Building Behavioral Models of People

Intriguing behavioral modeling approach.

Computers Learn to Understand Humans Better by Modeling Them
Aalto University

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland, the University of Birmingham in the U.K., and the University of Oslo in Norway have developed a method that could help computers learn psychologically plausible models of individual people by observing them. The researchers showed that by observing how long a user takes to click on menu items, a program can infer a model that reproduces similar behavior and accurately estimates some characteristics of that user's visual system, such as fixation durations. 

The method is based on Approximate Bayesian Computation, which was developed to deduce very complex models from observations. The researchers say the method clears a path for automatic inference of complex models of human behavior from naturalistic observations. "The benefit of our approach is that much smaller amount of data is needed than for 'black box' methods," says Aalto's Antti Kangasraasio. The method could be useful in human-robotic interaction, or in automatically assessing individuals' capabilities.  ... "