Method and apparatus for educating and influencing an individual

• US 8,038,448 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2005
• Issued: 10/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sandra Kallander
• Original Assignee: Sandra Kallander
• Inventors: Kallander, Sandra
• Primary Examiner(s): Mosser; Kathleen
• Assistant Examiner(s): EGLOFF, PETER RICHARD
• Application Number:
  US11/159,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20070009870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,309 Days
• Field of Search: 434/322, 434/323, 434/350, 434/236, 706/47, 705/12, 705/26.7, 705/27.1
• US Class Current: 434/323
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/06 of the multiple-choice answer-type, i.e. where a given question is provided with a series of answers and a choice has to be made from the answers

Abstract

A method and apparatus for influencing a person to develop, accept and/or understand a concept, position or idea using questioning, including a technique sometimes known as the Socratic Method. A universe of question and answer subsets comprising questions and respective multiple choice answers to each question designed in advance, arranged and inter-connected on a stand-alone computer, a computer on a local area network or computer network, or any computer network and displayed in such a way as to allow the participant to follow the individual'"'"'s own path by selecting answers he accepts, which tend to logically lead the individual toward agreement and or understanding on the subject.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for persuading participants to accept and/or understand a concept, position or idea, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a logic map comprising one or more question-and-answers sets, including;

defining a target answer desired to be elicited from the participants and one or more secondary answers if the desired target answer is not elicited, the target answer indicating that the participants at least one of accept and understand one of a concept, position, and idea, in the area of political activism,

defining characteristics of prospective participants, including at least one of prejudices, interests, experiences, mind-sets, values, skills, personalities, limitations and expectations,

defining one or more rational lines of reasoning corresponding to the determined characteristics for leading the participants to agree to and choose the target answer or one of the one or more secondary answers, and

defining multiple-choice interlinked question-and-answers sets corresponding to the one or more lines of reasoning, such that an answer to a question-and-answers set links to a next question of a question-and-answers set, including;

defining one or more qualifying question-and-answers sets based on the defined characteristics of the prospective participants and configured to determine the participants'"'"' current state of concurrence or non-concurrence with, and opinion concerning, the concept, position, and idea in the area of political activism, the qualifying question-and-answers sets offering divergent answer choices to the participants, and including at least one final, key qualifying question-and-answers set configured to determine the reasons for the participants'"'"' current opinion and the strength of the participants'"'"' current opinion,

defining one or more leading question-and-answers sets linked to the qualifying question-and-answers sets and based on the defined characteristics of the prospective participants, including the participants'"'"' current state of concurrence or non-concurrence, the reasons for the participants'"'"' current opinion, and the strength of the participant'"'"'s current opinion, and configured to lead the prospective participants to concurrence with the concept, position, and idea in the area of political activism, and

defining one or more closing question-and-answers sets linked to the qualifying question-and-answers sets and the leading question-and-answers sets and at an end of the lines of reasoning including the target answer, wherein the leading question-and-answers sets are designed to become increasingly specific and converge on a desired closing question-and-answers set;

associating each of the answers in the closing question-and-answers sets with a final message to the participants;

storing the logic map in a database coupled to a server computer;

generating by the server computer a first question-and-answers set from the stored logic map, wherein a client computer accesses the first generated question-and-answers set from the server computer;

receiving by the server computer an answer selected by a participant from the first generated question-and-answers set via the client computer;

generating by the server computer a second question-and-answers set associated in the stored logic map with the selected answer to the first generated question-and-answers set; and

repeating the steps of generating by the server computer question-and-answers sets, receiving selections to answers from the generated question-and-answers sets, and generating by the server computer question-and-answers sets associated with the selected answers to the generated question-and-answers sets, until the participant has reached a closing question-and-answers set corresponding to the end of a line of reasoning and has been presented with the final message associated therewith.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the client and server are connected over a communications network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the client and server comprise a general purpose computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein question and answers from a question-and-answers set are in the form of a prompt and respective responses to the prompt.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the question-and-answers sets includes one or more of a narrative, a picture, and an audio or video presentation to provide context for the question-and-answers sets.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the question-and-answers sets includes an option for the participant to communicate the participant'"'"'s ideas regarding a presented question or answer or the line of reasoning, followed by an option to resume participation or end the process.

7. A computer implemented system for persuading participants to accept and/or understand a concept, position or idea, the system comprising:

a server computer;

a database coupled to the server computer; and

a logic map stored in the database coupled to the server computer,

wherein the logic map is created comprising one or more question-and-answers sets, and including;

a predefined target answer desired to be elicited from the participants and one or more secondary answers if the desired answer is not elicited, the predefined target answer indicating that the participants at least one of accept and understand one of a concept, position, and idea, in the area of political activism,

one or more predefined rational lines of reasoning for leading the participants to agree to and choose the target answer or one of the one or more secondary answers corresponding to predefined characteristics of prospective participants, including at least one of prejudices, interests, experiences, mind-sets, values, skills, personalities, limitations and expectations,

predefined multiple-choice interlinked question-and-answers sets corresponding to the one or more lines of reasoning, such that an answer to a question-and-answers set links to a next question of a question-and-answers set, and including;

one or more predefined qualifying question-and-answers sets based on the defined characteristics of the prospective participants and configured to determine the participants'"'"' current state of concurrence or non-concurrence with, and opinion concerning, the concept, position, and idea in the area of political activism, the qualifying question-and-answers sets offering divergent answer choices to the participant, and including at least one final, key qualifying question-and-answers set configured to determine the reasons for the participants'"'"' current opinion and the strength of the participants'"'"' current opinion,

one or more predefined leading question-and-answers sets linked to the qualifying question-and-answers sets and based on the defined characteristics of the prospective participants, including the participants'"'"' current state of concurrence or non-concurrence, the reasons for the participants'"'"' current opinion, and the strength of the participants'"'"' current opinion, and configured to lead the prospective participants to concurrence with the concept, position, and idea in the area of political activism, and

one or more predefined closing question-and-answers sets linked to the qualifying question-and-answers sets and the leading question-and-answers sets and at an end of the lines of reasoning including the target answer, wherein the leading question-and-answers sets are configured to become increasingly specific and converge on a desired closing question-and-answers set, and wherein each of the answers in the closing question-and-answers set is associated with a final message to the participants,

the server computer generates a first question-and-answers set based on the stored logic map, wherein a client computer accesses the first generated question-and-answers set from the server computer,

the server computer receives an answer selected by a participant from the first generated question-and-answers set via the client computer,

the server computer generates a second question-and-answers set associated in the stored logic map with the selected answer to the first generated question-and-answers set, and

the steps of generating by the server question-and-answers sets, receiving selections to answers from the generated question-and-answers sets, and generating by the server question-and-answers sets associated with the selected answers to the generated question-and-answers sets are repeated, until the participant has reached a closing question-and-answers set corresponding to the end of a line of reasoning and has been presented with the final message associated therewith.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the client and server are connected over a communications network.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the client and server comprise a general purpose computer.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein question and answers from a question-and-answers set are in the form of a prompt and respective responses to the prompt.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein one or more of the question-and-answers sets includes one or more of a narrative, a picture, and an audio or video presentation to provide context for the question-and-answers sets.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein one or more of the question-and-answers sets includes an option for the participant to communicate the participant'"'"'s ideas regarding a presented question or answer or the line of reasoning, followed by an option to resume participation or end the process.

13. A computer program product for persuading participants to accept and/or understand a concept, position or idea, and including one or more computer readable instructions embedded on a computer readable medium and configured to cause one or more computer processors to perform the step of:

storing a logic map in a database coupled to a server computer,

wherein the logic map is created comprising one or more question-and-answers sets, and including;

a predefined target answer desired to be elicited from the participants and one or more secondary answers if the desired answer is not elicited, the predefined target answer indicating that the participants at least one of accept and understand one of a concept, position, and idea, in the area of political activism,

one or more predefined rational lines of reasoning for leading the participants to agree to and choose the target answer or one of the one or more secondary answers corresponding to predefined characteristics of prospective participants, including at least one of prejudices, interests, experiences, mind-sets, values, skills, personalities, limitations and expectations,

predefined multiple-choice interlinked question-and-answers sets corresponding to the one or more lines of reasoning, such that an answer to a question-and-answers set links to a next question of a question-and-answers set, and including;

one or more predefined qualifying question-and-answers sets based on the defined characteristics of the prospective participants and configured to determine the participants'"'"' current state of concurrence or non-concurrence with, and opinion concerning, the concept, position, and idea in the area of political activism, the qualifying question-and-answers sets offering divergent answer choices to the participant, and including at least one final, key qualifying question-and-answers set configured to determine the reasons for the participants'"'"' current opinion and the strength of the participants'"'"' current opinion,

one or more predefined leading question-and-answers sets linked to the qualifying question-and-answers sets and based on the defined characteristics of the prospective participants, including the participants'"'"' current state of concurrence or non-concurrence, the reasons for the participants'"'"' current opinion, and the strength of the participants'"'"' current opinion, and configured to lead the prospective participants to concurrence with the concept, position, and idea in the area of political activism, and

one or more predefined closing question-and-answers sets linked to the qualifying question-and-answers sets and the leading question-and-answers sets and at an end of the lines of reasoning including the target answer, wherein the leading question-and-answers sets are configured to become increasingly specific and converge on a desired closing question-and-answers set, and wherein each of the answers in the closing question-and-answers sets is associated with a final message to the participants;

generating by the server computer a first question-and-answers set from the stored logic map, wherein a client computer accesses the first generated question-and-answers set from the server computer;

receiving by the server computer an answer selected by a participant from the first generated question-and-answers set via the client computer;

generating by the server computer a second question-and-answers set associated in the stored logic map with the selected answer to the first generated question-and-answers set; and

repeating the steps of generating by the server computer question-and-answers sets, receiving selections to answers from the generated question-and-answers sets, and generating by the server computer question-and-answers sets associated with the selected answers to the generated question-and-answers sets, until the participant has reached a closing question-and-answers set corresponding to the end of a line of reasoning and has been presented with the final message associated therewith.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the client and server are connected over a communications network.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the client and server comprise a general purpose computer.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein question and answers from a question-and-answers set are in the form of a prompt and respective responses to the prompt.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein one or more of the question-and-answers sets includes one or more of a narrative, a picture, and an audio or video presentation to provide context for the question-and-answers sets.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein one or more of the question-and-answers sets includes an option for the participant to communicate the participant'"'"'s ideas regarding a presented question or answer or the line of reasoning, followed by an option to resume participation or end the process.