Assignment 10 - Blog and Read Opening Skinner’s Box

Chapter 1

The first chapter of the book describes the author, Laurence Slater's attempts to research  and understand Skinner and his research. B. F. Skinner believed that people were a construct of their experiences and held no free will. To this end, he believed it is possible to use positive feedback to condition desired responses. As Slater found out as she began her research, there are numerous misconceptions about Skinner and his research. Many falsely believe that his famous air crib conditioning of his daughter drove her to commit suicide later in her life. After failing to track down the supposedly deceased daughter, Slater manages to find her sister. The sister is obviously guarded as she has undoubtedly been interviewed countless times about her dad and sister. She quickly tells Slater that her sister is currently living in England and that her dad loved both the kids unconditionally. Before Slater leaves she tells her to read Freedom and Dignity, a philosophical book by Skinner.


 
Chapter 2

This chapter is a retelling Milcram's shock experiment. It is told primary in a first person point of view as if the reader were the subject being tested for fallowing orders. It is very detail rich and covers all areas from before arriving at the testing center to the actual shocking of the test subject and the inability to refuse the orders of the authority figure. The retelling offers a different point of view from previous readings and is far more interesting as the reader is put in the position of the test subject. It forces the reader to try to figure out what he/she would have done in the same situation. After describing the experiment, the chapter continues to explain Slater's fallow up research and how she tracked down a previous test subject. The man she found was one of the minority that refused to continue administering  the shocks, and even he did it because he feared it was becoming hazardous to his own health.

Assignment 9 - Blog and Read Obedience to Authority

Assignment 7 - Blog and Read About Nonobvious Observation

Gang Leader for a day

Chapter 1:

Sudhir Venkatesh, an Indian student at the University of  Chicago, takes on an sociology assignment from his professor to gather information about the poor black families that live in the projects of the city. With any luck Sudhir hopes he will be able to develop this assignment into a dissertation for his academic progression. Armed with only a shallow understanding of surveys that have been completed before his and a blissfully ignorant personality Sudhir picks one of the most infamous buildings in town to start his research and walks right up to the gang stationed at the front door. He is instantly met with distrust and believed to be a member of another gang. Even though he does his best to explain that he is a student and only wishes to carry out a survey, his pleas fall on deaf ears. After a prolonged period of threatening his life one gang member instructs him to begin his survey. The first question on his list, "How does it feel to be poor and black" gets violent outbursts from the gang members. Fortunately, at this time, J.T. shows up to the scene. J.T. is the leader of the gang in charge of the building and demands to know what is happening. J.T. does not show as much outward aggression towards Sudhir as the rest of the gang members did, but he is clearly unhappy with the disturbance. After taking Sudhir's clipboard and skimming through the questions J.T. laughs at the blatant ignorance displayed by Sudhir and his survey. He explains that no survey will ever allow you to understand the people living in the projects and if you really want to understand you must get to know the people first.     

Chapter 2:

Taking J.T's instructions to get to know the community better as an open invitation, Sudhir shows back up in the projects shortly later. While initially surprised to see Sudhir back at the building, J.T. decides to start allowing him some access to the building to start his research under the false presumption that the paper Sudhir will eventually write will be a biography about him. J.T. acts as his personal chaperon while he is in the area, offering him protection and an insight to a poor lifestyle that is alien to Sudhir.  J.T explains that the basics of how the Black Kings operate and what other underground professions operate in the area. Sudhir is surprised to find out that J.T. actually has a college education and chose to return to the gang life. J.T. claims to be doing it to give back to the community and trying to help other poor black kids succeed in life, but these claims seem shallow at best to the reader. It is far more likely that J.T. just decided that the quickest way to make money was by operating a  gang. While Sudhir is getting an inside view of what is going on in the gang it is clear to him that it is not a complete picture. J.T. has to much power over him and can control what he sees and hears. One of the defining sections of this chapter however, occurs when Sudhir starts to have a favorable reputation among the community and no longer always needs to be by J.T's side. Without J.T's knowledge, Sudhir is present when C-Note is savagely beaten by J.T for confronting his authority. While Sudhir had some idea that this was going on, witnessing it in person causes him to question his own personal moral compass. 

Chapter 3:

The third chapter of the book covers two distinct areas: Sudhir's continuing moral questions about his involvement with the gang and how the gang provides(to some degree) for the community around it. 

After witnessing C-note's beating Sudhir is nervous that he will no longer be allowed back into the gangs area. Fortunately, J.T. soon invites him back for his daughters birthday party and C-notes beating is not mentioned for a prolonged period of time. A second occurrence when Sudhir witnesses the gang beating a squatter to death forces him to reevaluate his time being spent with the gang. He approaches J.T with questions why such extreme cases of force were needed in both situations, and much to Sudhir's surprise J.T is willing to talk about what happened. He explained that C-note had been previously warned that the courts were going to be needed on that night. Furthermore, higher ups in the gang had been accompanying J.T that night. Had he allowed C-note to talk back to him like he did, it would have drastically reduced his influence and position in the leadership of the guild. It would have also sent the message that it was ok to refuse the gangs demands while accepting the gangs protection. J.T could not allow this so his hand was ultimately forced in the situation.  At the end of the questioning Sudhir is somewhat appeased, but he still is unsure how situations like these affect him morally. 

One of J.T's goals is to recreate the political power that the gangs of Chicago once had. Towards this end he requires all the young members of the gang to attend a voting "class" put on by a Lenny Duster. During this class Lenny informs the kids that they need to insure that they receive at least a high school  education. He also provides insight on how to work(sell drugs) more effectively. Finally, he instructs them to strong arm the population of the building into registering to vote and then vote according to the gangs wishes. Ultimately, the class appears to be more about promoting the gangs wellness then that of the kids. An example of the poor information that was given to them comes into the light as Sudhir fallows a small group of kids door to door to convince them to vote for the Black Kings. One lady is already registered to vote and the kids are utterly confused when she attempts to explain the voting process to them. Some time later Sudhir gets another example of the gangs involvement with the community when he witnesses a conflict between a car mechanic, Kris, and his customer.  The customer claims Kris has not done his job and refuses to pay. T-Bone, the gangs enforcer, shows up and discovers Kris to be telling the truth and the work has in fact been completed. T-Bone swiftly deals out justice and ensures Kris receives his pay. This indecent allows  Sudhir a brief glimpse into what exactly the gang offers the community in return for the disruptions caused by them.  The final example in the chapter occurs when the sound of a woman screaming attracts Sudhir's attention. She claims that a worker at a local store raped her daughter and gave her a STD. After Price is summoned the group goes to the store, the girl yells at the man in question, and a quick settlement is reached. Even after witnessing the indecent, Sudhir is unable to determine exactly why the gang got involved and the police were not called. Price explains that the gang helped because it's the gangs job to keep piece in the building. 

Finally, the chapter concludes with J.T being summoned away for a higher level gang meeting. Sudhir is allowed to wonder the dorm alone during this time. This excites him because he has never had this level of freedom before and hopes to use the time to interview more common people in the building, but he soon discovers that they don't wish to talk to him due to his gang affiliation. He does however get to talk to Ms. Bailey, the building president.

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Group videos - Assignment #6

For my groups video project, we completed the task of entering Evens library and locating the book A Tragedy of the Commons by William Shakespeare. The book to be located was provided at the begging of the task so preexisting knowledge was limited to what each member knew of the library from previous trips. During the task, there were several characteristics that varied from person to person. Among these were the route taken to reach the book, how the books location was determined, and interactions with other people along the way.


The videos will hopefully provide us a window into understanding the people that we encountered during our mission to locate the book.

Ethnographies - Assignment #5

Ethnography

Ethnography is the study of people as well as their culture, geography and societies. At its heart it consists of a researcher immersing him or her self in the culture for prolonged periods of time. Information about the people and their culture can then be observed and documented from the inside. Sometimes this research may take years to complete.


The Wikipedia article over Ethnography unfortunately came across as a little to technical and dull for my tastes.  It did however contain a large amount of useful information about ethnography and how ethnographic studies need to be carried out to be successful.  It is critically important that all methods used to gather data in a study are carried out without disruptions to the natural culture and practices of those being researched. It's also important to document any information gathered during the research to later be used in the evaluation of the field study.  In order for an ethnographic study to be evaluated to be successful it must meet five metrics: substantive contribution, aesthetic merit, relativity,  impact, and if it expresses the reality of those being studied. The article also addresses the common difficulties faced by ethnographers. Since they are in a culture that is not native to them and they are aiming to gather information from those around them, it is unnecessary for them to live out a small lie. This can cause a great deal of difficulty during the course of the case study. Most ethnographers display at least one of the "classic virtues" which will cause trouble later in the research. These include presenting themselves to be nicer than they actually are, working under the assumption that they can not dislike anyone, and presenting the people being studied with the research goal. Each of these causes far more trouble than it aids the researcher.


Of all the articles read, the Wikipedia entry over Coming of Age in Somalia  was by far my favorite. It provided an accurate real life example of what an ethnographic study should consist of. Mead gained the trust of the girls she was interested in studying by joining them in their village. It also granted her the ability to observe first hand the everyday cultures and traditions that differed greatly from the cultural norms in America at the time. She relied heavily on interview, daily observations, and journals(and a translator) to gather her information. The importance of her methods was made more apparent through Freeman's later attacks on her work after her death. Even though his intent was to tear down everything she had done, his attack forced the scientific community to closely study her methods and ultimately determine that she had been telling the truth. Personally, I think Freeman was just hoping to gain a little recognition by discrediting someone that was unable to defend their arguments. In hindsight it seems obvious that Freeman would not be able to get as truthful of a reaction out of the Somalian girls as Mead did. His research was decades later, and even if they where still willing to provide truthful information, most peoples' recollection is not that good. There is also the fact that he was an elderly gentleman while she was a girl near in age to the Somalians that were being interviewed. My largest complaint about the article was that it spent much more time discussing Freeman's attacks on Mead than it did discussing exactly what it was that Mead had done to gather her research. 

Design of Everyday Things - Assignment #2

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. IT SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY 10/3/12

Design of Everyday Things

Chapter Reviews

Chapter 1: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things

Since it is the first chapter in the book, this chapter seems to mostly just provides a plethora of examples of poorly designed items that will be used as examples throughout the book. There are also a few examples of well designed products. Another important feature of the chapter is that introduces several key vocabulary words that will be used throughout the story. The chapter emphasizes the importance of natural design. People should be able to understand how to use the items they own without  needing extensive training. To do this the devise needs to be intuitive. All labels need to be viable, attempt to have as close to 1 to 1 mapping as possible, and the items conceptional model needs to match the users system image. 

Important terms:

Visibility- correct parts must be visible and they must convey the correct message.

Affordance - fundamental properties that govern how an item can be used.

Constraints - physical  limitations on how an item can be used.

Mapping - Links action to results. Best if 1 to 1.

Conceptual model - model that allows user to predict the result of specific actions.

System image - Users idea of how device should work.

Feedback - information that tells the user what has actually happened. 

Paradox of technology - Tech makes things simpler, but requires more control so more complicated.

Chapter 2: The Psychology of Everyday Actions

This chapter deals with people's reactions to items that have been poorly designed. Far two often they end up blaming themselves for problems with the device that should never have existed in the first place. I know I have encountered situations like this many times before. It ends up with the user thinking less of him/her self because the device is too difficult to understand properly. These negative feelings are refereed to in the book as learned helplessness. Another common problem the book points out is that blame is usually difficult to place reasonably.

The chapter continued by explaining the seven stages of action that are invoked each time a person chooses to do something. As a designer, it is important to address the issues that are found in each section to minimize conflict. In particular the gulf of execution (difference between the intention and allowable actions) and the gulf of evaluation (effort required to determine the items state) can cause much frustration of they are not minimized.
 
Important terms:
Learned helplessness - situation in which people fail at a task, and as a result they decide the task can not be done. (at least not by them)
Taught helplessness - phobia of trying to interact with devices due to extended exposure to learned helplessness.
Gulf of execution - difference between the intentions and the allowable actions
Gulf of evaluation - amount of effort a person must exert to determine the state of a system.

Chapter 3: Knowledge In the Head and in the World

Imnportant terms:

Info in the world

great precision is not required.

Natural retrains are present

cultural constraints are pressent 

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Good Designs 

Poor Designs

The Chinese Room - Assignment #3

This is not my first exposure to the Chinese room concept. I first had it explained to me a few years ago, but not in near this much detail. I mostly agree with the author in regards to the fact that computers can not reason and understand in the same ways that a human does. What understanding can be obtained when you are only capable of fallowing a simple instruction that is placed in front of you?  Does this exclude an AI from having it own form of understanding though? I believe the reason the Chinese room scenario is still relevant today is because it questions the definitions of the human boundaries of understanding and computing just as much as it questions the AI's ability to truly understand.

One topic I with the article address more thoroughly is when and how a human (computer) goes from not being able to understand the spoken language to being able to fluently communicate. Babies come into the world lacking the ability to either understand speech or express their own desires with any degree of certainty. Since they have no previous understanding of speech or the definition of its words they are forced to rely on context clues they can otherwise since.
"Well the one that provides milk is present 89% of the time I hear the noise 'Mama'. That falls within an acceptable margin of error. I can probably link that noise and that person together in some way." - While it is highly unlikely a newborn thinks like this, the process of natural learning has to set to some metric if we hope to someday understand exactly what has been learned( I do not believe standardized tests will work).  Is the information considered 'learned' after it is utilized and then positively reinforced? If so how is a child leaning to add and subtract any different than a computer's understanding?

I believe the secret of learning new information(and modify old) lies in our ability to introspectively analyze what we already know. Continuing with the Chinese language example, all languages are constantly evolving. As stated in the paper, if  the room had a man in it providing output that was only able to fallow the provided rules(no true understanding of the language) native Chines speakers would be unable to differentiate whether the man inside could truly understand them. We will call this man MAN-2012. MAN-2012 has a finite set of rules and can not deviate from them. As the culture slowly changes outside the room, new words will be created, new slang invented, and the meaning of some words will change with the times. MAN-2012 has no rules in place to handle these changes, and the system breaks down the first time such a change is encountered. I do not know if it is possible for an AI to manage information like this in a real time environment. Each new change would need to change an exponentially increasing number of related topics.

Assignment #4 - Emotional Design vs. The Design of Everyday Things

Summery

In chapter one "Attractive Things Work Better" of Emotional Design, Don Norman quickly points out that multiple studies have been completed that show people interact better with devices that are considered attractive than their ugly counterpart. While these findings originally confused the researchers involved with the trials, Norman explains that this is the result of ingrained traits from the evolution of our species. He breaks the human brain(and its ability to process data) into three distinct levels:

Visceral - The most primitive form of reasoning that is present in all species.
Behavioral - Ability to analyze situation to optimize result.
Reflective - Unique to humans. Conscious thought with the ability to self analyse and learn.

Norman continues by explaining that different situations evoke reactions in different levels of the brain, and designers must be aware of this to aid in their design development. Specifically, they must balance increasing creativity while maintaining the correct level of focus. People respond to positive feelings with an increase in creativity and negative feelings with increased focus.

"Attractive things work better" vs  The Design of Everyday Things

"Attractive things work better" dives much deeper into human psychology than the book The Design of Everyday Things does. It is much more a study of how feelings impact design development. The two books  cover different ends of the spectrum however. All throughout The Design of Everyday Things the most important aspect of product design is that it is intuitive in its use. The user should be able to interact freely with the devices with little or no training and should not continually encounter the same error.  If possible all interactions such as button pressing should be mapped one to one with responses, and the response should be unique and clear.

The most distinct difference between the two books can be found in the statement, "Afterward, the tense and  anxious people will complain about the difficulties whereas the relaxed, happy ones will probably not even remember them." "Attractive things work better" aims to improve usability by increasing the overall mood of the user. If they are in a relativity good mood to begin with little problems with the product are likely to be overlooked or attributed to user error. This statement, however, clashes with the ideology found in The Design of Everyday Things. According to it, simple design errors should be identified early and removed if possible to improve the happiness of the user. The book even offers the example of the column free glass doors to demonstrate this.

I do not believe the two principles need be mutually exclusive. To get the best possible product design it would seem that the methods from The Design of Everyday Things should be applied first, then any improvements form Emotional Design  could be applied. (Assuming that don't violate the previous ideals)

Assignment #0 About Me

Assignment #0 - Stephen Simmons

Hey guys, this is going up very late (as I have seen some of you have been talking about in the google group) Sorry for any trouble this has caused.

E-mail address: simmons.stephen@gmail.com If you need to get a hold of me quickly though you would do best to text me at (817)3686143

Class standing: I am a 6th year senior technically, but I missed a semester of class for medical leave. Over all I should be graduating in December after 5 years of classes. 

Why are I taking this class: Honestly, this is the last class that was required of me to graduate and it opened up at the last second. I am glad to be taking it though and have enjoyed everything that we have done in class so far.

What experience do I bring to this class: I have a decent amount of programming experience. Most of this is in the C and C derived languages. I also can program proficiently in Java.

What are my professional life goals: Short term right now they are just managing to graduate from school this December. After this however, I am hoping to get a job(preferably in Texas) working on web design. 

What are my personal life goals: This might not be exactly what the question had in mind, but some day I really want to take two or three months and hike the entirety of the Appellation Trail.

  
What do I want to do after I graduate: First and foremost, I want to have a steady job. Preferably one that is somewhat local so I still have a chance to visit my family in Fort Worth. 

What do I expect to be doing in 10 years? I plan to have found of the larger computer companies to be working for. More importantly however, I hope to be the father of one or two precious little kids that I can spoil after work each day. 

What do I think will be the next biggest technological advancement in computer science: I am not really sure what will come next. I say this not because I have no creativity, but because I think we have developed most of what we can think of right now. All the work in computers lately has been into making them faster, cheaper, and smaller. While this is important it is nothing new. I would bet that within a decade that something revolutionary is discovered that fundamentally changes what a computer and computer science is. 

If you could travel back in time, who would I like to meet and why: This question took me a while to think through. History is so long and there have been scores of individuals that have left their mark on it. If I could only meet a single person though i think i would want to talk to the Greek inventor Archimedes. I say this because his ideas were much more developed than his generation, I would want to find out exactly what made him uniquely creative. (Plus I may to able to lay rest some of the debate over what exactly he created)

My favorite shoes:

These shoes are and will always be my favorite. I have not even been able to wear them for over a year now and without a doubt they are my favorite. This is because I know exactly what I had to go through to earn them. They also allow me to remissness on some of the best times I have ever experienced. I really hope to some day be able to pass them down to one of my sons if he goes through the corps. (they are also the single most expensive item that i own) 

If I could be fluent in any foreign language that you're not already fluent in, which one would it be: I have always wanted to learn Russian. My roommate is fluent in Russian and it has always struck me as a unique language that is filled with lots of emotion. I would also enjoy being able to read the interesting alphabet that they utilize.

My interesting facts:

As previously mentioned I missed a semester of school for medical leave. This happened because I was skiing in Colorado and hit a tree while tumbling down hill. I had somehow found my way onto a blue slope before I was ready for it(I know I am horrible at skiing). The collision broke my back. In total my spinal coulomb had nine fractures over seven vertebra. Very painful. By some miracle I escaped without any nerve damage and didn't even need surgery. I was able to walk while in a body cast(while only very shortly) a week later.

Less interesting facts:

I am the oldest of five kids.

I love swimming(competitively)