情報の「所有」をめぐって

　知識やいわゆる「情報」の所有が滑稽に見えるのはどのような時だろうか。
　まず、それらをもとにした主張が、その根拠を充分に吟味せずに、ただ表層的に「踊らされている」だけの場合であろう（禁煙運動とそれらに対する反応についての下記サイト参照）。
　さらに、その主張が、情報や知識を「所有」することによって、他に対する優越を密かに満足させているにすぎない場合には、それは単に滑稽なだけではなく、幼稚な自己愛を披瀝することになり醜悪ですらある。そして、そのふるまいが他を「制御」することに向けられると、事はさまざまな実害を生じる事になる。滑稽かつ奇妙なことに、むしろそのような事態ではそれを主張する側に「正義」があり「庇護者」であるかのような感情がともなうものである。
　ただし、知識や情報の所有自体を否定する事も、また愚かな事である。少なくとも何らかの所有、独占なしに現代社会が成り立たない事は当然であろう。もちろん、そのことが実は何の価値も持たない場合には、陳腐のそしりを免れないが。
　いずれにせよ、滑稽な事態に落ち入ったり巻き込まれないためには、事実について充分に吟味しながら、その主張を合理的批判的に論じること、そしてその目指すところを意識的に明らかにすることが重要である。振り返ってみれば大学教育でもそのことがもっとも基本的な教育内容であってしかるべきであろう。「基礎知識の上」に批判や吟味がはじまるのではなく、根拠の吟味と論理的批判の訓練が少なくとも大学ではA to Zであると思う。

References
山形浩生 (2005/9/30)　メディアリテラシーの練習問題；室井尚の奇妙な反・嫌煙運動プロパガンダ論
http://cruel.org/other/smoking.html

Low-Level Features of Faces

The Role of Low-Level Features in Images of Human Faces

by Huber
http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/avc/huber/synthetic.htm

cf.
Suzuki, S., & Cavanagh, P.
Facial organization blocks access to low-level features: An object inferiority effect
JEP:Hp&p 1995, vol.21, no.4, 901-913.

ABSTRACT: The current study investigated the influence of a low-level local feature (curvature) and a high-level emergent feature (facial expression) on rapid search. These features distinguished the target from the distractors and were presented either alone or together. Stimuli were triplets of up and down arcs organized to form meaningless patterns or schematic faces. In the feature search, the target had the only down arc in the display. In the conjunction search, the target was a unique combination of up and down arcs. When triplets depicted faces, the target was also the only smiling face among frowning faces. The face-level feature facilitated the conjunction search but, surprisingly, slowed the feature search. These results demonstrated that an object inferiority effect could occur even when the emergent feature was useful in the search. Rapid search processes appear to operate only on high-level representations even when low-level features would be more efficient.

Feature integration & facial affect

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 1997, Vol. 23, No. 1, 213-226
Featural Evaluation, Integration, and Judgment of Facial Affect
John W. Ellison and Dominic W. Massaro

--
the shape of the identification functions alone is not sufficient to conclude whether perception is continuous or categorical. The most direct measure involves the quantitative tests of mathematical models that assume either continuous or categorical information
--
pp.214

On the staircase method

On the practice of dichotomization of continuous variables
by MacCallum et al 2002 in Psychological Methods
:---
when you split your data into multiple
categories and run an ANOVA, you: lose information, lose effect size
and power, and you run the risk of finding spurious interactions/main
effects, and also risk overlooking non-linear effects.
----
Information from Brian, K.
:::
Thanks!

----
Also see the following information;

Forced choice staircases with fixed steps, Vision Research, 38, 1998, pp.1861-1881
by Miguel ? A. Garcia-Perez

Cognitive Forum

Contour interpolation and spatiotemporal integration in the visual system

Friday, October 21st, 2005
3:30 - 5:00
6461 Franz Hall



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cog Forum Online Calendar:
http://www.icalx.com/public/jdhilger/Cog%20Forum

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Week 3: Cog Forum - (3:30 PM - 5:00 PM)

Title: Contour interpolation and spatiotemporal integration in
the visual system


Abstract: Models and experimental results about contour
interpolation mechanism in spatio-temporal domain are
examined. Recent neural models are discussed in relation
to spatial interpolation phenomena. In psychophysical
experiments, illusory contour figures were used as
materials, and successive presentation of inducing figures
and dot localization paradigm were introduced. Results
suggest that under certain temporal conditions, edge may
be interpolated. Temporal window hypothesis on edge
integration and the underlying processing mechanisms are
discussed.

HP with Demo:
http://www.kgwu.ac.jp/sinri/unuma/unuma_E.htm
---
---
During the Forum,
Several questions from Prof. Keith Holyoak.
::
Phil,
Thank you..

Spatiotemporal Boundary Formation

Spatiotemporal Boundary Formation: Boundary, Form, and Motion Perception From Transformations of Surface Elements
Thomas F. Shipley and Philip J. Kellman
Journal of Experimental Psychology; General 1994, Vol. 123, No. 1, 3-20

Continuous surface boundaries, object shape, and global motion can be perceived from information that is fragmentary in both space and time. The authors report investigations indicating that accretion and deletion of texture is only 1 member of a broader class of element transformations that produce boundaries, shape, and motion, through spatiotemporal boundary formation (SBF). The authors report 4 experiments exploring SBF. The first 3 examine the class of transformations producing SBF, indicating that local element changes in color, orientation, or location are all effective. A 4th experiment examines temporal constraints on SBF. Integration of local element changes to produce boundaries, form, and global motion appears to be confined to a 165-ms window. Two classes of spatiotemporal integration models are considered; the relation between SBF and other cases of boundary interpolation are discussed.

A response-classification technique

Deriving behavioural receptive fields for visually completed contours
Jason M. Gold, Richard F. Murray, Patrick J. Bennett and Allison B. Sekuler
19 May 2000 Current Biology2000, 10:663-666

----
Previous behavioural and physiological studies suggest that the visual system treats illusory and occluded contours like luminance-defined contours in many respects. None of these studies has, however, directly shown that illusory and occluded contours are actually used to perform perceptual tasks. Here, we use a response-classification technique to answer this question directly.
Here, we use a response-classification technique to answer this question directly. This technique provides pictorial representations-- ‘classification images’ --

---

Unique Beethoven Manuscript to Be Auctioned

Unique Beethoven Manuscript to Be Auctioned

By REUTERS
Published: October 13, 2005
Filed at 8:27 a.m. ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A unique manuscript by Ludwig van Beethoven that was lost for more than a century will go on sale in London in December priced at over one million pounds.
Discovered in July at the bottom of a dusty filing cabinet at a religious school in Philadelphia, the manuscript is a work in progress for the composer's Grosse Fuge in B flat major -- one of his most revolutionary works.
---
The piece is notoriously difficult to perform and, because it was musically far ahead of its time, did not immediately sit well with audiences either.

The manuscript is written in brown and black ink and includes annotations in pencil and red crayon.
---
格闘の様子がしのばれる。赤いクレヨンとは。

References
NY Times 10/13/05
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-arts-beethoven.html
なお、デフォルトで1981年からの記事が検索可能。

Cog Forum:Week 1

Week 1: Cog Forum - (3:30 PM - 5:00 PM) 10/07/05

Title: Perception of Visual Structure: A Boolean Map Theory

Speaker: Hal Pashler

From: UCSD

Abstract: Studies of the perception of multidimensional displays have focused almost entirely on search tasks. However, observers often view scenes without trying to find any particular target, and when doing so, they frequently apprehend structures and patterns, not just the presence of "target" elements. Exactly what kinds of structures and patterns can people detect without scrutiny, and what role does attention play? We propose and discuss what we call the boolean mapping theory, according to which perception of structure in multidimensional displays is constrained to occur through one or more iterations of a two-stage sequence: (1) voluntary dichotomization of the display by attending to a subregion in a single featural dimension, and (2) the spatial analysis of the "positive" regions of the display. This hypothesis is related to feature integration theory, but differs in some important ways. Some tests of the theory will be presented, involving perception of figure-ground segregation, color symmetry, and various forms of clustering and higher order structures. The practical implications for visual interpretation of multidimensional data (e.g., in visual data mining and medical imaging) will also be touched upon. (Note: This work was done in collaboration with Liqiang Huang).

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A question from Prof. Robert A. Bjork,
" Then, what is map? "