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Artificial intelligence has learned to probe the minds of other computers
Anyone who’s had a frustrating interaction with Siri or Alexa knows that digital assistants just don’t get humans. What they need is what psychologists call theory of mind, an awareness of others’ beliefs and desires. Now, computer scientists have created an artificial intelligence (AI) that can probe the “minds” of other computers and predict their actions, the first step to fluid collaboration among machines—and between machines and people. “Theory of mind is clearly a crucial ability,” for navigating a world full of other minds says Alison Gopnik, a developmental psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the work.
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Why Hostility Can Bring People Closer Together
From family feuds to corporate conflicts, when people find themselves in difficult disputes, they often turn to mediation. Manuals on effective mediation suggests that a mediator should listen attentively to each person involved and express empathy with their viewpoints, no matter how different from one another they are. Mediators are advised to avoid appearing to favor the ideas of one side, and to make each person involved feel at ease and confident that they are being understood. Establishing this rapport is a commonly espoused “best practice” for gaining trust and facilitating conflict resolution.
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Why the Most Important Idea in Behavioral Decision-Making Is a Fallacy
Loss aversion, the idea that losses are more psychologically impactful than gains, is widely considered the most important idea of behavioral decision-making and its sister field of behavioral economics.
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Science experts learn how to bring their knowledge to Wikipedia
Contributing scientific content to Wikipedia means being able to distill complex topics to a general audience who may not have a scientific background. Experts are well positioned to do this sort of ‘translating’ because they have access to the latest research and have a deep understanding of these topic areas. It’s no secret that the public looks to Wikipedia to understand scientific topics and histories. So let’s make that information as accurate and up-to-date as possible. Wiki Education is one of the only organizations systematically improving Wikipedia’s coverage of science.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Learning Efficiency: Identifying Individual Differences in Learning Rate and Retention in Healthy Adults Christopher L. Zerr, Jeffrey J. Berg, Steven M. Nelson, Andrew K. Fishell, Neil K. Savalia, and Kathleen B. McDermott People differ in their ability to learn new information, not only in how much and for how long they retain it but also in how quickly they learn. Zerr and colleagues tested the relationship between quickness of initial learning and long-term retention.
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Conspiracy Beliefs Linked With Search for Certainty and Social Connection
Research shows that conspiracy theories may appeal to people looking to make sense of random events and to alleviate social alienation. But those beliefs may reinforce those motives instead of fulfilling them.
