Book Reading #13 - Opening Skinner's Box



Book Author: Lauren Slater  

CHAPTER 3: On being sane in insane places

Summary
Wanting to test how well a psychiatrist could distinguish the "sane" from the "insane", in the early 1970's David Rosenhan decided to go into multiple psychiatric institutions, and claim he was hearing a voice: a "thud". Eight other people he recruited did the same experiment, and the results that were found were that people would get admitted into the hospital and given pills. This even after, Rosenham, and his colleagues hinted they weren't really hearing voices. Rosenhan describes how the patients of the hospital were treated with insults, and battered. He also points out the irony in the patients of the hospital noticing he was not in fact "insane", and the nurses and doctors concluding the contrary. Lauren Slater explains the reaction of a critic of Rosenhan, Spitzer, who saw this as an affront to the psychiatric field, and went to write papers refuting the experiment. Wanting to try this experiment herself, L. Slater decides to reproduce the same experiements as Rosenhan, and finds out that years later after Rosenhan's experiment, there is still a problem of misdiagnosing patients. Most of the doctors she goes see prescribe her with pills. However, Slater also praises them for not admitting her, and treating her in a respectful manner. She also concludes that the pressure of coming to a conclusion may explain why some doctors prescribe pill to their patients instead of admitting their inability to diagnose the problem.

Discussion

I liked this chapter, and the author's adventurous energy to go and try Rosenhan's experiment herself. She has had real mental problems herself in her youth, so it was interesting to see her go back to the environment she was familiar with. It was also interesting to learn how Rosenhan essentially discrited the psychiatric field, and prompter today's psychiatrists to find out other diagnosing methods.  

Book Reading #12 - Coming of Age in Samoa

Book Author: Margaret Mead

CHAPTER 3:  The Samoan Household

Summary
In this chapter, Mead gives details of the structure of a Samoan household. At the head of each household, the central figure is a matai. These headmen hold either chiefly titles or the titles of talking chiefs.

She also explains the authority that relatives hold over children as opposed to outside villagers.

We also learn about how select girls become taupo, a cermonial princess that is chosen by the high chiefs.

She holds certain privilidges, such as being exempt from certai household tasks.

Mead depicts an elaborate method used by people who want to beg for something to the chief. The peson will sit with the chief, and display modesty, until he is asked the reason for his visit.  

Discussion

This chapter gives us a detailed depiction of how  a Samoan household is created. It is far from trivial, and as Mead explains to us, rank is very important to the Samoan household.

Book Reading #11 - Design of Everyday Things



Book Author: Donald A. Norman

CHAPTER 4: Knowing What to Do

Summary
In this chapter, Norman explains how the design of objects can make them intuitevely easy to use, or more complicating, and confusing to use. His gives the example of a VCR and how its design does not give the user enough signals to know the proper course of action. LEGO's on the other hand is an example of well thought out parts and pieces that one can manipulate, and parts are intuitive due to their physical design constraints. Norman lists a number of constraints that can help us take action when faced with a new object:

• physical constraints
• semantic constraints
• cultural constraints
• logical constraints

He illustrates how these constraints can help with examples on switches, and door handles. He finally suggests improving objects by improving their visibility and feedback, and exploring the use of sound.


Discussion

This chapter expanded on some of the subjects mentionned in earlier chapters and provided solutions to everyday things we use. The enumeration of constraints illustrates how designing an object isn't a trivial matter.

Paper Reading #6: Shimon: an interactive improvisational robotic marimba player

Comments
Cindy Skach
Evan Schuchardt


Reference Information
Title: Shimon: an interactive improvisational robotic marimba player
Authors: Guy Hoffman, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
              Gil Weinberg, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
Presentation Venue: CHI 2010: 28th ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems;
Date: April 10-15, 2010;
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Summary

This paper presents Shimon, the robotic marimba player. Shimon is an autonomous robot designed to create interactions with human players.  The robot's features encompass music perception, interaction, and improvisation with the capacity to produce melodic and harmonic acoustic responses through choreographic gestures. The two main frameworks used are an anticipatory action system, and a gesture-behavior system.

The authors explain that many computer-based music systems have been implemented, but mainly focus on electronic reproduction and amplification of sound through speakers, which does not capture the richness of acoustic sound. Using an HCI approach, the authors have focused on Shimon's perceptual and interactive aspects such as listening, improvisation, and interaction.  This is an attempt to merge the mechanical aspect of a robotic musical instrument, and an anthropomorphic aspect of musical robots.  This creates a new platform for research in the Robotic Musicianship application.

When designing Shimon, the authors explain that they wanted large movements for visibility, as well as fast movement. for virtuosity. Another consideration, was a wide range of sequential and simultaneous combinations. The result, as the authors put, was a "combination of fast, long-range, linear actuators, and two sets of rapid parallel solenoids, split over both registers of the instrument."

Shimon has four arms actuated by a voice-coil linear actuator at its base, and running along a shared-rail. Shimon also has a socially expressive head that is non-humanoid. It serves the purpose of conveying emotional state and liveliness.

Improvisation is achieved through three modules:

• Call-and-Response: this module allows the system to respond to a musical phrase with a chord sequence. The challenge is to be able to respond in time and play on a synchronized beat. This module makes use of the anticipatory structure of gestures.
• Oppurtunistic Overlay Improvisation
• Rythmic Phrase-Matching Improvisation

The authors have been able to implement an expressive robot with the help of the head. The expressive robotic head bobs to signal the robot's internal beat. The head will also turn towards a player or towards the marimba to signal that it is about to play, or signal the player that he/she should play next.

Shimon's head also can make a blinking effect through its shutter, and a slow breathing-like behavior to convey a continuous "liveliness".

Discussion

This was one of my favourite papers to read. It seems that the authors have covered much of the questions I had and know exactly what they want to achieve. Though there are not a lot of statistics, we can still appreciatte the work once we watch a video of the robot on youtube. 

Book Reading #10: Opening Skinner's Box



Book Author: Lauren Slater  

CHAPTER 2: Obscura

Discussion

Lauren Slater relates Milgram's controversial experiments in this chapter. His experiments were devised to gage obedience to authority figures. In it a subject was given the title teacher, and the other, learner. The participants drew slips of paper to know their roles. Unknown to them, both slips said "teacher", and the actor claimed to have the slip that read "learner", thus guaranteeing that the participant would always be the "teacher". At this point, the "teacher" and "learner" were separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other. The "teacher" was given an electric shock from the electro-shock generator as a sample of the shock that the "learner" would supposedly receive during the experiment. The "teacher" was then given a list of word pairs which he was to teach the learner. The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. The learner would press a button to indicate his response. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher would administer a shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing in 15-volt increments for each wrong answer. If correct, the teacher would read the next word pair.

The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After a number of voltage level increases, the actor started to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject. After several times banging on the wall and complaining, all responses by the learner would cease. At this point, many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Most continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible.

Summary

I had heard of this  experiment in my psychology class, but not the way Slater relates it. It was interesting reading about this story, because it gives a context, as opposed to in a psychology class, where the experiments are only mentioned. I still disagree with the experiments, though for someone to think about that experiment at 27 years of age is quite brilliant.