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The problem of how young learners acquire the meaning of words is fundamental to language development and cognition. A host of computational models exist which demonstrate various mechanisms in which words and their meanings can be transferred between a teacher and learner. However these models often assume that the learner can easily distinguish between the referents of words, and do not show if the learning mechanisms still function when there is perceptual ambiguity about the referent of a word. This paper presents two models that acquire meaning-word mappings in a continuous semantic space. The first model is a cross-situational learning model in which the learner induces word-meaning mappings through statistical learning from repeated exposures. The second model is a social model, in which the learner and teacher engage in a dyadic learning interaction to transfer word-meaning mappings. We show how cross-situational learning, despite there being no information to the learner as to the exact referent of a word during learning, still can learn successfully. However, social learning outperforms cross-situational strategies both in speed of acquisition and performance. The results suggest that cross-situational learning is efficient for situations where referential ambiguity is limited, but in more complex situations social learning is the more optimal strategy.

The objective of the study is to examine the librarians’ attitude towards knowledge sharing including its concept, potential benefits, communication channels, and influencing factors that may motivate or hinder knowledge sharing practices in academic libraries in India. A questionnaire was used for data collection, 91 LIS professionals from Indian academic libraries were surveyed. In addition, 10 in-depth interviews were conducted. The findings of the study show that understanding of knowledge sharing concepts among librarians is varied though most of them perceived knowledge sharing as “dissemination or exchange of knowledge (explicit and tacit) from one individual to another individual or group of people”. Moreover, librarians have a positive attitude towards knowledge sharing and believe that knowledge sharing improves the learning process and individual competencies as well as enhance the efficiency of library operations and services. Furthermore, email was found as the most preferred communication channel because of its accessibility, convenience, and personal warmness. Conspicuously, public recognition, rewards, knowledge self-efficacy and develop relations with colleagues were identified as key motivators and on the contrary, lack of trust, personal animosity, technological support and nepotism were found to be the major barriers for knowledge sharing practices. The findings of this study may be useful to the university authorities in India in designing and implementing an all-inclusive knowledge sharing strategy for LIS professionals.

This paper describe CAILS, an experimental Computer Assisted Iconic Language System which deals with three specific areas in communication: Cross-linguistic, visual/spatial concept representation and visual educational technique. Designed for interpersonal communication, this system functions with generally comprehensible visual referents. Each area has some specific syntax which is clear and easy to learn. CAILS takes advantage of visual memory of the user. The basic idea of this system is that an individual can, using basic visual references, compose a message, represent a concept and teach a rule. The specificity of the images eliminates ambiguity. For convenience, we classified visual references or «words» in the following categories: Hands, Movements, Expression, and Pictures.

When properly use, CAILS produce « iconic message objects» which may be presented to the intended recipient

In this article, we consider contemporary theories of concepts, and Bayesian and self-organizing models of concept formation. After introducing the different models, we present our own experiment. It utilizes a multi-agent simulation framework, in which the emergence of a common vocabulary can be studied. In the experiment, we use jointly the self-organizing maps and probabilistic modeling of concept naming. The results of the experiments show that a common vocabulary to denote prototypical colors emerges in the agent population.

This chapter focuses on establishing the conceptual foundation of the macroscopic perspective (structure and processes) of human thinking systems—the conceptualization of the general information theory (a component of the complexity-intelligence strategy). In this analysis, the human thinking system is perceived to be comprised of two components namely, the energy–matter subsystem (the natural component), and the physical symbol subsystem (an artificial component unique to humanity). The general procedure in which the human mind handles and exploits one or more physical symbol systems (symbols manipulation) is analyzed. The conceptual development encompassing the creation of the character set, capturing and transformation of data and information, acquisition of knowledge and emergent of wisdom (the four external entities), and the significance of a written language, as well as the additional associated functions are investigated.

The unique ability of creating a character set is confined to humanity indicating that human thinking systems are the most intense intelligence sources on this planet. The intrinsic and interactive properties of the character set and the language depict the characteristics and sophistication/ complexity of the physical symbol system. Besides interacting among themselves (data, information, knowledge and wisdom), these external entities also interact with the natural entities, the information-coded energy quanta, according to certain rules and principles. Subsequently, the energy quanta interact with the information-coded matter structure (the brain’s complex neural network). This unique ability (the presence of a written language) allows knowledge to be stored externally, and abstract concepts (including theory) and complex strategizing to emerge for the first time in the human world. In this respect, in the intense human intelligence source (individual or collective), information and knowledge exists in physical, energy and matter forms, and they are inter-convertible (internalization and externalization). The interactions among the six entities and the conversion from one form to another vividly review the presence of the uniqueness of the human thinking system, as well as the orgmind — greatly redefining the interactions and dynamic in the humanity and its organizations.

Subsequently, the boundaries and objectives of human thinking systems as information processing systems, and the necessity of artificial information systems are conceived as four postulates. In the intelligent organization theory, a deeper comprehension of the human thinking systems (complex adaptive systems) is vital, as they are the vital assets closely associated with the nurturing of highly intelligent human organizations (iCAS), including the coherency and contributions of a multi-layer intelligent structure (intelligent biotic macro-structure and agent-agent/system micro-structure). In this respect, the cognitive perspective must be better comprehended and utilized.

This chapter focuses on the macroscopic perspective of the human thinking system. The human thinking system is perceived to be comprised of two sub-components namely, the energy–matter subsystem and the physical symbol subsystem. The procedure in which the human mind handles one or more physical symbol systems is discussed. The conceptual development encompasses the transformation of data, information, knowledge and wisdom, and how a language emerges. The boundary of a human thinking system and the necessity of artificial information systems are also included. A better understanding of the human thinking system and the conceptualization of the general information theory is vital to the nurturing of highly intelligent human organizations.