Enrique Canessa

Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez · Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias

An agent-based model for semantic search and retrieval in memory is proposed. The model seeks to generate verbal fluency lists with properties similar to those generated by humans in the semantic fluency task. This model is compared to a random walk in a semantic network in its ability to adjust to the results of 141 undergraduate students in the s...

In this work, we use a mathematical model of the property listing task dynamics and test its ability to predict processing time in semantic and lexical decision tasks. The study aims at exploring the temporal dynamics of semantic access in these tasks and showing that the mathematical model captures essential aspects of semantic access, beyond the...

We introduce a computational algorithm for the Semantic Fluency Task (SFT), which automatically counts clusters and shifts. We compared its output relative to human coders, and its performance in predicting executive functions (EF), intelligence, processing speed, and semantic retrieval, also against human coders. Correlations with EF subdomains an...

In this chapter, we introduce the general use of agent-based modeling (ABM) in social science studies and in particular in psychological research. Given that ABM is frequently used in many disciplines in social sciences, as the main research tool or in conjunction with other modeling approaches, it is rather surprising its infrequent use in psychol...

Probabilistic learning is a research program that aims to understand how animals and humans learn and adapt their behavior in situations where the pairing between cues and outcomes is not always completely reliable. This chapter provides an overview of the challenges of probabilistic learning for models of the brain and behavior. We discuss the his...

In this paper, we present a novel algorithm that uses machine learning and natural language processing techniques to facilitate the coding of feature listing data. Feature listing is a method in which participants are asked to provide a list of features that are typically true of a given concept or word. This method is commonly used in research stu...

To study linguistically coded concepts, researchers often resort to the Property Listing Task (PLT). In a PLT, participants are asked to list properties that describe a concept (e.g., for DOG, subjects may list “is a pet”, “has four legs”, etc.). When PLT data is collected for many concepts, researchers obtain Conceptual Properties Norms (CPNs), wh...

Agreement probability p(a) is a homogeneity measure of lists of properties produced by participants in a Property Listing Task (PLT) for a concept. Agreement probability’s mathematical properties allow a rich analysis of property-based descriptions. To illustrate, we use p(a) to delve into the differences between concrete and abstract concepts in s...

Many decisions involve selecting among many more options than an individual can effectively examine and consider. Therefore, people usually consider smaller and different “choice sets” as viable options. To better understand the processes affecting choice-set formation, we developed a computational model of how households become aware of potential...

We use a feature-based association model to fit grouped and individual level category learning and transfer data. The model assumes that people use corrective feedback to learn individual feature to categorization-criterion correlations and combine those correlations additively to produce classifications. The model is an Adaptive Linear Filter (ALF...

In conceptual properties norming studies (CPNs), participants list properties that describe a set of concepts. From CPNs, many different parameters are calculated, such as semantic richness. A generally overlooked issue is that those values are only point estimates of the true unknown population parameters. In the present work, we present an R pack...

We use a feature-based association model to fit grouped and individual level category learning and transfer data. The model assumes that people use corrective feedback to learn individual feature to categorization-criterion correlations and combine those correlations additively to produce classifications. The current model is an Adaptive Linear Fil...

In the property listing task (PLT), participants are asked to list properties for a concept (e.g., for the concept dog, "barks," and "is a pet" may be produced). In conceptual property norming (CPNs) studies, participants are asked to list properties for large sets of concepts. Here, we use a mathematical model of the property listing process to ex...

Asking subjects to list semantic properties for concepts is essential for predicting performance in several linguistic and non-linguistic tasks and for creating carefully controlled stimuli for experiments. The property elicitation task and the ensuing norms are widely used across the field, to investigate the organization of semantic memory and de...

To study linguistically coded concepts, researchers often resort to the Property Listing Task (PLT). In a PLT, participants are asked to list properties that describe a concept (e.g., for DOG, subjects may list “is a pet”, “has four legs”, etc.), which are then coded into property types (i.e., superficially dissimilar properties such as “has four l...

Conceptual properties norming studies (CPNs) ask participants to produce properties that describe concepts. From that data, different metrics may be computed (e.g., semantic richness, similarity measures), which are then used in studying concepts and as a source of carefully controlled stimuli for experimentation. Notwithstanding those metrics’ dem...

To study concepts that are coded in language, researchers often collect lists of conceptual properties produced by human subjects. From these data, different measures can be computed. In particular, inter-concept similarity is an important variable used in experimental studies. Among possible similarity measures, the cosine of conceptual property f...

The ability of designing personality-based products is key for their successful launch in the market, since customers prefer products that have a similar personality to their own. However, the creative process designers use to imprint a given personality into a product is still a ‘black-box’ and lengthy process that requires expertise and successiv...

Note: There is an updated and published version of these analyses (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08944393221088659). Extensive research has analyzed different factors that influence families’ school choice: distance from home to school, schools’ quality, and characteristics of the students (He 2019, Ruijis & Oosterbeek 2019, Wouter...

Stereotypes is one of the most researched topics in social psychology. Within this context, negative self‐stereotypes pose a particular challenge for theories. In the current work, we propose a model that suggests that negative self‐stereotypes can theoretically be accounted for by the need to communicate in a social system made up by groups with u...

In many countries, bus operators are private companies whose service has been leased by government agencies. These agencies develop service compliance indices or measures to keep track of factors such as passenger satisfaction, frequency, and regularity but do not necessarily include the objectives of the operators in the assessment. In this paper,...

It is generally believed that concepts can be characterized by their properties (or features). When investigating concepts encoded in language, researchers often ask subjects to produce lists of properties that describe them (i.e., the Property Listing Task, PLT). These lists are accumulated to produce Conceptual Property Norms (CPNs). CPNs contain...

We present an improved Pareto Genetic Algorithm (PGA), which finds solutions to problems of robust design in multi-response systems with 4 responses and as many as 10 control and 5 noise factors. Because some response values might not have been obtained in the robust design experiment and are needed in the search process, the PGA uses Response Surf...

The link between information technology (IT) and organizational learning has been an important subject of study since the early 1990s. However, it is still not clear whether or not IT-enhanced organizational learning positively influences organizational performance. In this paper, we posit that the impact of IT on the performance of firms will diff...

People tend to think that the function intended by an artifact’s designer is its real or proper function. Relatedly, people tend to classify artifacts according to their designer’s intended function (DIF), as opposed to an alternative opportunistic function. This centrality of DIF has been shown in children from 6 years of age and in adults, and it...

This paper shows the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to rank and select the solutions found by a Pareto Genetic Algorithm (PGA) to problems of robust design in multiresponse systems with many control and noise factors. The efficiency analysis of the solutions using DEA shows that the PGA finds a good approximation to the efficient frontier....

We present a Genetic Algorithm (GA) tool that uses Sequential Approximate Optimization (SAO) to calibrate Agent-Based Models (ABMs). The SAO/GA searches through a user-defined set of input parameters to an ABM, delivering values for those parameters so that the output time series of an ABM match the real system's time series to certain precision. S...

In communication, people cannot resort to direct reference (e.g., pointing) when using diffuse concepts like democracy. Given that concepts reside in individuals’ minds, how can people share those concepts? We argue that concepts are comparable across a social group if they afford agreement for those who use it; and that agreement occurs whenever i...

This paper studies the performance of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find solutions to problems of robust design in multiobjective systems with many control and noise factors, representing the output vector in a single aggregation function. The results show that the GA is able to find solutions that achieve a good adjustment of the responses to their...

We present a Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based tool that calibrates Agent-based Models (ABMs). The GA searches through a user-defined set of input parameters of an ABM, delivering values for those parameters so that the output time series of an ABM may match the real system's time series to certain precision. Once that set of possible values has been av...

We present a Pareto Genetic Algorithm (PGA), which finds the Pareto frontier of solutions to problems of robust design in multiobjective systems. The PGA was designed to be applied using Taguchi's Parameter Design method, which is the most frequently used approach by practitioners to executing robust design studies. We tested the PGA using data obt...

We model the evolution of concepts, i.e. how members of a social group associate properties to concepts. Our Agent Based Model (ABM) is based on Conceptual Agreement Theory (CAT), which states that individuals can only infer the conceptual state of others when communicating. Through communication agents develop a conceptual structure which is influ...

This paper presents Agent-based Modeling (ABM) as a useful tool for analyzing social systems and the impact of possible interventions on such systems. To illustrate the power of ABM, the paper uses a didactic example of resource management applied to delinquency control. Using the ABM’s results the paper shows the analysis of possible resource mana...

Many social phenomena can be viewed as processes in which individuals in social groups develop agreement (e.g., public opinion, the spreading of rumor, the formation of social and linguistic conventions). Conceptual Agreement Theory (CAT) models social agreement as a simplified communicational event in which an Observer and Actor exchange ideas abo...

Many social phenomena can be viewed as processes in which individuals in social groups develop agreement (e.g., public opinion, the spreading of rumor, the formation of social and linguistic conventions). This study presents an Agent Based Model (ABM) based on Conceptual Agreement Theory (CAT), which models social agreement as a simplified communic...

RESUMEN Durante el año 2012 se resolvieron los concursos FONDECYT regular 2013 y de Iniciación a la investigación 2012. En el concurso de Iniciación a la Investigación, se presentaron 550 proyectos, de los cuales fueron aprobaron 293. De estos, 7 corresponden a Psicología (de un total de 15 proyectos postulados), por un valor de 299.125 millones de...

Based on the premise that conceptual agreement (i.e., feeling that we share an idea with others) is always inferential, we develop an ABM that models the conditions under which a concept will gain or loose strength in the minds of individuals. The ABM is based on simple assumptions, generally consistent with psychological and philosophical analyses...

Gender stereotypes are sets of characteristics that people believe to be typically true of a man or woman. We report an agent-based model (ABM) that simulates how stereotypes disseminate in a group through associative mechanisms. The model consists of agents that carry one of several different versions of a stereotype, which share part of their con...

For some time now, psychological inquiry on reference has assumed that reference is achieved through causal links between words and entities (i.e., direct reference). In this view, meaning is not relevant for reference or co-reference. We argue that this view may be germane to concrete objects, but not to diffuse objects (that lack clear spatio-tem...

In a previous article, we presented a genetic algorithm (GA), which finds solutions to problems of robust design in multivariate systems. Based on that GA, we developed a new GA that uses a new desirability function, based on the aggregation of the observed variance of the responses and the squared deviation between the mean of each response and it...

Resumen: Este estudio examina la relación entre características sociodemográficas de las personas y su uso de Tecnologías de Información (TI) en Chile, empleando una versión abreviada del Modelo de Aceptación de Tecnología, TAM (Technology Acceptance Model, por su sigla en inglés). Los datos recolecta-dos apoyan al TAM, mostrando que tanto la facil...

We report an ABM that simulates agents that communicate and experience agreement with other agents. "Observer" agents carry in their minds one of several versions of the same concept, and observe the behavior of "actor" agents. When an actor provides evidence consistent with an observer's conceptual content, then the latter agent feels agreement. C...

Este estudio busca mostrar la utilidad del modeladobasado en agentes (MbA) para estudiar diferentesfenómenos sociales. Dicha herramienta economizatiempo y recursos, permitiendo analizar muchasvariables para posteriormente seleccionar las mássignificativas y proseguir así con la investigación.Lo anterior se ilustra con un modelo que analiza eltiempo...

Generally, concepts are treated as individual-level phenomena. Here, we develop an ABM that treats concepts as group-level phenomena. We make simple assumptions: (1) Different versions exist of one similar conceptualization; (2) When we infer that our view agrees with someone else's view, we are subject to true agreement (i.e., we really share the...

This article presents an improved genetic algorithm (GA), which finds solutions to problems of robust design in multivariate systems with many control and noise factors. Since some values of responses of the system might not have been obtained from the robust design experiment, but may be needed in the search process, the GA uses response surface m...

This paper examines the relationship between personal socio-demographic characteristics and Information Technology (IT) use in Chile, employing an abridged version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The collected data supports the TAM, showing that perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) positively impact the use of comput...

This paper shows the usefulness of Agent-based Modeling (AbM) for studying social phenomena. This tool saves time and resources, allowing us to analyze many variables and then select the most significant ones for proceeding with the study. This process is illustrated through a model which analyzes the time needed to treat sick people according to w...

Component-based development is a useful approach for building large, complex software systems. However, component discovery and component composition are quite complex and expensive tasks, due to the ever growing number of components in the market. This article proposes to model component providers and consumers as a multi-agent system, allowing pr...

In this paper an improved Fuzzy Rule-Based Trading Agent is presented. The proposal consists in adding machine-learning-based methods to improve the overall performance of an automated agent that trades in futures markets. The modified Fuzzy Rule-Based Trading Agent has to decide whether to buy or sell goods, based on the spot and futures time seri...

Generally, concepts are treated as individual-level phenomena. Here, we develop an ABM that treats concepts as group-level phenomena. We make simple assumptions: (1) Different versions exist of one similar conceptualization, (2) When we infer that our view agrees with someone else's view, we are subject to true agreement (i.e., we really share the...

Semi-Supervised Learning is one of the most popular and emerging issues in Machine Learning. Since it is very costly to label large amounts of data, it is useful to use data sets without labels. For doing that, normally we uses Semi-Supervised Learning to improve the performance or efficiency of the classification algorithms. This paper intends to...

A survey was conducted in two cities in Chile to determine the perceptions and use of information technology (IT) by people of different ages and genders, and from different social classes. The survey results show that the main variable influencing IT use and perception is social class: the higher a user's social class, the more positive their perc...

This paper presents a methodology based on genetic algorithms, which finds feasible and reasonably adequate solutions to problems of robust design in multivariate systems. We use a genetic algorithm to determine the appropriate control factor levels for simultaneously optimizing all of the responses of the system, considering the noise factors whic...

Dentro de uma sala de acolhimento de uma série de processos individuais e sociais que estão integradas no âmbito mais vasto da educação. Ao se analisar uma sala de aula e as dinâmicas que ocorrem lá, sem dúvida está a enfrentar um sistema que, como tal, é composto por indivíduos que estão influenciando-se mutuamente, dinâmicas emergentes que não po...

Inside a classroom there are many individual as well as social processes, which are integrated into a bigger one: education. When one analyzes a classroom and the dynamics that exists inside it, there is no doubt that one is in presence of a system, which is composed of individuals who influence each other, and from that interactions it emerges dyn...

Organizations that make use of computer information systems (CIS) are prototypical complex adaptive systems (CAS). This paper shows how an approach from Complexity Science, exploratory agent-based modeling (ABM), can be used to study the impact of two different modes of use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on organiza- tional culture (OC) a...

This paper examines the mutual relationship between the communication richness of media used for conducting organizational communication and organizational culture. The richness of the media influences how well the organization might maintain its culture. On the other hand, a strong organizational culture allows a more effective use of the media by...

This paper briefly focuses on the implementation of the ICTP Scientific Preprints Repository Online and on the recent Web service for a One-Shot World Wide Preprints Search. Reviewed here are the strategies adopted and the effective results attained after a trial period of more than two years.

This paper examines the mutual relationship between the organizational use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and organizational culture (OC). CMC supplements communication among members of an organization to maintain the culture, especially when those persons cannot communicate by other means. On the other hand, a strong OC allows a more eff...

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Michigan.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 2002. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 383-396). Co-chairs: William G. Mitchell, Thomas J. Schriber.