97,469 research outputs found
The Mismeasure of Consciousness: A problem of coordination for the Perceptual Awareness Scale
As for most measurement procedures in the course of their development, measures of consciousness face the problem of coordination, i.e., the problem of knowing whether a measurement procedure actually measures what it is intended to measure. I focus on the case of the Perceptual Awareness Scale to illustrate how ignoring this problem leads to ambiguous interpretations of subjective reports in consciousness science. In turn, I show that empirical results based on this measurement procedure might be systematically misinterpreted
The measurement of alpha from the B-factories
Significant progress toward measuring the CKM angle alpha has been made by
the B-factories over the past decade. This work has culminated in a constraint
on alpha with a precision of less than 4 degrees.Comment: Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on the Intersections of Particle
and Nuclear Physics, San Diego, California, May 2009 (4 pages
Noncontextuality, Finite Precision Measurement and the Kochen-Specker Theorem
Meyer recently queried whether non-contextual hidden variable models can,
despite the Kochen-Specker theorem, simulate the predictions of quantum
mechanics to within any fixed finite experimental precision. Clifton and Kent
have presented constructions of non-contextual hidden variable theories which,
they argued, indeed simulate quantum mechanics in this way. These arguments
have evoked some controversy. One aim of this paper is to respond to and rebut
criticisms of the MCK papers. We thus elaborate in a little more detail how the
CK models can reproduce the predictions of quantum mechanics to arbitrary
precision. We analyse in more detail the relationship between classicality,
finite precision measurement and contextuality, and defend the claims that the
CK models are both essentially classical and non-contextual. We also examine in
more detail the senses in which a theory can be said to be contextual or
non-contextual, and in which an experiment can be said to provide evidence on
the point. In particular, we criticise the suggestion that a decisive
experimental verification of contextuality is possible, arguing that the idea
rests on a conceptual confusion.Comment: 27 pages; published version; minor changes from previous versio
Privacy or publicity - who drives the wheel?
Financial markets are to a very large extent influenced by the advent of information. Such disclosures, however, do not only contain information about fundamentals underlying the markets, but they also serve as a focal point for the beliefs of market participants. This dual role of information gains further importance for explaining the development of asset valuations when taking into account that information may be perceived individually (private information), or may be commonly shared by all traders (public information). This study investigates into the recently developed theoretical structures explaining the operating mechanism of the two types of information and emphasizes the empirical testability and differentiation between the role of private and public information. Concluding from a survey of experimental studies and own econometric analyses, it is argued that most often public information dominates private information. This finding justifies central bankers´ unease when disseminating news to the markets and argues against the recent trend of demanding full transparency both for financial institutions and financial markets themselves
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