The Development of Working Memory: Exploring the Complementarity of Two Models

Author version made available in accordance with the publisher's policy for non-mandated open access submission. Under Elsevier's copyright, non-mandated authors are permitted to make work available in an institutional repository.The aim of the paper was to further explore the complementarity of the working memory models postulated by Pascual-Leone and Baddeley. Five-, six-, eight- and nine-year-old children were assessed on two working memory tasks, which have frequently been used within the respective streams of research: the Mr. Peanut task and the Corsi blocks task. Results indicated a developmental increase in spatial short-term memory for both tasks. Concurrent spatial suppression reduced performance on the two tasks in all four age groups. By contrast, articulatory suppression only interfered with recall on the Mr. Peanut task, and only in the older children. The two models were shown to make their own specific contribution to the interpretation of the data, attesting to their complementarity. Pascual-Leone’s theory offered a clear explanation of the results concerning the central aspects of working memory, i.e. the stepwise age-related increase in performance, whereas Baddeley’s model provided a convincing account of the findings regarding the peripheral phonological and visuo-spatial components, i.e. the effects of articulatory and spatial suppression. Key Words: short-term memory; spatial memory; information processing capacity; memory development; working memory models; rehearsal strategies; cognitive development

Rational Attention Allocation over the Business Cycle

The literature assessing whether mutual fund managers have skill typically regards skill as an immutable attribute of the manager or the fund. Yet, many measures of skill, such as returns, alphas, and measures of stock-picking and market-timing, appear to vary over the business cycle. Because time-varying ability seems far-fetched, these results call into question the existence of skill itself. This paper offers a rational explanation, arguing that skill is a general cognitive ability that can be applied to different tasks, such as picking stocks or market timing. Using tools from the rational inattention literature, we show that the relative value of these tasks varies cyclically. The model generates indirect predictions for the dispersion and returns of fund portfolios that distinguish this explanation from others and which are supported by the data. In turn, these findings offer useful evidence to support the notion of rational attention allocation

Development of a fast laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry cell for sub-µm scanning of layered materials

Performance data are reported for a commercially available laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) setup, equipped with a custom-made cell. The low dispersion ablation cell and the connecting tubing achieve a 99% washout of the aerosol in similar to 6 ms, enabling separated pulse responses at frequencies up to 200-300 Hz. In addition, the cell employed supports a post-acquisition methodology for the deconvolution of overlapping ablation positions in scanning mode by an iterative Richardson-Lucy algorithm. This enables correction of the distortion in the scan profile upon traversing layers with dimensions below the physical size of the laser beam. By overlapping the ablation positions of a 1 mu m diameter laser beam, a lateral resolution in the order of 0.3 +/- 0.1 mu m was demonstrated for scanning of mu m-sized layers in high capacitance multi-layer ceramic capacitors

The Tamm-Dancoff Approximation as the boson limit of the Richardson-Gaudin equations for pairing

A connection is made between the exact eigen states of the BCS Hamiltonian and the predictions made by the Tamm-Dancoff Approximation. This connection is made by means of a parametrised algebra, which gives the exact quasi-spin algebra in one limit of the parameter and the Heisenberg-Weyl algebra in the other. Using this algebra to construct the Bethe Ansatz solution of the BCS Hamiltonian, we obtain parametrised Richardson-Gaudin equations, leading to the secular equation of the Tamm-Dancoff Approximation in the bosonic limit. An example is discussed in depth.Comment: Submitted to the proceedings of the Group28 conference (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK). Journal of Physics: Conference Serie

Too-Systemic-To-Fail: What Option Markets Imply About Sector-Wide Government Guarantees

A conspicuous amount of aggregate tail risk is missing from the price of financial sector crash insurance during the 2007-2009 crisis. The difference in costs of out-of-the-money put options for individual banks, and puts on the financial sector index, increases fourfold from its pre-crisis level. At the same time, correlations among bank stocks surge, suggesting the high put spread cannot be attributed to a relative increase in idiosyncratic risk. We show that this phenomenon is unique to the financial sector, that it cannot be explained by observed risk dynamics (volatilities and correlations), and that illiquidity and no-arbitrage violations are unlikely culprits. Instead, we provide evidence that a collective government guarantee for the financial sector lowers index put prices far more than those of individual banks, explaining the divergence in the basket-index spread. By embedding a bailout in the standard one-factor option pricing model, we can closely replicate observed put spread dynamics. During the crisis, the spread responds acutely to government intervention announcements

Harmoney : semantics for FinTech

As a result of legislation imposed by the European Parliament, in order to protect inhabitants from being exposed to a too high financial risk when investing in a variety of financial markets and products, Financial Service Providers (FSPs) are obliged to test the knowledge and experience of potential investors. This is oftemtimes done by means of questionnaires. However, these questionnaires differ in style and structure from one FSP to the other. The goal of this research is to manage in a more cost-effective manner (aligned with the needs and competencies of the individual financial investor in terms of products and services) the management of the private equity and to facilitate the fine-tuned personalised financial advisory services needed. This is achieved by means of a knowledge-based approach, integrating the available information of the investor (e.g. personal profile in terms of financial knowledge and experience) and for an extendable amount of financial service providers w ith their financial products and demonstrated by a number of exemplary use case scenarios

Arbeidsimmigratie naar Nederland

Deze studie gaat over de immigratie van vreemdelingen die komen werken. Wij hanteren de begrippen arbeidsimmigrant en buitenlandse werknemer door elkaar. Deze studie gaat in eerste instantie niet over vreemdelingen die voor een ander doel komen zoals het vragen van asiel of voor gezinshereniging, en hun positie op de arbeidsmarkt. Ook wordt in de door ons geraadpleegde bronnen onderscheid gemaakt tussen tijdelijke arbeidsimmigratie en permanente arbeidsimmigratie. Het begrip tijdelijke arbeidsimmigratie kan betekenen dat een arbeidsimmigrant volgens de regels maar een maximaal aantal maanden of jaren mag blijven, zoals seizoensarbeiders of een universitair gastdocent (juridisch tijdelijk). Uit cijfers van het CBS blijkt dat een groot aantal arbeidsimmigranten binnen zes jaar uit Nederland vertrekt (feitelijk tijdelijk). Van permanente arbeidsimmigratie is sprake als het de arbeidsimmigrant is toegestaan zich permanent te vestigen (juridisch permanent). Of de arbeidsimmigrant dat ook daadwerkelijk doet is daarmee nog niet gezegd. Er zijn ook arbeidsimmigranten die in eerste instantie tijdelijk komen maar toch langer blijven, bij dezelfde of een andere werkgever, al dan niet illegaal, of op grond van bijvoorbeeld gezinsvorming (feitelijk permanent)