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INTRODUCTION: Basic to the judging process is the relating of a given item to a group of items* The simpler case of judging is one in which an item is compared with another which is simultaneously present while the more complex case consists in comparing an item with previously experienced items* Analysis of the latter process was given impetus by Wever and Zener (8) who introduced a method of investigation applicable to this problem of judgment in time* Positing that even simple comparisons draw heavily upon an extended context of experiences, these investigators demonstrated that their method of presenting for judgment single members of a stimulus series gives data comparable to that obtained with the traditional method of constant stimuli. Wever and Zener and investigators who subsequently utilized the method of single stimuli have demonstrated that subjects are able to make consistent judgments which are sensitive to small increments of change in the stimulus series* Additional studies have investigated some of the influences that modify judgments such as changes in end stimuli or stimulus density, and aspects of the stimulus distribution to which judgments are anchored. Several reviews of the research in this area are available (5,6,7). In addition to laboratory findings everyday life offers many examples of the utilization of judgments which reflect previous experiences with the stimulus dimension involved. The basis for such characterizations as “a tall man”, “a fascinating lecture”, “ a good meal” is admittedly more involved than the basis for usual laboratory judgments but the same general principles may be assumed to underlie both. In both the laboratory and the social situation the process of relating one item to a non-present set of items is dependent upon a temporal integration of the effects of previous contacts with items of that set. It is meaningful, therefore, to examine the functional dependence of distributions of judgments upon previous experience with items of the same set as the ones being judged. This problem is implicit in several different lines of research such as investigations of shifts in judgments, where the underlying assumption is that changes in judgment reflect changes in the fundamental character of the stimulus distributions, and empirical studies of anchoring, which in general follow the pattern of modifying essentially rectangular stimulus distributions. Both types of investigation represent efforts to discover the aspects of a stimulus distribution to which judgments are related. The present study is composed of several experiments which 4 were designed to investigate systematically general relationships obtaining between different distributions of stimulus items and distributions of judgments elicited by these items with attention to such factors as differences in the instructions, the number of judgment categories and the step-interval between items. In all experiments the subjects were required to judge the length of singly presented horizontal lines. The first group of four experiments represents an effort to discover the form of the basic functional relationship in relatively unstructured situations which are representative of most judging tasks. The initial experiment consisted of separate groups of subjects judging one of five different distributions of stimulus items. All the distributions (rectangular, symmetrical unimodal, bimodal, positively skewed, negatively skewed) had the same range and density of items and two categories of judgment (longer or shorter) were available to the subjects. The second experiment was designed to investigate the influence of the factor of stimulus distribution on judgments rendered by subjects who experience successively more than a single stimulus distribution, since in life situations individuals do not typically experience one clearly defined distribution of similar stimulus items. Rather they have a variety of contacts with items whose distribution may vary over a period of time. The aspect of the judging situation which was altered in the third experiment was the number of judgment categories. In order to determine the effect of the distributional properties of the stimulus items on judgments in multiple category situations the number of categories available to the subjects was increased from two to three (longer, medium, shorter). In the fourth experiment the step interval between stimulus Items was increased from a barely supraliminal to a clearly discriminable one. This was done in order not to restrict the findings of the study to situations such as those of the traditional psychophysical experiments where the step-interval is in the region of the Ilmen. In the first four experiments the instructions to the subjects were very general, and thus the question is raised whether the relationships obtained under these conditions depend upon varying individual interpretations of the task. The last two experiments in this study were designed to investigate the effect of more explicit instructions with the aim of obtaining results which could be compared with the relationships found between distributions of stimuli and distributions of judgments in the more representative unstructured situations. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

Case-based reasoning solves new problems by re-using the solutions of previously solved similar problems and is popular because many of the knowledge engineering demands of conventional knowledge-based systems are removed. The content of the case knowledge container is critical to the performance of case-based classification systems. However, the knowledge engineer is given little support in the selection of suitable techniques to maintain and monitor the case base. This research investigates the coverage, competence and problem-solving capacity of case knowledge with the aim of developing techniques to model and maintain the case base. We present a novel technique that creates a model of the case base by measuring the uncertainty in local areas of the problem space based on the local mix of solutions present. The model provides an insight into the structure of a case base by means of a complexity profile that can assist maintenance decision-making and provide a benchmark to assess future changes to the case base. The distribution of cases in the case base is critical to the performance of a case-based reasoning system. We argue that classification boundaries represent important regions of the problem space and develop two complexity-guided algorithms which use boundary identification techniques to actively discover cases close to boundaries. We introduce a complexity-guided redundancy reduction algorithm which uses a case complexity threshold to retain cases close to boundaries and delete cases that form single class clusters. The algorithm offers control over the balance between maintaining competence and reducing case base size. The performance of a case-based reasoning system relies on the integrity of its case base but in real life applications the available data invariably contains erroneous, noisy cases. Automated removal of these noisy cases can improve system accuracy. In addition, error rates can often be reduced by removing cases to give smoother decision boundaries between classes. We show that the optimal level of boundary smoothing is domain dependent and, therefore, our approach to error reduction reacts to the characteristics of the domain by setting an appropriate level of smoothing. We introduce a novel algorithm which identifies and removes both noisy and boundary cases with the aid of a local distance ratio. A prototype interface has been developed that shows how the modelling and maintenance approaches can be used in practice in an interactive manner. The interface allows the knowledge engineer to make informed maintenance choices without the need for extensive evaluation effort while, at the same time, retaining control over the process. One of the strengths of our approach is in applying a consistent, integrated method to case base maintenance to provide a transparent process that gives a degree of explanation.

by Benson, Ng Hin Kwong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-117). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.9 / Chapter 1.1 --- Our approach --- p.11 / Chapter 1.2 --- Organization of the thesis --- p.12 / Chapter 2 --- Logic Programming --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1 --- Logic programming in Horn clauses --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Problem with incomplete information --- p.15 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Problem with inconsistent information --- p.15 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Problem with indefinite information --- p.16 / Chapter 2.2 --- Logic programming in non-Horn clauses --- p.16 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Reasoning under incomplete information --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Reasoning under inconsistent information --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Reasoning under indefinite information --- p.20 / Chapter 2.3 --- "Coexistence of incomplete, inconsistent and indefinite information" --- p.21 / Chapter 2.4 --- Stable semantics --- p.22 / Chapter 2.5 --- Well-founded semantics --- p.23 / Chapter 2.6 --- Chapter summary --- p.25 / Chapter 3 --- Argumentation --- p.26 / Chapter 3.1 --- Toulmin's informal argumentation model --- p.27 / Chapter 3.2 --- Rescher's formal argumentation model --- p.28 / Chapter 3.3 --- Argumentation in AI research --- p.30 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Poole's Logical Framework for Default Reasoning --- p.30 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Inheritance Reasoning Framework of Touretzky et. al --- p.31 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Pollock's Theory of Defeasible Reasoning --- p.32 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Dung's Abstract Argumentation Framework --- p.33 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- Lin and Shoham's Argument System --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.6 --- Vreeswijk's Abstract Argumentation --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.7 --- Kowalski and Toni's Uniform Argumentation --- p.36 / Chapter 3.3.8 --- John Fox's Qualitative Argumentation --- p.37 / Chapter 3.3.9 --- Thomas Gordon's Pleading Games --- p.38 / Chapter 3.3.10 --- Chris Reed's Persuasive Dialogue --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3.11 --- Ronald Loui's Argument Game --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3.12 --- "Verheij's Reason-Based, Logics and CumulA" --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3.13 --- Prakken's Defeasible Argumentation --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3.14 --- Summary of existing frameworks --- p.41 / Chapter 3.4 --- Chapter summary --- p.42 / Chapter 4 --- Disjunctive Argumentation Semantics I --- p.46 / Chapter 4.1 --- Background --- p.47 / Chapter 4.2 --- Definition --- p.48 / Chapter 4.3 --- Conflicts within a KBS --- p.52 / Chapter 4.4 --- Conflicts between KBSs --- p.54 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Credulous View --- p.56 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Skeptical View --- p.57 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Generalized Skeptical View --- p.58 / Chapter 4.5 --- Semantics --- p.60 / Chapter 4.6 --- Dialectical proof theory --- p.61 / Chapter 4.7 --- Relation to existing framework --- p.61 / Chapter 4.8 --- Issue on paraconsistency --- p.63 / Chapter 4.9 --- An illustrative example --- p.63 / Chapter 4.10 --- Chapter summary --- p.65 / Chapter 5 --- Disjunctive Argumentation Semantics II --- p.67 / Chapter 5.1 --- Background --- p.68 / Chapter 5.2 --- Definition --- p.70 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Rules --- p.70 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Splits --- p.71 / Chapter 5.3 --- Conflicts --- p.74 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Undercut conflicts --- p.75 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Rebuttal conflicts --- p.76 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Thinning conflicts --- p.78 / Chapter 5.4 --- Semantics --- p.80 / Chapter 5.5 --- Relation to existing frameworks --- p.81 / Chapter 5.6 --- Issue on paraconsistency --- p.82 / Chapter 5.7 --- An illustrative example --- p.83 / Chapter 5.8 --- Chapter summary --- p.85 / Chapter 6 --- Evaluation --- p.86 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.86 / Chapter 6.2 --- Methodology --- p.87 / Chapter 6.3 --- DAS I --- p.88 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Inoue's Benchmark problems --- p.88 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Sherlock Holmes' problems --- p.96 / Chapter 6.4 --- DAS II --- p.100 / Chapter 6.4.1 --- Inoue's benchmark problems --- p.100 / Chapter 6.4.2 --- Sherlock Holmes' problem --- p.103 / Chapter 6.5 --- Analysis --- p.103 / Chapter 6.5.1 --- Possible extension --- p.104 / Chapter 6.6 --- Chapter summary --- p.106 / Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.108 / Chapter 7.0.1 --- Possible extension of the present work --- p.109 / Bibliography --- p.117 / Chapter A --- First Oreder Logic (FOL) --- p.118 / Chapter B --- DAS-I Proof --- p.121 / Chapter B.1 --- Monotone proof --- p.121 / Chapter B.2 --- Soundness proof --- p.122 / Chapter B.3 --- Completeness proof --- p.123 / Chapter C --- Sherlock Holmes' Silver Blaze Excerpts --- p.125 / Chapter C.1 --- Double life --- p.125 / Chapter C.2 --- Poison stable boy --- p.125

Tang, Ki Yuen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-40). / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

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The role of spatial reasoning in the development of systems in the domain of Artificial Intelligence is increasing. One particular approach, qualitative spatial reasoning, investigates the usage of abstract representation to facilitate the representation of and the reasoning with spatial information.This thesis investigates the usage of intervals along global axes as the under-lying representational and reasoning mechanism for a spatial reasoning system. Aspects that are unique to representing spatial information (flow and multi-dimensionality) are used to provide a method for classifying relations between objects at multiple levels of granularity. The combination of these two mechanisms (intervals and classification) provide the basis for the development of a querying system that allows qualitative queries about object relations in multi-dimensional space to be performed upon the representation.The second issue examined by this thesis is the problem of representing intervals when all the interval relations may not be known precisely. A three part solution is proposed. The first shows how the simplest situation, where all relations are explicit and primitive, can be represented and integrated with the above mentioned querying system. The second situation demonstrates how, for interval relations that are primitive but are not all explicitly known, an effective point based representation may be constructed. Finally, when relations between intervals are disjunctions of possible primitive interval relations, a representation is presented which allows solutions to queries to be constructed from consistent data.Our contribution is two-fold:1. a method of classifying the spatial relations and the means of querying these relations;2. a process of efficiently representing incomplete interval information and the means of efficiently querying this information.The work presented ++ / in this thesis demonstrates the utility of a multi-dimensional qualitative spatial reasoning system based upon intervals. It also demonstrates how an interval representation may be constructed for datasets that have variable levels of information about relationships between intervals represented in the dataset.

Includes bibliography.

This study aimed to enhance understanding of the moral reasoning of gifted children. While research has explored the justice moral reasoning of gifted children (Arbuthnot, 1973; Chovan & Freeman, 1993; Gross, 1993; Henderson, Gold, & Clarke, 1984; Howard-Hamilton, 1994), this study explored prosocial moral reasoning, moral reasoning which involves conflict between one??s own needs and desires and the needs and desires of others. In addition, this study sought to gather empirical evidence for literature claims that gifted children have higher levels of empathy than their age peers (Lovecky, 1997; Piechowski, 2003; Silverman, 1993b). The study aimed to investigate the possible relationships among giftedness, prosocial reasoning and empathy. Primary (elementary) school students aged between 9 and 12 years in the Sydney Metropolitan area were administered The Prosocial Reasoning Objective Measure (PROM), The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and The Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents (IOE) questionnaires. The results for gifted students (n = 176) were compared with a control group of students not identified as gifted (n = 128). The study found that gifted students used more of the highest level of prosocial reasoning in the PROM than their age peers. Furthermore, gifted students used more empathic concern, fantasy empathy and cognitive empathy than their age peers, although ability was not predictive of the other empathy factors in the instruments. Small but significant correlations between some types of empathy and some levels of prosocial reasoning were also found, indicating possible relationships between empathy and prosocial reasoning. Interviews were conducted with selected students (n = 13) from the above sample, along with some of their teachers (n = 5) and parents (n = 2). Despite the small sample, the interviews seemed to indicate a relationship between experience with bullying and prosocial reasoning. The study highlights the need for an empathy questionnaire that specifically tests cognitive and affective empathy in children. A new questionnaire may unravel some of the seemingly contradictory results in the present study. The study also provides empirical evidence that gifted children use higher levels of prosocial moral reasoning and empathy than their age-peers.