THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
School of Computer Science
THE COGNITION AND AFFECT PROJECT

PROJECT WEB DIRECTORY
PAPERS ADDED IN THE YEAR 2013 (APPROXIMATELY)

PAPERS 2013 CONTENTS LIST
MAIN COGAFF INDEX FILE

NOTE

This file is http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/13.html
Maintained by Aaron Sloman.
It contains an index to files in the Cognition and Affect Project's Web directory produced
or published in the year 2013. Some of the papers published in this period were produced
earlier and are included in one of the lists for an earlier period. Some older papers
recently digitised may also be included.

Main contents list for the CogAff web site is: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/cogaff/0-INDEX.html#contents

A list of PhD and MPhil theses was added in June 2003

This file Last updated: 8 Mar 2013; 9 Apr 2013; 30 Jul 2013


PAPERS (AND TALKS) IN THE COGNITION AND AFFECT DIRECTORY
Produced or published in 2013 (Approximately)
(Latest first)

Most of the papers listed here are in postscript and PDF format. More recent papers are in PDF only.
For information on free browsers for these formats see http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/browsers.html


The following Contents list (in reverse chronological order) contains links to locations
in this file giving further details, including abstracts, and links to the papers
themselves.

JUMP TO DETAILED LIST (After Contents)

CONTENTS -- FILES 2013 (Latest First)

What follows is a list of links to more detailed information about each paper. From there
you can select the actual papers, in various formats, e.g. PDF, postscript and some in html.

DETAILS OF FILES AVAILABLE

BACK TO CONTENTS LIST

http://leanpub.com/cognitiveproductivity
Title: Cognitive Productivity
       The Art and Science of Using Knowledge to Become Profoundly Effective
Author: Luc P. Beaudoin
Last updated: 2013-10-26

Extract from Preface of the book

We've all had this experience: We've read a factual or practical book that had
the potential to make us more effective in some specific respects. Several
months later, however, we can hardly remember the content. Worse, years go by
and we have yet to apply the gems of knowledge it contains. There is no simple
solution to this problem; but there are things we can do to address it.

The objective of this book is to help effective people systematically use
knowledge and technology to become increasingly effective. It addresses the
problem of "knowledge potentiation": how to release the potential of knowledge
in ourselves. It does this by leveraging the most progressive attempt humanity
has made to understand the human mind: cognitive science. Broad cognitive
science is not restricted to the narrow, classical concept of cognition. It also
includes affective information processing: so called motivation, emotions, moods
and attitudes.
NOTE 1:
"This is a Leanpub book. Leanpub empowers authors and publishers with the Lean
Publishing process. Lean Publishing is the act of publishing an in-progress ebook
using lightweight tools and many iterations to get reader feedback, pivot until you
have the right book and build traction once you do."
NOTE 2:
This book builds on work done by Luc Beaudoin while a PhD student here from
1991-1994. His PhD thesis was Goal processing in autonomous agents (1994)
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/81-95.html#38

Filename: maths-evol-sloman.pdf (PDF DRAFT)
Title: Evolution of Geometrical Reasoning
(Overdue, but still draft, bookchapter.)
Author: Aaron Sloman
Date Installed: 22 Sep 2013
Publication details:
Abstract: (To be added)


Filename: cybertalk-sloman-2013.pdf (PDF)
Filename: cybertalk-sloman-2013.html (HTML)
Title: Extending Turing's Pattern: From Morphogenesis to Meta-morphogenesis

Invited contribution to Cybertalk Magazine, September 2013
http://www.softbox.co.uk/cybertalk

Author: Aaron Sloman
Date Installed: 30 Jul 2013
Date Modified: 28 Aug 2013

Where published: Cybertalk Magazine Issue Three (Sept 2013) Pages 48-9
In a special issue on Alan Turing
Published by SBL (SoftBox) in http://www.softbox.co.uk/cybertalk-issuethree
Pages 48-9

Abstract:

The Darwin-Wallace theory of natural selection shows that, in principle, diverse and
complex, organisms, and ecosystems containing them, could emerge from much simpler
systems by many small steps, provided that the mechanisms operated on by selection
had the power to accommodate that diversity and complexity. But that left open the
question: what sorts of underlying machinery could do that?

Computational experiments on artificial evolution suggest that in principle modern
computers could replicate evolution of all living phenomena. However, combining and
extending Turing's ideas about computation and morphogenesis may reveal previously
unnoticed potential in the mixture of continuity and discreteness found in chemical
information processing but unavailable in discrete symbol manipulators.

A mixture of discrete and continuous mechanisms may turn out to be crucial for
providing new, deep and general explanations of processes in which a dust cloud
condenses to form a planet that several billion years later includes microbes,
monkeys, music, mathematics, manslaughter, metropolitan cultures and other marvels.

Would Turing have contributed to developing that idea if he had lived longer?
The seeds of the contribution seem to be in his 1952 paper on Chemical Morphogenesis.

For more on the Meta-Morphogensis project see:
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/misc/meta-morphogenesis.html


Filename: Arriola-Rios-2013.pdf (PDF)
Title: Salient Features and Snapshots in Time:
An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Object Representation

Authors: Veronica E. Arriola-Rios[1] and Zoe P. Demery[2] (Joint first authors)
with Jeremy Wyatt[1], Aaron Sloman[1], and Jackie Chappell[2]
[1] School of Computer Science
[2] School of Biosciences
University of Birmingham, UK, B15 2TT
Date Installed: 9 Apr 2013

Where published:

In Computing Nature (Turing Centenary Perspective)
Eds: Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Raffaela Giovagnoli
Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics
(Vol. 7, pp. 171-184).
Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-37225-4_10
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-37225-4_10

Abstract:

Faced with a vast, dynamic environment, some animals and robots
often need to acquire and segregate information about objects. The
form of their internal representation depends on how the information
is utilised. Sometimes it should be compressed and abstracted from
the original, often complex, sensory information, so it can be
efficiently stored and manipulated, for deriving interpretations,
causal relationships, functions or affordances. We discuss how
salient features of objects can be used to generate compact representations,
later allowing for relatively accurate reconstructions and
reasoning. Particular moments in the course of an object-related
process can be selected and stored as `key frames'. Specifically, we
consider the problem of representing and reasoning about a
deformable object from the viewpoint of both an artificial and a
natural agent.

Keywords:
Representations, Learning, Exploration, Cognitive Agents, Animal Cognition,
Deformable Objects, Affordances, Dynamic Representation, Salient Features.


sloman-clark-bbs-2013.pdf (PDF)
Title: What else can brains do?

This is a slightly revised version of a commentary on
"Whatever Next? Predictive Brains, Situated Agents, and the Future of Cognitive Science."
By Andy Clark, in Behavioral and Brain Sciences Journal,, vol 36, No 3, 2013
My article is on pages 50-51, and was seriously hampered by the 1000 word commentary limit, as I think there's far more wrong with the research programme, than could be summarised in that space.

Author: Aaron Sloman
Date Installed: 9 Mar 2013

Date published: 2013
Where published: Behavioral and Brain Sciences Journal,, vol 36, No 3, 2013, pages 50-51. Cambridge University Press

Abstract:
The approach Clark labels "action-oriented predictive processing" treats all cognition as
part of a system of on-line control. This ignores other important aspects of animal, human,
and robot intelligence. He contrasts it with an alleged "mainstream" approach that also
ignores the depth and variety of AI/Robotic research. I don't think the theory presented
is worth taking seriously as a complete model, even if there is much that it explains.

Unlike the printed version, the version of the commentary here may later be revised or extended.
See also The "Meta-Morphogenesis Project"
The most recent of an extended series of discussions of the functions of visual perception
begun several decades ago, can be found here:
A presentation of some hard, apparently unsolved, problems about natural vision and
how to replicate the functions and the designs in AI/Robotic vision systems.


BACK TO CONTENTS LIST


NOTE

Older files in this directory (pre 2013) are accessible via the main index


MAIN COGAFF INDEX FILE

See also the School of Computer Science Web page.

This file is maintained by Aaron Sloman, and designed to be lynx-friendly, and viewable with any browser.
Email A.Sloman@cs.bham.ac.uk