Character (mathematics)

About: Character (mathematics) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 46723 publications have been published within this topic receiving 411412 citations.

Changing beliefs and behavior through experience-taking.

Abstract: The present research introduces the concept of experience-taking-the imaginative process of spontaneously assuming the identity of a character in a narrative and simulating that character's thoughts, emotions, behaviors, goals, and traits as if they were one's own. Six studies investigated the degree to which particular psychological states and features of narratives cause individuals, without instruction, to engage in experience-taking and investigated how the merger between self and other that occurs during experience-taking produces changes in self-judgments, attitudes, and behavior that align with the character's. Results from Studies 1-3 showed that being in a reduced state of self-concept accessibility while reading a brief fictional work increased-and being in a heightened state of self-concept accessibility decreased-participants' levels of experience-taking and subsequent incorporation of a character's personality trait into their self-concepts. Study 4 revealed that a first-person narrative depicting an ingroup character elicited the highest levels of experience-taking and produced the greatest change in participants' behavior, compared with versions of the narrative written in 3rd-person voice and/or depicting an outgroup protagonist. The final 2 studies demonstrated that whereas revealing a character's outgroup membership as a homosexual or African American early in a narrative inhibited experience-taking, delaying the revelation of the character's outgroup identity until later in the story produced higher levels of experience-taking, lower levels of stereotype application in participants' evaluation of the character, and more favorable attitudes toward the character's group. The implications of these findings in relation to perspective-taking, self-other overlap, and prime-to-behavior effects are discussed.

Image thresholding for optical character recognition and other applications requiring character image extraction

Abstract: Two new, cost-effective thresholding algorithms for use in extracting binary images of characters from machine- or hand-printed documents are described. The creation of a binary representation from an analog image requires such algorithms to determine whether a point is converted into a binary one because it falls within a character stroke or a binary zero because it does not. This thresholding is a critical step in Optical Character Recognition (OCR). It is also essential for other Character Image Extraction (CIE) applications, such as the processing of machine-printed or handwritten characters from carbon copy forms or bank checks, where smudges and scenic backgrounds, for example, may have to be suppressed. The first algorithm, a nonlinear, adaptive procedure, is implemented with a minimum of hardware and is intended for many CIE applications. The second is a more aggressive approach directed toward specialized, high-volume applications which justify extra complexity.

Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility. By Thomas Lickona. New York: Bantam Books, 1991:

Abstract: Reviewed by Anne Wescott Dodd, instructor at Bates College and the University of Maine at Augusta. Schools &dquo;cannot be ethical bystanders at a time when our society is in deep moral trouble,&dquo; according to Lickona, who draws on a variety of sources to make a case for teaching values in the schools. Emphasizing that there is no such thing as a value-free education, he argues that there is &dquo;ethical

ChatGPT is fun, but not an author

Abstract: In less than 2 months, the artificial intelligence (AI) program ChatGPT has become a cultural sensation. It is freely accessible through a web portal created by the tool’s developer, OpenAI. The program—which automatically creates text based on written prompts—is so popular that it’s likely to be “at capacity right now” if you attempt to use it. When you do get through, ChatGPT provides endless entertainment. I asked it to rewrite the first scene of the classic American play Death of a Salesman, but to feature Princess Elsa from the animated movie Frozen as the main character instead of Willy Loman. The output was an amusing conversation in which Elsa—who has come home from a tough day of selling—is told by her son Happy, “Come on, Mom. You’re Elsa from Frozen. You have ice powers and you’re a queen. You’re unstoppable.” Mash-ups like this are certainly fun, but there are serious implications for generative AI programs like ChatGPT in science and academia.