Learning in Evolutionary Environments

The purpose of this work is to present a sort of short selective guide to an enormous and diverse literature on learning processes in economics. We argue that learning is an ubiquitous characteristic of most economic and social systems but it acquires even greater importance in explicitly evolutionary environments where: a) heterogeneous agents systematically display various forms of "bounded rationality"; b) there is a persistent appearance of novelties, both as exogenous shocks and as the result of technological, behavioural and organisational innovations by the agents themselves; c) markets (and other interaction arrangements) perform as selection mechanisms; d) aggregate regularities are primarily emergent properties stemming from out-of-equilibrium interactions. We present, by means of examples, the most important classes of learning models, trying to show their links and differences, and setting them against a sort of ideal framework of "what one would like to understand about learning...". We put a signifiphasis on learning models in their bare-bone formal structure, but we also refer to the (generally richer) non-formal theorising about the same objects. This allows us to provide an easier mapping of a wide and largely unexplored research agenda.Learning, Evolutionary Environments, Economic Theory, Rationality

Pulpits and Pews—Professors and Pagans: A Grounded Theory on Worldview Development and Integration within Christian and Secular Culture

The fragility characterizing the faith of young believers is nothing new to Christianity. Doubts as to whether or not Christianity is actually true continue to pose challenges to Christian youth as they grow into adulthood in an increasingly secularized culture. This study explores the concept of worldview development and integration within Christian youth, and addresses the growing problem of youth apostasy. Utilizing a methodology based on constructivist grounded theory, this study explores the relevant research on worldview integration and development through six worldview elements (Origin, Purpose, Value, Morality, Nature, Destination) to catalog the available data. The analysis of the research data and subsequent findings of the study conclude with the presentation of a new theory: many Christian youth embrace inconsistent views of the world, in addition to incoherent understandings of Christian doctrine. These problems combined in turn cause varying degrees of individual cognitive dissonance for those youth immersed within secular environments/cultures. This cognitive dissonance in turn causes social, emotional, and psychological stress, resulting in youth embracing the “Christian distance” empirically observed through an overwhelming apostasy, where approximately two-thirds of “born again” youth renounce their Christian faith between the time they begin undergraduate university studies and when they graduate. The study concludes with additional research recommendations regarding cognitive dissonance and Christian youth

Fantasy and functionality : Surveying personal italo disco related musical experience as a metaphoric-affective conceptualization process

In this thesis, I study personal musical experience in the light of so-called embodied cognition. According to this research paradigm, meaning arises from our interaction with the physical world in a process where the human body has a mediating role. The process has been shown to be metaphorical by nature, due to which I base my introspective findings mostly on the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) of Lakoff & Johnson. Interaction with environment invokes affects, which has consequences in terms of person’s preference for metaphoric content. The goal of my work is to investigate reasons for my penchant for certain kind of music. Addressing this involves scrutinising my own perceptions and feelings when listening to italo disco, thus, music that I like, and supporting the findings with theories and earlier research. Besides CMT and also traditional music analysis, I utilise, for example, the complementary theories of the sonic object and musical gestures in pointing out experiential entities from textural and timbral elements of an italo disco song. The entities (sonic objects) are expected to arise from an affective sensation of motion, a process where conceptual metaphor plays an important role. Therefore, at the second stage of the analysis, I demonstrate metaphors on the grounds of the sonic objects in an attempt of establishing at least a part of my personal “metaphorical repertoire”. Arnie Cox’s mimetic hypothesis and framework for the study of musical affect is applied particularly during the second part of the analysis. The results of the inquiry confirm my hypothesis about the central role of conceptual metaphor in the emergence of (personal) musical experience. The set of metaphors I succeeded to point out suggest that I’m inclined to music that communicates powerful and energetic, thus clearly arousing affects–music that responds to the need of indulging in fantasy.Tutkin työssäni yksilöllistä musiikkikokemusta niin sanotun kehollisen kognition paradigman kautta. Tämän lähestymistavan mukaan merkitykset syntyvät vuorovaikutuksessa fyysisen maailman kanssa. Keholla on tässä prosessissa välittävä rooli. Prosessi on osoittautunut metaforiseksi, minkä vuoksi pohjaan introspektiiviset havaintoni pääasiassa Lakoffin & Johnsonin käsitteelliseen metaforateoriaan. Ympäristön kanssa vuorovaikutuksessa oleminen herättää affekteja, millä on vaikutusta siihen, minkälaisen metaforasisällön henkilö laittaa etusijalle. Työni tavoitteena on tutkia syitä musiikkimieltymyksiini. Metodina käytän omien aistimusteni ja tunteideni tarkkailua kuunnellessani italodiskoa–musiikkia, joka vetoaa minuun. Tuen introspektion tuloksia eri teorioilla sekä aiemmalla tutkimuksella. Käsitteellisen metaforateorian ja esimerkiksi perinteisen musiikkianalyysin lisäksi käytän muun muassa niin sanotun ääniobjektin ja musiikillisten eleiden teorioita pyrkiessäni osoittamaan kokemusperäisiä kokonaisuuksia italodiskokappaleen tekstuurisista ja äänenvärillisistä osatekijöistä. Kokonaisuuksien (ääniobjektien) voidaan olettaa syntyvän affektiivisen liikkeen aistimuksen pohjalta. Tässä prosessissa käsitteellinen metafora on tärkeässä roolissa. Siksi analyysin toisessa vaiheessa osoitan ääniobjekteihin pohjautuvia käsitteellisiä metaforia tarkoituksenani esitellä osa henkilökohtaisesta ”metaforarepertuaaristani”. Arnie Coxin mimeettistä hypoteesia ja musiikillisen affektin viitekehystä sovelletaan varsinkin analyysin toisessa vaiheessa. Tutkimuksen tulokset vahvistavat hypoteesini käsitteellisen metaforan keskeisestä roolista (henkilökohtaisen) musiikkikokemuksen synnyssä. Osoittamani metaforakokoelma viittaa viehtymykseeni voimakkaita ja energisiä, selvästi kiihottavia affekteja viestivää musiikkia kohtaan–musiikkia, joka mahdollistaa heittäytymisen fantasian maailmaan

The Tragedy of the Self:Lectures on Global Hermeneutics

Why do human beings interpret their overall experience in terms of selfhood? How was the notion and sense of self shaped at different times and in different cultures? What sort of problems or paradoxes did these constructions face? These lectures address these and related questions by sketching a roadmap of possible theoretical avenues for conceiving of the self, bringing to the foreground its soteriological implications, while also testing this theoretical outlook against insights offered by various disciplines. Exploring the crosscultural spectrum of possible ways of conceiving of the self invites the more existential question of whether any of these possibilities might offer resources for dealing with the tragedies of today’s world, or maybe even saving it from some of them

Analyzing Social Construction of Knowledge and Social Networks in Online Discussion Forums in Spanish

This mixed methods research project examined social construction of knowledge and social networks in three non-structured student centered online discussion forums, which were part of a graduate online course on web conferencing in Spanish within the Mexican sociocultural context. The purpose of the study was to identify interaction patterns among twenty-one graduate students by analyzing discussion forum posts, measuring student centrality, and generating social network diagrams in order to explain the characteristics of posts and social networks that may contribute to social construction of knowledge. The researcher used a sequential approach, starting with the application of an interaction analysis model and social network analysis, followed by a combination of both analyses to shed light on interaction in online discussion forums carried out in Spanish. The researcher found evidence of interaction patterns that suggest a possible relationship between the centrality measure in-degree and high levels of social construction of knowledge, furthermore results suggest dissonance or disagreement in student-to-student interaction may also contribute to the achievement of more complex phases of social construction of knowledge

The undecided have the key: Interaction-driven opinion dynamics in a three state model

The effects of interpersonal interactions on individual's agreements result in a social aggregation process which is reflected in the formation of collective states, as for instance, groups of individuals with a similar opinion about a given issue. This field, which has been a longstanding concern of sociologists and psychologists, has been extended into an area of experimental social psychology, and even has attracted the attention of physicists and mathematicians. In this article, we present a novel model of opinion formation in which agents may either have a strict preference for a choice, or be undecided. The opinion shift emerges during interpersonal communications, as a consequence of a cumulative process of conviction for one of the two extremes opinions through repeated interactions. There are two main ingredients which play key roles in determining the steady state: the initial fraction of undecided agents and the conviction's sensitivity in each interaction. As a function of these two parameters, the model presents a wide range of possible solutions, as for instance, consensus of each opinion, bi-polarisation or convergence of undecided individuals. We found that a minimum fraction of undecided agents is crucial not only for reaching consensus of a given opinion, but also to determine a dominant opinion in a polarised situation. In order to gain a deeper comprehension of the dynamics, we also present the theoretical master equations of the model.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

Paradox management delegation: inter and intra-individual variability

While paradox is increasingly presented in organisational literature as a normal, even advisable element, it is still seen as a problem by individuals who are confronted with it on a daily basis. Thus there is a clear gap between researchers' conclusions and real-life situations experienced by practitioners, or maybe a tension between two levels of analysis, organisational and individual levels. We have found that this tension has seldom been studied. In a nutshell, existing literature tends to be divided into two groups. Our research work therefore aims to study the positions of health sector professionals with respect to the paradox management that has been delegated to them, to analyse the extent to which this delegation might alter the pluralistic organisational management of paradoxes. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 of 16 new physician-managers working in a large teaching hospital where the reform was initiated. Our results show that individuals adopt four types of positions when faced with paradox : rejection, detachment, absorption, and transcendence.Paradox ; management ; delegation ; individual variability