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The computational syntax and terminology proposed by Lamontagne(1987) were used to investigate the problem of the phylogenesis of visual perception. In particular, an attempt was made to specify Lamontagne's principle of adjacency. This principle states that a relevant natural mutation will cause an offshoot to have one or more levels of informational grouping than its parents, where each specific group contains units of information which are adjacent, along one or many continua, to the pivotal unit of that group. A number of assumptions were proposed to constrain the investigation space. Among them was the pairwise-grouping hypothesis, a hypothesis belonging to the set of possible instances of the adjacency principle. This hypothesis states that any formal epistemic entity of level n--that is, n:EE--receives input only from pairs of (n-1):EEs. Given a two amplitude retinal domain, the assumptions were found to predict offspring capable of detecting line segments and some of their orientations. With a multiamplitude retinal domain, however, the pairwise-grouping hypothesis and the general principle of adjacency were found to have difficulty in accounting for smooth contrast detection. Formal neural network solutions were proposed to overcome that and related difficulties.
Provides an overview of the fieldwork conducted as a background for fact finding, reconnaissance, and refinement of logistics in local contexts for the LAN gaming studies. The inclusion of different cultures and peoples in these contacts were designed to provide alternative forms of observation regarding public/private behaviour, according to varying environmental and situational constraints. The goal of the study was oriented around tool and protocol development and exploration of conditions, constraints, and best prospects for field sites for VERUS LAN studies. The field research was conducted in order to further: a) test the research protocols (tools and methods) for the LAN studies in specific Asian and Middle Eastern media ecologies, giving a rough sketch of what virtual world gaming looks like in various parts of the world; b) develop and hone the field research instruments for the purposes of the VERUS project; c) touch upon themes encountered in this iteration of fieldwork; d) inform future iterations of this fieldwork.
Here, we explore how 3D, networked virtual worlds - in particular Second Life, which enables users to create and modify their own environments - can act as a kind of 'virtual' laboratory for studying gender difference. By tracking users' eye movements as they navigate a virtual rendition of the Morris Water Maze (the 'gold standard' for measuring gender difference in spatial orientation, navigation and mobility), this work constitutes an empirical basis for claims that we have attempted to make in the context of ethnographic work with female and male video game players, both novice and expert: that mastery of, and the ability to competently navigate through space, both real and virtual, is as much (if not more) learned and acquired, as it inheres in the bodies and brains of differently-sexed subjects.
