A aprendizagem social (AS) é a aprendizagem facilitada pela observação ou interação com outro indivíduo ou com produtos produzidos pelo mesmo. Para aprender socialmente, animais, humanos e não-humanos, possuem estratégias para utilizar ou não informações socialmente disponíveis, definindo quando e de quem copiar o comportamento. Um tema discutido atualmente é cultura cumulativa (CC) em animais não-humanos: a capacidade de uma população acumular aperfeiçoamentos de técnicas ao longo do tempo por meio da AS. Este estudo teve como objetivos investigar (1) se os macacos-prego são capazes de aprender socialmente aprimoramentos de técnicas já estabelecidas; (2) quais vieses de transmissão social e estratégias de AS são utilizadas pelos macacos-prego; e (3) examinar a influência de 4 fatores cognitivos (ensino, linguagem, imitação e prossocialidade) e 4 fatores sociais (scrounging, monopolização do recurso pelos dominantes, falta de atenção para o comportamento de inovadores de baixo status social e conservadorismo comportamental) na difusão de novos comportamentos e argumentar como esses fatores afetariam o desenvolvimento de uma CC simples. Para atingir estes objetivos apresentamos duas caixas-problema para um grupo de macacos-prego selvagens: uma com três estágios de dificuldade progressivos (caixa-problema de alimentos) e a outra com dois (caixa-problema de suco). Estas caixas-problema tinham como finalidade introduzir novos comportamentos no grupo e induzir aprimoramentos de técnicas já estabelecidas. Com relação ao primeiro objetivo (1), utilizando a Networkbased diffusion analysis nós identificamos a AS por observação próxima do estágio mais complexo da caixa-problema de suco. Com isso inferimos que os macacos-prego são capazes de adquirir, através da AS, técnicas mais complexas e eficientes de uso de ferramentas. Isso somado com o aprendizado observacional, nos permite afirmar que estes macacos-prego possuem a capacidade de reconhecer que um comportamento sendo produzido por outro indivíduo é mais eficiente que o próprio, e a flexibilidade para mudar para este comportamento alternativo. A respeito do segundo objetivo (2), ao analisar os viéses de transmissão social nós encontramos que os indivíduos tendem a observar preferencialmente os indivíduos mais proficientes e os indivíduos subordinados e que machos subordinados observam mais os coespecíficos que machos dominantes. Por fim (3), a respeito dos fatores sociais que afetam o desenvolvimento da CC, encontramos que os indivíduos dominantes tendem a monopolizar os recursos. A monopolização, contudo, não parece ter interferido negativamente na AS de aprimoramentos de técnicas. É possível que a grande tolerância que os macacos-prego têm com seus coespecíficos compense a influência negativa que a monopolização dos recursos poderia gerar. Não encontramos evidências de que os outros fatores sociais influenciaram negativamente a AS, e com isso, o desenvolvimento da CC. Em relação aos fatores cognitivos, não encontramos evidências de ensino, prossocialidade ou comunicação significativa e não pudemos avaliar a ocorrência de emulação ou imitação. Podemos concluir que esses fatores não são necessários para a AS de aprimoramentos de técnicas. Para aprender socialmente um aprimoramento de técnica que está além da capacidade de inovação individual, contudo, é provável que mecanismos com maior fidelidade de AS, como a emulação, sejam necessários. Acreditamos que caso a emulação seja suficiente para o desenvolvimento de uma CC simples em animais não humanos, os macacos-prego tem o potencial para desenvolvê-la. Já que (i) eles possuem a capacidade de reconhecer um comportamento mais eficiente e a flexibilidade de mudança de comportamento, (ii) evidências em cativeiro apontam que macacos-prego podem emular um comportamento e (iii) as populações tendem a ser tolerantes / Social learning (SL) is learning that is facilitated by the observation of, or interaction with, another individual or its products. When learning socially, animals, both human and non-human, employ strategies to access and use (or not) socially provided information. These strategies define when and from whom to copy a behaviour. A topic that is currently being discussed is the occurrence of cumulative culture (CC) in nonhuman animals: the population capacity to accumulate technical/behavioural improvements over time through SL. The objectives of this study were to investigate (1) whether monkeys are able to socially learn improvements of established techniques; (2) which social transmission biases and SL strategies were used by the capuchin monkeys; (3) the influence of 4 cognitive factors (learning, language, imitation and prosociality) and 4 social factors (scrounging, tendency of dominant individuals to monopolize resources, lack of attention to low-status inventors and conservative behaviour) in the diffusion of new behaviours and then argue how these factors would affect the development of a simple CC. We presented a group of capuchin monkeys with two puzzle boxes, one with three progressively complex stages (food-box) and other with two stages (juice-box). These puzzle boxes were developed to introduce new behaviours into the repertory of the group and induce improvements of established techniques. Regarding our first goal (1), by using the Network-based diffusion analysis we identified the occurrence of SL by close observation of the most complex stage of the juice-box. Thereby we infer that capuchin monkeys can acquire, through SL, more complex and efficient techniques of tool use. This, together with observational learning, allows us to affirm that these monkeys have the capacity to recognize that a behaviour performed by another individual is more efficient than their own, and the flexibility to change to this alternative behaviour. About our second objective (2), the social transmission biases, we found that individuals tend to observe more the most proficient individuals and subordinate individuals and that subordinate males observe more than dominant males. Lastly (3), regarding the social factors, we found that dominant individuals tend to monopolize the resources. Monopolization, however, does not seem to have negatively interfered with the SL of technical improvements. It is possible that the increased tolerance that capuchin monkeys have regarding their coespecifics compensates the negative influence that the monopolization could generate. We found no evidence that the other social factors influenced negatively the diffusion of information, and thus the development of CC. Regarding the cognitive factors, we did not find evidence of teaching, prosociality or significant communication. We could not evaluate the occurrence of emulation or imitation. Thus, we can conclude that these factors are not necessary for the SL of simple technical improvements. Observational learning is enough for this learning to occur. To socially learn a technical improvement that is beyond the capacity of individual innovation, however, it is likely that mechanisms with higher SL fidelity, such as emulation, are necessary. Considering that capuchin monkeys can (i) recognize that a behaviour is more efficient than their own and the flexibility change to that behaviour, (ii) that there is evidence, in captivity, that capuchin monkeys can emulate behaviours and (iii) that populations tend to be tolerant. If emulation is sufficient for the development of a simple CC in non-human animals, we believe that capuchin monkeys have the potential to develop it

A aprendizagem social (AS) é a aprendizagem facilitada pela observação ou interação com outro indivíduo ou com produtos produzidos pelo mesmo. Para aprender socialmente, animais, humanos e não-humanos, possuem estratégias para utilizar ou não informações socialmente disponíveis, definindo quando e de quem copiar o comportamento. Um tema discutido atualmente é cultura cumulativa (CC) em animais não-humanos: a capacidade de uma população acumular aperfeiçoamentos de técnicas ao longo do tempo por meio da AS. Este estudo teve como objetivos investigar (1) se os macacos-prego são capazes de aprender socialmente aprimoramentos de técnicas já estabelecidas; (2) quais vieses de transmissão social e estratégias de AS são utilizadas pelos macacos-prego; e (3) examinar a influência de 4 fatores cognitivos (ensino, linguagem, imitação e prossocialidade) e 4 fatores sociais (scrounging, monopolização do recurso pelos dominantes, falta de atenção para o comportamento de inovadores de baixo status social e conservadorismo comportamental) na difusão de novos comportamentos e argumentar como esses fatores afetariam o desenvolvimento de uma CC simples. Para atingir estes objetivos apresentamos duas caixas-problema para um grupo de macacos-prego selvagens: uma com três estágios de dificuldade progressivos (caixa-problema de alimentos) e a outra com dois (caixa-problema de suco). Estas caixas-problema tinham como finalidade introduzir novos comportamentos no grupo e induzir aprimoramentos de técnicas já estabelecidas. Com relação ao primeiro objetivo (1), utilizando a Networkbased diffusion analysis nós identificamos a AS por observação próxima do estágio mais complexo da caixa-problema de suco. Com isso inferimos que os macacos-prego são capazes de adquirir, através da AS, técnicas mais complexas e eficientes de uso de ferramentas. Isso somado com o aprendizado observacional, nos permite afirmar que estes macacos-prego possuem a capacidade de reconhecer que um comportamento sendo produzido por outro indivíduo é mais eficiente que o próprio, e a flexibilidade para mudar para este comportamento alternativo. A respeito do segundo objetivo (2), ao analisar os viéses de transmissão social nós encontramos que os indivíduos tendem a observar preferencialmente os indivíduos mais proficientes e os indivíduos subordinados e que machos subordinados observam mais os coespecíficos que machos dominantes. Por fim (3), a respeito dos fatores sociais que afetam o desenvolvimento da CC, encontramos que os indivíduos dominantes tendem a monopolizar os recursos. A monopolização, contudo, não parece ter interferido negativamente na AS de aprimoramentos de técnicas. É possível que a grande tolerância que os macacos-prego têm com seus coespecíficos compense a influência negativa que a monopolização dos recursos poderia gerar. Não encontramos evidências de que os outros fatores sociais influenciaram negativamente a AS, e com isso, o desenvolvimento da CC. Em relação aos fatores cognitivos, não encontramos evidências de ensino, prossocialidade ou comunicação significativa e não pudemos avaliar a ocorrência de emulação ou imitação. Podemos concluir que esses fatores não são necessários para a AS de aprimoramentos de técnicas. Para aprender socialmente um aprimoramento de técnica que está além da capacidade de inovação individual, contudo, é provável que mecanismos com maior fidelidade de AS, como a emulação, sejam necessários. Acreditamos que caso a emulação seja suficiente para o desenvolvimento de uma CC simples em animais não humanos, os macacos-prego tem o potencial para desenvolvê-la. Já que (i) eles possuem a capacidade de reconhecer um comportamento mais eficiente e a flexibilidade de mudança de comportamento, (ii) evidências em cativeiro apontam que macacos-prego podem emular um comportamento e (iii) as populações tendem a ser tolerantes / Social learning (SL) is learning that is facilitated by the observation of, or interaction with, another individual or its products. When learning socially, animals, both human and non-human, employ strategies to access and use (or not) socially provided information. These strategies define when and from whom to copy a behaviour. A topic that is currently being discussed is the occurrence of cumulative culture (CC) in nonhuman animals: the population capacity to accumulate technical/behavioural improvements over time through SL. The objectives of this study were to investigate (1) whether monkeys are able to socially learn improvements of established techniques; (2) which social transmission biases and SL strategies were used by the capuchin monkeys; (3) the influence of 4 cognitive factors (learning, language, imitation and prosociality) and 4 social factors (scrounging, tendency of dominant individuals to monopolize resources, lack of attention to low-status inventors and conservative behaviour) in the diffusion of new behaviours and then argue how these factors would affect the development of a simple CC. We presented a group of capuchin monkeys with two puzzle boxes, one with three progressively complex stages (food-box) and other with two stages (juice-box). These puzzle boxes were developed to introduce new behaviours into the repertory of the group and induce improvements of established techniques. Regarding our first goal (1), by using the Network-based diffusion analysis we identified the occurrence of SL by close observation of the most complex stage of the juice-box. Thereby we infer that capuchin monkeys can acquire, through SL, more complex and efficient techniques of tool use. This, together with observational learning, allows us to affirm that these monkeys have the capacity to recognize that a behaviour performed by another individual is more efficient than their own, and the flexibility to change to this alternative behaviour. About our second objective (2), the social transmission biases, we found that individuals tend to observe more the most proficient individuals and subordinate individuals and that subordinate males observe more than dominant males. Lastly (3), regarding the social factors, we found that dominant individuals tend to monopolize the resources. Monopolization, however, does not seem to have negatively interfered with the SL of technical improvements. It is possible that the increased tolerance that capuchin monkeys have regarding their coespecifics compensates the negative influence that the monopolization could generate. We found no evidence that the other social factors influenced negatively the diffusion of information, and thus the development of CC. Regarding the cognitive factors, we did not find evidence of teaching, prosociality or significant communication. We could not evaluate the occurrence of emulation or imitation. Thus, we can conclude that these factors are not necessary for the SL of simple technical improvements. Observational learning is enough for this learning to occur. To socially learn a technical improvement that is beyond the capacity of individual innovation, however, it is likely that mechanisms with higher SL fidelity, such as emulation, are necessary. Considering that capuchin monkeys can (i) recognize that a behaviour is more efficient than their own and the flexibility change to that behaviour, (ii) that there is evidence, in captivity, that capuchin monkeys can emulate behaviours and (iii) that populations tend to be tolerant. If emulation is sufficient for the development of a simple CC in non-human animals, we believe that capuchin monkeys have the potential to develop it

In the wild, a variety of inter-group behavioural differences have been reported for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and it has been suggested that these may have resulted from social learning. To determine whether chimpanzees show the necessary propensity for social learning, groups of captive chimpanzees were tested in a series of experiments involving the use of two-action and bidirectional apparatuses. For comparison, and to shed light on any contrasts between our own and chimpanzee learning strategies, similar tests were also conducted with children (Homo sapiens) to ascertain the nature of their observational learning when watching conspecifics. Through the use of open diffusion and diffusion chain techniques, it was shown that both species learnt how to operate different foraging devices from observing an expert conspecific and this learning was strong enough for the generation of behavioural traditions which passed along multiple test ‘generations’. Additionally, ghost conditions were used to distinguish imitative and emulative learning by both species. With one of the two test devices used (the Slide-box) the first evidence for emulation learning by chimpanzees, through the use of a ghost condition, was shown. Children in this condition also showed apparent emulation; a contrast to previous research which has concluded that children tend to rely on imitation. Additionally, to test its potential for use in future social learning experiments, the ability of chimpanzees to learn from video-footage of an unknown conspecific was tested. It was found that the chimpanzees not only learnt how to operate two devices from observing this footage but also used the same alternative method used by the model chimpanzee.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A partir da metade do século 20 o recurso meramente material deixou de ser considerado como a maior fonte de riqueza de uma instituição ou sociedade para ceder lugar à superestimação do ativo intelectual. Essa alternância de paradigma provocou no seio corporativo a preocupação de desenvolver estratégias e ferramentas gerenciais que fossem capazes de propiciar um meio oportuno para a geração e socialização do conhecimento organizacional. Na sociedade da nova economia, ancorada na valorização dos recursos intangíveis, o gerenciamento do conhecimento tácito, altamente pessoal e subjetivo, é concebido como importante tática para prover vantagem competitiva à empresa, inclusive àquelas que prestam serviços educacionais, concedendo lhe status de inovação apontada para o futuro. Uma das estratégias sugeridas pela literatura especializada reside na criação de redes de relacionamentos sociais que visem ampliar e potencializar a interação entre os partícipes no processo de compartilhamento de conhecimentos e troca de experiências para a apreensão da aprendizagem social colaborativa. Portanto, buscou-se examinar, nesta pesquisa, por intermédio de um estudo de caso particular, se uma importante e renomada instituição de ensino superior (IES) atuante no segmento de educação a distância online cumpre os fatores idiossincráticos e organizacionais relevantes para a transferência do conhecimento tácito, bem como se propicia aos docentes inseridos na comunidade virtual de professores (CVP) uma ambientação favorável para tal. O presente estudo sustenta-se em farto e consistente aparato bibliográfico sobre (i) conhecimento; (ii) gestão do conhecimento e (iii) redes, comunidades virtuais e novo social learning e objetiva confrontar as inflexões teóricas apresentadas com as análises realizadas quantitativa e qualitativamente dos dados coletados da unidade de amostra selecionada, na tentativa de prover elucidações capazes de satisfazer as hipóteses formuladas na pesquisa. / From the mid 20th century the merely material resource has been no longer considered as the richest source of an institution or society to give way to the overestimation of the intellectual assets. This paradigm alternation caused the corporate within the concern of developing strategies and management tools that were able to provide an appropriate means for the generation and socialization of organizational knowledge. In the "society of the new economy," based on the valuation of intangible assets, the management of tacit knowledge, highly personal and subjective, is designed as an important tactic to provide competitive advantage to the company, including those that provide educational services, giving you innovation status headed to the future. One of the strategies suggested by the literature is to create social networking sites aimed at expanding and increasing the interaction between the participants in the knowledge sharing process and exchange of experiences for the arrest of collaborative social learning. Therefore, we sought to examine in this research through a particular case study, is an important and renowned higher education institution (HEI) active in online distance education segment meets the idiosyncratic and organizational factors relevant to the transfer of tacit knowledge, as well as provides the entered teaching in the virtual community of teachers (VCT) a favorable setting for such. This study is based on plentiful and consistent bibliographic apparatus on (i) knowledge; (ii) knowledge management and (iii) networks, virtual and new social learning and objective communities confront the theoretical inflections presented with analyzes quantitative and qualitative data collected from the selected sample unit in an attempt to provide clarifications able to meet the assumptions made in the research.

Culture involves the handing down of information, traditions, knowledge and skill, views and ideals from one individual to another and across generations by means of social transmission expressed in manufactured objects and behaviour. The evolution of cumulative culture, a human specific capacity, makes possible an inheritance system that is governed by the same Darwinian principles as biological evolution. Cumulative culture has made possible the build-up or ratcheting effect of knowledge and traditions that when put together allow for advanced technology, medicine, education and other highly advanced cognitive processes that characterise humans from non human animals. This dissertation dedicates the first chapter to review the literature pertaining to this topic; describing various types of social learning processes and methodological approaches that are used to query and broadly describe the process of culture in various animals. The following two chapters (2 and 3) present three experiments that provide methodical and systematic exploration of the social transmission process which occurs in chimpanzees; using 3 artificial foraging devices, the 3 studies systematically demonstrate that chimpanzees have the capacity to transmit culture from one individual to another and serially across neighbouring communities- providing laboratory evidence of behavioural variation analogous to that observed in the wild. Chapter 4 then goes on to describe an experiment that tests a number of hypothesised biases in cultural transmission. Looking specifically at social dynamics at play during the transmission of skill within ape groups - I systematically analyse the effects of directed social learning; focusing on kin and status based strategies that are characteristic of group living apes. Chapter 5 is an original, empirical and methodically comparative analysis of hierarchically organized behaviour in human children and chimpanzees using a hierarchically organized artificial fruit. The final chapter (6) discusses the findings of each of the five experiments and compares the results to findings at other captive and wild research sites. I then broaden the topic to explore how the findings relate to broad issues in literature and provide a framework for future research and for understanding the complex mechanisms of intelligent systems.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A partir da metade do século 20 o recurso meramente material deixou de ser considerado como a maior fonte de riqueza de uma instituição ou sociedade para ceder lugar à superestimação do ativo intelectual. Essa alternância de paradigma provocou no seio corporativo a preocupação de desenvolver estratégias e ferramentas gerenciais que fossem capazes de propiciar um meio oportuno para a geração e socialização do conhecimento organizacional. Na sociedade da nova economia, ancorada na valorização dos recursos intangíveis, o gerenciamento do conhecimento tácito, altamente pessoal e subjetivo, é concebido como importante tática para prover vantagem competitiva à empresa, inclusive àquelas que prestam serviços educacionais, concedendo lhe status de inovação apontada para o futuro. Uma das estratégias sugeridas pela literatura especializada reside na criação de redes de relacionamentos sociais que visem ampliar e potencializar a interação entre os partícipes no processo de compartilhamento de conhecimentos e troca de experiências para a apreensão da aprendizagem social colaborativa. Portanto, buscou-se examinar, nesta pesquisa, por intermédio de um estudo de caso particular, se uma importante e renomada instituição de ensino superior (IES) atuante no segmento de educação a distância online cumpre os fatores idiossincráticos e organizacionais relevantes para a transferência do conhecimento tácito, bem como se propicia aos docentes inseridos na comunidade virtual de professores (CVP) uma ambientação favorável para tal. O presente estudo sustenta-se em farto e consistente aparato bibliográfico sobre (i) conhecimento; (ii) gestão do conhecimento e (iii) redes, comunidades virtuais e novo social learning e objetiva confrontar as inflexões teóricas apresentadas com as análises realizadas quantitativa e qualitativamente dos dados coletados da unidade de amostra selecionada, na tentativa de prover elucidações capazes de satisfazer as hipóteses formuladas na pesquisa. / From the mid 20th century the merely material resource has been no longer considered as the richest source of an institution or society to give way to the overestimation of the intellectual assets. This paradigm alternation caused the corporate within the concern of developing strategies and management tools that were able to provide an appropriate means for the generation and socialization of organizational knowledge. In the "society of the new economy," based on the valuation of intangible assets, the management of tacit knowledge, highly personal and subjective, is designed as an important tactic to provide competitive advantage to the company, including those that provide educational services, giving you innovation status headed to the future. One of the strategies suggested by the literature is to create social networking sites aimed at expanding and increasing the interaction between the participants in the knowledge sharing process and exchange of experiences for the arrest of collaborative social learning. Therefore, we sought to examine in this research through a particular case study, is an important and renowned higher education institution (HEI) active in online distance education segment meets the idiosyncratic and organizational factors relevant to the transfer of tacit knowledge, as well as provides the entered teaching in the virtual community of teachers (VCT) a favorable setting for such. This study is based on plentiful and consistent bibliographic apparatus on (i) knowledge; (ii) knowledge management and (iii) networks, virtual and new social learning and objective communities confront the theoretical inflections presented with analyzes quantitative and qualitative data collected from the selected sample unit in an attempt to provide clarifications able to meet the assumptions made in the research.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a neurocutaneous disorder that affects roughly 1 in 3500 individuals. In addition to physical features (e.g., neurofibromas), developmental disorders are also common that can affect cognition, learning, attention and social function. The NF1 gene encodes neurofibromin, a GTPase activating protein (GAP)-like protein that negatively regulates Ras GTPase activation. Mutation at the NF1 locus increases the output of MAPK and PI3K signal transduction from the cellular membrane to the nucleus. Similar to humans, Nf1+/- mice show spatial learning abnormalities that are potentially correlated with increases in GABA-mediated inhibition and deficits in long-term potentiation in the hippocampus. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that Nf1+/- mice exhibit a selective loss of long-term social learning / memory and increased GABAergic inhibition in the basolateral amygdala, a critical brain region for regulating social behaviors. Next, utilizing a genetic intercross, we show that the co-deletion of p21-activated kinase type 1 (Pak1-/-), which positively regulates MAPK activation, restores Nf1+/--dependent MAPK hyperactivation in neurons cultured from the frontal cortex. We found that the co-deletion of Pak1 in Nf1+/- mice (Nf1+/- / Pak1-/-) also restores the deficits in long-term social learning / memory seen in Nf1+/- mice and normalizes the increases in GABA-mediated inhibition in the BLA, as compared to Nf1+/- mice. Together, these findings establish a role for Nf1 and Pak1 genes in the regulation of social learning in Nf1-deficient mice. Furthermore, proteomic studies identify dysregulation of F-actin and microtubule dynamics in the prefrontal cortex, and implicate proteins associated with vesicular release as well as neurite formation and outgrowth (e.g., LSAMP, STXBP1, DREB). In the BLA, disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain-containing protein 22 (ADAM22) was identified, and ADAM22 may play a role in the regulation of AMPA receptors. Finally, due to the increased co-occurrence of NF1 and autism, these findings may also have important implications for the pathology and treatment of NF1-related social deficits and some forms of autism.

Eftersom fertiliteten i många utvecklade länder har gått ned är det intressant att studera orsakerna bakom detta. Om inte orsakerna bara ligger i de socioekonomiska förhållandena, vilka diskuteras mest, var kan de då sökas? Denna studie använder enkätdata med avsikt att belysa om attityder till att skaffa barn påverkas av vilka familjeförhållanden man själv växt upp under samt själv upplever under vuxet liv. Synsättet bygger på idén att det finns effekter som påverkar tänkandet genom socialisering, från en generation till en annan. Genom analys av data från undersökningen YAPS studeras om det finns några empiriska samband mellan stabilitet i familjens sammansättning under uppväxten, attityder till att leva i parförhållande och attityder till att skaffa barn. Uppsatsen använder sig av regressionsanalys för att undersöka eventuella statistiskt belagda samband. Då resultaten inte visar upp något samband med uppväxtvillkoren så undersöks även ekonomiska villkor då dessa ingått som bakgrundsdata i analysen. Resultatet pekar på samband mellan synen på barn och synen på parförhållanden samt den ekonomiska situationen i familjen under uppväxten. Den attityd till barn som man uppger verkar också vara en könsfråga då kvinnor har en mer positiv syn på barn än män enligt denna studie.

Robots are destined to move beyond the caged factory floors towards domains where they will be interacting closely with humans. They will encounter highly varied environments, scenarios and user demands. As a result, programming robots after deployment will be an important requirement. To address this challenge, the field of Learning from Demonstration (LfD) emerged with the vision of programming robots through demonstrations of the desired behavior instead of explicit programming. The field of LfD within robotics has been around for more than 30 years and is still an actively researched field. However, very little research is done on the implications of having a non-robotics expert as a teacher. This thesis aims to bridge this gap by developing learning from demonstration algorithms and interaction paradigms that allow non-expert people to teach robots new skills. The first step of the thesis was to evaluate how non-expert teachers provide demonstrations to robots. Keyframe demonstrations are introduced to the field of LfD to help people teach skills to robots and compared with the traditional trajectory demonstrations. The utility of keyframes are validated by a series of experiments with more than 80 participants. Based on the experiments, a hybrid of trajectory and keyframe demonstrations are proposed to take advantage of both and a method was developed to learn from trajectories, keyframes and hybrid demonstrations in a unified way. A key insight from these user experiments was that teachers are goal oriented. They concentrated on achieving the goal of the demonstrated skills rather than providing good quality demonstrations. Based on this observation, this thesis introduces a method that can learn actions and goals from the same set of demonstrations. The action models are used to execute the skill and goal models to monitor this execution. A user study with eight participants and two skills showed that successful goal models can be learned from non- expert teacher data even if the resulting action models are not as successful. Following these results, this thesis further develops a self-improvement algorithm that uses the goal monitoring output to improve the action models, without further user input. This approach is validated with an expert user and two skills. Finally, this thesis builds an interactive LfD system that incorporates both goal learning and self-improvement and evaluates it with 12 naive users and three skills. The results suggests that teacher feedback during experiments increases skill execution and monitoring success. Moreover, non-expert data can be used as a seed to self-improvement to fix unsuccessful action models.

As citizens of the Arabian Gulf states struggle to maintain identity and heritage in a swarm of economic boom and social modernization and mobilization, they are bombarded with media messages which conflict with the essential tenets of modernization and development: individualism, economic independence, freedom of expression, and elevated social status for women. The largely popular Gulf Arabic television miniseries genre is an important vehicle for those conflicting media messages, presenting stereotypical and simplistic representations of family life, the divide between good and evil, and prescribed gender dichotomies. Those messages which idealize traditionalism and conservative belief systems are crafted and informed by those who dominate the media apparatus in the Arabian Gulf: the ruling, male, Muslim, hegemonic elite. The miniseries genre keeps audiences glued to the television in the month of Ramadan, a time at which Muslims throughout the world are at a heightened sense of religiosity and devotion to family and are thus more susceptible to the persuasion of media messages related to religion, faith, virtues, and morals. This research examines the themes of patriarchy, gender dichotomies, family values, and the omnipresence of Islam in the genre and the relationship of all of these themes to the value and belief systems of the ruling hegemonic elite and audience members alike. The research is based on a data pool which includes 152 episodes, totaling roughly 101.5 televised hours. The data also include the results of a survey about audience interaction and interpretation of the genre. The survey is comprised of 35 questions to which 56 participants responded. It discusses the implications of the messages contained within the genre and communicated through the aforementioned themes, and examines the potential for them to influence audience members’ outlook on society as seen through the lens of relevant media theories. / text