Actually Work. GrumpySimon writes "New research indicates that subliminal messages may actually work. In a paper titled Attentional Load Modulates Responses of Human Primary Visual Cortex to Invisible Stimuli, Bahrani et al. demonstrate that even though stimuli may not be available to consciousness, they are processed by the visual cortex. While I'm sure that marketing agencies all over the world are rubbing their hands in glee at this news, the authors report that there's no evidence that this can make people buy things against their will. So with any luck the use of subliminal messages in advertising will remain an urban legend."[Slashdot]

brain

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 02:10:37 GMT

Omega-3s may affect mood and behavior. Omega-3 fatty acids are associated with increased gray matter volume in areas of the brain commonly linked to mood and behavior, according to a University of ... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

HCI

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:18:16 GMT

Connecting Your Brain to the Game. Emotiv Systems has announced that video-game makers are able to buy Emotiv's electro-encephalograph (EEG) caps and software developer's tool kits so that they can build games that, they claim, can use the electrical signals from a player's brain to c... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

AI

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 03:53:29 GMT

Jeff Hawkins' Cortex Sim Platform Available. UnreasonableMan writes "Jeff Hawkins is best known for founding Palm Computing and Handspring, but for the last eighteen months he's been working on his third company, Numenta. In his 2005 book, On Intelligence, Hawkins laid out a theoretical framework describing how the neocortex processes sensory inputs and provides outputs back to the body. Numenta's goal is to build a software model of the human brain capable of face recognition, object identification, driving, and other tasks currently best undertaken by humans. For an overview see Hawkins' 2005 presentation at UC Berkeley. It includes a demonstration of an early version of the software that can recognize handwritten letters and distinguish between stick figure dogs and cats. White papers are available at Numenta's website. Numenta wisely decided to build a community of developers rather than trying to make everything proprietary. Yesterday they released the first version of their free development platform and the source code for their algorithms to anyone who wants to download it."[Slashdot]

brain

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 20:39:24 GMT

Scientists claim first in using brain scans to predict intentions. Researchers at Berlin's Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience claim they have identified people's decisions about how they would later do a high-level mental activity -- in this case, adding versus subtracting.

The researchers inferred t... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

python

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 16:45:32 GMT

Sharing knowledge on the web.

Joe Gregorio posted a gem the other day. It[base ']s a little tutorial on how to model a common operation on the web [~] validating zipcodes [~] using the principles of the REST architectural style. Along the way, almost certainly without intending to, he taught me some things about the Python programming language that I hadn[base ']t known.

Joe[base ']s example uses two features of Python [~] memory-mapped files and array bisection [~] to speed up the search for a zipcode in a sorted file of zipcodes. But you don[base ']t need to know anything about REST or Python to appreciate the aspect of Joe[base ']s example I want to highlight here, which is that when we narrate our work on the web, we may convey more value than we know or intend.

The purpose of Joe[base ']s posting was to show how to apply a recipe for RESTful design, and it accomplishes that nicely. In doing so, Joe is helping to articulate principles that are widely practiced but not always well understood. By reflecting on his knowledge of those principles, by writing them down, and by sharing that writing, Joe makes that knowledge available to the rest of us.

Along the way, other useful things happen. In the dialectic that emerges in the comments section, Richard Searle proposes [~] and Joe agrees [~] that the word originally chosen to invoke the validator, lookup, is too verb-like. The recipe calls for nouns, and so the word becomes zipcode instead.

Why did Joe choose lookup initially? Knowledge is imperfect. When we externalize what we know, we can observe and discuss and correct those imperfections. That[base ']s one of the subtle benefits that flow from externalizing knowledge in public performance.

Another is the one I[base ']ve already mentioned. Although I doubt Joe meant to teach me about memory-mapped files and array bisection in Python, he did anyway, as a happy side effect.

When the blogosphere works this way, as it often does, it exemplifies the best qualities of professional discourse. I wish I could show more people how this works. But it[base ']s hard to abstract away from the knowledge domain of this example [~] RESTful design and Python programming [~] to general principles that can apply in any knowledge domain.

In the technical blogosphere, we have an almost perfect confluence of factors. Almost everything related to the work of software development [~] both products (source code) and processes (specifications, conversations) [~] is a text document that can flow easily and naturally on the web. And our examples are often self-reflexive [~] we use the web to illustrate work that is about the web itself.

This way of externalizing knowledge in public performance doesn[base ']t translate so easily to other domains, at least not yet. I think that[base ']ll change, though, as all work products and work processes tend toward digital representations. And I think that rich media will play a huge role in that change. Programming is fundamentally a textual craft, as are others, but many are not. If you[base ']re a builder or a firefighter or a pilot, the most effective medium in which to publicly perform your knowledge won[base ']t be text, it[base ']ll be video.

Suppose you[base ']re a builder, firefighter, or pilot who wants to share (and clarify) your knowledge of green construction, rescue operations, or cockpit instrumentation. It[base ']s admittedly a stretch to imagine that, just as Joe Gregorio posted a textual blog entry in order share his knowledge of RESTful design, you[base ']ll post a video in order to to share your knowledge in these areas. But I hope you will imagine it.

[Jon Udell]

depression

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:06:31 GMT

Virtual-Reality Video Game Helps Link Depression To Specific Brain Area. Scientists are using a virtual-reality, three-dimensional video game that challenges spatial memory as a new tool for assessing the link between depression and the hippocampus, the brain's memory hub.... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

brain

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:02:54 GMT

VR Game Ties Depression To Brain Area. An anonymous reader writes "Science Daily is reporting that scientists are using a VR videogame that challenges spatial memory as a new tool to map out depression in the brain. 'Spatial memory' is how you orient yourself in space and remember how to get to places in the outside world. Researchers have found that depressed people performed poorly on the video game compared, suggesting that their hippocampi (where spatial memory is based) were not working properly."[Slashdot]

brain

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:44:21 GMT

Brain works more chaotically than previously thought. The brain appears to process information more chaotically than has long been assumed.

This is demonstrated by a new study conducted by scientists at th... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

sensors

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:43:26 GMT

First direct electric link between neurons and light-sensitive nanoparticle films created. The world's first direct electrical link between nerve cells and photovoltaic nanoparticle films has been achieved by researchers at the University of Tex... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

second life

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 03:48:15 GMT

Second Life Speaks - Imagine the POTENTIAL!. Today there was an article on TechCrunch entitled "Second Life Speaks." The article outlines a beta development for the world of Second Life in which residents will not only be able to talk with one another using VOIP protocol, but avatar's voices will be adjusted "relative to you based on the distance and direction of the speaker." Wow! Now that is getting more real life.

I have been playing around in Second Life for some time and while my first experience left me intrigued, I kind of dismissed its possible educational use as a virtual classroom. Relationships were being developed, knowledge was being transferred, but it just took too long to communicate. With this new development we will have the two most important senses for learning, audio and visual.

Potential

As I think about my last post about Second Life, I am starting to see the potential here. If you recall, I was inspired to write because of an article written about Second Life becoming the new internet. Not just a place to go, but a virtualization of the net.

Imagine with me for a moment logging onto second life and going to your virtual history classroom (that looks just like your real one). You sit down with the teacher, and start a lecture, but soon you all transport to a history site and walk through some virtual pictures, or even buildings of some historic event. Class ends, but you bookmark your location so you can come back later and take a better look around.

You transport yourself to your virtual Art classroom next. Same story. Class starts, you talk for a couple minute then transport to the Salle des États to look at the Mona Lisa. You can move around the room to look at it from different perspectives, or zoom in as close as you want to see each tiny detail.

Next you have Spanish class, but this class doesn't meet on campus, it meets on popular virtual beach in Mexico. Today you are interacting with all sorts of locals talking, chatting, building relationships with the Spanish skills you have been honing the past 3 years.

You really enjoyed the "break" in the middle of the day and head off to your last class of the day, business. You quickly change the profile on your avatar to professional attire (the swimsuit from Spanish just won't do) and transport to your business class (which just happens to me meeting around a virtual board room table). The class has invested in some virtual property and are discussing some ways to market that property in Second Life.
With all your classes done, you decide to do some research for your business class and take your avatar and head off to a popular executive meeting place. You start chatting with some people, not knowing who they are, and soon realize you are talking with a marketing director from IBM who likes to hang out in Second Life in his spare time. You try to glean as much information as you can before he has to leave. He adds you as a friend and every once in a while you'll meet up and talk.

Okay, perhaps all this is an idealized view of what can happen with Second Life, but a lot of this is already happening too. As I mentioned in my previous post, I met people from all over the world, in all sorts of different backgrounds. There are no apparent social classes and you can talk to pretty much anyone, anywhere. The person you are talking to may be a CEO of an organization, or it may be your friend from high school.

This little scenario is just one example. The possibilities are endless.

UNC's Second Life

On a sidenote, for those reading this from UNC-CH, I went to a lecture last week on campus about Second Life and apparently we have our own island. If you are familiar with Second Life you can find it at these coordinates: 215.176.27. It is a work in progress, but it constantly amazes me how much we can make a virtual landscape look like the real one. Stop on by, take a look around, but if want to see a fully functioning University Campus check out Ohio University (22.137.26).

(Original Article: http://www.edutechie.com/2007/02/second-life-speaks-imagine-the-potential/) [EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs] -- The addition of voip to second life is a predictable disruptive change that allows users to experience a "shared vision" and talk about it in real time. This will enable cooperative learning, tutoring, side conversations at shared events in more of an augmented reality framework as the aspects of live webcams and live sensor feeds are brought into second life. One easy future is shared TV style programing with your distributed "family" in the same virtual room sharing in the visual and audio experience. Live audio will bring a sense of immediacy to second life that is missing in text chat exchanges because it leverages our lifetimes of learning to read other's feelings from their voices. At minimum second life can be the container for television shows and broadcast news media, but with a powerful interactive difference -- the audience can instantly decide to purchase online directing the flow real dollars. The addition of quality audio will make up for the low res graphics in many situations and allow for non-tech users with a bit of voice recognition magic. Timing is about right for the voip to use gphone translation services to enable not only shared visual experiences but also augmented ability to communicate with users/students in other than English. -- BL

sensors

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 02:35:04 GMT

Star Trek-like 'Tricorder' becomes science fact. Purdue University researchers have developed a portable sensing system to analyze chemical components, with "numerous promising uses for detecting everything from cancer in the liver to explosives residues on luggage and biomarkers in urine that prov... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

AI

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 02:34:08 GMT

Let Robots Sweat the Boring Stuff. In advanced nations like Japan, populations are aging and shrinking. Combine that with ultrastrict immigration control and you get a situation in which "robomediation" makes a lot of sense.

"Personally, I wouldn't mind living in a world in which ... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News]

HCI

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:22:25 GMT

Vista Worse For User Efficiency Than XP. erikvlie writes "Pfeiffer Consulting released a report on User Interface Friction, comparing Windows Vista/Aero with Windows XP and Mac OS X. The report concludes that Vista/Aero is worse in terms of desktop operations, menu latency, and mouse precision than XP [~] which was and still is said to be a lot worse on those measures than Mac OS X. The report was independently financed. The IT-Enquirer editor has read the report and summarized the most important findings." [Slashdot]

AI

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:21:58 GMT

Surveillance Cameras Get Smarter. kog777 writes to mention that the IB Times is taking a look at where surveillance camera technology is headed. Soon researchers tell us that cameras will be available that not only record, but are able to interpret what they see. "The advancements have already been put to work. For example, cameras in Chicago and Washington can detect gunshots and alert police. Baltimore installed cameras that can play a recorded message and snap pictures of graffiti sprayers or illegal dumpers. In the commercial market, the gaming industry uses camera systems that can detect facial features, according to Bordes. Casinos use their vast banks of security cameras to hunt cheating gamblers who have been flagged before."[Slashdot]