Naturalness Hypothesis Research Articles

The Evolutionary Principles of the Attractiveness of Symmetry and Their Possible Sustainability in the Context of Research Ambiguities

Symmetry belongs to one of the basic principles of the beauty of human and non-human objects since antiquity. Even though its significance has been verified by numerous theories and research studies, there is a number of papers suggesting that this principle may be false. The study identifies five major evolutionary principles, in the context of new approaches and research ambiguities based mainly on neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, that support the thesis that highlights the significance of symmetry in the perception and assessment of attractiveness: 1. symmetry as an honest signal of various health characteristics; 2. symmetry as proof of developmental stability; 3. effectiveness; 4. comprehensibility; 5. predictability. In the context of the mechanisms described above it also seeks possible explanations for the existence of contradictory research results related to the attractiveness of symmetry. The outcome of the study is the postulation of three hypotheses: 1. the naturalness hypothesis (symmetry is only attractive to the same degree that it naturally occurs in the subject); 2. the accent hypothesis (minor asymmetries do not disprove the principles of symmetry, they make them more visible); 3. the ecology hypothesis (the attractiveness of symmetry is conditioned by the situation and depends on the type of subject assessed) that allow us to integrate both past and contemporary (and putatively contradictory) research findings. The paper also provides proposals for the verification of the postulated hypotheses.

Naturally!: How Breakthroughs in Natural Language Processing Can Dramatically Help Developers

Taking advantage of the naturalness hypothesis for code, recent development, and research has focused on applying machine learning (ML) techniques originally developed for natural language processing (NLP) to drive a new wave of tools and applications aimed specifically for software engineering (SE) tasks. This drive to apply ML and deep learning (DL) has been animated by the large-scale availability of software development data (e.g., source code, code comments, code review comments, commit data, and so on) available from open source platforms such as GitHub and Bitbucket.

Applied AI matters: AI4Code

The marriage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to problems surrounding the generation, maintenance, and use of source code has come to the fore in recent years as an important AI application area1. A large chunk of this recent attention can be attributed to contemporaneous advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and sub-fields. The naturalness hypothesis, which states that "software is a form of human communication" and that code exhibits patterns that are similar to (human) natural languages (Devanbu, 2015; Hindle, Barr, Gabel, Su, & Devanbu, 2016), has allowed for the application of many of these NLP advances to code-centric usecases. This development has contributed to a spate of work in the community --- much of it captured in a survey by Allamanis, Barr, Devanbu, and Sutton (2018) that focuses on classifying these approaches by the type of probabilistic model applied to source code. This increase in the variety of AI techniques applied to source code has found various manifestations in the industry at large. Code and software form the backbone that underpins almost all modern technical advancements: it is thus natural that breakthroughs in this area should reflect in the emergence of real world deployments.

Dynamical compactification in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity from geometric frustration

In this paper we study dynamical compactification in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity from arbitrary dimension for generic values of the coupling constants. We showed that, when the curvature of the extra dimensional space is negative, for any value of the spatial curvature of the four dimensional space-time one obtains a realistic behavior in which for asymptotic time both the volume of the extra dimension and expansion rate of the four dimensional space-time tend to a constant. Remarkably, this scenario appears within the open region of parameters space for which the theory does not admit any maximally symmetric (4+D)- dimensional solution, which gives to the dynamical compactification an interpretation as geometric frustration. In particular there is no need to fine-tune the coupling constants of the theory so that the present scenario does not violate "naturalness hypothesis". Moreover we showed that with increase of the number of extra dimensions the stability properties of the solution are increased.

Effects of Duration and Laughter on Subjective Happiness Within Different Modes of Communication

Media naturalness theory and social information processing theory make competing predictions regarding the effectiveness of different modes of communication at creating and maintaining emotionally intense social relationships. We explored how the duration of interaction and the form of laughter influenced happiness in communication modes with different levels of media naturalness. Forty-one participants completed a 14-day contact diary, recording interactions across face-to-face, Skype, telephone, instant messaging, texting, and e-mail/social network sites. Increases in duration of interaction positively predicted happiness only for face-to-face interactions, offering partial support for the media naturalness hypothesis. Laughter positively predicted happiness in all but one of the communication modes, with real and symbolic laughter having similar effects, a result consistent with the social information processing theory. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Phonetically Natural vs. Native Language Pattern: An Experimental Study of Velar Palatalization in Serbian

Two experiments test the naturalness hypothesis of velar palatalization. This hypothesis, based on surveys of various languages with velar palatalization, states that if a language has palatalization before [e], then it will have palatalization before [i], but not necessarily vice versa. Serbian is a prima facie counterexample to this generalization in certain morphosyntactic contexts, including the present-tense paradigm examined in this paper. In this context, Serbian palatalizes a velar stop [k] to a palatoalveolar affricate [ʧ] before [e] but not before [i]. Two experiments are conducted to test whether Serbian-speaking children and adults generalize from the existing pattern of palatalization before [e] to the natural pattern of palatalization before both mid and high vowels. The results from the first experiment show that children conform to the phonetically natural pattern but adults do not. These results suggest that speakers must be exposed to the pattern that "violates" the phonetically natural one for a substantial period of time before overwriting the phonetically natural pattern. The results from the second experiment, artificial pattern learning, show that the type of task and the type of palatalization (before [i] or [e]) play a crucial role, while age does not. These findings strengthen the hypothesis that subjects are more likely to choose a phonetically natural form presented to them than to volunteer it.

Religion is natural, atheism is not: On why everybody is both right and wrong

After discussing evidence of irreligion and the rise of the so called “New Atheism”, the authors refute the claim that this poses a problem for the cognitive science of religion and its hypothesis that religion is natural. The “naturalness hypothesis” is not deterministic but probabilistic and thus leaves room for atheism. This, the authors maintain, is true of both the by-product and adaptationist stances within the cognitive science of religion. In this context the authors also discuss the memetic or “unnaturalness” hypothesis, i.e. that religion is a “virus of the mind”. The authors criticize accounts of atheism offered by cognitive scientists of religion as being based on unfounded assumptions about the psychology of atheists, and object to the notion that the natural aspects of religion by corollary make atheism unnatural. By considering human cognition in a semiotic framework and emphasizing its natural ability to take part in semiotic systems of signs, atheism emerges as a natural, cognitive strategy. The authors argue that to reach a fuller account of religion, the cognitive (naturalness) and memetic (unnaturalness) hypotheses of religion must be merged. Finally, a preliminary analysis of the “New Atheism” is offered in terms of semiotic and cognitive dynamics.

Atheism is only skin deep: Geertz and Markússon rely mistakenly on sociodemographic data as meaningful indicators of underlying cognition

Cognitive scientists of religion and evolutionary theorists alike have been increasingly arguing in recent years that religion is “natural” in the sense of being motivated by core, evolved psychological intuitions. Atheism, and irreligion more generally, appear to pose problems for the naturalness hypothesis, especially considering the significant proportion of people in contemporary societies who reject supernatural beliefs. Although Geertz and Markússon clarify why the naturalness hypothesis does not imply religious determinism, they fail to weigh adequately the more conservative prediction, that of religious probabilism. Furthermore, unlike cognitive scientific accounts favoring the naturalness hypothesis, the authors base their arguments for the cultural scaffolding of atheistic cognition on sociodemographic data alone—a source that is unlikely to be a meaningful reflection of “natural” underlying cognitive processes.

Investigating a New Education Frontier: Instructor Communication Behavior in CD-ROM Texts—Do Traditionally Positive Behaviors Translate into This New Environment?

The non-interactive video learning environment, or CD-ROM texts, that feature video instructors delivering course material are becoming increasingly popular in institutions of higher education. Instructor nonverbal immediacy and humor have been proven to enhance instructor credibility and motivate student learning in the traditional and distance learning classrooms. Framed by the media naturalness hypothesis, this experimental study investigated the effects (instructor credibility, student motivation, and learning) of these behaviors when mediated. Results indicate that nonverbal immediacy and humor do not have a significant effect on student learning in virtual instruction but do have a significant effect on student motivation and perceptions of instructor credibility. Highly immediate and highly humorous instructors appear to be more motivating and credible, with nonverbal immediacy having the greatest impact.

THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT PROBLEM: A STRING THEORY APPROACH

We propose that stringy symmetries play a crucial role in the resolution of the cosmological constant problem. In the presence of constant fluxes along compact directions, it is possible to construct potentials for the moduli. For suitable choice of fluxes, they admit minima with non-zero cosmological constant and such solutions break duality symmetry. The corresponding duality symmetric solutions have vanishing cosmological constant. The naturalness hypothesis of 't Hooft may be invoked to argue that the cosmological constant must remain small since symmetry preserving solutions correspond to vanishing cosmological constant.

Media Richness or Media Naturalness? The Evolution of Our Biological Communication Apparatus and Its Influence on Our Behavior Toward E-Communication Tools

E-communication in businesses has been the target of intense research. The theoretical hypotheses that have informed the media richness hypothesis have been influential in some circles and have also been strongly attacked by social theorists. It is argued in this paper that this theoretical polarization involving advocates of the media richness hypothesis and social theorists is due to two problems. The first is that there is a wealth of empirical evidence that provides direct support for the notion that human beings prefer the face-to-face medium for a variety of business tasks that involve communication, which seems to provide support for the media richness hypothesis. The second problem is that the media richness hypothesis is built on a vacuum, as no underlying explanation was ever presented by media richness theorists for our predisposition toward rich (or face-to-face) media. The main goal of this paper is to offer a solution to these problems by providing an alternative to the media richness hypothesis, referred to here as media naturalness hypothesis, developed based on Darwin's theory of evolution. The media naturalness hypothesis argues that, other things being equal, a decrease in the degree of naturalness of a communication medium (or its degree of similarity to the face-to-face medium) leads to the following effects in connection with a communication interaction: (a) increased cognitive effort, (b) increased communication ambiguity, and (c) decreased physiological arousal. Like the media richness hypothesis, the media naturalness hypothesis has important implications for the selection, use, and deployment of e-communication tools in organizations. However, unlike the media richness hypothesis, the media naturalness hypothesis is compatible with social theories of behavior toward e-communication tools. Among other things, this paper shows that the media naturalness hypothesis (unlike its media richness counterpart) is compatible with the notion that, regardless of the obstacles posed by low naturalness media, individuals using those media to perform collaborative tasks may achieve the same or better task-related outcomes than individuals using media with higher degrees of naturalness.

An approach for demonstrating the social legitimacy of hunting

Successful lobbying against certain hunting practices by animal-welfare and animal-rights groups and a steady decline in hunter recruitment, retention, and numbers raise legitimate concerns regarding the future of hunting and its relationship to wildlife management. The nonhunting, non-animal-rights-advocate majority will determine the fate of hunting. Thus, a successful hunting ethic must be logically consistent and intuitively appealing to this moderate majority. This shared ethic could encourage cultural, political, and economic support for wildlife management from both hunters and nonhunters alike. In light of this goal, I argue that 3 dominant hunting ethics—the naturalness hypothesis, the land ethic, and the sporting ethic—fail to justify hunting or place it in a shared context with modern society, and I suggest an alternative ethic that combines Aldo Leopold's vision of an expanding community with traditional utilitarian and rights-based evaluations of ethical criteria within an n-dimensional moral framework. This conceptualization of an ethical system would allow the use of tools applicable to systems analysis in analyzing moral issues and would foster communicative practices capable of creating a more inclusive community. Further, it can both create and elucidate the ethical space shared by the moderate majority and hunters.

The development of musical tuning perception from infancy to adulthood

Three prominent hypotheses were evaluated by testing Western infants' and adults' abilities to detect mistunings in melodies based on native Western and non‐native Javanese scales. The “innateness hypothesis” of speech perception applied to music perception suggests that infants are born with an equipotential to perceive the scales of any culture. The “naturalness hypothesis” of auditory perception suggests that the ear is best suited for processing the small‐integer frequency ratios that comprise Western scales. Finally, the “perceptual loss hypothesis” of speech perception allied to music perception proposes that the ability to perceive non‐native scales is reduced and the ability to perceive native scales is maintained from infancy to adulthood. In support of the innateness hypothesis and in contradiction of the naturalness hypothesis, 5‐ to 7‐month‐old infants did not possess a perceptual bias for either Western or Javanese scales. The perceptual loss hypothesis was weakened because, although adults p...

Do light lepto-quark bosons exist?

It is shown that, within the naturalness hypothesis for the Yukawa couplings, the ratio of the mass of the b-quark to the mass of the τ-lepton m b m τ , and also the corresponding ratios for the first and the second generation fermions are incompatible with light lepto-quark bosons. It is argued that within the extended survival hypothesis for Higgs scalars observable neutron-antineutron oscillations are not allowed. Rare kaon decays induced by lepto-quark bosons are shown to be experimentally non-observable.