Free sample - The Hilton Concept of Quality. translation missing

The Hilton Concept of Quality. The Hilton Concept of QualityAll workers and franchiseesâ follow Brand acknowledgment; offer reasonable and pleasant inns and are a piece of a multi universal system of inns of one to four stars. The system is developing each day asâ Hilton Worldwide gains inns everywhere throughout the world. The system guarantees an office of reservations, brand acknowledgment and internal controls that are known as the Hilton Way . This was the witticism of Conrad Hilton framing the organization in the 1940's. His first Hilton lodging goes back to 1925 in Texas. Hilton Worldwide runs it's companies underâ Total Quality Management (TQM) as they train just their administration and the administration of every lodging whether it be corporate or diversified managedâ toâ brand acknowledgment and to be client centered. All procedures done must be done the Hilton way (process thinking, appropriate condition). The inner running of inns is the obligation of the individual lodging. With the end goal of this Paper the Embassy Suites and the Beverly Hilton will be utilized to show how the Hilton way has not generally been adequate in quality appraisal and it has been important to include extra controls.. Hilton Worldwide has made a confused in house program of RevPar list, the Balanced Scorecard and Brand Equity. A huge number of dollars have been spent in an information organize adjusting all inns with the goal that their monetary and factual information can be a piece of the Hilton Network. Every lodging pays roughly $70 000 to have the framework introduced. One can't be called Hilton without holding fast to the network.â Everything is estimated, evaluated and sent back to corporate to pass judgment on their degree of administration and as far as incomes. (hiltonworlwide) RevPar file (income per accessible room) is an essential measurement used to test the budgetary reasonability of an inn. Hilton Corporation utilizes the RevPar Index, brand value and the decent scorecard. Each inn in their framework from the 1 star to the 4 stars tries to do the Brand Hilton says others should do Convey an incentive for Money Income per accessible room or the % of inhabitance x the normal day by day rate is to show the money related practicality of an inn contrasted with another in a similar territory simultaneously and a similar kind. (strglobal) A four star Hilton Embassy Suite held at 90% inhabitance during the Christmas season in Los Angeles contrasted with a four star Embassy Suite saved at 85% inhabitance at a higher rate in San Francisco won't work out quite as well. What gets estimated gets oversaw is a piece of Hilton's system (TQM) and strategic procedures. The phrasing they have created has become to be known as theâ Adjusted Scorecard Corporate administration, corporate claimed and oversaw inns and diversified lodgings are influenced. It is a piece of Hiltons long and transient system. All quality confirmation depends on the information got from execution measure information set up from the sort of work, the goals accomplished and the advancement made. Nothing remains out. Anything which can be evaluated is utilized for quality. The Scorecard is placed into a mind boggling announcing information framework that every inn is required to have purchased and set up so as to keep up the Hilton picture. Contingent upon the outcomes, every individual in the association has motivators as inspirational elements. Their exhibition and desires are consistently a significant piece of the framework. Hilton utilizes the information and measurements to pass judgment on results. TQM depends on internal execution and CEM depends on outward execution. RevPar Index, Balanced Scorecardâ and Brand Equity have been estimated in the Hiltons over the world to pass judgment on consumer loyalty. Hilton began with Brand Equity with the utilization of Hilton Hotel 50 years back. Perhaps the soonest lodging was the Beverly Hilton. Brands with client mindfulness and relationship with quality or consistency are successful value brands. A client knows in any Hilton lodging on the planet, he will get a similar sort of service.â Now they have developed or extended in utilizing an extra H withâ Hilton Hotel, HHonors program, Homewood Suites, Hampton. All under the umbrella of H. Measurementsâ of brand value can be made however they are just approximations. Keller K.L., 1993 Hilton's fair scorecardâ has empowered to evaluate the nature of the day by day development and expanded brand value by quality control of the information that one Hilton is the equivalent from another. What's more, notwithstanding share-of-showcase development, non-money related estimates show improvement, too. Among organization claimed and - oversaw inns, current consumer loyalty contemplates uncover solid increments in clients' suppositions on generally fulfillment, their probability of suggesting Hilton inns, and their probability to come back to a given property. The three elements include a proportion of dedication Hilton tracks closelyand that score as of late arrived at its most significant level ever. Hensdill (2009) The scorecard tests neatness and conditions. Administration guidelines are left to the individual lodging. (News Release, 2003) The lodgings are kept to the Hilton Way on account of the inner information arrangement of check and balance and factual controls. While administration has become a significant piece of the present business to separate between lodging networks and set up client dedication, it is kept separate from the testing procedure of the quality confirmation .(beverly) Hilton Worldwide made an extra two segment of the Balance Scorecard to incorporate quality confirmation and visitor fulfillment for the Embassy Suites. They have shock visits, assessments of kitchens, and guestrooms. Visitors are approached to rate various administrations in the lodging. Everything is still measured and nothing is managed on a passionate level. (News Release, 2003) This means they depend on Total Quality Management. Beverly Hilton is an exclusive lodging which just uses the point arrangement of HHonors of the Hilton program. It was essential to keep the name and have the brand value of the H as the Beverly Hilton is one of the most established post war inns. As a private inn, they are not required to hold fast to TQM nor the Hilton Way. They utilize an outer organization for Quality Assurance and areâ administration arranged. Their administrative group utilizes client experience the board theory. Despite the fact that they depend vigorously on testing and inspecting, they question each part of their activities. The voice of the client is the need of the inn. The outside organization has their own quantitative trial of value: research is done during the time in client experience and inspiration ofâ representatives through remuneration and acknowledgment, apparatuses are set up to prepare staff in client assistance (experience); enthusiastic reviews, overviews, and shock visits. Getting ready for the yearly quality affirmation review, with LRA Worldwide, the Beverly Hilton can react rapidly and on the spot ofâ any insufficiency found. Measurable investigations are finished utilizing the CEM (client experience management).(The Beverly Hilton,2005) 1. Examination of CEM versusâ TQM by Hilton Worldwide. Measurements of the compelling on incomes between two sorts of the executives - Motivation: administrations or necessities - Fidelity: passionate or area - Emotions: need or delight Control Chart to think about the variance of RevPar per establishments during the Christmas season 2. Despite the fact that Hilton is top of the rundown in consumer loyalty, more should be possible to change the Henry Ford chain line feeling that everything must be the equivalent. With a more client orientated administrative framework, Hilton lodgings will appear to be all the more simple and less mechanical. 3.â Hilton stays up with the latest with the different national tests. They are at the highest priority on the rundown of the vast majority of its rivals: image value: (Equitrend study) Visitor fulfillment is the most noteworthy for as far back as three years with the Customer Satisfaction record (ACSI)(Big Gains,June 2010) They have inward testing of the better quality lodgings and factual investigation of the entire system: balance scorecards ( The inside working of the inns are up to the proprietors of the franchisees. As the desires for the money related objectives are high, the enterprising mentality doesn't take into consideration a low degree of laborers' presentation. Inspirational remuneration in money related honors is given for the individuals who meet set objectives. The entire framework depends on monetary achievement. In spite of the fact that visitor fulfillment is the most noteworthy in the business, it depends on American measurements. Brand acknowledgment is turning out to be increasingly more significant as globalization is without fringes.

Thomas Jefferson Quotations

Thomas Jefferson Quotations Thomas Jefferson was the third leader of the United States. He was significant as one of the establishing fathers of the United States. He composed the Declaration of Independence. As president, his most prominent accomplishment was the Louisiana Purchase which dramatically increased the size of the US. He made various compositions including his renowned letters to political adversary John Adams in his later years. Following are a few statements that shed light on Jeffersons convictions. Thomas Jefferson Quotes Be that as it may, each distinction of conclusion isn't a distinction of standard. We have been called by various names brethren of a similar standard. We are for the most part Republicans, we are altogether Federalists. Nature planned me for the serene quest for science, by rendering them my incomparable enjoyment. Be that as it may, the enormities of the occasions wherein I have lived have constrained me to take a section in opposing them, and to submit myself on the clamorous expanse of political interests. The tree of freedom must be invigorated every once in a while with the blood of loyalists and dictators. At the point when a man accept an open trust, he ought to view himself as open property. A bill of rights is the thing that the individuals are qualified for against each administration on earth, general or specific; and what no fair government should can't, or lay on induction. I see extraordinary urban areas as pestilential to the ethics, the wellbeing, and the freedoms of man. I realize that the procurement of Louisiana has been opposed by some ... that the expansion of our region would imperil its association... The bigger our affiliation the less will it be shaken by neighborhood interests; and in any view is it worse that the contrary bank of the Mississippi ought to be settled by our own brethren and youngsters than by outsiders of another family? A little defiance once in a while is something worth being thankful for... The characteristic advancement of things is for freedom to yield and government to make progress. Its spirit, its atmosphere, its fairness, freedom, laws, individuals, and habits. My god! how little do my compatriots comprehend what valuable favors they are in control of, and which no others on earth appreciate!

Back in the Swing COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

Back in the Swing COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog During the summer the SIPA building is a very quiet place.   The reason for this is that we do not offer summer courses.   Each student that graduates from SIPA will have a minimum of 30 weeks of professional development experience.   15 weeks come through an internship and 15 weeks come through a workshop. Students are responsible for finding their own internships, but we offer a lot of assistance through Career Services, faculty, alumni, and current students.   We want students to be able to go anywhere in the world to complete their internship and thus we do not offer summer courses so that students can focus full time on professional development and resume building.   Workshops are group projects composed of 5-6 students working for an outside client.   The workshops are set up by faculty and administrators and students pick from a predetermined list.   Workshops take place during the academic year. Back to the point of this entry . . . the quiet atmosphere of SIPA will cease next Monday as we welcome new students for Orientation and the following week returning students will be back for the start of classes.   Once classes start the building buzzes with activity each and every day.   It is typical for there to be 10-15 events each week featuring amazing speakers.   Here is just a taste of what will be featuring as the semester starts. We will have Leaders in Global Energy lecture series starting on September 15.   Opening remarks will be given by Nabuo Tanaka of the International Energy Agency.   He will be followed by the Portuguese Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, in late September. CH Tung, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong and one of SIPAs Global Fellows will be speaking on US-China Relations on September 17. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will be speaking at the World Leaders Forum on campus and will likely address SIPA students following the main university event. We will have updates on the blog regarding events so stay tuned.

Duality in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Steveson

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a literary classic set in Victorian England. Robert Louis Stevenson uses this time period to explore duality and how people must face their evil counterparts. Stevenson illustrates his belief that it is impossible to truly be good with Doctor Jekyll. He even comments â€Å"[M]an is not truly one, but truly two† (Stevenson 125). Jekyll has conformed to society his entire life, trying to be a perfect person. He has never had the opportunity to express his other half. Jekyll creates Hyde so he can be free of societal constraints and do things that a reputable man cannot. Jekyll releases Hyde who ultimately consumes him because he has never learned how to moderate his evil impulses. Stevensons views on human nature are similar to that of The Bible, which consistently cites the life-long struggle Christians face between the flesh â€Å"evil† and the spirit â€Å"good†. Man can never be good because they are tainted by sin. Even Jesus says that only God is good in Mark 10:18 which reads, â€Å"‘Why do you call me good? Jesus answered. No one is good--except God alone. Jekyll is the archetypal example of this. Jekyll knows what his desires are but once he falls from grace by creating Hyde he is forced to grapple with his evil side until it kill him. Doctor Jekyll knew his inevitable demise was rapidly approaching because he pleads with Utterson asking him to â€Å"help [Hyde] for my sake, when I am no longer here† (39). Jekylls actions were evil when he created his potionShow MoreRelated Considering The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an Effective Representation of Evil3122 Words   |  13 PagesConsidering The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an Effective Representation of Evil The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, originally published in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson, arguably remains a popular novella even today because of its representations of evil and themes concerned with evil such as morality. Originally written for a Victorian audience, the text follows the conventions of the time - for example, the Georgian style of introducing and

Essay about Benefits of Fast Food Restaurants - 867 Words

Jayleen April 7, 2012 English 22 J. Wharton Benefits of Fast Food Restaurants In the United States, the popularity of fast food restaurants is growing every day. Now days, people can buy a whole meal in fast food restaurants for between 6 to 7 dollars. People consider that fast food restaurants make their life easy and uncomplicated. For instance, if two parents was both working late and their kids was home with dinner not cooked, they could stop at any fast food restaurants to order food for dinner before heading home. The popularity of fast food restaurants is growing because of three main causes: the low cost, the fast service, and how fast food restaurants are available anywhere. One of the most important causes of fast†¦show more content†¦For example, most people that I know have to wake up very early in the morning to cook breakfast, make lunch, get ready for school or even get ready for work, and get to school or work on time. People divide their time between their jobs and their responsibilities. For instanc e, before my mom heads to work she takes me to get breakfast and drops me off at school. In the morning my mother takes me to McDonalds in Waianae. Usually in the morning it is always busy but the service is so fast. For example, when I go in side of McDonalds to order I only wait in line for about 2 to 3 minutes and wait for my meal between 4 to 5 minutes. Another example is when my sister is running late from work and she still has to get dinner done. She stops at Jack in the Box to get meals for her family. My sister said when she goes into the restaurant to order the cashier is ready and waiting for her to begin her order. Then in just seconds her whole meal is done and ready to go. Therefore, the fast service is popularity because in this high paced society every minute counts and every second that is wasted in waiting and eating a food is a transaction lost or money shot up in the air. Finally the last cause is how fast food restaurants is available everywhere thousands of pe ople go to. Now days, many kind of fast food restaurants are available in the malls and strategic places. The international branded restaurants such as KFC and McDonald grow quickly from oneShow MoreRelated The Sociat Costs and Benefits of a Fast Food Industry Essay687 Words   |  3 PagesThe Sociat Costs and Benefits of a Fast Food Industry There are many social benefits to a fast food industry. Firstly, it’s the accessibility and convenience of having the fast food restaurants – they’re located practically everywhere. The service is also fast, hence â€Å"fast food† and therefore maximizing the convenience of them to consumers. Most of the time, the products of the fast food industry are cheap, tasty and therefore have good value for the product. 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Simulation of Personal Emotion Experience Free Essays

string(90) " feeling of happiness or of resentment, depending on the relationship between the agents\." Reeves NAS (1996) showed that humans like to communicate with computers as they do with people. Software applications which include models of emotional processes are needed to model the social and emotional aspects of human-machine interaction. Extending classic AAA and logic by adding simulated emotions can be useful to improve the user’s experience in many ways. We will write a custom essay sample on Simulation of Personal Emotion Experience or any similar topic only for you Order Now This chapter will provide a brief overview of existing solutions and models used for artificial emotions (AWE) and present a novel model of emotion simulation (SIMPLEX). Empirical data will be reported on its performance, especially the occurrence of emotions, in a game environment. This chapter concludes with a comment on the usefulness of separating AAA and AWE engendering recent advances in cognitive neuroscience. 2. Models for artificial emotions 2. 1 Historical roots The ass saw what might have been the first debate about emotions and artificial intelligence. The main and – as we know now – most important point was that purely cognitive systems lacked emotions, which strongly influence human thought processes.. Two of the models that emerged at that time will be described here. Simony’s interrupt system Herbert Simon was the first to propose that emotions should be part of a model of cognitive processes (Simon, 1967). His intention was to provide a theoretical inundation for a system incorporating emotions and multiple goals. Within this system, important processes could be interrupted so that more attention went into satisfying important needs (e. G. Hunger, safety). Herbert Simon imagined two parallel systems, one designed to achieve goals (cognition, planning) and one observing the environment for events that require immediate attention (emotions). Indeed, the possibility of interrupting current cognitive processes is 2 Name of the book (Header position 1,5) vital for survival, as it makes it possible to react to threats, but also to pay more attention to one’s surroundings when a threat is expected. Today’s Fungus Eater Another step towards a theory for the computer modeling of emotions was made by the psychologist Mason Toad (Toad, 1982) between 1961 and 1980, with a model called the Fungus Eater. This model resulted in the design of an autonomous robot system and partial implementations. At first, Toad only wanted to create a scenario for a cognitive system that would require concentrating on multiple issues at the same time. In this scenario, the task was collecting as much ore as possible with the help of a mining robot. Operating his robot required energy that could only be gained by collecting a special fungus. Additionally, different Fungus Eaters were competing for the same resources, thus making the scenario more complicated. Toad came to the conclusion that in order to survive on their own, these Fungus Eaters would need to have emotions and to be partially controlled by them. However, Toad named them â€Å"urges† instead of emotions and on closer examination, it is apparent that some of these are actual emotions like joy or anger, while others are needs, goals or motives (e. G. Hunger). 2. 2 Theoretical approach and recent models There are roughly three areas where emotion models are applied. Artificial emotions (AWE) can be used to improve problem-solving in complex environments, as in the early approaches mentioned above. Emotion models can also be used to test psychological emotion theories in experiments using controlled scenarios. Finally, emotions are essential to make computer characters more believable. Emotion models which synthesize and express emotions are necessary to make AAA characters more human- like. These models will be the focus of the next sections as they have inspired our own emotional model. The most influential theoretical approach, COCO, will be presented in detail, as it is the basis of many computational models of emotion. Then, three interesting recent models are briefly described. COCO – a theoretical approach to simulate emotions The COCO model by Retort, Color and Collins is an emotion theory based on appraisal which was explicitly developed to offer a foundation for artificial emotion systems (Retort, Color, Collins, 1988). Its authors succeeded as it inspired many modern models and approaches to artificial emotions. The basis of the model is that emotions are reactions to the attributes of objects, to vents or to actions. Note that internal events (like bodily sensations or memories) which are a part of most modern emotion theories are neglected in the COCO approach. Objects, events and actions are evaluated in an appraisal process based on specific criteria, and result in multiple emotions of different intensities. Figure 1 gives an overview of the COCO approach. Appraising the aspects of objects requires the agent to have attitudes (tastes or preferences) in order to decide whether the object is appealing or not. This appraisal process results in either love or hate. Chapter Title (Header position 1,5) 3 Fig. 1. The COCO model Events, or rather consequences of events, are appraised by analyzing their impact on the agent’s goals. This determines the desirability of events. The degree of desirability depends on how much closer to or further away from achieving the goal the agent will be after the event. The emotions of Joy and distress are direct results of desirable and undesirable events, considering the consequences they have for the agent himself. Some emotions, like for example pity, are triggered when processing events that have consequences for other agents. An open issue is whether this appraisal should be based upon the agent’s own goals or rather the other agent’s goals. How much should an agent be empathic if another one looses something that is not important to the first agent? In an attempt to solve this issue, abstract goals were introduced (such as for example, not losing property). It eventually became clear that it is very important to keep the goals general and abstract, to avoid having to define too many specific goals. The emotions triggered by reacting to other agents’ good or bad fortune depend on how well-liked they are. Another agent’s bad fortune can trigger pity or gloating, while happy events can result in either feeling of happiness or of resentment, depending on the relationship between the agents. You read "Simulation of Personal Emotion Experience" in category "Papers" Appraising an event also means evaluating its prospects – hoping or fearing that something will or will not occur. Prospect-based emotions include disappointment and relief. The intensity of these emotions is usually based on the intensity of the preceding hope or fear. The criterion used to appraise the actions of agents is their praiseworthiness, which is based on the agent’s standards. Generally, praiseworthy actions cause pride and blameworthy actions cause shame, if the agent himself is the one acting. When the actions of other agents are 4 appraised, the emotions triggered are admiration or reproach. Standards can be as complex as attitudes (aspects of objects) and goals (consequences of events), and are almost as subjective and individual. Again, the problem of listing them was solved by describing actions in an abstract way. An interesting phenomenon is the ability of feeling proud or ashamed of someone else’s actions. Simply put, the closer an agent feels related to the acting agent(s), the more he will identify with him in appraising is actions. Examples of this phenomenon (called the strength of the cognitive unit) can range from parents being proud of their child to soccer fans being ashamed of their team’s performance. One of the many practical implementations of COCO is the model by Stapler PETA (1999). They constructed a virtual agent which emotion architecture links discrete emotions categories to 14 action response categories, comprising a large range of individual actions. The COCO emotion model is also partly congruent with Nice Fried’s renewed theory of emotions (Afraid, 1986). For more details on emotion theory, see Trace Kessler (2003). Artificial Emotion Engine The aim of the Emotion Engine (E) is to control the behavior of an artificial agent in complex scenarios. It is made of three layers- emotions, mood and personality (Wilson, 2000). If an emotion is triggered, the actions will be based on this emotion. When emotions are not triggered, the engine bases its actions on the current mood; when no mood is activated, then personality serves as a basis for behavior. The emotion engine is based on the FEE model, which is a three-dimensional space, describing personality traits in terms of Extroversion, Fear and Aggression. Within this space, an area around the point representing an artificial agent’s personality is determined and all traits located inside this area are considered to be available to the specific character. For Wilson, the FEE is congruent with the three central systems of the human brain which according to Gray (Gray McLaughlin, 1996) determine behavior: the Approach system, the Behavior Inhibition system and the Fight/Flight system. These three basic dimensions are intuitive, which makes programming easy. Different personalities trigger some moods more frequently than others: extroversion s linked to good moods, and fear to negative moods. Aggression affects the speed of mood changes. Reward and punishment signals work as the main inputs, and this is comparable with the desirability of events in COCO. Inputs are adjusted based on personality, but also on how often this input occurred before. An agent can get used to a certain input, and this lowers the impact it will eventually have (habituation). On the contrary, a rare or unprecedented input will have more effect (novelty). Needs are organized hierarchically. Physiological needs, such as hunger, thirst, and the need for warmth and energy are the most important. Each of these needs can become a priority, as when for example a very hungry agent will consider eating as his most important goal. Safety, affiliation and esteem needs are the remaining layers. While physiological needs are the most important, the order of the other layers can vary, depending on what is more important to the agent. Memory is very limited; an agent only remembers how much he likes the other agents. In the same way, in COCO, sympathy is used to cause different emotions for liked and disliked entities. Only the six basic emotions of fear, anger, Joy, sadness, disgust and surprise can be triggered. This might appear like a limited selection compared to the 24 emotions of COCO, but given the reactive nature of emotions in this model (working without inner events and 5 triggers) and since some emotion theorists consider the broad spectrum of emotions as mixtures of these basic emotions, this is quite a sensible choice. Personality is used to adjust the intensity or the frequency of the occurrence of emotions, so that a character with personality that is â€Å"low in Fear† will simply not experience as much fear as others. FLAME The Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) is partially based on COCO, but hat differentiates FLAME from other models is the use of fuzzy logic. This results in a relatively simple appraisal process. FLAME can integrate multiple emotions at the same time (in a process called emotional filtering), as emotions at times inhibit one another. For example, imagine an agent feeling Joy and pride because he Just obtained a new position, but who at the same time feels anger, because a relative of the boss of the company was given a higher position than himself. At this point, his anger may prevent him from feeling joy any longer. When opposite emotions occur, FLAME lets the stronger emotion inhibit the weaker one(s), giving a slightly stronger weight to negative emotions. Another way to handle conflicting emotions is through mood, which is determined by comparing the intensities of positive and negative emotions over the last few steps. If the summed up intensities of positive emotions are higher than that of the negative emotions, then the mood will be positive. If a positive and a negative emotion of comparable intensities occur at the same time, the mood determines which of these emotions will inhibit the other one. As there is little research about the decay of emotions, FLAME uses a simple constant cay, though positive emotions decay faster than negative emotions. FLAME does not make it possible to implement an agent’s personality; instead, differences in behavior are created through learning. For example, an agent may learn that reacting in an angry way will enable him to reach his goals, thus enticing him to be more choleric. FLAME implements multiple types of learning, such as classical conditioning (associating expectations with objects) which occurs in many situations, triggering fear or hope. Another type of learning is learning about consequences of actions or events. This is simple whenever an action directly causes a result. For example, learning that eating will result in feeling less hungry is rather trivial. In the case of more complex causal relations over time, FLAME is using Q-learning, a form of reinforcement learning. Another form of learning, quite similar to model learning, is the ability to recognize patterns in the behavior of a user by observing sequences of actions. For this type of learning, FLAME simply counts the occurrences of sequences. The last type of learning in FLAME, but one of the most important, is learning about the value of actions. Remember that COCO relies on the praiseworthiness of actions, which is based on the agent’s standards. In FLAME, these standards are not predefined knowledge, but they are learned from the interaction between users. Using learning instead of predefined knowledge seems like a very sensible way to avoid most of the troubling issues that come with using COCO. Additionally, learning allows agents to adjust, which makes them all the more believable. ALMA The intention in designing A Layered Model of Affect (ALMA) was to control agents in conversational scenarios. In interactive game or learning environments, the artificial harassers display facial expressions of emotions and moods through their postures to 6 appear more believable. Emotions, moods and personalities are implemented and interact with each other. Events and actions are described in terms of abstract tags which are then evaluated during the appraisal process and describe things like for example the expressed emotion or gesture accompanying an action or simply if something is a good or bad event. As ALMA is aimed at conversations, an action is often a statement. Hence, there are tags to describe the kind of statement, for example if it was an insult or a compliment. In addition, ALMA requires defining personality profiles for each agent. Essentially, these profiles already contain the desirability and praiseworthiness the agent assigns to certain tags. Since our own emotion model shares some features with ALMA (see below) a key difference should be pointed out. In SIMPLEX we considered it impractical to explicitly specify this information, as this would have limited the model to a small number of agents. So instead of using tags, our model requires to specify goals and their priorities for an agent, where generic goals can be used for all agents. Events still need to be scribed in a special way, but this is reduced too relatively objective list of which agents goals are affected and in which way. All other information like praiseworthiness is automatically derived from this and the agent’s personality. Although this approach is providing less control over an agent’s appraisal process, it is better suited for a generic system meant to be used with minimal extra effort. 3. SIMPLEX – Simulation of Personal Emotion Experience 3. Overview SIMPLEX is a context-independent module to create emotions as a result of primary application (environment) events. Goals, emotions, mood-states, personality, memory and relationships between agents have been modeled so they could interact as in real life. Figure 2 shows an overview of the model. SIMPLEX is based on the COCO model by Retort, Color and Collins (1988) in that it creates discrete emotions by appraising events based on the desirability of their consequences and the praiseworthiness of the actions of agents. The appraisal process was modified by including the personality of virtual agents. The personality component is based on the Five Factor Model (FM) introduced by psychologists McCrae Costa (1987), which includes extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neurotics and openness. The personality module influences the emotion module on multiple levels during appraisal processes and in the development of mood-states. Other important aspects of the model are mood-states and relationships. Mood- states are represented in a three-dimensional space which dimensions are pleasure, arousal and dominance (Bradley Lang, 1994), and they are based on active or recently experienced emotions (implemented by pull-functions). In the absence of motions, a mood state will slowly gravitate back to a default mood-state based on the agent’s personality. A mood-state also functions as a threshold to determine whether an emotion is strong enough to become active at a given time. Relationships are handled as if they were mood-states towards other agents (for instance a player in a game scenario): they are based on emotions caused by other agents and they can be considered as a simplified way to store memories of experiences with these agents. They are used as thresholds as well; for example, an agent will be more likely to become angry at another agent towards when their legislation is in the range of negative valence. 7 Fig. 2. The emotion module SIMPLEX Personality (long-term), mood-state (mid-term) and emotions (short-term) thus represent three levels of the emotion module that interact with each other in order to create believable agents. Events from the scenario serve as the model’s inputs. They are appraised according to the COCO algorithm (see figure 1). This appraisal is influenced by the agent’s goals, his personality and his relationships with other agents. At the end of an appraisal one or several discrete emotions are generated. These emotions and the current mood-state are represented in the same three- dimensional PAD space: on the one hand, the emotion(s) serve(s) as an attractor for the recent mood-state position (pull function). On the other hand, the closer an emotion is located to the current mood-state, the more probable it will be that the emotion will be activated. The speed at which the mood-state changes, is influenced by the agent’s neurotics (a personality variable). Additionally, emotions that are caused by other agents will influence another mood-state representation (stored on another PAD space) representing the relationship with that agent. Thus, every agent has specific relationships with other agents, which influences his behavior towards others. Emotions, mood-states and relationships with other agents are the outputs of the model and can be used by the AAA application. Originally, the PAD space was designed to represent emotions in a dimensional rather than a discrete way (Russell, 1978). In our model, PAD is used as a common space where three different constructs (discrete COCO emotions, continuous mood- states and personality), are represented in order to be handled together by the SIMPLEX algorithm. An agent’s current mood-state is thus the result of a mathematical function which takes into account the default mood (defined by personality), the pulling behavior of COCO emotion(s) triggered by appraisals, and weighed factors influencing movement speed (see equation 1). Mood-state = f(PADDED, Paternosters, Filter) 8 3. 2 Basic components Mood-state represented in the PAD-Space (Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance) Beyond discrete emotions, which are typically short-term, mood-states are a powerful way to model emotional shifts and explain affective influences over longer periods of time. To implement mood-states in our model, we chose to use Russell three-dimensional space to describe emotions (Russell, 1978) and Meridian’s concept of how emotions are linked to personality traits (Meridian, 1996). The dimension of Pleasure encompasses valence ranging from very positive to very negative. Arousal is an indicator of how intensely something is perceived, or of how much it affects the organism. Dominance is a measure of experienced control over the situation. For example, a different degree of dominance can make the difference between fear and anger. Both of these emotions are states of negative valence and sigh arousal, but not feeling in control is what differentiates fear from anger. When an agent is angry, it is because he believes he can have a potential influence. Although emotions are triggered by COCO appraisals and are therefore discrete, they are handled in a continuous three-dimensional space by SIMPLEX. The advantage of treating emotions in this way and not Just as a fixed set of possible emotions is that it makes it possible to represent emotions that do not even have a name. It also creates the possibility to combine emotions, mood-state and personality in one space. First, a ordinate in PAD space can obviously represent an agent’s mood-state. But emotions and personalities can also be described in terms of Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance values. For example, the value of arousal can be not only the degree of arousal associated with a specific emotion, but also the restorability of a person. Meridian (1996) gives specific names to the resulting different octants in PAD-space and describes the diagonally opposite octants as Exuberant/Bored, Dependent/ Disdainful, Relaxed/Anxious, Docile/Hostile. Thus mood-states are not points but octants of the Bedspread. However, positioning a personality (based on FM) within a PAD-space could have been a rather difficult task, since there is no mathematically- correct way to make the conversion. Luckily, this transformation can be based upon empirical data. Meridian provided such a conversion table from FM to PAD after correlation analyses of questionnaires measuring both constructs in healthy subjects (Meridian, 1996). Five Factor Model of Personality (FM) The implementation of personality is a key factor when creating believable agents that differ from each other. COCO already offers a few possibilities: different goals, tankards and attitudes automatically result in differences during the appraisal process. However, since personality goes beyond preferences, it was necessary to find a model of personality that made it possible to adjust the appraisal process, to shift the agent’s perception and to influence mood-states. The model chosen for SIMPLEX was the Five Factor Model (McCrae Costa, 1987). After years of research, an agreement emerged that five groups of traits are sufficient to describe a personality. Using self-report questionnaires with multiple items, a personality profile can be provided for each individual scoring high or low in each of he five factors (this approach is called â€Å"dimensional†). In the case of our model, the value for each factor can be typed in when defining the artificial agent. 9 Agreeableness refers to a tendency to cooperate and to compromise, in order to interact with others in an agreeable way. High agreeableness often means having a positive outlook on human nature, assuming people to be good rather than bad. Low agreeableness is essentially selfishness, putting your own needs above the needs of others and not caring about the consequences your actions might have for others. Conscientiousness is usually high in people who plan a lot, who think everything through, and who are very tidy or achievers. Extreme cases can appear to be compulsive or pedantic. The opposite personality trait includes sloppiness or ignoring one’s duties. Extroversion can be a measure of how much people experience positive emotions. An enthusiastic and active person that enjoys company and attention is extroverted, while a quiet individual who needs to spend more time alone is introverted. Neurotics is partly an opposite of Extroversion in being a tendency to experience negative emotions. However, being neurotic also means being more sensitive in general, and reacting emotionally to unimportant events that wouldn’t usually trigger a response. Neurotics can be prone to mood swings and tend to be more negative in their interpretation of situations. Low neurotics means high emotional stability and describes calm people who are not easily upset. Finally, those scoring high on Openness to Experience are creative and curious individuals, interested in art and more in touch with their own emotions than others. Those scoring low on that dimension are conservative persons with few interests, hey prefer straight and simple things rather than fancy ones, and they do not care about art or science. It is suspected that Openness can be influenced by education. 3. 3 Technical implementation The appraisal process and the generation of emotions There are three categories of inputs to the appraisal process of the emotion model: consequences of events, actions of agents and objects (see the COCO model in figure 1). The following section will describe the respective mechanisms applied when mapping each type of input to emotions. Each event handled by a character is first adjusted according to the agent’s rationality. First, the consequences are adjusted based on the agent’s neurotics. As neurotic people tend to see things more negatively, consequences are rated worse than what they actually are. The factor by which neurotics can reduce the desirability of events is adjustable. Note that all personality traits are in the range [-1; 1], so that negative neurotics actually makes consequences more positive. In real life, positive people could think â€Å"it could have been worse†. The desirability of events is determined by (predefined) goals during the event appraisal. A goal consists of two aspects: relevance [O; 1] and state of realization [O; 1], which means to which percentage the goal is already achieved. Afterwards, the praiseworthiness of actions is determined. Basically, the more positive consequences an action has, the more praiseworthy it is considered to be. Sympathy plays a role in this process, as it is added to positive values and subtracted from negative ones. Consequences for self are considered to be more important than consequences for others, which are currently factored in at 50% of their value. 0 After the adjusted values for all consequences have been summed up, unconsciousness is used to obtain the final result, by being scaled and subtracted. Thus the more conscientious an agent is, the harder it will be to commit an action positive enough to be deemed praiseworthy. This applies to both actions of other agents and actions of the agent himself. Agreeableness works the opposite way, but only for the actions of others. This is based on the psychological notion that agreeable people tend to be more forgiving in order to get along with others. Apart from having a different weight, factoring in agreeableness has the same results as active conscientiousness. The remaining factors serving as parameters for the action (responsibility, unexpectedness, publicizes) are averaged and used to scale the result of the above calculations. Finally, as cost is attempted to be derived from consequences for self, it is subtracted, before the calculated praiseworthiness is averaged over the number of consequences or rather the number of affected agents. The resulting value of praiseworthiness is used as the intensity for admiration or reproach, depending on whether it is positive or negative. If the agent is appraising his own actions, the motions are pride or shame instead of admiration and reproach. Once the praiseworthiness has been calculated, a search is conducted through the list of prospects for all the ones that are active and that match the name of the event. For each, the prospect appraisal function is called, which determines the net desirability by multiplying it with the affected goal’s relevance. This value will be compared to the expected desirability for this event. The simplest situation is when a positive consequence was expected but a negative one occurs. This would obviously cause disappointment. However, this is also the case if a very high desirability was hoped for and the actual consequences are less positive, but still not negative. Having a hope fulfilled results in satisfaction. If an event has exactly the expected consequences, it results in the full intensity for the emotion. The intensity of emotions is the product of the determined quality of the event and of the intensity of the prospects. For example, if there was very little hope, there cannot be strong satisfaction. Which emotion is created depends on the kind of prospect and on the sign of the quality value. Hope and positive quality result in satisfaction, hope and negative quality in disappointment, fear and positive quality in fears-confirmed and fear and negative quality in relief. After the prospect appraisal is done, short term or one-shot prospects (only valid for one round) are removed. Appraisal concerning Joy and distress is done for each consequence affecting the agent himself, while appraisal for pity/gloating and happy-for/resentment is done for the remaining consequences. How to cite Simulation of Personal Emotion Experience, Papers

The Conjuring free essay sample

The Conjuring In the conjuring we are presented to the paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens are to help the Perron family with their haunted house in Harrisville, Rhode Island. The psychic Lorraine determines rapidly that the house may need an exorcism, and contacts the Catholic Church, but is told that they need evidence on paranormal disturbances, before performing the exorcism. While putting up cameras and microphones around the house to gather evidence, Ed and Lorraine iscovers that the house once belonged to a witch, Bathsheba, who sacrificed her newborn baby to the devil and hung herself afterwards. Bathsheba is now possessing every woman, whom is trying to take over her land. Bathsheba possesses the mother, Carolyn, and makes her trying to stab the daughter Christine. Meanwhile, Ed and the other assistances, saves Christine and Ed starts performing the exorcism on Carolyn, by himself. Lorraine makes Carolyn remember a happy memory, which llows Ed to complete the exorcism. We will write a custom essay sample on The Conjuring or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Analysis The conjuring is a horror story with a twist of terror. In the beginning we dont actually see the spirits, which allows us to use our imagination (terror). Towards the middle and the end of the movie, we see all the ghosts and spirits, but there arent any nasty details (horror). The conjuring is a supernatural movie, since we are introduced to creepy things, which cant be found in the real world (unless you believe in spirits and exorcism). Under the category supernatural we find the sub- genre the marvelous since we are faced with something we cant explain, but choose to accept the supernatural as being real. My evaluation The Conjuring is a very well made horror movie; it is one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. However, during the exorcism, things got a bit exaggerated, and it became slightly untrustworthy. Besides the exorcism, I really liked the movie and it will definitely be found on top of my list of horror movies.