Looking Times

Published

October 15, 2025

Modified

September 26, 2025

About

The following represents Rick Gilmore’s explorations with the Mermaid diagramming feature within Quarto version 1.8.24.

The figures use the sequenceDiagram type to reflect the structure of a simple looking time experiment.

The figures are relevant for work we did in class on Weeks 03, 04, and 05.

Note

These are in no way illustrative or definitive. They simply represent Gilmore’s efforts to learn more about Mermaid while trying to create diagrams that reflect his understanding of the underlying processess and mechanisms at work in looking time studies.

Version 1

sequenceDiagram
  participant Display
  actor Infant
  participant Away
  Display-->>Infant: Event
  loop Where to look next
    Infant->>Infant: Look until I'm sick of this sh*t
    alt is novel
      Infant->>Display: Look
      Display->>Infant: Info
    else is familiar
      Infant->>Away: Look
      Away->>Infant: Info
    end
  end

Version 2

sequenceDiagram
  participant World
  actor Infant
  participant Knowledge
  World -->> Infant: Info
  Infant -->> World: Look
  loop Where to look next
    Infant -->> Knowledge: Perception
    note right of Knowledge: Each look adds to knowledge
    Knowledge -->> Infant: Prediction
      alt is Perception != Prediction
        Infant->>World: Keep Looking
        World->>Infant: More Info
      else is Perception == Prediction
        Infant->>World: Look elsewhere
        World->>Infant: New Info
      end
    end

On core knowledge

sequenceDiagram
  participant Perception
  participant Episodic_Memory
  participant Core_Knowledge
  Perception -->> Episodic_Memory: Recent events
  Episodic_Memory -->> Episodic_Memory: Accumulate info
  Episodic_Memory -->> Episodic_Memory: Compare to stored info
  Episodic_Memory -->> Perception: Novel = f(Recent - Stored)
  Perception -->> Core_Knowledge: Seeing now
  Core_Knowledge -->> Core_Knowledge: Compare to principles
  Core_Knowledge -->> Perception: Violation = f(Recent - Principles)