Epistemic Actions Research Articles

Intelligence and Social Epistemology - Toward a Social Epistemological Theory of Intelligence

ABSTRACTEvidence, beliefs, and knowledge are words that are currently used in the intelligence community. The primary goal of intelligence is to provide knowledge and foreknowledge of an enemy’s intentions and behavior. Social epistemology considers how organizations and societies (group-agents) form beliefs and knowledge. Social epistemology provides powerful tools to investigate intelligence. Indeed, intelligence studies are not focused on epistemological problems, although intelligence is a social epistemic activity. Even if scholars agree that intelligence is valuable because it speaks the truth to the policy-maker, an epistemological theory of intelligence is still far from formulated. I will provide a general account of intelligence agencies to make a first attempt toward a social epistemological theory of intelligence.

CHOICE: an Objective, Voluntaristic Theory of Prudential Value

It is customary to think that Objective List (“OL), Desire-Satisfaction (“D-S”) and Hedonistic (“HED”) theories of prudential value pretty much cover the waterfront, and that those of the three that are “subjective” are naturalistic (in the sense attacked by Moore, Ross and Ewing), while those that are “objective” must be Platonic, Aristotelian or commit the naturalist fallacy. I here argue for a theory that is both naturalistic (because voluntaristic) and objective but neither Platonic, Aristotelian, nor (I hope) fallacious. In addition, this proposal, called “CHOICE,” is an example of neither an OL, D-S, nor HED theory. It is a theory according to which uncoerced choosings create objective values that we (even everyone) may be wrong about, because valuations are conative rather than epistemic activities. On this view, intrinsic prudential goods necessarily involve likely (pursuant to lawlike regularities) net increases in successful free choosings.

Dynamic Epistemic Logic with Communication Actions

This work proposes a Dynamic Epistemic Logic with Communication Actions that can be performed concurrently. Unlike Concurrent Epistemic Action Logic introduced by Ditmarsch, Hoek and Kooi [van Ditmarsch, H., W. van der Hoek and B. Kooi, “Concurrent Dynamic Epistemic Logic,” Kluwer, Ed. V.F. Hendricks et al., vol. 322, 2003], where the concurrency mechanism is the so called true concurrency, here we use an approach based on process calculus, like CCS and CSP, and Action Models Logic. Our approach makes possible the proof of soundness, completeness and decidability, different from the others approaches. We present an axiomatisation and show that the proof of soundness, completeness and decidability can be done using a reduction method.

Challenges in the Automatic Analysis of Students’ Diagnostic Reasoning

Diagnostic reasoning is a key component of many professions. To improve students’ diagnostic reasoning skills, educational psychologists analyse and give feedback on epistemic activities used by these students while diagnosing, in particular, hypothesis generation, evidence generation, evidence evaluation, and drawing conclusions. However, this manual analysis is highly time-consuming. We aim to enable the large-scale adoption of diagnostic reasoning analysis and feedback by automating the epistemic activity identification. We create the first corpus for this task, comprising diagnostic reasoning selfexplanations of students from two domains annotated with epistemic activities. Based on insights from the corpus creation and the task’s characteristics, we discuss three challenges for the automatic identification of epistemic activities using AI methods: the correct identification of epistemic activity spans, the reliable distinction of similar epistemic activities, and the detection of overlapping epistemic activities. We propose a separate performance metric for each challenge and thus provide an evaluation framework for future research. Indeed, our evaluation of various state-of-the-art recurrent neural network architectures reveals that current techniques fail to address some of these challenges.

Introspection as an action in relational models

This work studies positive and negative introspection not as ‘static’ properties an agent might or might not have, but rather as epistemic actions that change the agent's knowledge. The proposed actions include not only operations for achieving full introspection (first with respect to all formulas, and then with respect to a particular χ), but also acts for increasing the agent's introspection by only one degree. In all cases, the actions are represented as model update operations, with matching modalities for expressing the operations' effects. Sound and complete axiom systems are provided in most cases, and some properties of the operations are explored.

As ações epistémicas na construção do novo conhecimento matemático e no desenvolvimento do pensamento algébrico

This article discusses how 5th grade students construct new mathematical knowledge, from knowledge acquired in previous learning experiences. We adopted the AiC (Abstraction in Context) theoretical model and the RBC+C (Recognizing, Building-with, Constructing, Consolidation) theoretical and methodological model in order to understand how the abstraction process occurred during students’ completion of algebraic tasks. We focused on how students mobilized and reorganized mathematical knowledge and procedures to solve the tasks. The aim was to understand how the epistemic actions of the RBC+C model and the subcategories of analysis defined in the scope of this research emerged, how they related to each other, and what influence those relationships had in the construction of new mathematical knowledge. In this study, new mathematical construction is associated with the development of algebraic thinking. Following a qualitative approach, we concluded that the relationship between the epistemic actions Recognizing and Building-with was essential for the development of new mathematical knowledge. The manifestation of the Constructing and Consolidation epistemic actions revealed that students of this age level can successfully establish some algebraic relations, and they can understand and use symbolic language. These students, who still had no significant knowledge in algebra, evidenced mathematical gains with the resolution of tasks, which intended to promote algebraic thinking, thus reinforcing the approach of early algebra.

The Instructional Design of an Online Learning Environment (RISSC) for Upper Secondary School Students’ Research Skills

In today’s complex world, the acquisition of research skills is considered an important goal in (upper secondary) education. Consequently, there is a growing body of literature that recognises the value of well-designed (online) learning environments for effectively supporting the development of this complex set of skills. However, a clear consensus on how these research skills can be facilitated is currently lacking. Furthermore, interventions aiming to foster these skills are often implemented in specific domains, mostly in physics, biology and chemistry. In addition, current approaches to facilitation often refer to only a few epistemic activities related to research skills. Because of the broad and (mainly) domain-specific character of research skills, the purpose of this paper is to articulate the instructional design considerations for an online learning environment for upper secondary school students’ (broad set of) research skills in a(n) (underrepresented) behavioural sciences context.

Team wisdom in software development projects and its impact on project performance

While the concept of wisdom, which refers to how people make right use of their knowledge through their practical actions, judgments, and ethical decisions, in general attracts researcher interest in a variety of disciplines, such as philosophy, psychology and management studies, little is known about how wisdom is conceptualized and then operationalized in the software development project team context. Based on the frameworks for philosophical, group and organizational wisdom, this paper identifies software development project team wisdom as a process for how team members best use the stock and flow of their knowledge through collective judgment, virtue-ethics, emotions/feelings, and effective decision-making during their project-related efforts. Adapting the efforts and functional similarities of both group and organizational wisdom practices, this effort determines that wisdom-related mechanisms (e.g., team diversity, networking with other teams and people, and their past experiences), joint epistemic actions (e.g., team reasoning, intuition, and aesthetic capacity), and team virtue and prudence become the different faces of the software development team wisdom process. We then propose how these different faces interrelate and how they also relate to project process effectiveness, such as team learning and speed-to-users, both of which have been rarely addressed empirically in the context of software development project teamwork.By examining 210 in-house software development project teams in a field study and using structural equation modeling analysis, our results empirically show the following: (a) software development wisdom-related mechanisms positively relate to software development team prudence and virtue and their joint epistemic actions, (b) software development team prudence and virtue are positively associated with software development team joint epistemic actions, and further (d) software development team joint epistemic actions are positively associated with software development project process effectiveness. We conclude by discussing our findings as they relate to the wisdom framework of software development project teams and suggest the key managerial implications for different types of software development projects.

Analysis of Cryptographic Protocol by Dynamic Epistemic Logic

The security of the cryptographic protocols has always been important to ensure proper implementation of a protocol. To assure protocol security, a number of works for analysis and verification of cryptographic protocols have emerged in the literature. In this paper, with dynamic epistemic logic, we propose a model approach to analyze a cryptographic protocol. In order to capture the security properties of the protocol, we present the update of the epistemic states based on the epistemic actions. The epistemic actions lead to changes in the knowledge set of the agents participating in the protocol. We model this execution process of the specific example of the cryptographic protocol using the Kripke models and the transition between states. The result of analysis demonstrates that this cryptographic protocol conforms to the security requirements.

Epistemic Activities, Schooling and Parenting Styles: A Case Study in French Guiana Rural Contexts

Based on an eco-systemic approach, this article presents the results of an experimental survey among parents and children of four ethnic and cultural French Guiana minorities. Moving from questioning the existence of a correlation between interactive parenting styles and the schooling achievements of young children in French Guiana, we propose two hypotheses: (1) family interactions are visible manifestations of parents’ educational ideologies; a large gap between family and school interactions could influence the child’s school adaptation; (2) parenting interactive styles may vary depending on the nature of the interactions: daily versus learning interactions. Our sample concerned 16 family dyads belonging to four distinct groups: the Teko, Aluku, Laotians and Haitians of French Guiana. Data collection was performed by in-situ observations (to explore the first hypothesis) and video recordings (for the second hypothesis). We used coding and data analysis tools belonging to both conversational pragmatics and the anthropological methodological tradition. The results, based on the interactive styles model proposed by Ailincai & Weil-Barais (2007), suggest that parents’ educational styles are influenced by the socio-cultural ecosystem and that parental behavior, especially when it is related to school success, is profoundly influenced by “globalized” logics, strategies and educational ideologies. The interactional context influences the interactive parental style: as such, the daily interactive styles appear as very mixed between the observed communities, whereas the interactive epistemic styles (related to the learning situations) seem to mobilize the same behavioral categories in all the groups we studied.

Representing and Explaining: The Eikonic Conception of Scientific Explanation

AbstractThe ontic conception of explanation, according to which explanations are full-bodied things in the world, is fundamentally misguided. I argue instead for what I call the eikonic conception, according to which explanations are the product of an epistemic activity involving representations of the phenomena to be explained. What is explained in the first instance is a particular conceptualization of the explanandum phenomenon, contextualized within a given research program or explanatory project. I conclude that this eikonic conception has a number of benefits, including making better sense of scientific practice and allowing for the full range of normative constraints on explanation.

The motor intentional core of situation awareness

The situated approach to situation awareness (SA) claims that system operators often offload information instead of constructing detailed, stable and internal representations of dynamic situations. Offloading, which can be more or less deliberate, is the attenuation of internal processes in favor of augmenting external ones. Operators do this to minimise costly internal processing and storage. This paper uses empirical evidence and phenomenological analysis to argue that situated SA presupposes a motor intentional core. This core refers to embodied skills whose function is to present states of the system as being a certain way. They include, for example, the skillful eye scan patterns of experts and various epistemic actions that involve manipulating objects in the physical world to make information available to other cognitive processes. Through these motor intentional skills, offloaded information can be accessed on an as-needed basis. We discuss metrics for assessing the motor intentional core, as well as implications for interface design and the training of system operators, arguing that many motor intentional skills can be taught directly.

Epistemological obstacles in mathematical abstraction on abstract algebra

The general abstract algebra is a material that is still considered difficult by students. To know and understand the abstract algebra is needed mathematical abstraction. Mathematical abstraction ability is very prominent in abstract algebra lectures. In this research, the mathematical abstraction is seen based on RBC theory (Recognizing, Building-with, Constructing). This process of abstraction will be done in the process of epistemological obstacles. Epistemology obstacles are learning obstacles due to dissatisfaction, generalization processes are too broad, or languages apart. This research uses qualitative with case study approach. Participant in this study was a student who had studied abstract algebra. Additionally given in relation to abstract algebra, the student is interviewed in from the answer. The results of this study indicate had epistemology obstacles in every epistemic action in recognizing, building-with and construction. The learning obstacles that arises is the inappropriate use of the intuition and is too broad to generalize.

Distributed Attention: A Cognitive Ethnography of Instruction in Sport Settings

AbstractHow do expert trainers and athletes instruct and attend to new moves? The objective of this paper is to analize communication patterns in sports settings. We propose a pragmatic view on cognition through an integrated theoretical model. We claim that communication modalities cannot be reduced to individual minds but must be understood as distributed cognitive mechanisms among different individuals and resources. We compare two case studies, an aikido session in the USA and Olympic synchronized swimming training in Spain with a video‐aided cognitive ethnography and Conversation Analysis. By exploring these specific events we have a better understanding how athletes attend to instructions by using multiple modalities. Our findings show how trainers and athletes communicate augmented information that is not available in a self‐exploratory performance. They rely on augmented information through speech, but also gesture, marking, direction of gaze and body posture. Moreover, the skills of trainers and trainees include embodied and epistemic actions. They share visual assumptions on which are the right moves. Distributed attention is at the roots of these shared and embodied skills. Distributed attention is a type of distributed cognition in sports trainings.

Biology instruction using a generic framework of scientific reasoning and argumentation

We investigated biology instruction—using a generic framework of scientific reasoning and argumentation (SRA) with eight epistemic activities—on how to foster student learning in biological literacy which had not been clarified in previous studies. Our analysis of videotaped biology lessons and student achievement showed varying frequencies in using these activities and their effects on achievement. Those students taught with more epistemic activities had higher achievement. We believe that the SRA framework can be a worthwhile methodical tool for teaching biology to foster student learning. Therefore, we draw practically orientated implications for educational research, practitioners, teacher educators, and curriculum developers.

Messen ohne Maß? Nicolaus Cusanus und das Kriterium menschlicher Erkenntnis

AbstractIn the late Middle Ages, Nicholas of Cusa renders human cognition as creative, asymptotic assimilation—humans creatively approach their objects of cognition without ever fully reaching them. Questions about measuring are an important part of Nicholas’ model of cognition in two regards: On the one hand, he explicitly calls human cognition a ‘measuring’ (mensurare), moving the concept into the centre of attention. On the other hand, measuring in the sense of evaluating epistemic activities is an issue for Nicholas. He describes humans as living images of god who ‘enfold’ (complicare) the ideas of all things within themselves in a specific way. They measure, i. e. judge, their epistemic activities looking at what they enfold. However, Nicholas provides little information about what exactly that means. He is thus threatened with a serious epistemological problem: the lack of a satisfying criterion of epistemic activities. In my paper, I discuss options of how to deal with this problem. After briefly describing (1) Nicholas’ notion of human cognition and (2) what he has on offer regarding a criterion of epistemic activities, I (3) try to clarify what ‘enfolding the ideas of all things’ can mean. Presenting and discussing two plausible interpretations of this expression—a static and a dynamic one—sheds light on possible answers Nicholas can give as well as the limitations these answers are confronted with.

How emotion-cognition interactions drive affective bipolarity

Abstract
 Affective bipolarity is observed in a large group of people falling within the broad bipolar spectrum. Here, we propose a model of how emotion-cognition cycles drive affective bipolarity in the general case, and when these cycles may spiral into excessive forms. Our account specifies how emotion-cognition interactions produce two distinct epistemic modes: A behaviorally engaged, externally oriented mode of phenomenal exploration and a behaviorally disengaged, internally oriented mode of conceptual rumination. Affective bipolarity is viewed as a ubiquitous phenomenon underlying epistemic progress, which explains why mood fluctuations can be observed in many psychiatric disorders. The model explains why individuals with bipolar tendencies exhibit polar asymmetries in emotion, cognition and behavior, and are at risk for excessive affective bipolarity when their epistemic activities are guided by immutable and stable core beliefs.

Knowledge and agency in interprofessional care: How nurses contribute to the case-construction in an Intensive Care Unit

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the epistemic and interactional resources displayed by nurses participating in medical case construction and the ways through which they make a difference in the unfolding of this activity. This paper draws on an ethnographic research in an Italian Intensive Care Unit (ICU) selected according to a purposeful sampling approach out of a national sample of 40 ICUs participating in a larger research project. Our dataset, collected over a period of six months of ethnographic observations, consisted of the observers’ field notes and log-books, audio and video-recordings of morning briefings, in-depth interviews, informal conversations and shadowing of bedside practices. For the purpose of this article, we analyzed the video-recorded morning briefings, involving nine attending physicians and three specialized nurses. Adopting a conversational analysis approach, this paper identifies the epistemic activities through which the nurses orient the physicians’ ongoing reasoning. It illustrates how the nurses’ contributions display different degrees of agency depending on the type of activity, the turn taking and the turn design. We contend that the nurses’ interactional competence in managing their epistemic resources and rights related to their professional territory of knowledge makes their knowledge relevant and contributes in constituting the case construction as an interprofessional activity. Implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

A Mixed-Methods Approach to Analyze Shared Epistemic Agency in Jigsaw Instruction at Multiple Scales of Temporality

The purpose of this study was to propose a mixed-methods approach to analyzing shared epistemic agency in jigsaw instruction from multiple temporal perspectives, and to evaluate its effectiveness by examining actual datasets. We employed a combination of socio-semantic network analysis (SSNA) and in-depth dialogical discourse analysis as a mixed-methods approach, and analyzed discourse transcripts by university students engaged in jigsaw instruction. First, we graphically depicted a quantitative measure of shared epistemic agency at the group level and identified pivotal points of discourse where students might engage in an epistemic action toward alleviating a lack of knowledge. Then, we conducted dialogical discourse analysis of the segments around the pivotal points to describe students' collaboration practices. SSNA represented the quantitative nature of shared epistemic agency with 60% accuracy and provided a new way to look at it as a distribution of pivotal points for alleviating a lack of knowledge across all processes of jigsaw group activities. The dialogical discourse analysis of the discourse segments identified by SSNA further described dialogical patterns in the shared epistemic agency and each student's contribution to them..

Alien Reasoning: Is a Major Change in Scientific Research Underway?

Are we entering a major new phase of modern science, one in which our standard, human modes of reasoning and understanding, including heuristics, have decreasing value? The new methods challenge human intelligibility. The digital revolution (deep connectionist machine learning, big data, cloud computing, simulation, etc.) inspires such claims, but they are not new. During several historical periods, scientific progress has challenged traditional concepts of reasoning and rationality, intelligence and intelligibility, explanation and knowledge. The increasing intelligence of machine learning and networking is a deliberately sought, somewhat alien intelligence. As such, it challenges the traditional, heuristic foresight of expert researchers. Nonetheless, science remains human-centered in important ways—and yet many of our ordinary human epistemic activities are alien to ourselves. This fact has always been the source of “the discovery problem”. It generalizes to the problem of understanding expert scientific practice. Ironically, scientific progress plunges us ever deeper into complexities beyond our grasp. But how is progress possible without traditional realism and the intelligibility realism requires? Pragmatic flexibility offers an answer.