What is MediaMatrix and How Does it Work

OK, Let Me See If I Got it Right....

Did you perhaps think of any of the following terms or images as elaborating on the concept of a fire truck?

siren / danger / burning / fireman / firehose / red (or yellow)

emergency / Dalmatian (or spotted dog) / firepole

fire station (firehouse) / fire hydrant (fire plug) / ladder / rescue

Or, how about:

insurance / loss (or lost possessions) / recovery / home (or house)

Semantic Networks and Concept Maps

You've probably gotten the idea by now... Its a lot like how you plan the writing of an essay about a subject! (And therein lies the beauty of the association testing technique -- an association test can cover a lot of essay topics in a very brief period, and is far easier to grade because it clearly separates "chat" from substance. An expert can tell you about all of the characteristics and associated concepts which both define, situate, and elaborate on a given primary concept. When he or she does, they are displaying their personal semantic network!

Think of a semantic network as a web of terms, phrases, and images that cluster because of some primary or secondary associational characteristics or common reference. These clusters kind of represent our personal "filing" systems whereby we store and retrieve information on demand. For example, there is a good probability that, at this very moment, you are not thinking of anything related to the word "time." However, now that the word has appeared, you might immediately start thinking of "how long" you've been "connected to the internet," and immediately check your "clock" or "watch." Those words, actions, and objects represent a mapping of objects, images, and words which make up an even larger network of associations which one might refer to as a "concept" map. In this context, concept maps go beyond semantic, or linguistic, terms and include images, objects, and even behavioral actions which all revolve around the concept of time.

But if you had not been browsing the internet, but rather had been standing in front of a jewelry store at the mall, when the word time was mentioned you might have thought of "repair," new "watch band," new "battery," or even "new watch". If you had been in a physics class, when time was mentioned you might have immediately thought of "Einstein," "relativity," or even "light," "distance," "speed," or perhaps "rate."

So what have I suggested as reasonable associations to demonstrate that I have some degree of understanding of the concept of time? Let's list them, with the primary term, "time" at the top:

Time:

how long / internet / connections / clock / watch

jewelry / store / repair / watch band / battery

Einstein / relativity / light / distance / speed / rate

Do you fail to see the implied relations between any of these terms and the concept of time? Probably not. However, clearly some are more salient to defining time as a concept than others; some are more "applications" oriented than others; while some terms, like "battery" are a bit of a stretch, but are still understandable when someone reminds you that many time pieces rely on battery power. Regardless, the larger the number of terms you can produce, the more salient they are in their association to the primary term, and perhaps even the more varied they are, are all reflective of your greater expertise or knowledge about the concept of "time." So it is with any concept. Thus, if you are setting out to conquer a new field, whether physics, psychology, or computing, you will immediately find yourself setting out to acquire a substantial new vocabulary and the associations which bind that vocabulary together into a meaningful whole we sometimes refer to as "knowledge of a discipline."

Learning New Disciplines

When you study a new discipline, say psychology, which is our favorite here at AI², you will typically have to start with learning a new vocabulary which defines the main concepts of that field. In physics this might be concepts like force, quarks, and atoms; in chemistry it might be ions, bonds, and compounds; in psychology it includes conditioning, illusions, and phobias. Regardless of the discipline, you not only have to learn the vocabulary, you also have to constantly expand your associative links which give those terms meaning through interconnectivity. Like with the fire truck and time, you learn that atoms have a nucleus, protons, and electrons; that compounds like water are bondings between oxygen and hydrogen; and that phobias may be acquired and treated through classical conditioning, but that illusions deal with sensory perceptions. You acquire a semantic network and eventually a concept map which expands beyond words to include graphics, images, objects, and even behavioral actions, somewhat like those which are typically shared by educated professionals within the discipline you are studying.

MediaMatrix's Adaptive Tutorial Services

MediaMatrix tutorials help you learn the semantic networks and concept maps which textbooks present, but do little to help you learn. To do this, you are constantly assessed to determine the level of your existing knowledge and comprehension skills on each topic, including your present understanding and your ability to expand on that understanding. If you already know a bit, or are a skilled reader or video viewer, then the tutorial is tailored to your particular performance levels. There are eight different levels built into MediaMatrix's services!

But how does MediaMatrix know your current level? Well, every question adds information to two important artificial intelligence agents built into the system. First, every answer you give adds to a growing knowledge about your own developing semantic network--a mirror of what you know is constantly updated based on what answers you have given during your studies, with more recent corrections of faulty knowledge carefully noted so that you get credit for sharpening your knowledge. Secondly, every answer is evaluated for correctness, again with timely updates which allow the system to note when your performances are improving or declining. All of this personal information about your knowledge is maintained in the server to provide you individualized tutoring services each time you log on.

Who are these Intelligence Agents and What do they Do?

These agents--the semantic network/concept map mirror, the performance tracker, and the expert consultant--combine their knowledge about the accuracy of your recent performances as well as the particulars of what you know vs what the expert knows in order to determine whether, and how, to help you when you start to run into difficulties. Alternatively, they might challenge you to more difficult and advanced learning skills when you are "breezing through." In addition, one of these agents custom-constructs your tutorial test questions "on the fly" so that every question is selected to meet your specific personal need for growth and evaluation. Perhaps you haven't been asked about a particular concept yet, or you have a lot of wrong ideas about what a particular term relates to and what it means. If so, then these agents adaptively supply more or less prompting as to what should be learned, adaptively supply you feedback as to which terms are giving you problems and which ones seem to be developing OK, and they also adaptively construct tutorial questions on the basis on what most needs evaluating based on your individual learning history and knowledge base.

Oh, Warm Fuzzies and All!

These adaptive instructional services are just like having a real person at your side! Only it never tires, never insults, and never gives up just when you need it most! It's there anytime of day or year, any place you live, work, or travel, and when you log in, it always picks up right where your growth and development left off at the last session! Who could ask for anything more? Oh yes, your instructor! S/he wants to know how well you are doing!

So You Have Evaluation, How About Certification

Speaking of how well you're doing... You can't imagine what we can do with certification. By comparing your own personal semantic network and concept maps with those of the expert, we can give both general and highly specific association-strength data topic-by-topic, unit-by-unit, or course-by-course. Imagine learning that you have a 99% match with the expert on topics related to Classical Conditioning (you know, Pavlov, Russian physiologist, bells and food, salivation, conditioned reflexes, glandular responses, emotions, phobias) while having a 91% match on the principles of Operant Conditioning procedures in general, but only a 23% match on operant schedules of reinforcement. Overall, however, you match the expert on 90% of the conditioning (both Classical and Operant) material.

Goodies Galore--What a Feast!

There are a lot more features, of course. You can bookmark and highlight text, post it to an embedded notebook and add your own commentary notes, use the "glossary" and "find" systems for on-the-spot help and elaboration, and even check reference cited directly without leaving the sentence you are reading. After such a feast of features, you would think we would have run out of assets to brag about. But we left something great for dessert as well.

I Can Do It Myself Too?

Instructors can custom write new chapters or topics they want included in a customized version of the book, can resequence the chapters and/or their content sequence, and can add laboratory simulations and experiments using CyberRat.

Contact us for more details at:

info@psych-ai.com