Magic is the art of producing in the spectator an illusion of impossibility. Although the scienti... more Magic is the art of producing in the spectator an illusion of impossibility. Although the scientific study of magic is in its infancy, the advent of recent tracking algorithms based on deeplearning allow now to quantify the skills of the magician in naturalistic conditions at unprecedented resolution and robustness. In this study, we deconstructed stage magic into purely motor maneuvers and trained an artificial neural network (DeepLabCut) to follow coins as a professional magician made them appear and disappear in a series of tricks. Rather than using AI as a mere tracking tool, we conceived it as an "artificial spectator". When the coins were not visible, the algorithm was trained to infer their location as a human spectator would (i.e. in the left fist). This created situations where the human was fooled while AI (as seen by a human) was not, and vice versa. Magic from the perspective of the machine reveals our own cognitive biases.
Más de diez años de blogorientación educativa Los blogs son, desde hace algo más de diez años, lo... more Más de diez años de blogorientación educativa Los blogs son, desde hace algo más de diez años, los espacios de publicación y difusión más habituales para profesionales de la orientación educativa. Repasamos en esta entrada colaborativa la contribución de los blogs a la orientación educativa en red a partir de la visión de uno de los pioneros, Daniel Veiga, y de los últimos tres ganadores del Premio OrienTapas en la categoría de mejor blog de orientación, Miguel Ángel Valverde, Claudio Castilla y mónica Diz.
How episodic memories decay is an unresolved question in cognitive neuroscience. The role of shor... more How episodic memories decay is an unresolved question in cognitive neuroscience. The role of short-term mechanisms regarding the decay of episodic memories is circumscribed to set the maximum recall from which a monotonic decay occurs. However, this sequential view from the short to the long-term is not compulsory, as short-term dependent memory gains (like recency effects when memorizing a list of elements; serial-position effects) may not be translated into long-term memory differences. Moreover, producing memorable events in the laboratory faces important challenges, such as recreating realistic conditions with elevated recall, or avoiding spontaneous retrievals during memory retention (sociocultural hooks). The current study proposes the use of magic to enhance the study of memory. We designed a sequence of magic tricks performed live on stage to evaluate the interaction between memory decay and serial-position effects of those tricks. The audience was asked to freely recall the tricks at four different timepoints: just after the show, 10 days, 1.5 months and 4.5 months. We discovered serial-position differences after the show that were no longer present later on, suggesting that shortterm memory gains do not translate into the long-term. Illustrating the power of naturalistic stimuli to study longterm memory while interrogating the interaction between short-term and long-term mechanisms, this work is, to our knowledge, the first scientific study of the memorability of magic tricks.
Magic is the art of producing in the spectator an illusion of impossibility. Although the scienti... more Magic is the art of producing in the spectator an illusion of impossibility. Although the scientific study of magic is in its infancy, the advent of recent tracking algorithms based on deeplearning allow now to quantify the skills of the magician in naturalistic conditions at unprecedented resolution and robustness. In this study, we deconstructed stage magic into purely motor maneuvers and trained an artificial neural network (DeepLabCut) to follow coins as a professional magician made them appear and disappear in a series of tricks. Rather than using AI as a mere tracking tool, we conceived it as an "artificial spectator". When the coins were not visible, the algorithm was trained to infer their location as a human spectator would (i.e. in the left fist). This created situations where the human was fooled while AI (as seen by a human) was not, and vice versa. Magic from the perspective of the machine reveals our own cognitive biases.
This study aims to identify the educational methodology used in the European Space of Higher Edu... more This study aims to identify the educational methodology used in the European Space of Higher Education (ESHE). 207 Erasmus students, from different countries and fields of study, assessed, via an on-line questionnaire, the frequency of use of different Organizational and Teaching methods, Evaluation strategies and IT. The answers showed a significant variety and a first analysis revealed that no unique teaching methodology existed in the ESHE, typical of Bologna (Tuning Project). A more detailed analysis showed that this methodology appears to be focused on theory (e.g., Presentation method), followed by Practice (e.g., Seminars and Practical’s), rather than on Projects (e.g., Group and autonomous studies, Project-based learning), which would appears to indicate a lack of consolidation of the intended paradigm from teaching to learning.
Computer aided learning environments is one of the main interests for computer scientists. Ambien... more Computer aided learning environments is one of the main interests for computer scientists. Ambient Intelligence represents a novel and promising paradigm to be applied to blended-learning systems. These systems handle very dynamic contextual information that can be used in task scheduling to increase the benefits of proactiveness and context-aware characteristics. This paper proposes the use of the calendar metaphor to solve the scheduling of contextualised tasks in b-learning systems. In particular, the proposal is centred on building of calendars on the basis of multi-view interfaces. The aim is to provide direct and more suitable access to structured contextual information according to specific requirements. The proposal is applied to a particular b-learning case study.
So far, the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigm has been applied to the development of a great va... more So far, the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigm has been applied to the development of a great variety of real systems. They use advanced technologies such as ubiquitous computing, natural interaction and active spaces, which become part of social environments. In the design of AmI systems, the inherent collaboration among users (with the purpose of achieving common goals) is usually represented and treated in an ad-hoc manner. However, the development of this kind of systems can take advantage of rich design models which embrace concepts in the domain of collaborative systems in order to provide the adequate support for explicit or implicit collaboration. Thereby, relevant requirements to be satisfied, such as an effective coordination of human activities by means of task scheduling, demand to dynamically manage and provide group- and context-awareness information. This paper addresses the integration of both proactive and collaborative aspects into a unique design model for the de...
Transmedia Storytelling for Social Integration of Children with Cognitive Disabilities
Smart Education and e-Learning 2016, 2016
This paper proposes the use of transmedia storytelling techniques to stimulate the day living of ... more This paper proposes the use of transmedia storytelling techniques to stimulate the day living of children with cognitive disabilities in the context of their social integration on future Smart Cities. By using virtual immersive world we focus on authoring stories and contents by these children to stimulate their abilities, and therefore, the exploration of their skills on a transmedia environment for therapeutically and employment purposes.
Active learning communities: towards open learning at universities
Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are a modality of e-learning that have created social disrupt... more Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are a modality of e-learning that have created social disruption and a considerable debate about its effectiveness in terms of learning, sustainability, and the role played by universities. We present AbiertaUGR a MOOC experience carried out at the University of Granada oriented towards the use of stable and dynamic learning communities which allow the consolidation of the offer made by universities with social vocation oriented to lifelong learning.
Признание традиционными университетами результатов открытого обучения (Open Learning Recognition in Traditional Universities)
International Journal of Lifelong Education
The paper explores the implementation of open learning in the European university system. The con... more The paper explores the implementation of open learning in the European university system. The concept of open learning is based on the use of open educational resources (OER), such as open educational programs and open online courses. The authors demonstrate the following ad- vantages of open educational resources: education cost savings, an ability to continuously improve the educational content, accessibility and efficiency of education, changes in traditional educational practice. The examples of international cooperation on the development and promotion of OER are provided. Specifically, the results of the project «OERtest – Testing an Open Education Resource Framework for Europe» coordinated by the University of Granada are presented in the article. The emphasis is placed on the development of tools for the assessment and certification of learning out- comes achieved through the use of open educational resources. Particularly, eight different scenari- os of OER-based learning r...
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Papers by Miguel Gea