Active Search Method Research Articles

Risk-defusing behaviour: Towards an understanding of risky decision making

This experiment shows that at least in some quasi-naturalistic risky decision situations decision makers engage actively in risk defusing (e.g., by searching for control, worst-case plans or new alternatives) instead of "passively" evaluating values and probabilities. Forty non-students made decisions in two quasi-naturalistic non-lottery tasks. Most participants revealed behaviour indicating risk defusing. Risk-defusing operators were used much more often in connection with the chosen alternative than with the not-chosen one. The method of information presentation was varied systematically: Unstructured and structured versions of the method of active information search (the participant gets a basic description of the task, and has to ask questions from the experimenter to get additional information) were compared. In the structured version, decision makers deal increasingly with the uncertain aspects of the alternatives and with control and worst-case plans.

Fast visual search using focused color matching?active search

There exist methods of searching for an object whose position and size are not known in an image. To obtain an accurate result by such methods, the focused region of an input image has to be compared many times with its reference image by varying its position and size. This makes fast searching difficult. This paper describes a method of fast active search for an object and its position in an image by using the color histogram, which is stable to variations of shape of the object. When the input image of an object is compared with its reference image, the upper limit of the similarity in the image region is calculated from the input image in a certain position using the algebraic characteristics of the color histogram. If the upper limit is smaller than the search value, no search in this region is necessary, so that the number of matching operations can be greatly reduced. This method involves no approximations and has a computation speed about 10 to 1000 times faster than conventional exhaustive search methods. Applications of the proposed method, such as tracking, retrieval, and counting, are also described. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Syst Comp Jpn, 31(9): 81–88, 2000

A method of active conformation search based on active and inactive analogues and its application to allylamine antimycotics

A new program ACSBAIA (Active Conformation Search Based on Active and Inactive Analogues) for determination of the active conformations was developed based on the rationales that specific functional groups of active analogues could reach and interact with the active site of target receptor by means of the change of conformations, but that of inactive analogues could not interact with the active site owing to conformational restriction. The program consisted of 4 sub-programs: conformation sampling system, active conformation constraint system, inactive conformation exclusion system, and activity prediction system. Pharmacophoric conformation of allylamine antimycotics was studied by this method. Activities of 2 analogues were predicted and tested. The results suggested that the method was scientific and practical. The application of this method was not restricted by the three-dimensional structural knowledge of target receptor. In the absence of structural information about the receptor, the method was particularly applicable.

Active information search and complete information presentation in naturalistic risky decision tasks

Most experimental results in research on risky decisions have been obtained with lotteries. Choices between lotteries differ in many respects from natural risky decision tasks. Furthermore, the mode of information presentation in gambling experiments is very different from natural situations. In our experiment, 32 non-students made choices in two naturalistic risky decision tasks. The mode of information presentation was varied: Complete information presentation (as common in gambling experiments) vs. Method of Active Information Search (the subject gets a basic description of the task, and has to ask questions to receive additional information). In naturalistic tasks, probability was used less often than expected from classical decision theory, whereas the search for new alternatives, worst-case plans and control considerations were more relevant. The type of information presentation had a distinct effect. With Active Information Search, only a minority of subjects was interested in probabilities. Precise probabilities were used solely in the condition with Complete information presentation.