Behavioral and Experimental Economics Can Inform Public Policy: Some Thoughts

Experimental and behavioral economics are well established branches in the economic science. This essay presents and discusses some results and behavioral regularities from these fields which are of potential importance for public policy. After a brief introduction of what experimental and behavioral economics is, some behavioural regularities as presentation and framing effects, pro-social behavior, and reciprocity are introduced and it is reported how they interact with prominent trading institutions, taxation, and social and individual well-being. Throughout some implications for public policy are discussed.public economics, experimental economics, behavioral economics, public policy

Workshop on Beauty and Explanation in Mathematics

On March 10-12, 2014, Umeå University in Sweden will host a workshop on mathematical beauty and explanation. The goal of this workshop is explore the question of whether beauty and explanation are related in mathematics. The workshop will bring together top researchers from fields such as mathematics, philosophy, and mathematics education for which this topic is relevant. Many of these researchers have till now worked within their own discipline boundaries on related topics, but have not met or worked with each other. We hope the workshop not only develops the programs of these established researchers, but also sparks interest in young researchers and encourages others to contribute to this specific question, or other related questions about the nature of mathematics. Registration is currently open, and will remain so until the capacity, of around 30 participants, is filled

Socialization as reflexive social membering

Vor dem Hintergrund der klassischen sozialisationstheoretischen Auffassung von Entwicklung als Individualisierung durch Vergesellschaftung werden anhand von Befunden aus der Kindheitsforschung, der Entwicklungspsychologie, der Erwachsenen- und der Sexualpädagogik einige der wichtigsten Argumente vorgestellt, die in der aktuellen Sozialisationsdiskussion eine epistemologische Wende vom Modell des vergesellschafteten Subjekts zur Selbstsozialisation nahelegen. Durch die Zentrierung auf ein Selbst, das sich durch die eigenständige Wahrnehmung von subjektiv sich bietenden Vergesellschaftungsoptionen individualisiert, geraten jedoch die aus sozialisationstheoretischer Sicht elementaren Zusammenhänge zwischen den Formen der gesellschaftlichen Ordnung, der sozialen Handlungspraxis und der biographischen Entwicklung aus dem Blick. Dagegen verteidigt der Begriff der reflexiven Vergesellschaftung die paradigmatischen Ansprüche der klassischen Sozialisationstheorie gerade auch, indem er sich die deskriptiven Stärken des Selbstsozialisationskonzepts zu eigen macht. (DIPF/Orig.)Socialization theory traditionally views human development as individualization via social integration. Against this background, the article examines why an epistemological shift is occurring - from the socialized subject to self-socialization. This will be done with reference to arguments from childhood research, developmental psychology, adult education and sexual pedagogy. But focusing on a subject as an agent of his or her own development, taking and realizing social options, ignores the fact that society, individual action and biography are interconnected. In contrast, the concept of reflexive socialization defends the conceptual demands of socialization theory by using the descriptive potential of the self-socialization discussion. (DIPF/Orig.

The Question of Purpose in Music Theory: Description, Suggestion, and Explanation

Is musical structure something in the mind of the listener, in which case its elucidation involves the description of (perhaps unconscious) psychological processes and representations? Or is it something that resides in the musical object itself perhaps, in large part, not normally part of the listener's hearing and experience, but revealed by the analyst with the aim of enhancing that experience? Temperley explores the purpose and definition of music theory

Des stratégies pour favoriser le transfert des connaissances en écriture au collégial

Écrire exige le recours à plusieurs connaissances. Cette recherche a comme objectifs d'étudier comment s'effectue le transfert des connaissances en écriture et de vérifier quelles sont les stratégies les plus efficaces pour le favoriser. Deux stratégies d'utilisation du transfert, le transfert spontané et le transfert informé, ont été utilisées dans deux contextes différents, un contexte de transfert rapproché et un de transfert éloigné. L'analyse montre qu'une stratégie de transfert informé ne donne pas de résultats supérieurs à une stratégie de transfert spontané, tant dans un contexte de transfert rapproché que dans un contexte de transfert éloigné.Various knowledges are involved in the writing task. The objective of this research is to examine how the transfer of knowledge about writing occurs and to verify those strategies which are most facilitating. The two strategies examined, spontaneous transfer and directed transfer, were applied in two contexts, one requiring close transfer and a second requiring distant transfer. The results showed that a directed transfer strategy does not produce better results than a spontaneous transfer strategy; this being noted in both contexts examined.Escribir exige recurrir a diversos conocimientos. Esta investigacion tiene por objetivo estudiar cômo se efectua la transferencia de conocimientos en escrituray cuales estrategias son mas eficaces para favorecerla. Dos estrategias de uso de la transferencia, la transferencia espontanea y la transferencia informada, fueron utilizadas en dos contextos diferentes: una transferencia cercana y una distante. El anàlisis muestra que una estrategia de transferencia informada no arroja resultados superiores a una de transferencia espontanea, tanto en un contexto de transferencia cercana como distante.Schreiben erfordert die Anwendung mehrerer Kenntnisse. Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die Ubertragung des Wissens in schriftliche Form zu untersuchen, und festzustellen, welche Wege fur ihre Fôrderung am wirksamsten sind. Zwei Methoden der Ubertragung - spontané und informierte - wurden in zwei verschiedenen Situationen angewandt, eine Situation mit unmittelbarer und eine mit spâterer Ubertragung. Die Analyse zeigt, dafi eine informierte Ubertragungsmethode keine besseren Ergebnisse bringt als die spontané, sei es in einem unmittelbaren, sei es in einem entfernteren Kontext

Effort Reduction In Articulation In Sign Languages And Dance

Sign languages exhibit the drive for ease of articulation found in spoken languages, particularly in fast and casual conversation, where the methods that reduce effort are shown here to be limited by the need to maintain recognizability. Participatory dance, which uses the same articulators as sign languages plus additional ones, also demonstrates methods of reducing biomechanical effort, analogous to those seen in sign languages, and, again, limited by the need to maintain recognizability of the dance figures/phrases. However, when we look at performance language (here, sign poetry) and performance dance, we find a contrast: sign language poetry uses reduced and enhanced forms, while performance dance does not use reduced forms but often uses enhanced forms. We attribute this contrast to the different functions of the different types of language and dance, with attention to the notion of intention in performance dance

A Problem-Solving Account of Scientific Explanation

An account of scientific explanation is presented according to which (1) scientific explanation consists in solving “insight” problems (Metcalfe and Wiebe 1984) and (2) understanding is the result of solving such problems. The theory is pragmatic; it draws upon van Fraassen’s (1977, 1980) insights, avoids the objections to pragmatic accounts offered by Kitcher and Salmon (1987), and relates scientific explanation directly to understanding. The theory also accommodates cases of explanatory asymmetry and intuitively legitimate rejections of explanation requests

Multimodalna dynamika koordynacji, czyli Michael Turvey i psychologia według inżynierów (nie tylko dla inżynierów)

W ważnej części wkładu Michaela T. Turveya do psychologii ekologicznej znajdują się rozważania nad koordynacją ruchu, w szczególności – w odniesieniu do środowiska. Propozycja ta pełni ważną rolę w początkach debaty nad kontrolą motoryczną, która to dziś ma znaczenie daleko szersze od pierwotnego, w tym dla kognitywistyki. Przedstawiona została w zarysie droga tej debaty od początków do dnia dzisiejszego, ze wskazaniem jej różnorodności i roli tego, co przed 30 latami zaproponował Michael T. Turvey

Empirical Lessons for Philosophical Theories of Mental Content

This thesis concerns the content of mental representations. It draws lessons for philosophical theories of content from some empirical findings about brains and behaviour drawn from experimental psychology (cognitive, developmental, comparative), cognitive neuroscience and cognitive science (computational modelling). Chapter 1 motivates a naturalist and realist approach to mental representation. Chapter 2 sets out and defends a theory of content for static feedforward connectionist networks, and explains how the theory can be extended to other supervised networks. The theory takes forward Churchland’s state space semantics by making a new and clearer proposal about the syntax of connectionist networks − one which nicely accounts for representational development. Chapter 3 argues that the same theoretical approach can be extended to unsupervised connectionist networks, and to some of the representational systems found in real brains. The approach can also show why connectionist systems sometimes show typicality effects, explaining them without relying upon prototype structure. That is discussed in chapter 4, which also argues that prototype structure, where it does exist, does not determine content. The thesis goes on to defend some unorthodox features of the foregoing theory: that a role is assigned to external samples in specifying syntax, that both inputs to and outputs from the system have a role in determining content, and that the content of a representation is partly determined by the circumstances in which it developed. Each, it is argued, may also be a fruitful way of thinking about mental content more generally. Reliance on developmental factors prompts a swampman-type objection. This is rebutted by reference to three possible reasons why content is attributed at all. Two of these motivations support the idea that content is partly determined by historical factors, and the third is consistent with it. The result: some empirical lessons for philosophical theories of mental content.Philosophy of Min