A pilot study of cooperative programming learning behavior and its relationship with students' learning performance

In this study we proposed a web-based programming assisted system for cooperation (WPASC) and we also designed one learning activity for facilitating students' cooperative programming learning. The aim of this study was to investigate cooperative programming learning behavior of students and its relationship with learning performance. Students' opinions and perceptions toward learning activity and the WPASC were also investigated. The results of this study revealed that most of students perceived that learning activity and the WPASC were useful for cooperative programming learning. Students' learning behavior during cooperative programming learning activity was classified into six different categories and we found that learning behavior has relationship with learning performance. Students from completely independent, self-improving using assistance, confident after enlightenment and imitating categories performed well due to their effective and motivated learning behavior. However, students from performing poorly without assistance and plagiarizing categories performed the worse; the former could not get assistance at all and the later had no learning motivation. The results also showed that students' learning behavior may have increasing, decreasing and no transition during problems solving. Therefore, performing poorly without assistance and plagiarizing learning behavior and decreasing transition or no transition in learning behavior should be identified right after completing a programming problem. Then the instructor should intervene into learning behavior in order to change it into more effective for learning. Besides, more incentives need to be given for increasing students' learning motivation and posting solutions and feedback by students at the early stage of a problem solving period.     

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In recent years, edge computing has emerged as a popular mechanism to deliver dynamic Web content to clients. However, many existing edge cache networks have not been able to harness the full potential of edge computing technology. In this paper, we argue and experimentally demonstrate that cooperation among the individual edge caches coupled with scalable server-driven document consistency mechanisms can significantly enhance the capabilities and performance of edge cache networks in delivering fresh dynamic content. However, designing large-scale cooperative edge cache networks presents many research challenges. Toward addressing these challenges, this paper presents cooperative edge cache grid (cooperative EC grid, for short) - a large-scale cooperative edge cache network for efficiently delivering highly dynamic Web content with varying server update frequencies. The design of the cooperative EC grid focuses on the scalability and reliability of dynamic content delivery in addition to cache hit rates, and it incorporates several novel features. We introduce the concept of cache clouds as a generic framework of cooperation in large-scale edge cache networks. The architectural design of the cache clouds includes dynamic hashing-based document lookup and update protocols, which dynamically balance lookup and update loads among the caches in the cloud. We also present cooperative techniques for making the document lookup and update protocols resilient to the failures of individual caches. This paper reports a series of simulation-based experiments which show that the overheads of cooperation in the cooperative EC grid are very low, and our architecture and techniques enhance the performance of the cooperative edge networks     

Cooperation without deliberation: A minimal behavior-based approach to multi-robot teams

While terminology and some concepts of behavior-based robotics have become widespread, the central ideas are often lost as researchers try to scale behavior to higher levels of complexity. “Hybrid systems” with model-based strategies that plan in terms of behaviors rather than simple actions have become common for higher-level behavior. We claim that a strict behavior-based approach can scale to higher levels of complexity than many robotics researchers assume, and that the resulting systems are in many cases more efficient and robust than those that rely on “classical AI” deliberative approaches. Our focus is on systems of cooperative autonomous robots in dynamic environments. We will discuss both claims that deliberation and explicit communication are necessary to cooperation and systems that cooperate only through environmental interaction. In this context we introduce three design principles for complex cooperative behavior—minimalism, statelessness and tolerance—and present a RoboCup soccer system that matches the sophistication of many deliberative soccer systems while exceeding their robustness, through the use of strict behavior-based techniques with no explicit communication.     

时间尺度与选择倾向性协同作用下的演化博弈模型

针对合作行为的涌现与维持问题，基于演化博弈理论和网络理论，提出了一种促进合作的演化博弈模型。该模型同时将时间尺度、选择倾向性引入到演化博弈中。在初始化阶段，根据持有策略的时间尺度将个体分为两种类型：一种个体在每个时间步都进行策略更新；另一种个体在每一轮博弈后，以某种概率来决定是否进行策略更新。在策略更新阶段，模型用个体对周围邻居的贡献来表征他的声誉，并假设参与博弈的个体倾向于学习具有较好声誉邻居的策略。仿真实验结果表明，所提出的时间尺度与选择倾向性协同作用下的演化博弈模型中，合作行为能够在群体中维持；惰性个体的存在不利于合作的涌现，但是个体的非理性行为反而能够促进合作。     

Local communication of multiple mobile robots: design of group behavior for efficient communication

A novel design method of robot behavior is discussed to realize efficient local communication for cooperation of multiple mobile robots. Local communication is now increasingly utilized in cooperative many-robot systems because of its advantages of load distribution and simple implementation. In its usage, the design of each robot's behavior is a very important issue since it has a significant effect upon the communication efficiency in a collective manner. In this study, we introduce a simple group behavior and analyze how it improves the performance of local communication among many mobile robots. The performance is evaluated using the information transmission time that plays a crucial part in effective cooperation. Next, the optimal group size is analytically derived by minimizing the transmission time. The effectiveness of the analytical design method is verified by computer simulations of many-robot communication.     

Cooperative verifier-based testing with CoVeriTest

Testing is a widely applied technique to evaluate software quality, and coverage criteria are often used to assess the adequacy of a generated test suite. However, manually constructing an adequate test suite is typically too expensive, and numerous techniques for automatic test-suite generation were proposed. All of them come with different strengths. To build stronger test-generation tools, different techniques should be combined. In this paper, we study cooperative combinations of verification approaches for test generation, which exchange high-level information. We present CoVeriTest, a hybrid technique for test-suite generation. CoVeriTest iteratively applies different conditional model checkers and allows users to adjust the level of cooperation and to configure individual time limits for each conditional model checker. In our experiments, we systematically study different CoVeriTest cooperation setups, which either use combinations of explicit-state model checking and predicate abstraction, or bounded model checking and symbolic execution. A comparison with state-of-the-art test-generation tools reveals that CoVeriTest achieves higher coverage for many programs (about 15%).

     

基于囚徒困境策略的改进HK网络上的合作博弈

为模拟现实世界的合作行为,本文在HK网络模型基础上提出了一种具有高聚类幂律可调性质的新的网络模型,并分析了囚徒困境博弈在此网络上的演化。通过仿真实验,研究了该网络的高聚类特性对合作行为的影响。大量实验表明,网络的高聚类特性可以极大促进合作现象的涌现。同时研究也发现,随着诱惑参数的变大,合作水平也会随之下降,但幅度不大。总之,该演化博弈模型可以促进合作现象的涌现并抵御背叛策略的传播。     

Joining the blunt and the pointy end of the spear: towards a common framework of joint action,human–machine cooperation,cooperative guidance and control,shared, traded and supervisory control

To introduce this special issue of shared and cooperative control, we will look into history of tools in cooperation between humans and aim to unify the plethora of related concepts and definitions that have been proposed in recent years, such as shared control, human–machine cooperation and cooperative guidance and control. Concretely, we provide definitions to relate these concepts and sketch a unifying framework of shared and cooperative control that sees the different concepts as different perspectives or foci on a common design space of shared intentionality, control and cooperation between humans and machines. One working hypothesis which the article explores is that shared control can be understood as cooperation at the control layer, while human–machine cooperation can include shared control, but can also extend towards cooperation at higher layers, e.g., of guidance and navigation, of maneuvers and goals. The relationship between shared control and human–machine cooperation is compared to the relationship between the sharp, pointy tip and the (blunt) shaft of a spear. Shared control is where cooperation comes sharply into effect at the control layer, but to be truly effective it should be supported by cooperation on all layers beyond the operational layer, e.g., on the tactical and strategic layer. A fourth layer addresses the meta-communication about the cooperation and supports the other three layers in a traversal way.

     

Cooperative Mobile Robotics: Antecedents and Directions

There has been increased research interest in systems composed of multiple autonomous mobile robots exhibiting cooperative behavior. Groups of mobile robots are constructed, with an aim to studying such issues as group architecture, resource conflict, origin of cooperation, learning, and geometric problems. As yet, few applications of cooperative robotics have been reported, and supporting theory is still in its formative stages. In this paper, we give a critical survey of existing works and discuss open problems in this field, emphasizing the various theoretical issues that arise in the study of cooperative robotics. We describe the intellectual heritages that have guided early research, as well as possible additions to the set of existing motivations.     

多平台海上协同搜索与路径优化策略研究

针对传统海上搜索研究中搜索平台与行为单一、缺乏协同的问题,建立多平台海上协同搜索路径优化模型,研究协同搜索与路径优化对策.在协同搜索策略方面,给出同构协同与异构协同搜索策略的定义,并设计不同规模的协同仿真场景;在路径优化策略方面,根据海上搜索平台的搜索特点,设计基于行为和基于智能算法的路径优化策略.在此基础上,对比研究不同规模的海上协同搜索策略与路径优化策略效果.结果表明:基于混合智能算法的路径优化效果普遍优于基于行为的搜索策略与单一算法,异构协同搜索策略能够充分发挥各平台优势、取长补短,取得了优于单平台和同构协同搜索的收益效果.     

An evidential cooperative multi-agent system

The cooperative learning systems (COLS) are an interesting way of research in Artificial Intelligence. This is because an intelligence form can emerge by interacting simple agents in these systems. In literature, we can find many learning techniques, which can be improved by combining them to a cooperative learning, this one can be considered as a special case of bagging. In particular, learning classifier systems (LCS) are adapted to cooperative learning systems because LCS manipulate rules and, hence, knowledge exchange between agents is facilitated. However, a COLS has to use a combination mechanism in order to aggregate information exchanged between agents, this combination mechanism must take in consideration the nature of information manipulated by the agents. In this paper we investigate a cooperative learning system based on the Evidential Classifier System, the cooperative system uses Dempster–Shafer theory as a support to make data fusion. This is due to the fact that the Evidential Classifier System is itself based on this theory. We present some ways to make cooperation by using this architecture and discuss the characteristics of such architecture by comparing the obtained results with those obtained by an individual approach.     

Cooperative clustering

Data clustering plays an important role in many disciplines, including data mining, machine learning, bioinformatics, pattern recognition, and other fields, where there is a need to learn the inherent grouping structure of data in an unsupervised manner. There are many clustering approaches proposed in the literature with different quality/complexity tradeoffs. Each clustering algorithm works on its domain space with no optimum solution for all datasets of different properties, sizes, structures, and distributions. In this paper, a novel cooperative clustering (CC) model is presented. It involves cooperation among multiple clustering techniques for the goal of increasing the homogeneity of objects within the clusters. The CC model is capable of handling datasets with different properties by developing two data structures, a histogram representation of the pair-wise similarities and a cooperative contingency graph. The two data structures are designed to find the matching sub-clusters between different clusterings and to obtain the final set of clusters through a coherent merging process. The cooperative model is consistent and scalable in terms of the number of adopted clustering approaches. Experimental results show that the cooperative clustering model outperforms the individual clustering algorithms over a number of gene expression and text documents datasets.     

移动自组网中一种优化的局部声誉系统

移动自组网节点间的通信由多个节点相互协作来共同完成,节点合作与否是实现通信的关键。在缺少预先约定的信任关系时,合作性的安全机制是解决网络内部恶意节点和自私性节点不合作行为的有效方法。提出了一种优化的局部声誉值合作性方案,该方案只在k跳邻居内交换声誉值,系统开销小,并能充分学习邻居的经验。采用二进制指数后退算法对不合作节点进行处置,能有效激励节点的合作性,提高网络的性能。     

Supporting cooperation in the SPADE-1 environment

Software development is a cooperative activity that relies heavily on the quality and effectiveness of the communication channels established within the development team and with the end-user. Process-centered software engineering environments (PSEEs) support the definition and the execution of various phases of the software process. This is achieved by explicitly defining cooperation procedures, and by supporting synchronization and data sharing among its users. PSEE and CSCW technologies have been developed rather independently from each other, leading to a large amount of research results, tools and environments, and practical experiences. We have reached a stage in technology development where it is necessary to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the research efforts carried out so far. Moreover, it is important to understand how to integrate and exploit the results of these different efforts. The goal of the paper is to understand which kind of basic functionalities PSEEs can and should offer, and how these environments can be integrated with other tools to effectively support cooperation in software development. In particular, the paper introduces a process model we have built to support a cooperative activity related to anomaly management in an industrial software factory. The core of the paper presents and discusses the experiences and results that we have derived from this modeling activity, and how they related to the general problem of supporting cooperation in software development. The project was carried out using the SPADE (Software Process Analysis, Design and Enactment) PSEE and the ImagineDesk CSCW toolkit     

Twinkling lights and nested loops: distributed problem solving and spreadsheet development

In contrast to the common view of spreadsheets as “single-user” programs, we have found that spreadsheets offer surprisingly strong support for cooperative development of a wide variety of applications. Ethnographic interviews with spreadsheet users showed that nearly all of the spreadsheets used in the work environments studied were the result of collaborative work by people with different levels of programming and domain expertise. We describe how spreadsheet users cooperate in developing, debugging and using spreadsheets. We examine the properties of spreadsheet software that enable cooperation, arguing that: (1) the division of the spreadsheet into two distinct programming layers permits effective distribution of computational tasks across users with different levels of programming skill; and (2) the spreadsheet's strong visual format for structuring and presenting data supports sharing of domain knowledge among co-workers.     

Does it matter with whom you slay? The effects of competition,cooperation and relationship type among video game players

Cooperation and competition have emerged as factors that may affect video game players. Competition consistently has been found to elicit increased aggression whilst cooperation has been found to mitigate aggression and increase cooperative behaviors after game play. Of interest is the effect of the relationship between players (friend vs. stranger) in cooperative and competitive multiplayer contexts. In this study, we considered how game goal structure – competition or cooperation – and relationships between players – friend or stranger – affect aggression and cooperative behaviors. Compared with competition, cooperative play resulted in significantly more cooperative behaviors in a modified Prisoner’s Dilemma task. However, neither competitive nor cooperative goal structures significantly increased state hostility, suggesting that altering players’ gaming goals (e.g. competition or cooperation) may not be enough to elicit strong affective aggression. Additionally, cooperative game play was found to predict increased cooperative behaviors and trust in their partner. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Modelling social norms in multiagent systems

Social norms are cultural phenomena that naturally emerge in human societies and help to prescribe and proscribe normative patterns of behaviour. In recent times, the discipline of multi-agent systems has been used to model social norms in an artificial society of agents. In this paper we review norms in multi-agent systems and then explore a series of norms in a simulated urban traffic setting. Using game-theoretic concepts we define and offer an account of norm stability. Particularly in small groups, a relatively small number of individuals with cooperative attitude are needed for the norm of cooperation to evolve and be stable. In contrast, in larger populations, a larger proportion of cooperating individuals are required to achieve stability.     

The emergence of cooperation in the random asynchronous prisoner’s dilemma

The iterated prisoners dilemma (IPD) is a simple model for the study of the emergence of cooperative behavior in populations of selfish individuals. In this work, we challenge the assumption that players move in synchrony, and develop a general Markovian model that allows the study of a wide spectrum of scenarios. Simulations show that the relative timing of player moves, and the reward for mutual cooperation, influences the strategy that eventually dominates the final population. For a synchronous environment, reciprocal behavior appears to be the key to the evolution of cooperation, while in an asynchronous environment, guarded generosity may be a route to the evolution of cooperation.     

Evolution of cooperative behavior among heterogeneous agents with different strategy representations in an iterated prisoner’s dilemma game

The iterated prisoner’s dilemma (IPD) game has frequently been used to examine the evolution of cooperative behavior among agents. When the effect of representation schemes of IPD game strategies was examined, the same representation scheme was usually assigned to all agents. That is, in the literature, a population of homogeneous agents was usually used in computational experiments. In this article, we focus on a slightly different situation where every agent does not necessarily use the same representation scheme. That is, a population can be a mixture of heterogeneous agents with different representation schemes. In computational experiments, we used binary strings of different lengths (i.e., three-bit and five-bit strings) to represent IPD game strategies. We examined the evolution of cooperative behavior among heterogeneous agents in comparison with the case of homogeneous ones for the standard IPD game with typical payoff values of 0, 1, 3, and 5. Experimental results showed that the evolution of cooperative behavior was slowed down by the use of heterogeneous agents. It was also demonstrated that a faster evolution of cooperative behavior is achieved among majority agents than among minority ones in a heterogeneous population.     

Endowment heterogeneity and identifiability in the information-exchange dilemma

In a laboratory experiment providing an information-exchange dilemma we obtained evidence that people in an asymmetric dilemma situation apply a general cooperation norm as well as a norm of proportionality. The results showed that for privileged people the significance of the norm of proportionality is reduced. This egocentric bias allows them to justify that their privilege does not obligate them to contribute more than others. However, this bias is not strong enough to totally invalidate the norm of proportionality. Even with this bias privileged people contributed more than unprivileged. In addition, we found people to be more cooperative if their behavior in the information exchange is identifiable, whereas identifiability does not influence people’s general cooperation norm nor their fairness concept.