Modeling human knowledge and behavior with complex networks

• Grant number: 13/06717-4
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics
• Principal Investigator: Luciano da Fontoura Costa
• Grantee: Diego Raphael Amancio
• Home Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this project, we aim at creating a generic system to represent several aspects of human knowledge and behavior, which includes the mechanisms behind knowledge acquisition and thinking through the analysis of relationship between semantic concepts. Upon modeling these relationships with semantic networks, we shall create a model simulating the cognitive activity in the brain using preferential random walks in order to understand how ideas are processed and organized in the cognitive brain layer. Through the study of real dialogues we propose a detailed investigation of parameters that would yield a consensus between emitter and receptor, characterized by a high similarity of active concepts in both communicative agents. The learning process will be studied by investigating how the model behaves when excited with words obtained by reading simulations. As such, in addition to investigating the properties of the dynamical system we believe that the analysis of activation patterns will provide insights regarding the amount of innovative information available in written documents. Because the model proposed is generic we speculate it can be applied to other complex systems since the absence of inhibitory connections makes it potentially useful to shed light into the problem of diffusion phenomena in neuronal and social networks.

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

AMANCIO, DIEGO R.; OLIVEIRA, JR., OSVALDO N.; COSTA, L. DA F. Robustness of community structure to node removal. JOURNAL OF STATISTICAL MECHANICS-THEORY AND EXPERIMENT, MAR 2015. Web of Science Citations: 4.

AMANCIO, DIEGO R.; OLIVEIRA, JR., OSVALDO N.; COSTA, LUCIANO DA F. Topological-collaborative approach for disambiguating authors' names in collaborative networks. SCIENTOMETRICS, v. 102, n. 1, p. 465-485, JAN 2015. Web of Science Citations: 6.

AMANCIO, DIEGO RAPHAEL; COMIN, CESAR HENRIQUE; CASANOVA, DALCIMAR; TRAVIESO, GONZALO; BRUNO, ODEMIR MARTINEZ; RODRIGUES, FRANCISCO APARECIDO; COSTA, LUCIANO DA FONTOURA. A Systematic Comparison of Supervised Classifiers. PLoS One, v. 9, n. 4 APR 24 2014. Web of Science Citations: 67.

PERON, T. K. D.; COMIN, C. H.; AMANCIO, D. R.; COSTA, L. DA F.; RODRIGUES, F. A.; KURTHS, J. Correlations between climate network and relief data. Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, v. 21, n. 6, p. 1127-1132, 2014. Web of Science Citations: 7.