Archive
Weekly QuEST Discussion Topics, 28 Aug
For QUEST next week, we are crashing the AFWiSE meeting discussing hidden biases. RSVP to Dr. Tulsi Patel (tulsi.patel.ctr@afresearchlab.com) for a calendar invite.
MORE INFO:
A previous meeting discussed “Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People” by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald. Banaji was recently interviewed on NPR’s “Hidden Brain” podcast regarding implicit biases, and briefly mentioned gender-science and gender-math stereotypes (https://www.npr.org/2020/06/20/880379282/the-mind-of-the-village-understanding-our-implicit-biases).
We will discuss two of the studies she co-authored: “National difference in gender-science stereotypes predict national sex difference in science and math achievement” (Nosek, et al.) and “Math=Me, Me=Female, Therefore Math≠Me” (Nosek, et al.). Both articles utilize the Implicit Association Test (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html) to measure implicit biases and it is highly recommended to take before reading the articles.
Hope to see you all there!
Date: 28 August 2020
Time: 1130-1300 EST
Weekly Discussion Topics, 21 Aug
This week intern Amelia Harlow will discuss her summer research and how the facts she cites provide context to the challenges of urban blight.
Following Amelia’s presentation, we will continue the discussion led last week by Othalia Larue.
Cognitive decoupling, or inner simulation, is the process by which we distance ourselves from our current representation of the world by creating a possible world simulation on which one can reflect upon and test out hypotheses. Through the presentation of two models of human performance at the Wason card selection task, I’ll address two aspects of cognitive decoupling: (1) what potential (intuitive) selection mechanisms affect the representational content of cognitive decoupling and (2) what metacognitive trigger mechanisms are involved in our decision to engage in cognitive decoupling and how exhaustive the simulation process will be.
And the two papers/models I will discuss are:
Larue, O., Hough, A., & Juvina, I. (2018). A Cognitive Model of Switching Between Reflective and Reactive Decision Making in The Wason Task. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (pp. 55-60).
Larue, O., Poirier, P., & Nkambou, R. (2013). Hypothetical-thinking based on cognitive decoupling and thinking dispositions in a dual cognitive agent. Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures, 6, 67-75.
Weekly QuEST Discussion Topics, 14 Aug
This week our Colleague Othalia Larue will present.
Cognitive decoupling, or inner simulation, is the process by which we distance ourselves from our current representation of the world by creating a possible world simulation on which one can reflect upon and test out hypotheses. Through the presentation of two models of human performance at the Wason card selection task, I’ll address two aspects of cognitive decoupling: (1) what potential (intuitive) selection mechanisms affect the representational content of cognitive decoupling and (2) what metacognitive trigger mechanisms are involved in our decision to engage in cognitive decoupling and how exhaustive the simulation process will be.
And the two papers/models I will discuss are:
Larue, O., Hough, A., & Juvina, I. (2018). A Cognitive Model of Switching Between Reflective and Reactive Decision Making in The Wason Task. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (pp. 55-60).
Larue, O., Poirier, P., & Nkambou, R. (2013). Hypothetical-thinking based on cognitive decoupling and thinking dispositions in a dual cognitive agent. Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures, 6, 67-75.
QuEST Discussion Topics 7 Aug
meeting slides – Summer 2020 Group Exit Presentation Announcement
On 7 August, Dr. Kerianne Hobbs’ summer students will provide exit briefings on the work they accomplished this summer. A link to the meeting will be provided on Thursday – it is different than the usual QuEST link and the presentations will begin at 11:00 am Eastern with a scheduled end time of 12:50 pm.
Here is a description of what will be presented. Introductory slides are attached.
What is the best way to ensure safety of learning systems? In this extended Quest meeting, 4 summer students present their pieces of a joint project to explore this topic.
· Verify offline (out of scope for the summer)
o Propagate sets of initial conditions through neural network to find reachable states
o Other
· Verify online (summer focus)
o How do you handle uncertainty? – CHRIS HAYS
o How do you bound and inject safety control? – MARK MOTE
o How do you gain intuition for what is happening during training? – KAI DELSING
o Bound during training, after, or both? – KYLE DUNLAP
§ Include bounds during training
· Faster Learning?
· Better or worse solution?
· Learn to depend on backup?
§ Only bound after training
· Eliminate “best option”?
§ Both
Reading material for this week
Our colleague, Othalia Larue, will lead the 7 August QuEST discussion. Her abstract and two papers/models she will discuss are below.
Cognitive decoupling, or inner simulation, is the process by which we distance ourselves from our current representation of the world by creating a possible world simulation on which one can reflect upon and test out hypotheses. Through the presentation of two models of human performance at the Wason card selection task, I’ll address two aspects of cognitive decoupling: (1) what potential (intuitive) selection mechanisms affect the representational content of cognitive decoupling and (2) what metacognitive trigger mechanisms are involved in our decision to engage in cognitive decoupling and how exhaustive the simulation process will be.
And the two papers/models I will discuss are:
Larue, O., Hough, A., & Juvina, I. (2018). A Cognitive Model of Switching Between Reflective and Reactive Decision Making in The Wason Task. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (pp. 55-60).
Larue, O., Poirier, P., & Nkambou, R. (2013). Hypothetical-thinking based on cognitive decoupling and thinking dispositions in a dual cognitive agent. Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures, 6, 67-75.
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