This paper proposes a general mental model for an agent capable to engage in rhetorical argumentation. The model is grounded in works in the philosophy of mind, and is inspired by research in contextual reasoning. The issues that are dealt with in this paper are mainly ontological, as we leave aside the problem of knowledge representation and reasoning, and concentrate on the conceptualisation ...

Star t ing f r om the thesis tha t the audience expects the speaker to mean the most typ ical case of the described class of events or si tuat ions w i t h respect to the communicated contex t , we explain a mechanism for representing and using typ ica l i t y d is t r ibut ions of static spat ia l relat ions which is related to Herskovits ' analyt ica l f ramework. Extended to restr ict ions o...

A componential model capable of representing simple and complex forms of mental addition was proposed and then tested by using chronometric techniques. A sample of 23 undergraduate students responded to 800 addition problems in a true-false reaction time paradigm. The 800 problems comprised 200 problems of each of four types: two single-digit addends, one single- and one double-digit addend, tw...

Assertions of set membership, such as Amy is an artist, should not be confused with those of set inclusion, such as All artists are bohemians. Membership is not a transitive relation, whereas inclusion is. Cognitive scientists have neglected the topic, and so we developed a theory of inferences yielding conclusions about membership, e.g., Amy is a bohemian, and about non-membership, Abbie is no...

The growing numbers of elderly is inevitable. As we get older, we will experience some memory declines, thus an assistive technology such as reminder system is recommended. However, the uptake of reminder system is still low. Many researchers from the western countries are interested in exploring the use of reminder system as part of assistive technology for the elderly. Nevertheless, no resear...

Operation of the electric power systems must fulfil economical demands while meeting the safety limits. Operating is influenced mainly by two factors — relation to safety and efficiency. Although they are contradictory, both aim to remove the unacceptable risk and determine the optimum of system output. The article describes the use of mental models for operating the process systems. A simple m...

A coherent conceptualization of the role of psychological factors is of great importance in understanding mental disorder. Academic articles and professional reports alluding to psychological models of the etiology of mental disorder are becoming increasingly common, and there is evidence of a marked policy shift toward the provision of psychological therapies and interventions. This article di...

We propose a formal approach to the problem of prediction based on the following steps: First, a mental-level model is constructed based on the agent’s previous actions; Consequently, the model is updated to account for any new observations by the agent, and finally, we predict the optimal action w.r.t, the agent’s mental state as its next action. This paper formalizes this prediction process. ...

In this contribution, we argue that understanding model preferences in human mental spatial reasoning can eventually help improve both the design and the use of built environments. We present a design support tool prototype that interacts with the designer by checking for model preferences in the spatial instantiation of design constraints and suggests alternative placements where such are appr...

Mental retardation (MR) is a diagnosis that is made with extreme caution because of the many uncertainties in its etiology and prognosis, ln fact, most physicians will delay the diagnosis for months or years so that substantial evidence is available to rule the diagnosis in or out. MENTOR is a Bayesian Model for the prediction of MR in newborns that provides probabilities for the full range of ...