Silverman, Barry G

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Author: Silverman, Barry G ×

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  • Publication
    StateSim: Lessons Learned from 20 Years of A Country Modeling and Simulation Toolset
    (2020-01-01) Silverman, Barry G; Silverman, Daniel M; Bharathy, Gnana; Weyer, Nathan; Tam, William
    A holy grail for military, diplomatic, and intelligence analysis is a valid set of software agent models that act as the desired ethno-political factions so that one can test the effects of alternative courses of action in different countries. This article explains StateSim, a country modeling approach that synthesizes best-of-breed theories from across the social sciences and that has helped numerous organizations over 20 years to study insurgents, gray zone actors, and other societal instabilities. The country modeling literature is summarized (Sect 1.1) and synthetic inquiry is contrasted with scientific inquiry (Sect. 1.2 and 2). Section 2 also explains many fielded StateSim applications and 100s of past acceptability tests and validity assessments. Section 3 then describes how users now construct and run ‘first pass’ country models within hours due to the StateSim Generator, while Section 4 offers two country analyses that illustrate this approach. The conclusions explain lessons learned.
  • Publication
    Blackboard System Generator (BSG): An Alternative Distributed Problem-Solving Paradigm
    (1989-03-01) Silverman, Barry G; Chang, Joseph S; Feggos, Kostas
    The classical blackboard model employs a number of relaxations of team decision theory that are commonly organized into three panels of AI heuristics, including: 1) a shared information panel that offers a capability for ensuring agent knowledge sharing, 2) a contract formalism for the agent and event scheduling, coordinating, and control panel, and 3) a blackboard panel for metalevel planning and guidance that offers whole situation recognition, top down reasoning, and adaptive learning. The nature and implications of these relaxations are explained in terms of the blackboard system generator (BSG) and via comparisons to what is done in other blackboard shells. Particular attention is paid to theoretical relaxations inherent in the classical blackboard model and to research opportunities arising as a result. Progress made to date to counteract adverse effects of some of these relaxations is described in terms of a project management/work breakdown paradigm adopted in BSG that: 1) alleviates the knowledge engineering bottlenecks of traditional blackboards and that provides BSG with a semantic rather than just syntactic understanding of blackboard control and scheduling; 2) allows a distributed problem-solving capability for connecting agents at virtual addresses on a logical network and that permits concurrent processing on any machine available on the network; 3) establishes an open architecture that includes techniques for integrating preexisting agent methods (e.g., expert systems, procedures, or data bases) while laying the foundation for assessing the impact of “black boxes” on the global and local objective functions; and 4) utilizes project management techniques for team agents planning as well as an analogical reasoner subsystem for BSG metaplanning and generic controlled learning. This latter item is supported by a connectionist scheme for its associative memory. The techniques of each of the three panels and of the four sets of paradigm-related advances are described along with selected results from classroom teaching experiments and from three applications using BSG to date.
  • Publication
    What is a Good Pattern of Life Model? Guidance for Simulations
    (2018-08-01) Silverman, Barry G; Bharathy, Gnana K.; Weyer, Nathan
    We have been modeling an ever-increasing scale of applications with agents that simulate the pattern of life (PoL) and real-world human behaviors in diverse regions of the world. The goal is to support sociocultural training and analysis. To measure progress, we propose the definition of a measure of goodness for such simulated agents, and review the issues and challenges associated with first-generation (1G) agents. Then we present a second generation (2G) agent hybrid approach that seeks to improve realism in terms of emergent daily activities, social awareness, and micro-decision making in simulations. We offer a PoL case study with a mix of 1G and 2G approaches that was able to replace the pucksters and avatar operators needed in large-scale immersion exercises. We conclude by observing that a 1G PoL simulation might still be best where large-scale, pre-scripted training scenarios will suffice, while the 2G approach will be important for analysis or if it is vital to learn about adaptive opponents or unexpected or emergent effects of actions. Lessons are shared about ways to blend 1G and 2G approaches to get the best of each.
  • Publication
    A Demonstration of the PMF-Extraction Approach: Modeling The Effects of Sound on Crowd Behavior
    (2002-05-01) Cornwell, Jason; Silverman, Barry G; O'Brien, Kevin; Johns, Michael
    The vast majority of psychology, sociology, and other social-science literature describing human behavior and performance does not reach the eyes of those of us working in the modeling and simulation community. Our recent work has been concerned with the extraction and implementation of Human Behavior Models(HBMs)/ Performance Moderator Functions(PMFs) from this literature. This paper demonstrates how our methodology was applied to extract models of the effects of music and sound on both individuals and groups and to implement them in a simulated environment. PMFs describing how several classes of sound affect decision-making and performance were constructed based on well-established psychological models. These PMFs were implemented in a simulation of protesters and security guards outside a prison that demonstrates how the presence of chanting and music changes the response of protesters to police aggression. The extraction of PMFs from the literature, the synthesis of a coherent, cohesive model, and the implementation and results of the simulation are discussed.
  • Publication
    Human Behavior Models for Agents in Simulators and Games: Part I: Enabling Science with PMFserv
    (2006-04-01) Silverman, Barry G; Johns, Michael; Cornwell, Jason; O'Brien, Kevin
    This article focuses on challenges to improving the realism of socially intelligent agents and attempts to reflect the state of the art in human behavior modeling with particular attention to the impact of personality/cultural values and affect as well as biology/stress upon individual coping and group decision-making. The first section offers an assessment of the state of the practice and of the need to integrate valid human performance moderator functions (PMFs) from traditionally separated sub-fields of the behavioral literature. The second section pursues this goal by postulating a unifying architecture and principles for integrating existing PMF theories and models. It also illustrates a PMF testbed called PMFserv created for implementating and studying how PMFs may contribute to such an architecture. To date it interconnects versions of PMFs on physiology and stress (Janis-Mann, Gillis-Hursh, others); personality, cultural and emotive processes (Damasio, Cognitive Appraisal-OCC, value systems); perception (Gibsonian affordance); social processes (relations, identity, trust, nested intentionality); and cognition (affect- and stress-augmented decision theory, bounded rationality). The third section summarizes several usage case studies (asymmetric warfare, civil unrest, and political leaders) and concludes with lessons learned. Implementing and inter-operating this broad collection of PMFs helps to open the agenda for research on syntheses that can help the field reach a greater level of maturity. Part II presents a case study in using PMFserv for rapid scenario composability and realistic agent behavior.
  • Publication
    Constructing Virtual Asymmetric Opponents from Data and Models in the Literature: Case of Crowd Rioting
    (2002-05-01) Silverman, Barry G; Johns, Michael; O'Brien, Kevin; Weaver, Ransom; Cornwell, Jason
    This paper describes an effort to integrate human behavior models from a range of ability, stress, emotion, decision theoretic, and motivation literatures into a game-theoretic framework appropriate for representing synthetic asymmetric agents and scenarios. Our goal is to create a common mathematical framework (CMF) and an open agent architecture that allows one to research and explore alternative behavior models to add realism to software agents - e.g., physiology and stress, personal values and emotive states, and cultural influences. Our CMF is based on a dynamical, game-theoretic approach to evolution and equilibria in Markov chains representing states of the world that the agents can act upon. In these worlds the agents' utilities (payoffs) are derived by a deep model of cognitive appraisal of intention achievement including assessment of emotional activation/decay relative to value hierarchies, and subject to (integrated) stress and related constraints. We present the progress to date on the mathematical framework, and on an environment for quickly editing opponents in terms of the various elements of the cognitive appraiser, utility generators, value hierarchies, and Markov chains. We illustrate the approach via an example training game for counter-terrorism and crowd management. Future research needs are elaborated including validity issues and ways to overcome the gaps in the behavioral literatures that confront developers of asymmetric forces.
  • Publication
    Social Learning and Adoption of New Behavior in a Virtual Agent Society
    (2013-01-01) Nye, Benjamin D; Silverman, Barry G
    Social learning and adoption of new behavior govern the rise of a variety of behaviors: from actions as mundane as dance steps to those as dangerous as new ways to make IED detonators. However, agents in immersive virtual environments lack the ability to realistically simulate the spread of new behavior. To address this gap, a cognitive model was designed that represents the well-known socio-cognitive factors of attention, social influence, and motivation that influence learning and the adoption of a new behavior. To explore the effectiveness of this model, simulations modeled the spread of two competing memes in Hamariyah, an archetypal Iraqi village developed for cross-cultural training. Diffusion and clustering analyses were used to examine adoption patterns in these simulations. Agents produced well-defined clusters of early versus late adoption based on their social influences, personality, and contextual factors, such as employment status. These findings indicate that the spread of behavior can be simulated plausibly in a virtual agent society and has the potential to increase the realism of immersive virtual environments.
  • Publication
    Modeling Factions for 'Effects Based Operations': Part II Behavioral Game Theory
    (2007-09-01) Silverman, Barry G; Bharathy, Gnana K; Nye, Benjamin; Smith, Tony E
    Military, diplomatic, and intelligence analysts are increasingly interested in having a valid system of models that span the social sciences and interoperate so that one can determine the effects that may arise from alternative operations (courses of action) in different lands. Part I of this article concentrated on internal validity of the components of such a synthetic framework – a world diplomacy game as well as the agent architecture for modeling leaders and followers in different conflicts. But how valid are such model collections once they are integrated together and used out-of-sample (see Section 1)? Section 2 compares these realistic, descriptive agents to normative rational actor theory and offers equilibria insights for conflict games. Sections 3 and 4 offer two real world cases (Iraq and SE Asia) where the agent models are subjected to validity tests and an EBO experiment is then run for each case. We conclude by arguing that substantial effort on game realism, best-of-breed social science models, and agent validation efforts is essential if analytic experiments are to effectively explore conflicts and alternative ways to influence outcomes. Such efforts are likely to improve behavioral game theory as well.
  • Publication
    Modeling Factions for ‘Effects Based Operations’: Part II – Behavioral Game Theory
    (2007-01-01) Silverman, Barry G; Bharathy, Gnana; Nye, Benjamin; Eidelson, Roy
    Military, diplomatic, and intelligence analysts are increasingly interested in having a valid system of models that span the social sciences and interoperate so that one can determine the effects that may arise from alternative operations (courses of action) in different lands. Part I of this article concentrated on internal validity of the components of such a synthetic framework – a world diplomacy game as well as the agent architecture for modeling leaders and followers in different conflicts. But how valid are such model collections once they are integrated together and used out-of-sample (see Section 1)? Section 2 compares these realistic, descriptive agents to normative rational actor theory and offers equilibria insights for conflict games. Sections 3 and 4 offer two real world cases (Iraq and SE Asia) where the agent models are subjected to validity tests and an EBO experiment is then run for each case. We conclude by arguing that substantial effort on game realism, best-of-breed social science models, and agent validation efforts is essential if analytic experiments are to effectively explore conflicts and alternative ways to influence outcomes. Such efforts are likely to improve behavioral game theory as well.
  • Publication
    Modeling the Personality & Cognition of Leaders
    (2005-05-16) Silverman, Barry G; Bharathy, Gnana K
    This paper summarizes efforts at adapting a personality profiling framework to model behavior and choices of political and military leaders. This is part of a larger project to create a role-playing, decision-making game to allow you to play out scenarios of interest against other leaders. In this modeling exercise we implement the Hermann leader personality profile tool to create historic leaders (Saladin, Richard I, etc.). We then attempt to validate the leader agents against scenarios of the 3rd Crusade.