Geraint A. Wiggins

ECAI Conference 2012 Conference Paper

Computational Creativity: The Final Frontier?

• Simon Colton
• Geraint A. Wiggins

Notions relating to computational systems exhibiting creative behaviours have been explored since the very early days of computer science, and the field of Computational Creativity research has formed in the last dozen years to scientifically explore the potential of such systems. We describe this field via a working definition; a brief history of seminal work; an exploration of the main issues, technologies and ideas; and a look towards future directions. As a society, we are jealous of our creativity: creative people and their contributions to cultural progression are highly valued. Moreover, creative behaviour in people draws on a full set of intelligent abilities, so simulating such behaviour represents a serious technical challenge for Artificial Intelligence research. As such, we believe it is fair to characterise Computational Creativity as a frontier for AI research beyond all others-maybe, even, the final frontier.

YNIMG Journal 2010 Journal Article

Unsupervised statistical learning underpins computational, behavioural, and neural manifestations of musical expectation

• Marcus T. Pearce
• María Herrojo Ruiz
• Selina Kapasi
• Geraint A. Wiggins
• Joydeep Bhattacharya

The ability to anticipate forthcoming events has clear evolutionary advantages, and predictive successes or failures often entail significant psychological and physiological consequences. In music perception, the confirmation and violation of expectations are critical to the communication of emotion and aesthetic effects of a composition. Neuroscientific research on musical expectations has focused on harmony. Although harmony is important in Western tonal styles, other musical traditions, emphasizing pitch and melody, have been rather neglected. In this study, we investigated melodic pitch expectations elicited by ecologically valid musical stimuli by drawing together computational, behavioural, and electrophysiological evidence. Unlike rule-based models, our computational model acquires knowledge through unsupervised statistical learning of sequential structure in music and uses this knowledge to estimate the conditional probability (and information content) of musical notes. Unlike previous behavioural paradigms that interrupt a stimulus, we devised a new paradigm for studying auditory expectation without compromising ecological validity. A strong negative correlation was found between the probability of notes predicted by our model and the subjectively perceived degree of expectedness. Our electrophysiological results showed that low-probability notes, as compared to high-probability notes, elicited a larger (i) negative ERP component at a late time period (400–450 ms), (ii) beta band (14–30 Hz) oscillation over the parietal lobe, and (iii) long-range phase synchronization between multiple brain regions. Altogether, the study demonstrated that statistical learning produces information-theoretic descriptions of musical notes that are proportional to their perceived expectedness and are associated with characteristic patterns of neural activity.

LOPSTR Conference 1996 Conference Paper

Logic Program Synthesis by Induction over Horn Clauses

• Andrew J. Parkes
• Geraint A. Wiggins

Abstract We report on the implementation of a new induction scheme in the Whelk logic program synthesis and transformation system [5]. The scheme is based on work by Feferman [1], and allows constructive proof by induction over the minimal Herbrand model of a set of Horn Clauses. This is an important addition to the Whelk system, because it admits reasoning about and synthesis from “real” logic programs, whereas previously the system was limited to induction over recursive data structures. The contribution of this work is practical, in the extension of the synthesis capability of the Whelk program synthesis system. Theoretically, it is closely related to an extension of [2] (reported in [3]), where a similar induction scheme is used to synthesise logic programs which embody functions. Full details of the extension and its implementation may be found in [4].

KER Journal 1995 Journal Article

The Gödel programming language by Patricia Hill and John W. Lloyd, The MIT Press, 1994, pp 337, £40. 50/$60.75, ISBN 0-262-08229-2.

• Geraint A. Wiggins

AIJ Journal 1995 Journal Article

Understanding music with AI—Perspectives on cognitive musicology

• Geraint A. Wiggins

LOPSTR Conference 1994 Conference Paper

Guiding Synthesis Proofs

• Vincent Lombart
• Geraint A. Wiggins
• Yves Deville

LOPSTR Conference 1994 Conference Paper

Improving the Whelk System: A Type-Theoretic Reconstruction

• Geraint A. Wiggins

Abstract I present a reformulation of the Whelk system [Wiggins 92b], as a higher-order type theory. The theory is based on that of [Martin-Löf 79], adapted to facilitate the extraction of logic programs from proof objects. A notion of normalization is used to ensure that the extracted program is executable by standard logic-programming methods. The extension admits specifications over types and programs, and so allows modularity and the construction of program combinators. In doing so, it demonstrates that logic program synthesis techniques have potential for solving “industrial-strength” problems.

LOPSTR Conference 1992 Conference Paper

Synthesis and Transfomation of Logic Programs from Constructive, Inductive Proof

• Geraint A. Wiggins
• Alan Bundy
• Ina Kraan
• Jane Hesketh

Abstract We discuss a technique which allows synthesis of logic programs in the “proofs-as-programs” paradigm [Constable 82]. Constructive, inductive proof is used to show that the specification of a program is realisable; elaboration of a proof gives rise to the synthesis of a program which realises it. We present an update on earlier ideas, and give examples of and justification for them. The work is presented as foundation for further work in proof planning, where we aim to synthesise not only programs, but good programs.