Assessing the local identifiability of probabilistic knowledge structures

A crucial problem in knowledge space theory, a modern psy chological test theory, is the derivation of a realistic knowledge structure representing the organization of knowledge in an information domain and examinee population under reference. Often, one is left with the problem of selecting among candidate competing knowledge structures. This article proposes a measure for the selection among competing knowledge structures. It is derived within an operational framework (prediction paradigm), and is partly based on the unitary method of proportional reduction in predictive error as advocated by the authors Guttman, Goodman, and Kruskal. In particular, this measure is designed to trade off the (descriptive) fit and size of a knowledge structure, which is of high interest in knowledge space theory. The proposed approach is compared with the Correlational Agreement Coef ficient, which has been recently discussed for the selection among competing surmise relations. Their performances as selection measures are compared in a simulation study using the fundamental basic local independence model in knowledge space theory

BLIM’s identifiability and parameter invariance under backward and forward transformations

In recent years a number of articles have focused on the identifiability of the basic local independence model. The identifiability issue usually concerns two model parameter sets predicting an identical probability distribution on the response patterns. Both parameter sets are applied to the same knowledge structure. However, nothing is known about cases where different knowledge structures predict the same probability distribution. This situation is referred to as 'empirical indistinguishability' between two structures and is the main subject of the present paper. Empirical indistinguishability is a stronger form of unidentifiability, which involves not only the parameters, but also the structural and combinatorial properties of the model. In particular, as far as knowledge structures are concerned, a consequence of empirical indistinguishability is that the existence of certain knowledge states cannot be empirically established. Most importantly, it is shown that model identifiability cannot guarantee that a certain knowledge structure is empirically distinguishable from others. The theoretical findings are exemplified in a number of different empirical scenarios.

In the Basic Local Independence Model (BLIM) of Doignon and Falmagne (Knowledge Spaces, Springer, Berlin, 1999), the probabilistic relationship between the latent knowledge states and the observable response patterns is established by the introduction of a pair of parameters for each of the problems: a lucky guess probability and a careless error probability. In estimating the parameters of the BLIM with an empirical data set, it is desirable that such probabilities remain reasonably small. A special case of the BLIM is proposed where the parameter space of such probabilities is constrained. A simulation study shows that the constrained BLIM is more effective than the unconstrained one, in recovering a probabilistic knowledge structure.

Knowledge space theory is a theory that provides a guidelines for human learners` possible education decisions and has been used in various educational environment. However, traditional methodologies using the knowledge space theory have always depended on handwork system and it is necessary to learn programming language such as Visual Basic and R, causing time consuming situations. In order to overcome those issues on the environment of education we propose a new Knowledge Structure Analysis System that not just analyzes learners` knowledge structures automatically but to provide critical learning path for the learners based on knowledge space theory. Proposed system is implemented by using rApache generating critical learning path computing Chi-square value. This provides an automatic way of analyzing knowledge structure in learners` knowledge space and shows systematic reviews for the knowledge space.

The present work explores the connections between cognitive diagnostic models (CDM) and knowledge space theory (KST) and shows that these two quite distinct approaches overlap. It is proved that in fact the Multiple Strategy DINA (Deterministic Input Noisy AND-gate) model and the CBLIM, a competence-based extension of the basic local independence model (BLIM), are equivalent. To demonstrate the benefits that arise from integrating the two theoretical perspectives, it is shown that a fairly complete picture on the identifiability of these models emerges by combining results from both camps. The impact of the results is illustrated by an empirical example, and topics for further research are pointed out.

There have been a great many of macro studies on the smart class teaching, but insufficient qualitative and quantitative researches on the media application and the teaching structure of the smart class at the micro level. Based on the research framework of classroom-based video analysis, this paper attempts to make a micro level empirical study on the relationship among the teaching behavior, the media application and the teacher's knowledge structure in the smart class by the scientific method of quantitative. On the case analysis of this framework, it will be put forward on a possible path to the deep integration of the media application and the teacher's knowledge structure in the smart class.

Statistics and machine learning algorithms increasingly have to be able to handle complex data, involving higher-level descriptors (features) of the characteristics of an object or system. Such descriptors are usually inspired by knowledge of the intrinsic structure of the object, e.g. a covariance matrix modeling variability and correlation between pixels in an image, or by physical understanding of the system, such as a probability distribution of a flow characteristic in a turbulent flow. In such cases, each data point does not simply represent a set of numbers (coordinates in a vector space), but has substructure of its own, representing more complex notions like a matrix, a probability distribution, a function, a shape, etc. In this talk, I will discuss several applications from the field of nuclear fusion plasma physics, wherein we characterize fluctuation and measurement uncertainty by probability distributions. We employ a metric on the Riemannian space of Gaussian probability distributions to discriminate between various types of plasma instabilities and classify them. Furthermore, we describe a new, very robust regression technique, called geodesic least squares regression, for estimating relations between plasma quantities that are affected by a considerable amount of fluctuation or measurement uncertainty.

Objective Integrate the evaluation indexes of clinical competence of master of nursing specialist. Methods Search the Cochrane Library, Joana Briggs Institute Library, Embase, Web of Science, PubMed, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang database, from the establishment of the database to December 10th,2018, and to collect researches about master of nursing specialist clinical competence evaluation index and then analyzed by content analysis method and thematic analysis. Results A total of 9 articles were included, 26 items and 9 categories including comprehensive practical ability, professional development ability, teaching guidance ability, clinical scientific research ability, organization and management ability, professional accomplishment, professional values, professional knowledge level, relevant knowledge level were selected. 3 dimensions including skill structure, attitude structure and knowledge structure. Conclusion Evaluating the clinical competence of master of nursing specialist we should not only consider their comprehensive practical ability, but pay attention to their professional development, teaching and scientific research, organization and management, professional accomplishment, knowledge and professional values assessment. Key words: Master of nursing specialist; Clinical competence; Evaluation index

One of the major aims of knowledge management has always been to facilitate the sharing and reuse of knowledge. Over the years a long list of technologies and tools pursuing this aim have been proposed, using different types of conceptual structures to capture the knowledge that individuals and groups communicate and exchange. This chapter is concerned with these knowledge structures and their development, maintenance and use within corporate environments. Enterprise knowledge management as we know it today often follows a predominantly community-driven approach to meet its organizational and technical challenges. It builds upon the power of mass collaboration and social software combined with intelligent machine-driven information management technology delivered though formal semantics. The knowledge structures underlying contemporary enterprise knowledge management platforms are diverse, from database tables deployed company-wide to files in proprietary formats used by scripts, from loosely defined folksonomies describing content through tags to highly formalized ontologies through which new enterprise knowledge can be automatically derived. Leveraging such structures requires a knowledge management environment which not only exposes them in an integrated fashion, but also allows knowledge workers to adjust and customize them according to their specific needs. We discuss how the Semantic MediaWiki provides such an environment – not only as an easy-to-use, highly versatile communication and collaboration medium, but also as an integration and knowledge engineering tool targeting the full range of enterprise knowledge structures currently used.

This essay assesses the value of social constructivist theories of science to the history of medicine. It highlights particularly the ways in which feminist theorists have turned their attention to gender as a category of analysis in scientific thinking, producing an approach to modern science that asks how it became identified with objectivity, reason, and mind, set in opposition to subjectivity, feeling, and nature. In the history of medicine this new work has allowed a group of scholars to better explain not only how women were marginalized in the profession but also the manner in which politics, male anxiety about shifts in power relations between the sexes, social and political upheaval, professional concerns, and changes in the family all had an impact on the production of knowledge regarding the female body, including the discovery, definition, and treatment of a wide range of female ailments, from anorexia nervosa to fibroid tumors. Building on the work in the history of medicine already accomplished, the essay offers a critical rereading of the writings of Elizabeth Blackwell, a pioneer nineteenth-century woman physician and leader of the woman's medical movement. It contends that Blackwell, who lived through a revolutionary change in medical thinking brought on by discoveries in immunology and bacteriology, remained critical of as the best form of knowing and suspicious of the laboratory medicine that promoted it so enthusiastically. Moreover, her critiques of radical objectivity and scientific reductionism deserve to be recognized as foreshadowing the maternalist strain of thinking among contemporary feminist philosophers and thinkers such as Sara Ruddick and others. In the last thirty years, ever since Thomas Kuhn demonstrated that culture has historically influenced the pursuit of science and helped shape which scientific paradigms eventually prevail, the image of scientific knowledge as neutral, value-free, and privileged has become slightly tarnished. Indeed, post-Kuhnian debates within a variety of disciplines have only added to suspicions that the structures of knowledge that have informed and dominated Western culture since the Enlightenment are less authoritative than they originally seemed. Busy philosophers from many different perspectives are rejecting the foundationalism that has guided the post-Enlightenment search for truth, itself premised on * The author wishes to thank George Sanchez, Ann Lombard, Mario Biagoli, Emily Abel, Anita Clair Fellman, Margaret Finnegan, Barbara Bair, Gerald Grob, and especially Louise Newman, who rendered helpful critical readings of this essay. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.128 on Mon, 18 Jul 2016 05:53:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 52 REGINA MORANTZ-SANCHEZ the belief that thoughtful and reasonable people can, indeed, explain the world as it actually exists. Instead, they prefer versions of William James's argument that What we say about reality . . . depends on the perspective in which we

A serial reaction time task was used to test whether the representations of a probabilistic second-order sequence structure are (i) stored in an effector-dependent, effector-independent intrinsic or effector-independent visuospatial code and (ii) are inter-manually accessible. Participants were trained either with the dominant or non-dominant hand. Tests were performed with both hands in the practice sequence, a random sequence, and a mirror sequence. Learning did not differ significantly between left and right-hand practice, suggesting symmetric intermanual transfer from the dominant to the non-dominant hand and vice versa. In the posttest, RTs were shorter for the practice sequence than for the random sequence, and longest for the mirror sequence. Participants were unable to freely generate or recognize the practice sequence, indicating implicit knowledge of the probabilistic sequence structure. Because sequence-specific learning did not differ significantly between hands, we conclude that representations of the probabilistic sequence structure are stored in an effector-independent visuospatial code.

Jean-Claude Flamagne's publications

Learning, forgetting, and the correlation of knowledge in knowledge space theory

Scientific research is a special kind of activity, aimed at understanding the world and exploring the law of things. Therefore, researchers can’t do a fruitful job without certain prerequisites: either objective or subjective. The basic objective prerequisite is that researchers must be free both physically and mentally; the subjective prerequisite is that researchers must have the spirit to doubt, the interest in research, wonderful ability to think abstractly and a knowledge structure in T shape.