Artificial Psychology: Cybernetics and Applications, Second Edition

Artificial Psychology: Cybernetics and Applications, Second Edition

Faisal L. Kadri

ID: 2836
UUID:
Date added: Aug 29, 2026
Last modified: Sep 20, 2026
File sizes PDF (1.8 MiB)
Languages English
ISBN
Published: Aug 29, 2014
URL: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00KSUOLT8?ref=yb_lb_td_kndl_dp_rw
Available at: Amazon
Publication Type: monograph
Theme: Cybernetics
AI Summary: ### Core Concepts of Artificial Psychology **Artificial psychology is a multidisciplinary field that utilizes cybernetic principles to model human personality by integrating variable motivational states with constant cognitive structures.** Unlike traditional artificial intelligence that relies heavily on linguistics, this approach draws on non-linear mathematical models to simulate how living beings regulate internal needs and external stimuli. By combining "top-down" psychological perspectives with "bottom-up" mechanical modeling, the field seeks to create artificial agents capable of nuanced, context-aware dialogue that mimics human behavior across different life stages. ### Foundations in Cybernetics and Modeling The research builds upon the historical foundations of cybernetics established in the 1950s, particularly the work of Norbert Wiener and William Ross-Ashby. The core mechanics rely on specific regulator models: - **Priming Regulators**: These simulate behaviors where repeated stimuli increase the strength of a response until a saturation point is reached, often mirroring processes like habit formation or advertising susceptibility. - **Homeostatic Regulators**: These models address internal body needs, such as hunger or reproduction, which cycle over time and drive voluntary, non-linear actions. - **Multiplier Feedback**: Unlike standard negative feedback loops found in engineering, these non-linear regulators use multiplication to represent states of "satiation" or "inertness" more accurately than subtractive methods. ### Personality and Humor Analysis A significant portion of the work focuses on reconciling psychometric personality models with observable human behaviors. The author posits that many existing personality factors are confounded by age-related changes, which are often ignored in traditional psychometrics. 1. **Age-Related Trends**: Through humor appreciation surveys, the research identifies that preferences for certain types of humor—such as aggressive, feeding-related, or parenting-oriented content—shift predictably as a person ages. 2. **Signature Analysis**: Replacing traditional factor analysis with signature analysis allows researchers to quantify information content more effectively. By comparing individual humor profiles against established "signatures," researchers can determine the "funniness" or contextual ambiguity of specific jokes with greater precision. 3. **The George and Mary Model**: This software implementation serves as a practical demonstration of these theories. By using two artificial personalities to simulate an ego and an "artificial imagination," the system can model complex psychological states, including empathy, internal conflicts, and even potential pathological conditions like the "double bind" theory of schizophrenia. ### Conclusion The research presented provides a framework for moving beyond linguistic-only artificial intelligence toward a model of "artificial personality" that incorporates biological rhythms, age-driven motivation, and observer-dependent reality. By utilizing non-linear mathematics and signature analysis, the author establishes a rigorous method for validating models of human behavior, offering potential advancements for both psychological research and the development of more sophisticated, human-like artificial agents.

Description:

Artificial psychology is a top-down multidisciplinary approach to modeling an artificial personality which mimics human motivation and cognition and produces artificial dialog. The dialog can be tuned to possibly simulate age and personality after adulthood in changing context.

The book does not take the research of others as is; there are disagreements in science that can't be ignored, instead it transcends discipline boundaries and explains why old theories seemed valid yet contradictory at the same time.

The central requirement for an artificial personality is the classification of sentences in such a way as to make it possible to pick the right context for age and personality. Humor research offers suitable experimentation to test and validate such classification but the analysis of other researchers did not lead to conclusive results. Chapter 6 is new, it shows examples from applying signature analysis to humor appreciation scores. Signature analysis is well known in astrophysics and cyber warfare but not in psychology or humor research. The results show significant matching between age profiles and trend signatures of humor types. The profiles also make it possible to make a number of measures, such as funnyness and age typical scores.

The purpose of artificial psychology is to tune computer interface to match the age, personality and gender of a computer user, which could lead to easier use, quicker learning and better utility.