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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSCIOUSNESS AND INTENTIONALITY
Title
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSCIOUSNESS AND INTENTIONALITY.
Creator
Bell, Jordan, Cash, Mason, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Within the Philosophy of Mind two features of our mental life have been acknowledged as the most perplexing - consciousness, the phenomenal "what it is likeness" of our mental states, and intentionality, the aboutness or directedness of our mental states. As such, it has become commonplace to develop theories about these phenomena which seek to explain them naturalistically, that is, without resort to magic or miracles. Traditionally this has been done by analyzing consciousness and...
Show moreWithin the Philosophy of Mind two features of our mental life have been acknowledged as the most perplexing - consciousness, the phenomenal "what it is likeness" of our mental states, and intentionality, the aboutness or directedness of our mental states. As such, it has become commonplace to develop theories about these phenomena which seek to explain them naturalistically, that is, without resort to magic or miracles. Traditionally this has been done by analyzing consciousness and intentionality apart from one another. However, in more recent years the tide has turned. In contemporary theories these phenomena are typically analyzed in terms of the other. This results in two competing views: Representationalism, which seeks to ground consciousness in intentionality, and Phenomenalism, which seeks to ground intentionality in consciousness. David Chalmers has proposed an alternative view to these which takes consciousness and intentionality as essentially interdependent, neither more fundamental than the other. This thesis explores the motivations for Representationalism and Phenomenalism, outlines their extraneous commitments, and analyzes their merits - as well as assessing whether Chalmers' view is a defensible middle ground. This involves an analysis of the metaphysical doctrine of physicalism, phenomenal consciousness, intentionality, and the nature of mental content. I argue that the view which Chalmers advocates is the best supported. Yet, I argue, it could benefit by adopting a thoroughgoing externalism of mental content.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFH0004381, ucf:44988
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004381
Necessary Conditions for Open-Ended Evolution
Title
Necessary Conditions for Open-Ended Evolution.
Creator
Soros, Lisa, Stanley, Kenneth, Gonzalez, Avelino, Wiegand, Rudolf, Cash, Mason, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Evolution on Earth is widely considered to be an effectively endless process. Though this phenomenon of open-ended evolution (OEE) has been a topic of interest in the artificial life communitysince its beginnings, the field still lacks an empirically validated theory of what exactly is necessary to reproduce the phenomenon in general (including in domains quite unlike Earth). Thisdissertation (1) enumerates a set of conditions hypothesized to be necessary for OEE in addition to (2)...
Show moreEvolution on Earth is widely considered to be an effectively endless process. Though this phenomenon of open-ended evolution (OEE) has been a topic of interest in the artificial life communitysince its beginnings, the field still lacks an empirically validated theory of what exactly is necessary to reproduce the phenomenon in general (including in domains quite unlike Earth). Thisdissertation (1) enumerates a set of conditions hypothesized to be necessary for OEE in addition to (2) introducing an artificial life world called Chromaria that incorporates each of the hypothesizednecessary conditions. It then (3) describes a set of experiments with Chromaria designed to empirically validate the hypothesized necessary conditions. Thus, this dissertation describes the firstscientific endeavor to systematically test an OEE framework in an alife world and thereby make progress towards solving an open question not just for evolutionary computation and artificial life,but for science in general.
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Date Issued
2018
Identifier
CFE0007247, ucf:52205
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007247
Correctness and Progress Verification of Non-Blocking Programs
Title
Correctness and Progress Verification of Non-Blocking Programs.
Creator
Peterson, Christina, Dechev, Damian, Leavens, Gary, Bassiouni, Mostafa, Cash, Mason, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The progression of multi-core processors has inspired the development of concurrency libraries that guarantee safety and liveness properties of multiprocessor applications. The difficulty of reasoning about safety and liveness properties in a concurrent environment has led to the development of tools to verify that a concurrent data structure meets a correctness condition or progress guarantee. However, these tools possess shortcomings regarding the ability to verify a composition of data...
Show moreThe progression of multi-core processors has inspired the development of concurrency libraries that guarantee safety and liveness properties of multiprocessor applications. The difficulty of reasoning about safety and liveness properties in a concurrent environment has led to the development of tools to verify that a concurrent data structure meets a correctness condition or progress guarantee. However, these tools possess shortcomings regarding the ability to verify a composition of data structure operations. Additionally, verification techniques for transactional memory evaluate correctness based on low-level read/write histories, which is not applicable to transactional data structures that use a high-level semantic conflict detection.In my dissertation, I present tools for checking the correctness of multiprocessor programs that overcome the limitations of previous correctness verification techniques. Correctness Condition Specification (CCSpec) is the first tool that automatically checks the correctness of a composition of concurrent multi-container operations performed in a non-atomic manner. Transactional Correctness tool for Abstract Data Types (TxC-ADT) is the first tool that can check the correctness of transactional data structures. TxC-ADT elevates the standard definitions of transactional correctness to be in terms of an abstract data type, an essential aspect for checking correctness of transactions that synchronize only for high-level semantic conflicts. Many practical concurrent data structures, transactional data structures, and algorithms to facilitate non-blocking programming all incorporate helping schemes to ensure that an operation comprising multiple atomic steps is completed according to the progress guarantee. The helping scheme introduces additional interference by the active threads in the system to achieve the designed progress guarantee. Previous progress verification techniques do not accommodate loops whose termination is dependent on complex behaviors of the interfering threads, making these approaches unsuitable. My dissertation presents the first progress verification technique for non-blocking algorithms that are dependent on descriptor-based helping mechanisms.
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Date Issued
2019
Identifier
CFE0007705, ucf:52433
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007705
Mental rotation: Can familiarity alleviate the effects of complex backgrounds?
Title
Mental rotation: Can familiarity alleviate the effects of complex backgrounds?.
Creator
Selkowitz, Anthony, Sims, Valerie, Jentsch, Florian, Chin, Matthew, Cash, Mason, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This dissertation investigated the effects of complex backgrounds on mental rotation. Stimulus familiarity and background familiarity were manipulated. It systematically explored how familiarizing participants to objects and complex backgrounds affects their performance on a mental rotation task involving complex backgrounds. This study had 113 participants recruited through the UCF Psychology SONA system. Participants were familiarized with a stimulus in a task where they were told to...
Show moreThis dissertation investigated the effects of complex backgrounds on mental rotation. Stimulus familiarity and background familiarity were manipulated. It systematically explored how familiarizing participants to objects and complex backgrounds affects their performance on a mental rotation task involving complex backgrounds. This study had 113 participants recruited through the UCF Psychology SONA system. Participants were familiarized with a stimulus in a task where they were told to distinguish the stimulus from 3 other stimuli. A similar procedure was used to familiarize the backgrounds. The research design was a 2 stimulus familiarity (Familiarized with the Target Stimulus, not familiarized with the Target Stimulus) by 2 background familiarity (Familiarized with Target Background, not familiarized with Target Background 1) by 2 stimulus response condition (Target Stimulus, Non-Target Stimulus) by 3 background response condition (Target Background, Non-Target Background, Blank Background) by 12 degree of rotation (0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 300, 330) mixed design. The study utilized target stimulus and target background familiarity conditions as the between-subjects variables. Background, stimulus, and degree of rotation were within-subjects variables. The participants' performance was measured using reaction time and percent of errors. Reaction time was computed using only the correct responses. After the familiarization task, participants engaged in a mental rotation task featuring stimuli and backgrounds that were present or not present in the familiarization task. A 2 (stimulus familiarization condition) by 2 (background familiarization condition) by 2 (stimulus response condition) by 3 (background response condition) by 12 (degree of rotation) mixed ANOVA was computed utilizing reaction time and percent of errors. Results suggest that familiarity with the Target Background had the largest effect on improving performance across response conditions. The results also suggest that familiarity with both the Target Stimulus and Target Background promoted inefficient mental rotation strategies which resulted in no significant differences between participants familiarized with neither the Target Stimulus nor the Target Background. Theoretical conclusions are drawn about stimulus familiarity and background familiarity. Future studies should investigate the effects of long term familiarity practice on mental rotation and complex backgrounds.
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Date Issued
2015
Identifier
CFE0005998, ucf:50789
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005998
Neurophenomenological Methods: Experiences of Earth and Space in Simulation
Title
Neurophenomenological Methods: Experiences of Earth and Space in Simulation.
Creator
Morrow, Patricia, Reinerman, Lauren, Cash, Mason, Janz, Bruce, Gallagher, Shaun, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The present study explores the nature and structure of spiritual and aesthetic experiences through the interdisciplinary application of neurophenomenology (NP). This approach merges aspects of psychology, neurophysiology, and phenomenology into a unified methodology. The study is nested within a larger project, Space, Science, and Spirituality, and as such, it carries a common goal to use simulation to evoke spiritual and aesthetic responses similar to those expressed by astronauts and...
Show moreThe present study explores the nature and structure of spiritual and aesthetic experiences through the interdisciplinary application of neurophenomenology (NP). This approach merges aspects of psychology, neurophysiology, and phenomenology into a unified methodology. The study is nested within a larger project, Space, Science, and Spirituality, and as such, it carries a common goal to use simulation to evoke spiritual and aesthetic responses similar to those expressed by astronauts and cosmonauts. Careful analysis of previous work in NP provided methodological (")lessons learned("), which guided the experimental design, execution, and analysis of the present study. The data collected provides support for experience as a phenomenon that can be studied through empirical means. Further, the articulation of spiritual and aesthetic experiences akin to astronaut experiences corresponds to specific neurological and psychological indicators. Among those indicators are differences in EEG measures during simulation time relative to expressions of spiritual experience following the simulation and changes in visual processing across theta, alpha, and beta signals as correlated with self-identification. These findings support an embodied theory of experience that incorporates memory, executive function, perception, and consciousness. In addition to its academic contribution, this research holds implications for commercial space flight, long-term space missions, post-traumatic stress disorder therapies, and the entertainment industry.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0005035, ucf:50018
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005035
reasoning about frame properties in object-oriented programs
Title
reasoning about frame properties in object-oriented programs.
Creator
Bao, Yuyan, Leavens, Gary, Dechev, Damian, Jha, Sumit Kumar, Cash, Mason, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Framing is important for specification and verification of object-oriented programs.This dissertation develops the local reasoning approach for framing in the presence of data structures with unrestricted sharing and subtyping.It can verify shared data structures specified in a concise way by unifying fine-grained region logic and separation logic. Then the fine-grained region logic is extended to reason about subtyping.First, fine-grained region logic is adapted from region logic to express...
Show moreFraming is important for specification and verification of object-oriented programs.This dissertation develops the local reasoning approach for framing in the presence of data structures with unrestricted sharing and subtyping.It can verify shared data structures specified in a concise way by unifying fine-grained region logic and separation logic. Then the fine-grained region logic is extended to reason about subtyping.First, fine-grained region logic is adapted from region logic to express regions at the granularity of individual fields. Conditional region expressions are introduced; not only does this allow one to specify more precise frame conditions, it also has the ability to express footprints of separation logic assertions.Second, fine-grained region logic is generalized to a new logic called unified fine-grained region logic by allowing the logic to restrict the heap in which a program runs. This feature allows one to express specifications in separation logic.Third, both fine-grained region logic and separation logic can be encoded to unified fine-grained region logic. This result allows the proof system to reason about programs specified in both styles.Finally, fine-grained region logic is extended to reason about a programming language that is similar to Java. To reason about inheritance locally, a frame condition for behavioral subtyping is defined and proved sound.
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Date Issued
2017
Identifier
CFE0007279, ucf:52195
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007279