[Aleader-dev] dissertation feedback

[Joshua N Pritikin]

On Tue, Jul 15, 2003 at 01:22:20PM -0500, William L. Jarrold wrote:
> > I propose an emotion predictor that can be tested empirically.
> > My primary interest is whether statistics suggest that it
> > works empirically.
> 
> Right.  That is where my dissertation might be especially helpful.  I
> won't assert that doing the baby study I did was a huge big deal.  But,
> what it did accomplish was establish a experimentally and
> statistically and practically rigorous foundation on which to build many
> more subtle studies.

In a word, "interesting."  I have a bunch of comments and some
questions:

+ 1.3 Methodological Issues -- Isn't this obvious?  I mean, the
problem with psychology is that people can't figure out _how_
to achieve procedual adequacy.  Surely researchers recognize the
importance and benefit of it.  Or am I naive?  ;-)

+ With regard to theory of mind, the Aleader model carefully
distinguishes between 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person
perspective.  I equate "Theory of Mind mechanism" with a sense of
empathy.  I appreciate your comments on autism.  While not my
main interest, I also hope to contribute some deeper understanding
to this clinical condition.

+ The estimation of desirablility is also central to my emotion
predictor.  I also sort desirability into three categories, which
roughly correspond with your happy, indifferent and sad.

+ Study 3 with the computer model is _incredible_.  That's exactly
what I want to do.  Wow!

+ In all three of your studies, you ask the believability of various
things.  Believability is a subjective judgment. I try to explicitly
confine and minimize subjective judgment.  Firstly, I start with the
assumption that even "normal" people are frequently unable to assess
situations accurately.  I want to use a computer model (like your
Study #3) to propose _the_ precise method for assessing situations
objectivity.  For Aleader, the subjective believability question
comes in only _after_ the situations are categorized by emotion.

+ I am not very happy about explaining diversity in appraisals with
the idea of generativity.  For Aleader, I have tried to eliminate
diversity in appraisal by strict adherence to repeatability.  In
practice, repeatability is achieved by appraising a recorded audio
video experience -- film.

+ In your conclusions, you state that "mindreading" is considered
a cognitive distortion, attributed to Beck (1995).  Can you briefly
explain what Beck is talking about?  (Otherwise I'll look it up
myself.)

+ What is your opinion of Knowledge Machine (KM)?  How does it compare
to OpenCyc?  I see you worked for Cycorp as an OE for some time.
Since I haven't written any CycL yet, I am certainly not attached
to a particular inference engine.  Which software is most suitable
for the kind of knowledge representation we are doing?

-- 
Victory to the Divine Mother!!         after all,
  http://sahajayoga.org                  http://why-compete.org