2026-09-19T11:15:10Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/854032026-06-06T00:56:06Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131023
Patrick H. Winston.
Awad, Hiba
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
2014-03-06T15:39:33Z
2014-03-06T15:39:33Z
2013
2013
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85403
870306022
Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2013.
Title as it appears in MIT Commencement Exercises program, June 7, 2013: Modeling and demonstrating cultural differences in Genesis. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 81-84).
Culture has a strong influence on how stories are understood. Accordingly, a full account of human intelligence must include an account of cultural influences on story understanding. The research reported takes a step toward accounting for cultural differences computationally by extending the Genesis story understanding system so as to enable Genesis to model Chinese and American differences in human story understanding and question answering. I focused on two murder stories discussed in a classic study by Morris and Peng, identified extensions to Genesis needed to model Chinese and American understanding and question answering biases, and developed rules and concepts not already in the Genesis libraries. I determined that one extension, a question-induced story augmentation capability, was needed to handle questions such as "Did Lu kill Shan because America is individualistic?" Another extension, the introduction of abduction rules, was needed to handle common sense background rules such as "If person X kills person Y, then person X must be insane." I also conceived and implemented computational metrics to measure story coherence. I survey the field of cultural psychology and suggest further steps toward an account of culturally variant cognition.
by Hiba Awad.
M.Eng.
84 pages
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Culturally based story understanding
Modeling and demonstrating cultural differences in Genesis
Thesis
application/pdf
false
Publication
unknown
unknown
<Publication xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/1.1/" id="e0391df4-f07d-4e63-bbaa-f42226c72e6c">
<Type xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/vocab/COAR_Publication_Types">http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843</Type>
<Language>eng</Language>
<Title>Culturally based story understanding</Title>
<Subtitle>Modeling and demonstrating cultural differences in Genesis</Subtitle>
<PublishedIn>
<Publication>
</Publication>
</PublishedIn>
<PublicationDate>2013</PublicationDate>
<Authors>
<Author>
<DisplayName>Awad, Hiba</DisplayName>
<Affiliation>
<OrgUnit>
</OrgUnit>
</Affiliation>
</Author>
</Authors>
<Editors>
</Editors>
<Publishers>
<Publisher>
<DisplayName>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</DisplayName>
<OrgUnit />
</Publisher>
</Publishers>
<License>http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582</License>
<Keyword>Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.</Keyword>
<Abstract>Culture has a strong influence on how stories are understood. Accordingly, a full account of human intelligence must include an account of cultural influences on story understanding. The research reported takes a step toward accounting for cultural differences computationally by extending the Genesis story understanding system so as to enable Genesis to model Chinese and American differences in human story understanding and question answering. I focused on two murder stories discussed in a classic study by Morris and Peng, identified extensions to Genesis needed to model Chinese and American understanding and question answering biases, and developed rules and concepts not already in the Genesis libraries. I determined that one extension, a question-induced story augmentation capability, was needed to handle questions such as "Did Lu kill Shan because America is individualistic?" Another extension, the introduction of abduction rules, was needed to handle common sense background rules such as "If person X kills person Y, then person X must be insane." I also conceived and implemented computational metrics to measure story coherence. I survey the field of cultural psychology and suggest further steps toward an account of culturally variant cognition.</Abstract>
<Access xmlns="http://purl.org/coar/access_right"
>
</Access>
</Publication>