Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
as true. Visual input induces the construction of
new information that can enhance our knowledge
base. Learning this way depends largely on one's
perceptual skills that are involved in producing
more effective responses to stimuli. Conceptual
structures include also our beliefs that we accept
as true, and imaginative activities leading to the
construction of new conceptual structures that
may not match actuality but instead shape the
real world the way we want. Imagination adds to
what makes life meaningful; it is also a necessary
part of scientific thinking. Intelligence is creative
and self-creative within our inner realities, in a
process of self-actualization.
Computer programs can be used for creating
shapes and space as visual equivalents of quan-
titative descriptions, giving perceptual form to
thoughts, and providing visual knowledge. They
are used to control the relation of shapes to im-
ages at an abstract level. Visual thinking applied
to practice serves as an information tool. Even
bank reports are often shown as pictures, some-
times as an artwork. For example, Yasuhiko Saito
(Ursyn & Banissi, 2003) applied visualization
technique for analyzing financial data as a tool
for generating artistic images. He produced art
works by defining portfolio textures to gracefully
visualize dry financial data. The time-based data
about Japanese automobile companies contained
warm (red, orange and yellow dots) or cold (green
and blue dots) textures depending on the tide in
the Japanese stock market. In effect, portfolio
textures generated from stock price data of about
2,500 Japanese companies looked like a tapestry
or an abstract painting.
intelligence science to examine human internal
information processing systems along with their
engineering implementations in computing
and distributed collaborative work. It has been
defined as the science of cognitive information
that investigates into the internal information
processing mechanisms and processes of the
brain, natural intelligence, and their engineer-
ing applications in computing via an interdis-
ciplinary approach (Wang, 2011). Cognitive
informatics specialists search for the potential
applications of information processing and natu-
ral intelligence to cognitive computing. Another
goal is to extend, through the use of technology,
information management capacity and reduce
limitations in attention, memory, learning,
comprehension, visualization abilities, and
decision-making (Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory, 2008). As a part of cognitive infor-
matics, affective computing studies interactions
between animals, humans, and computational
agents from the psychological, cognitive, and
neuroscientific perspective (Gökçay & Yildrim,
2011). Goal-directed behavior, survival, and
adaptation involve conscious and unconscious
emotional processes. Agents in affective control
mechanisms influence performance, both in
basic tasks and social encounters. Research-
ers examine computational nature of affective
states. At a psychological level, emotions
combine into three components: physical sen-
sation, emotional expression, and subjective
experience; however their coordinated cortical
and sub-cortical neural mechanisms originate
from disparate anatomical structures and thus
they cannot be ascribed to specific anatomical
structures (Erdem & Karaismailoglu, 2011).
We can perceive nonverbal communication by
facial expressions, vocalizations, gestures, and
postures as a channel for inner life of others.
Nonverbal communication can be used as a
viable interface between computers and social
emotions or attitudes (Vinciarelli, 2011).
COGNITIVE INFORMATICS
Cognitive informatics is an interdisciplinary
field encompassing natural systems such as
living organisms, and natural sciences such as
cognitive science, neural science, psychology,
computer science, information sciences, and
