How to interact with an Autonomous System

 

 

 

SUBCONSCIOUS INTERACTION WITH CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH TASK SETTING (3)

 

Human mind could be a precious resource to assist us in designing , understanding and performing autonomous systems.  Subconscious is an autonomous system.  Carl Gustav Jung’s Psychology and Religion book ponders on the autonomy of the Unconscious Mind.

 The brain determines our thoughts and behaviors through tasksets.

  A task set is a configuration of cognitive processes that is actively maintained for subsequent task performance^[1] .  A task is the representation of a set of instructions required to perform an activity accurately; a task set is the set of representations and processes that enable execution of the task ^[2] .

 Subconscious interacts with consciousnes through tasksets.  We set goals to our subconscious by deciding what to do when.

 Prospective memory (PM) is defined as remembering to perform an action in the future. There are two main types of PM according to their different cues: event-based prospective memory (EBPM) and time-based prospective memory (TBPM) (Einstein and McDaniel, 1990). Both EBPM and TBPM are necessary for daily life. EBPM is the remembering what one does when a certain target event occurs. For example, one remembers to buy milk when one passes by the supermarket. TBPM is involved when one has to perform an action in relation to time, such as returning a library book before a due date ^[3] .

 We use tasks and tasksets to live our daily lives.  In the case of two individuals this is why it is important to set common goals to come to a shared understanding.  You can always hit or shout at a small child but you cannot do so to an automatic system the size of a football field like a large airplane.

 Performing on a large autonomous system requires not only the ‘informed consent’, namely the actual command to execute but also a through understanding of the TASKSET that lies behind it.

  Autonomy ^[4,5] —the capability of an agent to properly act by itself in a changing, uncertain world— seems to requiere consciousness.

 An autonomous system ^[6] is one that can achieve a given set of goals in a changing environment—gathering information about the environment and working for an extended period of time without human control or intervention.

 Autonomy requires that the system be able to do the following:

1-       Sense the environment and keep track of the system’s current state and location.

2-       Perceive and understand disparate data sources.

3-       Determine what action to take next and make a plan.

4-       Act only when it is safe to do so, avoiding situations that pose a risk to human safety, property or the autonomous system itself.

 Flybywire vs mechanical control

 In the future ^[5] , developers will interact with autonomous systems via a software platform that abstracts the hardware, abstracts the sensors and pushes the interface to a higher-level set of software services via an application programming interface (API). This will free developers from having to interact with a specific type of LiDAR, radar or camera in use—and enable them to simply request information via high-level services provisioned with APIs. Connectivity will be similarly abstracted, so the communications within the car, with other vehicles and with the cloud will be simpler for a developer to implement without requiring a deep understanding of a specific communication technology.

 

What is FlyByWire A320?

 Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a computer controlled system that in the A320 series and A330 / A340 and now the new A350 aircraft replaces the conventional flight controls of an aircraft (like those found in the 737) with an electronic system

 Traditional flight control systems in most small aircraft are either a web of pulleys and cables or metal rods and joints. Larger aircraft often use hydraulics to make the controls easy to move at high speeds. Newer fly-by-wire control systems pull out all that hardware and replace it with sensors, actuators, and wires. Instead of a direct line of control from aircraft yoke to control surface, the aircraft is left with a yoke, sensors, a computer to process the inputs, wires, and an actuator at the aileron, rudder, or elevator.

 

REFERENCES:

[1]  Katsuyuki Sakai; Task set and prefrontal cortex, Annu Rev Neurosci,  2008;31:219-45.

Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; email: ksakai@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp

 

[2] D. W. Schneider, G.  Logan; 2 Tasks, Task Sets, and the Mapping Between Them ;Pages 27–44, June 2014

 

[3] Hongxia Zhang, Weihai Tang2† and Xiping Liu; The Effect of Task Duration on Event-Based Prospective Memory: Front. Psychol. 8:1895.

[4] GRANT GILLETT, INTENTION, AUTONOMY, AND BRAIN EVENTS, Bioethics, 2009

 

 [5] Ultimate Guide to Autonomous Systems;  Autonomous Systems | Ultimate Guides | BlackBerry QNX

[6] Ricardo Sanz1, inter alia, Consciousness and Understanding in Autonomous Systems  https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2287/paper23.pdf ,-Alonso2 1 Autonomous Systems Laboratory Universidad Polit´ecnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid,

 

Subconscious Interaction with Consciousness through Task setting(2)

 

 

 

SUBCONSCIOUS INTERACTION WITH CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH TASK SETTING (2)

 Bu yazı;

1-       Hedeflerin nasıl işlevini gördüğü,

2-       Hedefin etkilerinin belirlenmesi,

3-       Hedeflerin yapılan işten duyulan tatmin ile ilişkisi,

4-        teşviklerin miktarının belirlenmesinde hedeflerin işlevi

üzerinedir.

The mechanisms by which goals operate, moderators of goal effects, the relation of goals and satisfaction, and the role of goals as mediators of incentives ^[1] .

Görev  başarma olasılığı olarak ölçülen hedef güçlüğü ve performans ile eğrisel ve ters orantılı birşekilde ilişkilidir.  Görev makul bir zorluktayken en yüksek seviyede çaba gerçekleşir, ve en düşük seviyeler görev ya çok kolayken ya da çok zorken gerçekleşir.

task difficulty, measured as probability of task success, was related to performance in a curvilinear, inverse function. The highest level of effort occurred when the task was moderately difficult, and the lowest levels occurred when the task was either very easy or very hard.

Görev performans valensı(umulan tatmin), işlevsellik(performansın ödüllendirileceği beklentisi), ve beklenti (harcanan çabanın ödülleri almak için yeterli performansa ulaşacağı inancı).

task performance valence (anticipated satisfaction), instrumentality (the belief that performance will lead to rewards), and expectancy (the belief that effort will lead to the performance needed to attain the rewards).

Diğer faktörler eşit olduğu takdirde, beklenti performans ile doğrusal ve pozitif şekilde ilişkilidir.

Other factors being equal, expectancy is said to be linearly and positively related to performance. 

Hedef Mekanizmaları

Goal Mechanisms

Hedefler performansı 4 mekaniama içinden etkiler.  Birincisi, hedefler yönlendirici bir işlev görevi görür; Dikkati ve çabayı hedef ile ilgili etkinliklere yönlendirir.

Goals affect performance through four mechanisms. First, goals serve a directive function; they direct attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities and away from goalirrelevant activities.

İkincisi, hedefler enerji verici işleve sahiptir.  Zor hedefler kolay hedeflerden daha yüksek çabalara yol açar.

Second, goals have an energizing function. High goals lead to greater effort than low goals.

3. Bir hedefin atandığı görev insanlar için yeniyse, hedeflerine ulaşmalarını sağlayacak stratejiler geliştirmek için bilinçli planlama yapacaklardır.

3. If the task for which a goal is assigned is new to people, they will engage in deliberate planning to develop strategies that will enable them to attain their goals (Smith, Locke, & Barry, 1990).

Yüksek öz-yeterliğe sahip kişilerin, etkili görev stratejileri geliştirme olasılığı, düşük öz-yeterliğe sahip olanlardan daha fazladır.

4. People with high self-efficacy are more likely than those with low self-efficacy to develop effective task strategies (Latham, Winters, & Locke, 1994; Wood & Bandura, 1989

İnsanlar kendileri için karmaşık olan bir görevle karşı karşıya kaldıklarında, onları ellerinden gelenin en iyisini yapmaya teşvik etmek belirli yüksek hedefler koymaktan bazen daha iyi stratejilere yol açar.

5. When people are confronted with a task that is complex for them, urging them to do their best sometimes leads to better strategies (Earley, Connolly, & Ekegren, 1989)

6. İnsanlar uygun stratejiler konusunda eğitildiklerinde, belirli yüksek performans hedefleri verilen kişilerin bu stratejileri kullanma olasılığı, diğer türde hedefler verilen kişilere göre daha yüksektir; dolayısıyla performansları artar

6. When people are trained in the proper strategies, those given specific high-performance goals are more likely to use those strategies than people given other types of goals; hence, their performance improves (Earley & Perry, 1987).

Düzenleyiciler

Moderators

Hedefe Adanma

Goal Commitment

Hedef-performans ilişkisi, insanlar kendilerini hedeflerine adadıklarında en güçlü halini alır. ...

Hedef taahhüdünü kolaylaştıran iki temel faktör kategorisi, (a) bir hedefe ulaşmak için bekledikleri sonuçların önemi, hedefe ulaşmayı insanlar için önemli kılan diğer faktörler ve (b) amaca ulaşabileceklerine olan inançlarıdır. (öz yeterlilik)

The goal–performance relationship is strongest when people are committed to their goals. ...Two key categories of factors facilitating goal commitment are (a) factors that make goal attainment important to people, including the importance of the outcomes that they expect as a result of working to attain a goal, and (b) their belief that they can attain the goal (self-efficacy).

 

Geribildirim

Feedback

Hedeflerin etkili olabilmesi için, insanların hedefleriyle ilgili ilerleme durumunu kontrol edebileceği özet geri bildirimlere ihtiyacı vardır.

For goals to be effective, people need summary feedback that reveals progress in relation to their goals.

 

 

 

Görev Karmaşıklığı

Task Complexity

Hedef etkilerinin üçüncü moderatörü görev karmaşıklığıdır. Görevin karmaşıklığı arttıkça ve üst düzey beceriler ve stratejiler henüz otomatikleştirilmediyse, hedef etkileri kişilerin uygun görev stratejilerini keşfetme yeteneğine bağlıdır.

A third moderator of goal effects is task complexity. As the complexity of the task increases and higher level skills and strategies have yet to become automatized, goal effects are dependent on the ability to discover appropriate task strategies.

 

R. Kanfer ve Ackerman (1989), bir hava trafik kontrolör simülasyonunda (oldukça karmaşık bir görev), bir performans-sonuç hedefine sahip olmanın, aslında görevi gerçekleştirmek için gerekli bilgiyi edinmeyi engellediğini bulmuşlardır. İnsanlar ellerinden gelenin en iyisini yapmaları istendiğinde daha iyi performans gösterdiler.

R. Kanfer and Ackerman (1989) found that in an air traffic controller simulation (a highly complex task), having a performance-outcome goal actually interfered with acquiring the knowledge necessary to perform the task. People performed better when they were asked to do their best.

 

REFERENCES:

[1] Edwin A. Locke. Gary P. Latham; Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation; University of Marylan,d University of Toronto; University of Maryland; September 2002 ● American Psychologist 705

 

Sunconscious Interactıon with Consciousness through Task Setting (1)

 

SUBCONSCIOUS INTERACTION WITH CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH TASK SETTING (1)

Performers, whether a train operator, an airplane pilot or an air traffic controller and also the most simple human being uses task sets to achieve its goals in life.  A person trying to reach a goal first decides to do what has  to be done to achieve it.  In order to drive to the super market you have to decide which route to take.  This setting of target brings the setting of details that have to be done, hence the task set is created. There may also be higher levels of task sets being formed by sub -tasksets. 

 

I believe tasksets are an important instrument that function in the interaction of subconscious with the consciousness.  I will provide 2 introductory blog notes that are composed of references to the task sets in the literature.  I will comment on these in relation to the function of task sets to the subconscious-consciousness interaction in my third note.

 

The brain determines our thoughts and behaviors through tasksets. A task set is a configuration of cognitive processes that is actively maintained for subsequent task performance^[1] .

 

A task is the representation of a set of instructions required to perform an activity accurately; a task set is the set of representations and processes that enable execution of the task ^[2] .

 

It was investigated that whether tasksets operate as a single, integrated representation or as an agglomeration of relatively independent components. ... The results thus support the “agglomerated-task-set” hypothesis, and are in consistent with “integrated tasksets ^[10] .”

 

 

Task switching, or set-shifting, is an executive function that involves the ability  to to unconsciously shift attention between one task and another. In contrast, cognitive shifting is a very similar executive function, but it involves conscious (not unconscious) change in attention. Together, these two functions are subcategories of the broader cognitive flexibility concept.  Task switching allows a person to rapidly and efficiently adapt to different situations ^[3] .

 

This is about mental flexibility in task performance. A task is always some combination of stimuli, responses and goals. Often, these components are always consistent so we can readily learn the only right way to perform the task. Sometimes, however, the stimuli can change, or the goal of the task can change, or the way to respond can change. In these cases, we have to adjust our mental setting or “set” so as to switch to the new way of performing. The ability to quickly and accurately switch one’s mental settings for task performance is known as set-shifting ^[4] .

 

Some researchers argue that task switching involves task-set reconfiguration—that is, changing the existing task set to perform a different task. ... this reconfiguration led to switch costs ^[5] .

 

5 proposed components of mental set shifting ^[9] :

1-       switching between judgments,

2-       stimulus dimensions,

3-       stimulus–response mappings,

4-       response sets,

5-       stimulus sets.

 

Prospective memory (PM) is defined as remembering to perform an action in the future. There are

two main types of PM according to their different cues: event-based prospective memory (EBPM)

and time-based prospective memory (TBPM) (Einstein and McDaniel, 1990). Both EBPM and

TBPM are necessary for daily life. EBPM is the remembering what one does when a certain target

event occurs. For example, one remembers to buy milk when one passes by the supermarket. TBPM

is involved when one has to perform an action in relation to time, such as returning a library book

before a due date [6].

 

Prospective memory tasks highly related to a person’s goals and concerns will be rated as more important [7] .

 

Mnemonic strategies generally improve prospective memory (PM) performance. However, little is known about why people use such strategies. In the Motivational-Cognitive Prospective Memory model, task importance is thought to influence performance via multiple mechanisms, including increased strategy use ^[8] .

 

 

REFERENCES:

[1]  Katsuyuki Sakai; Task set and prefrontal cortex, Annu Rev Neurosci,  2008;31:219-45.

Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; email: ksakai@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp

 

[2] D. W. Schneider, G.  Logan; 2 Tasks, Task Sets, and the Mapping Between Them ;Pages 27–44, June 2014

 

[3] Task switching (psychology); WIKIPEDIA

 

[4] Barry McGuinness; Quora

 

[5] Darryl W. Schneider and Gordon D. Logan; Defining task-set reconfiguration: The case of reference point switching; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 2007, 14 (1), 118-125

 

[6] Hongxia Zhang, Weihai Tang2† and Xiping Liu; The Effect of Task Duration on Event-Based Prospective Memory: Front. Psychol. 8:1895.

 

[7] Suzanna L. Penningroth • Walter D. Scott; Prospective memory tasks related to goals and concerns are rated as more important by both young and older adults;  Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

 

[8] Penningroth, S. L., & Scott, W. D. (2013). Task importance effects on prospective memory strategy use, Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27, 655-662.

 

[9] Claudia C. von Bastian and Michel D. Druey; Shifting Between Mental Sets: An Individual Differences

Approach to Commonalities and Differences of Task Switching Components;  (2017, June 8). Journal of Experimental Psychology

 

[10] Dragan Rangelov, Thomas Töllner, Hermann J.Müller and Michael Zehetleitner;  What are task-sets: a single, integrated representation or a collection of multiple control representations?; Journal of Experimental Psychology; 2000, Vol. 26, No. 5, 1124-1140

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