This paper outlines a theoretical framework meant to help people understand the emergence of violent mediators in human cognitive niches enriched by technology. Violent mediators are external objects that mediate relations with the environment in a way facilitating – not causing – the adoption of violent behaviors. In order to cast light on the dynamics violent mediators are involved in, the au...

A central component of spatial navigation is determining where one can and cannot go in the immediate environment. We used fMRI to test the hypothesis that the human visual system solves this problem by automatically identifying the navigational affordances of the local scene. Multivoxel pattern analyses showed that a scene-selective region of dorsal occipitoparietal cortex, known as the occipi...

[1] The ISUAL gigantic jets (GJs) are categorized into three types from their generating sequence and spectral properties. Generating sequence of the type I GJs resembles that reported previously; after the fully developed jet (FDJ) established the discharge channel, the ISUAL photometers registered a peak that was from a return‐stroke‐like process. The associated ULF (ultra‐low‐frequency) sfer...

Contrast sensitivity (CS) quantifies an observer's ability to detect the smallest (threshold) luminance difference between a target and its surrounding. In clinical settings, printed letter contrast charts are commonly used, and the contrast of the letter stimuli is specified by the Weber contrast definition. Those paper-printed charts use negative polarity contrast (NP, dark letters on bright ...

We study how a robot can link concepts represented by adjectives and nouns in language with its own sensorimotor interactions. Specifically, an iCub humanoid robot interacts with a group of objects using a repertoire of manipulation behaviors. The objects are labeled using a set of adjectives and nouns. The effects induced on the objects are labeled as affordances, and classifiers are learned t...

O’Keefe and Nadel distinguish two paradigms for navigation, the “locale system” for map-based navigation and the “taxon (behavioral orientation) system” for route navigation. This paper models the taxon system, the map-based system, and their interaction; and argues that the map-based system involves the interaction of hippocampus with other systems. We relate taxes to the notion of an affordan...

This paper proposes a novel framework called ‘cultural affordances’ to examine the dynamic interplay among technology, users and culture, as multilevel multidirectional interactive networks. The includes three dimensions. 1) Cultural affordances of technology describe what can offer culture in terms behavioural or cultural changes. 2) other users, behavioural, technological 3) Affordances desig...