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Using a mathematical framework with roots in artificial intelligence and robotics, researchers have uncovered the process for how people make decisions in groups.

The researchers also found they could predict a persons choice more often than more traditional descriptive methods.

In large groups of essentially anonymous members, people make choices based on a model of the mind of the group and an evolving simulation of how a choice will affect that theorized mind, the study finds.

Our results are particularly interesting in light of the increasing role of social media in dictating how humans behave as members of particular groups, says senior author Rajesh Rao, a professor in the University of Washingtons Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology.

We can almost get a glimpse into a human mind and analyze its underlying computational mechanism for making collective decisions.

In online forums and social media groups, the combined actions of anonymous group members can influence your next action, and conversely, your own action can change the future behavior of the entire group, Rao says.

The researchers wanted to find out what mechanisms are at play in settings like these.

In the paper, they explain that human behavior relies on predictions of future states of the environmenta best guess at what might happenand the degree of uncertainty about that environment increases drastically in social settings. To predict what might happen when another human is involved, a person makes a model of the others mind, called a theory of mind, and then uses that model to simulate how ones own actions will affect that other mind.

While this act functions well for one-on-one interactions, the ability to model individual minds in a large group is much harder. The new research suggests that humans create an average model of a mind representative of the group even when the identities of the others are not known.

To investigate the complexities that arise in group decision-making, the researchers focused on the volunteers dilemma task, wherein a few individuals endure some costs to benefit the whole group. Examples of the task include guarding duty, blood donation, and stepping forward to stop an act of violence in a public place, they explain in the paper.

To mimic this situation and study both behavioral and brain responses, the researchers put subjects in an MRI, one by one, and had them play a game. In the game, called a public goods game, the subjects contribution to a communal pot of money influences others and determines what everyone in the group gets back. A subject can decide to contribute a dollar or decide to free-ridethat is, not contribute to get the reward in the hopes that others will contribute to the pot.

If the total contributions exceed a predetermined amount, everyone gets two dollars back. The subjects played dozens of rounds with others they never met. Unbeknownst to the subject, a computer mimicking previous human players actually simulated the others.

We can almost get a glimpse into a human mind and analyze its underlying computational mechanism for making collective decisions, says lead author Koosha Khalvati, a doctoral student in the Allen School. When interacting with a large number of people, we found that humans try to predict future group interactions based on a model of an average group members intention. Importantly, they also know that their own actions can influence the group. For example, they are aware that even though they are anonymous to others, their selfish behavior would decrease collaboration in the group in future interactions and possibly bring undesired outcomes.

In their study, the researchers were able to assign mathematical variables to these actions and create their own computer models for predicting what decisions the person might make during play. They found that their model predicts human behavior significantly better than reinforcement learning modelsthat is, when a player learns to contribute based on how the previous round did or didnt pay out regardless of other playersand more traditional descriptive approaches.

Given that the model provides a quantitative explanation for human behavior, Rao wonders if it may be useful when building machines that interact with humans.

In scenarios where a machine or software is interacting with large groups of people, our results may hold some lessons for AI, he says. A machine that simulates the mind of a group and simulates how its actions affect the group may lead to a more human-friendly AI whose behavior is better aligned with the values of humans.

The results appear in Science Advances.

Additional coauthors are from UC Davis; New York University; and the Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod. The National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation funded the work.

Source: Jake Ellison for University of Washington

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Trying to read the 'mind of a group' shapes our decisions online - Futurity: Research News

In Rowan Universitys Center for Behavior Analysis, professors who are Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA-D) and their students take on difficult problems of human concern across diverse populations, needs, and settings.

Each week, they spend hours striving to teach a nonverbal child as young as two to communicate. In specially equipped rooms, therapists don protective equipment to work with children whose severe behavior extends to harming themselves or others. They find ways to help users finally quit smoking for good.

In the center, the lines between education, research and service often blur, in all the best ways. Rowan students provide services to community members as part of the training and research that will inform the future of behavior analysis.

Understanding behavior analysis

"Most people dont really know what behavior analysis is, said Dr. Mary Lou Kerwin, professor of psychology and executive director of the Center for Behavior Analysis, located in Robinson Hall. Behavior analysis is the use of scientific principles to explain and change behavior.

Unfortunately, the use of behavioral principles is so ubiquitous that people often assume they understand how to use these strategies effectively. But behavior analysis is actually complex.

If you understand how an individual behaves, you can predict future behavior, Kerwin explained. That provides potential for social change in society in general, and we can improve quality of life at the individual levels.

Humans are complicated, said Dr. Bethany Raiff, associate professor and director of the Health and Behavioral Integrated Treatments (HABIT) Research Unit, and one of the most complicated things is trying to figure out why people do what they do.

Building a better quality of life for children with autism

Much of the work done in the Center for Behavior Analysis involves treating children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The centerprovidesaffordable treatment and education to the parents of children with autism, said Jacqueline Logan, BCBA and research coordinator at the center. Besides benefitting from the variety of different assessments and individualized treatments offered through the center, the children and their families are participating in research that will help advance the field as a whole.

What we know from over 25 years of research is that the earlier the intervention is provided, the better the outcome for the child, Kerwin explained. That intervention is often intensive, taking so many hours each week that it's not always feasible to use more than one type of intervention. Thats why its crucial that the intervention used is the most effective option possible.

A lot of interventions have no empirical support but sound good to parents who are desperate to help their child, Kerwin said. Interventions based on behavior analysis, however, do have empirical support. One remaining question with these interventions is which behavior analytic interventions work best for whom and when.

Children with autism spectrum disorder all have different needs and different deficits. Although the myth that autism manifests in the same way in every child was debunked years ago, treatment has continued to be one-size-fits-all, Kerwin explained.

If we're engaging in hours and hours of something that's not effective, were missing the opportunity to do something that is effective, potentially limiting a child's ability to improve over time, Kerwin said.

Autism intervention approaches go head-to-head in grant-funded SMART study

Evaluating the efficacy of different interventions is the focus of the SMART (Sequencing for Maximizing Acquisition and Response to Treatment) study Dr. Michelle Soreth, associate professor of psychology, is leading with co-investigator Kerwin. The goal is to maximize that ability to improve communication skills over time for children participating in the study as well as ultimately for other children with ASD.

Soreth and Kerwin initially tested applied behavior analysis (ABA) interventions against a non-ABA form of intervention called Relationship Development Intervention (RDI). This research was conducted under the first of two grants awarded by the New Jersey Governors Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism and the New Jersey Department of Health. The outcomes of their interventions showed that parent-implemented ABA was a particularly powerful tool in the treatment of autism.

What this first study did not do was establish which types of treatments within the field of ABA were the most effective. Thats the goal of Soreth and Kerwins current research, funded by a second grant from the Department of Health, which pits the original model of ABA-based early intervention for autism, Discrete Trial Instruction (DTI), against a newer ABA-based intervention model known as the Verbal Behavior Approach (VBA).

Although researchers are just finishing data analysis, preliminary findings indicate that children in the VBA group learned new skills at twice the rate of children in the DTI intervention group.

Given that one of the best indicators of overall prognosis for children diagnosed with autism is whether the child is speaking in phrases before age five, its almost as though we are working against the clock, explained Soreth, who focuses primarily on the significance of intervention with children as young as two years of age.

If we are able to identify interventions that double the rate of progress during such a critical learning period, imagine the possibilities for improving the overall prognosis and quality of life for individuals diagnosed with autism, Soreth added.

Addressing severe behavior SAFE-ly

Dr. Christina Simmons, assistant professor of psychology, specializes in treating populations others might shy away from because of their severity. In her Social Acceptability and Functional Evaluation of Behavior (SAFE Behavior) Lab and Severe Behavior Clinic, she works with school-aged children from three to 18 who exhibit severe behavior, such as aggression, property destruction, and self-injurious behavior. Many of these children present with autism and other developmental disabilities.

Simmons embraced this work early on in her academic career. As an undergraduate working with a nonverbal 13-year old with autism, Simmons gained insight into why the child would destroy property and, at times, resort to self-injurious behaviors.

She was trying to communicate with her destructive behaviors, Simmons said. Thats when I discovered ABA as an evidence-based approach for treating severe behavior.

The goals she and the students working under her supervision have are pretty clear-cut: reducing challenging behaviors and developing appropriate functional skills. How to accomplish those objectives is trickier.

"How do we promote meaningful change, not just in clinical environments but also in the childs natural environment? asked Simmons.

Theres no one answer that works for all children and all scenarios. But, for now, Simmons and her students are working to improve the assessment and treatment process to promote socially meaningful outcomes. All of my research is applied, said Simmons. In addition to my research lab, I work closely with graduate students in practicum and undergraduate students gaining fieldwork hours.

The students are eager to learn, especially in a unique environment like the Severe Behavior Clinic, and families get high-quality and enthusiastic helpa genuine win-win.

Behavioral economics and healthy choices

With her HABIT lab, Raiff demonstrates that behavior analysis has applications for adults as well as children. She specializes in a field known as behavioral economics.

I try to understand how people make choices and how to shift decisions towards healthier choices, she explained. Better health choices often result in delayed rewards, whereas unhealthy choices often result in immediate rewards.

When those unhealthy behaviors win out, its because the immediate benefit is more powerful than the potential benefit of better health later. Whether youre picking junk food over a healthy salad for reasons like taste or time, or binge watching a show over going to the gym, youre making a choice.

In the field of behavioral economics, its often easy to figure out what drives people to choose the unhealthy behavior. The more difficult task is discovering effective ways to alter that behavior.

Incentives that are arranged and delivered immediately much like those immediate rewards of making unhealthy choices can shift choices toward healthy behavior, Raiff said.

The use of financial incentives, sometimes called contingency management, has proven effective in helping people quit smoking and give up drugs. Of course, theres a problem with this traditional type of reward: it costs money.

Raiff is researching other, more sustainable methods of applying these immediate reward systems. Competition tends to be a big motivator. She recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to research the efficacy of another form of incentive: video game rewards.

We want to see if the virtual rewards earned in a mobile game help induce abstinence from smoking, she said. Were paving the way to make a more affordable option. The video game has great potential and is really different from anything else out there for smoking cessation.

Raiffs work is ongoing, but she and her team are making great strides.

Were not there yet in terms of execution but, through testing, were learning a lot about what kinds of games are effective and how to keep users engaged, she said. We definitely have found an interest among users.

Raiff also is collaborating with physicians at Cooper University Hospital on two Camden Health Research Initiative grants awarded by Rowan University. Shes beginning to test contingency management interventions to increase treatment adherence among individuals diagnosed with opioid use disorder and to initiate smoking abstinence among individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder.

Where research meets service

Research and service to the community are two of the three principles on which the Center for Behavior Analysis was founded. Theres a critical need, said Simmons of the service component. Especially in our area, there are not sufficient intensive services for children with severe behavior concerns.

Service to the community can take many forms. Although families can come in to receive treatment through outpatient clinics in Robinson Hall, the University also coordinates with the county care management organizations in the statewide Childrens System of Care (CSOC). Answering the states Request for Qualified Providers (RFQ) for more than two years, faculty, undergraduate and graduate students and alumni involved in the Center for Behavior Analysis offer intensive in-home behavioral services (IIH) and Individual Support Services (ISS) for children with intellectual disabilities in their own homes.

These services give both our undergraduate and graduate students a unique opportunity to work directly with children with developmental disabilities who have complex behavioral needs under the supervision of our faculty and alumni, said Simmons, who, along with her students, is highly involved in these in-home services. Through these experiences, they gain valuable clinical skills and confidence to work with this specialized population after graduation from our programs.

An extraordinary opportunity for students of behavior analysis

What of that third principle of the center? Education doesnt take a backseat to research and service. Instead, its a unique curriculum, along with these research and service opportunities, that makes Rowans undergraduate and graduate programs in Behavior Analysis stand out.

Rowan is a hotbed of behavior analytic activity, said Kerwin. In our discipline, everyone knows where Rowan is. Undergraduate coursework available through the Department of Psychology prepares students to become Board Certified assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBA), and the schools graduate programs can lead to the Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) credential.

The Center for Behavior Analysisprovided mehands-on training and knowledge, not only throughresearch practices but throughapplied techniques used in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis, said Logan, who completed her Master of Arts in Behavior Analysis degree in 2018. I was ableto work closelywith myprofessors toreceive feedback and training that gave me the skills to become a Board CertifiedBehavior Analyst.

Studies in applied behavior analysis can equip students with the skills to work with these same patient populations after graduation. This coursework can also prepare them to translate the skills of behavior analysis to work with a broad range of individuals in a variety of settings.

The principles can be applied in so many ways, from medical uses such as teaching child patients to stay still in an MRI machine and swallow pills to applications in organizational behavior management, said Kerwin. We anticipate that the scope of research in the Center for Behavior Analysis will continue to expand as the true potential of behavior analysis as a broad health profession begins to be fully recognized.

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Treating autism, severe behavior and addiction - Rowan Today

After Year Of Record Grizzly Bear Deaths, Managers Talk Human-Bear Conflict Reduction

The last two years have been the deadliest on record for grizzlies in and around Glacier National Park. There have been at least 48 grizzly mortalities this year in the area, called the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE). As grizzly mortalities mount, bear managers in northwest Montana are trying to tackle the sources of rising deaths.

At a year-end meeting of bear managers on Tuesday, state bear biologist Cecily Costello said those numbers are nothing to worry about yet.

"Right now, Im not willing to say that two years of increased mortality is a trend. But I also am not gonna say that its not a trend. So Im just gonna have to say we wait and see what happens."

Costello says the population is still healthy and growing at over 1,000 bears. She says those 48 mortalities still fall below a state threshold for the ecosystem passed last year.

"At the same time that you can hear the number and be sad, you can also kind of celebrate in the fact that that many bears could die and we still have a viable population."

The grizzlies range is growing along with their population. Now, more private land is occupied by grizzly bears than public land. That leads to conflicts with property and livestock. So Costello says that high death rate, "may have a lot to do with the bear population, but it may have a lot do with us, as well."

Costello says human development and recreation have been on the rise. Citing a Headwaters Economics study from last year, she says between 1990 and 2016, nearly 300,000 acres of open space was converted to housing, and 30,000 new homes were built in the 9 counties that surround the Glacier region. She also says the number of cars entering the Park has nearly doubled since 2000.

Although Costello says heightened mortalities arent yet a risk to the grizzly population, bear managers are working to reduce the number of deaths. An interagency working group of federal, state, and tribal officials presented recommendations to address grizzly mortality at the meeting.

Hilary Cooley, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says she expects conflicts to continue to expand as human population and recreation continue to rise.

"These are tough issues, and its not gonna be enough to spend a few phone calls here working on these topics, and expect to have any change. We want to drop mortalities and drop conflicts," Cooley says.

Cooley identified hunters, roads, trains, chickens and trash as the primary drivers of conflict, based on trends over the last two decades. She presented recommendations to address each issue.

Trains killed eight grizzlies in Montana this year.

"This was a spike," Cooley says.

Train deaths have actually gone down since 1999, compared to the decade before it.

Cooley also says that cattle and sheep depredations, and conflicts over beehives have gone down over the same time period. However, other conflicts especially over chickens have skyrocketed.

Solutions ranged from education, outreach and collaboration, to intensive road projects that could help grizzlies safely pass through traffic, to formal regulations that could change human behavior. Across the board, funding was a key barrier to implementation. Cooley expects many of these recommendations to be implemented by 2021.

Grizzlies in the lower 48 were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. In the Glacier area, state and federal biologists say the bears have recovered. At the meeting, State Sen. Bruce Gillespie says those bears have been federally protected long enough.

"Lets promote a model that gets the grizzly bear delisted, hopefully by next year, and on to a management plan."

In public comment, citizens addressed human safety issues, took issue with U.S. Forest Service projects that compromised bear habitat, and said grizzlies have a long way to go to reach meaningful recovery.

Josh Osher is the Montana Director for the conservation group, the Western Watersheds Project.

"Within a tiny little period of history they were shrunk to almost nothing," Osher said. "So I dont see 44 years as all that long to think about in term of the time it takes to recover a species."

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Executive Committee will hold its year-end meeting, which will address mortality and other issues across all grizzly ecosystems, on December 16 at the Residence Inn in Missoula.

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After Year Of Record Grizzly Bear Deaths, Managers Talk Human-Bear Conflict Reduction - MTPR

Public relations professionals are in the business of not only getting exposure for their clients, but of making clients and journalists happy.

You can be the best public relations (PR) expert in the world, but if you lack people skills, youll never be truly successful. In PR, you have to understand human behavior and emotions, both in terms of your clients and the people you pitch to.

PR pros need to be jacks-of-all-trades. You have to be a master at writing, researching, communicating and organizing. But career success goes beyond the skills you learned in college. In fact, the key to good PR is something you learned in kindergarten: people skills.

Why Do PR Pros Need People Skills?

Degrees, certifications and a track record of successful campaigns will get you far in PR, but nothing works as well as people skills. People skills, like listening and compassion, are soft skills that are hard to measure, to be sure, but that doesnt mean they arent important.

In fact, in Ed Zitrons book This Is How You Pitch, he argues that PR success doesnt come from high-profile features. It comes from fostering long-term relationships with reporters. When youre good at making friends, you build a professional network of genuine, helpful relationships. Once its time to pitch your story, you have a swath of people to send that pitch to.

Think about it: If you got a pitch from a total stranger and a another from a good buddy who you grabbed a coffee with last week, which pitch would you choose? Chances are, youre going to go with the person you know.

If you arent getting responses to your pitches, theres a good chance its because you dont have an in with that journalist. But when you develop your people skills and grow professional relationships, you can score more media placements for your clients. On top of that, youll also be better at managing client relationships, ensuring repeat business and a loyal customer base. Its a win-win!

Three Methods To Improve Your People Skills

As humans, we learn people skills when were children. But just because were all grown up doesnt mean weve stopped learning. Follow these three tricks to improve your people skills and become a better PR professional.

1. Improve your emotional intelligence.

Believe it or not, humans make most decisions based on emotion, not logic. By improving your emotional intelligence, youll be able to connect to journalists, your clients and even the public on a more effective level.

Emotional intelligence is the awareness of emotions and how those emotions affect behavior. For example, with a healthy sense of emotional intelligence, you can sense when an editor is stressed out. You might wait to pitch them until you have their undivided attention.

In any situation, try to identify the other partys emotions. Ask why theyre feeling that way, how it affects their behavior and how your behavior will influence their emotions. At the end of the day, this comes down to having compassion for other people and using that sense of compassion to pitch smarter.

2. Listen!

You arent listening to me! has to be one of the most common sentences in the English language. Instead of being quick to speak, be quick to listen. Its not enough to hear what someone is telling you. Listening is an essential people skill thats about committing what someone says to memory, processing it and drawing conclusions. Its the single best way to show someone you care.

For example, if you dont follow a journalists instructions for a pitch, theyre going to be frustrated with you. Its going to look like you didnt listen. You may come off as tone deaf, and it will potentially ruin your chances of ever getting a media feature.

The next time youre chatting with someone, stop thinking about what youre going to say next. Theyre telling you what they need; all you have to do is listen.

3. Maintain relationships.

Relationships are like your bank account. You have to put money into that account regularly, and only occasionally make withdrawals. If you want to ask a journalist for a favor, you have to put more into the relationship than youre taking out of it. That means maintaining relationships and hanging out with a contact when you dont need anything.

This is easier said than done, especially if you know a lot of people in the media. To do regular outreach without losing your mind, set a calendar appointment twice a week to grab coffee with one of your contacts. Youll have a chance to catch up with people without asking for something in return. Chances are, once you send in a pitch, theyll be more than happy to help out because youve invested in the relationship.

The Bottom Line

If youre pitching stories to humans, you need to understand them. Thats why people skills are so important to the art of PR. By nurturing relationships within your network, youll have a trusted list of journalists you can pitch to score more stories. Your clients will benefit from your improved people skills, too.

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Why People Skills Are Essential In PR And How To Improve Them - Forbes

The study, published inScience Advances, results from the collaboration between a UB team led by Cedric Boeckx, ICREA professor from the Section of General Linguistics at the Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics, and member of the Institute of Complex Systems of the UB (UBICS), and researchers from the team led by Giuseppe Testa, lecturer at the University of Milan and the European Institute of Oncology.

An evolutionary process similar to animal domestication

The idea of human self-domestication dates back to the 19th century. It is the claim that anatomical and cognitive-behavioral hallmarks of modern humans, such as docility or a gracile physiognomy, could result from an evolutionary process bearing significant similarities to the domestication of animals.

The key role of neural crest cells

Earlier research by the team of Cedric Boeckx had found genetic similarities between humans and domesticated animals in genes. The aim of the present study was to take a step further and deliver empirical evidence focusing on neural crest cells. This is a population of migratory and pluripotent cells - able to form all the cell types in a body - that form during the development of vertebrates with great importance in development. "A mild deficit of neural crest cells has already been hypothesized to be the factor underlying animal domestication. Could it be that humans got a more prosocial cognition and a retracted face relative to other extinct humans in the course of our evolution as a result of changes affecting neural crest cells?" asks Alejandro Andirk, PhD students at the Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics of the UB, who took part in the study.

To test this relationship, researchers focused on Williams Syndrome disorder, a specific human neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by both craniofacial and cognitive-behavioral traits relevant to domestication. The syndrome is a neurocristopathy: a deficit of a specific cell type during embryogenesis. In this case, neural crest cells.

In this study, researchers from the team led by Giuseppe Testa used in vitro models of Williams syndrome with stem cells derived from the skin. Results showed that the BAZ1B gene -which lies in the region of the genome causing Williams Syndrome- controls neural crest cell behavior: lower levels of BAZ1B resulted in reduced neural-crest migration, and higher levels produced greater neural-crest migration.

Comparing modern human and Neanderthal genomesResearchers examined this gene in archaic and modern human genomes. "We wanted to understand if neural crest cell genetic networks were affected in human evolution compared to the Neanderthal genomes", Cedric Boeckx said.

Results showed that that BAZ1B affects a significant number of genes accumulating mutations in high frequency in all living human populations that are not found in archaic genomes currently available. "We take this to mean that BAZ1B genetic network is an important reason our face is so different when compared with our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals," Boeckx said. "In the big picture, it provides for the first time experimental validation of the neural crest-based self-domestication hypothesis," continues.An empirical way to test evolutionary claims

These results open the road to studies tackling the role of neural crest cells in prosociality and other cognitive domains but is also one of the first examples of a potential subfield to test evolutionary claims. "This research constitutes one of the first studies that uses cutting-edge empirical technologies in a clinical setting to understand how humans have evolved since the split with Neanderthals, and establishes Williams Syndrome in particular as a unique atypical neurodevelopmental window onto the evolution of our species," Boeckx concludes.

Reference: Zanella et al. 2019.Dosage analysis of the 7q11.23 Williams region identifies BAZ1B as a major human gene patterning the modern human face and underlying self-domestication. Science Advances.DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw7908.

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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A Genetic Network Sheds Light on the Evolution of the Modern Human Face - Technology Networks