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Sample records for rational expectations hypothesis

  1. The Rational Expectations Hypothesis: An assessment on its real world application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Santiago Tobón

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The Rational Expectations Hypothesis was first developed as a theoretical technique aimed at explaining agents’ behavior in a given environment. In particular, it describes how the outcome of a given economic phenomenon depends to a certain degree on what agents expect to happen. Subsequently, it was introduced into macroeconomic models as a way to explain the ineffectiveness of monetary policy. Since then, most of these models have been based on the rational expectations assumption. This paper assesses the real life application of this feature based on two arguments: the determination of an objective reality through beliefs and subjective expectations; and the exclusion of the evolution of human knowledge and innovation in macroeconomic models.

  2. Testing the Rational Expectations Hypothesis on the Retail Trade Sector Using Survey Data from Malaysia

    OpenAIRE

    Puah, Chin-Hong; Chong, Lucy Lee-Yun; Jais, Mohamad

    2011-01-01

    The rational expectations hypothesis states that when people are expecting things to happen, using the available information, the predicted outcomes usually occur. This study utilized survey data provided by the Business Expectations Survey of Limited Companies to test whether forecasts of the Malaysian retail sector, based on gross revenue and capital expenditures, are rational. The empirical evidence illustrates that the decision-makers expectations in the retail sector are biased and too o...

  3. The Qualitative Expectations Hypothesis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Frydman, Roman; Johansen, Søren; Rahbek, Anders

    We introduce the Qualitative Expectations Hypothesis (QEH) as a new approach to modeling macroeconomic and financial outcomes. Building on John Muth's seminal insight underpinning the Rational Expectations Hypothesis (REH), QEH represents the market's forecasts to be consistent with the predictions...... of an economist's model. However, by assuming that outcomes lie within stochastic intervals, QEH, unlike REH, recognizes the ambiguity faced by an economist and market participants alike. Moreover, QEH leaves the model open to ambiguity by not specifying a mechanism determining specific values that outcomes take...

  4. The Qualitative Expectations Hypothesis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Frydman, Roman; Johansen, Søren; Rahbek, Anders

    2017-01-01

    We introduce the Qualitative Expectations Hypothesis (QEH) as a new approach to modeling macroeconomic and financial outcomes. Building on John Muth's seminal insight underpinning the Rational Expectations Hypothesis (REH), QEH represents the market's forecasts to be consistent with the predictions...... of an economistís model. However, by assuming that outcomes lie within stochastic intervals, QEH, unlike REH, recognizes the ambiguity faced by an economist and market participants alike. Moreover, QEH leaves the model open to ambiguity by not specifying a mechanism determining specific values that outcomes take...

  5. Rational expectations, risk and efficiency in energy futures markets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Serletis, Apostolos (Calgary Univ., AB (CA). Dept. of Economics)

    1991-04-01

    Conditional on the hypothesis that energy futures markets are efficient or rational, this paper uses Fama's regression approach to measure the information in energy futures prices about future spot prices and time varying premiums. The paper finds that the premium and expected future spot price components of energy futures prices are negatively correlated and that most of the variation in futures prices is variation in expected premiums. (author).

  6. Towards a Characterization of Rational Expectations

    OpenAIRE

    Itai Arieli

    2008-01-01

    R. J. Aumann and J. H. Drèze (2008) define a rational expectation of a player i in a game G as the expected payo of some type of i in some belief system for G in which common knowledge of rationality and common priors obtain. Our goal is to characterize the set of rational expectations in terms of the game's payoff matrix. We provide such a characterization for a specific class of strategic games, called semi-elementary, which includes Myerson's "elementary" games.

  7. Lessons from Learning to Have Rational Expectations

    OpenAIRE

    Lindh, Thomas

    1989-01-01

    This paper reviews a growing literature investigating how economic agents may learn rational expectations. Fully rational learning requires implausible initial information assumptions, therefore some form of bounded rationality has come into focus. Such learning models often converge to rational expectations equilibria within certain bounds. Convergence analysis has been much simplified by methods from adaptive control theory. Learning stability as a correspondence principle show some promise...

  8. Learning to Learn: A Case for the Heterogeneous Expectations Hypothesis in Industrialized Markets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Desmond W. Ng

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available A cobweb model is developed where the heterogeneous expectation hypothesis is examined. An agent’s heterogeneous expectation involves the development of a “higher ordered learning” process in which agents over time develop expectations that are consistent with rational expectations. In addition, as cob web models are production based systems, an agents’ heterogeneous expectations are influenced by a specialization of activities. The case of the industrialization of the U.S. hog-pork industry is used to illustrate the influence of these features on the equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties of a modified cob-web model.

  9. Grade Expectations: Rationality and Overconfidence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan R. Magnus

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Confidence and overconfidence are essential aspects of human nature, but measuring (overconfidence is not easy. Our approach is to consider students' forecasts of their exam grades. Part of a student's grade expectation is based on the student's previous academic achievements; what remains can be interpreted as (overconfidence. Our results are based on a sample of about 500 second-year undergraduate students enrolled in a statistics course in Moscow. The course contains three exams and each student produces a forecast for each of the three exams. Our models allow us to estimate overconfidence quantitatively. Using these models we find that students' expectations are not rational and that most students are overconfident, in agreement with the general literature. Less obvious is that overconfidence helps: given the same academic achievement students with larger confidence obtain higher exam grades. Female students are less overconfident than male students, their forecasts are more rational, and they are also faster learners in the sense that they adjust their expectations more rapidly.

  10. Hypothesis Testing as an Act of Rationality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nearing, Grey

    2017-04-01

    Statistical hypothesis testing is ad hoc in two ways. First, setting probabilistic rejection criteria is, as Neyman (1957) put it, an act of will rather than an act of rationality. Second, physical theories like conservation laws do not inherently admit probabilistic predictions, and so we must use what are called epistemic bridge principles to connect model predictions with the actual methods of hypothesis testing. In practice, these bridge principles are likelihood functions, error functions, or performance metrics. I propose that the reason we are faced with these problems is because we have historically failed to account for a fundamental component of basic logic - namely the portion of logic that explains how epistemic states evolve in the presence of empirical data. This component of Cox' (1946) calculitic logic is called information theory (Knuth, 2005), and adding information theory our hypothetico-deductive account of science yields straightforward solutions to both of the above problems. This also yields a straightforward method for dealing with Popper's (1963) problem of verisimilitude by facilitating a quantitative approach to measuring process isomorphism. In practice, this involves data assimilation. Finally, information theory allows us to reliably bound measures of epistemic uncertainty, thereby avoiding the problem of Bayesian incoherency under misspecified priors (Grünwald, 2006). I therefore propose solutions to four of the fundamental problems inherent in both hypothetico-deductive and/or Bayesian hypothesis testing. - Neyman (1957) Inductive Behavior as a Basic Concept of Philosophy of Science. - Cox (1946) Probability, Frequency and Reasonable Expectation. - Knuth (2005) Lattice Duality: The Origin of Probability and Entropy. - Grünwald (2006). Bayesian Inconsistency under Misspecification. - Popper (1963) Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge.

  11. Grade Expectations: Rationality and Overconfidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magnus, Jan R.; Peresetsky, Anatoly A.

    2018-01-01

    Confidence and overconfidence are essential aspects of human nature, but measuring (over)confidence is not easy. Our approach is to consider students' forecasts of their exam grades. Part of a student's grade expectation is based on the student's previous academic achievements; what remains can be interpreted as (over)confidence. Our results are based on a sample of about 500 second-year undergraduate students enrolled in a statistics course in Moscow. The course contains three exams and each student produces a forecast for each of the three exams. Our models allow us to estimate overconfidence quantitatively. Using these models we find that students' expectations are not rational and that most students are overconfident, in agreement with the general literature. Less obvious is that overconfidence helps: given the same academic achievement students with larger confidence obtain higher exam grades. Female students are less overconfident than male students, their forecasts are more rational, and they are also faster learners in the sense that they adjust their expectations more rapidly. PMID:29375449

  12. The rational expectations equilibrium inventory model theory and applications

    CERN Document Server

    1989-01-01

    This volume consists of six essays that develop and/or apply "rational expectations equilibrium inventory models" to study the time series behavior of production, sales, prices, and inventories at the industry level. By "rational expectations equilibrium inventory model" I mean the extension of the inventory model of Holt, Modigliani, Muth, and Simon (1960) to account for: (i) discounting, (ii) infinite horizon planning, (iii) observed and unobserved by the "econometrician" stochastic shocks in the production, factor adjustment, storage, and backorders management processes of firms, as well as in the demand they face for their products; and (iv) rational expectations. As is well known according to the Holt et al. model firms hold inventories in order to: (a) smooth production, (b) smooth production changes, and (c) avoid stockouts. Following the work of Zabel (1972), Maccini (1976), Reagan (1982), and Reagan and Weitzman (1982), Blinder (1982) laid the foundations of the rational expectations equilibrium inve...

  13. Testing exact rational expectations in cointegrated vector autoregressive models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Søren; Swensen, Anders Rygh

    1999-01-01

    This paper considers the testing of restrictions implied by rational expectations hypotheses in a cointegrated vector autoregressive model for I(1) variables. If the rational expectations involve one-step-ahead observations only and the coefficients are known, an explicit parameterization...... of the restrictions is found, and the maximum-likelihood estimator is derived by regression and reduced rank regression. An application is given to a present value model....

  14. Price Changes, Resource Adjustments and Rational Expectations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hoffmann, Kira

    This study investigates the relationship between the accuracy of managerial demand expectations, resource adjustment decisions and selling price changes. In line with rational expectation theory, it is argued that managers adjust resources and selling prices differently in response to expected...... that cost elasticity is higher when a demand decrease is expected among companies with similar exposure to demand uncertainty. Overall, this implies that managerial competences in predicting future demand significantly determines firms’ profitability; especially when demand uncertainty is high...

  15. Rational Variability in Children's Causal Inferences: The Sampling Hypothesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denison, Stephanie; Bonawitz, Elizabeth; Gopnik, Alison; Griffiths, Thomas L.

    2013-01-01

    We present a proposal--"The Sampling Hypothesis"--suggesting that the variability in young children's responses may be part of a rational strategy for inductive inference. In particular, we argue that young learners may be randomly sampling from the set of possible hypotheses that explain the observed data, producing different hypotheses with…

  16. Multiple Equilibria in Noisy Rational Expectations Economies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Palvolgyi, Domotor; Venter, Gyuri

    This paper studies equilibrium uniqueness in standard noisy rational expectations economies with asymmetric or differential information a la Grossman and Stiglitz (1980) and Hellwig (1980). We show that the standard linear equilibrium of Grossman and Stiglitz (1980) is the unique equilibrium...

  17. Macroeconomics after Two Decades of Rational Expectations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCallum, Bennett T.

    1994-01-01

    Discusses real business cycle analysis, growth theory, and other economic concepts in the context of the rational expectations revolution in macroeconomics. Focuses on post-1982 research. Concludes that the rejuvenation of growth analysis is an encouraging development because it could lead to changes in welfare policy. (CFR)

  18. Comprehension priming as rational expectation for repetition: Evidence from syntactic processing

    OpenAIRE

    Myslín, Mark; Levy, Roger

    2015-01-01

    Why do comprehenders process repeated stimuli more rapidly than novel stimuli? We consider an adaptive explanation for why such facilitation may be beneficial: priming is a consequence of expectation for repetition due to rational adaptation to the environment. If occurrences of a stimulus cluster in time, given one occurrence it is rational to expect a second occurrence closely following. Leveraging such knowledge may be particularly useful in online processing of language, where pervasive c...

  19. Exact Rational Expectations, Cointegration, and Reduced Rank Regression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Søren; Swensen, Anders Rygh

    We interpret the linear relations from exact rational expectations models as restrictions on the parameters of the statistical model called the cointegrated vector autoregressive model for non-stationary variables. We then show how reduced rank regression, Anderson (1951), plays an important role...

  20. Exact rational expectations, cointegration, and reduced rank regression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Søren; Swensen, Anders Rygh

    We interpret the linear relations from exact rational expectations models as restrictions on the parameters of the statistical model called the cointegrated vector autoregressive model for non-stationary variables. We then show how reduced rank regression, Anderson (1951), plays an important role...

  1. Exact rational expectations, cointegration, and reduced rank regression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Søren; Swensen, Anders Rygh

    2008-01-01

    We interpret the linear relations from exact rational expectations models as restrictions on the parameters of the statistical model called the cointegrated vector autoregressive model for non-stationary variables. We then show how reduced rank regression, Anderson (1951), plays an important role...

  2. Testing bounded rationality against full rationality in job changing behavior

    OpenAIRE

    Contini, Bruno; Morini, Matteo

    2007-01-01

    In this paper we question the hypothesis of full rationality in the context of job changing behaviour, via simple econometric explorations on microdata drawn from WHIP (Worker Histories Italian Panel). Workers' performance is compared at the end of a three-year time window that starts when choices are expressed, under the accepted notion that the main driving forces of job change are future real wages and expected job quality. Bounded rationality suggests that individuals will search for new ...

  3. Testing Bounded Rationality Against Full Rationality in Job Changing Behavior

    OpenAIRE

    Bruno Contini

    2008-01-01

    In this paper I question the hypothesis of full rationality in the context of job changing behaviour, via simple econometric explorations on microdata drawn from WHIP (Worker Histories Italian Panel). Workers’ performance is compared at the end of a three-year time window that starts when choices are expressed, under the accepted notion that the main driving forces of job change are future real wages and expected job quality. Bounded rationality suggests that individuals will search for new o...

  4. The Soft Constraints Hypothesis: A Rational Analysis Approach to Resource Allocation for Interactive Behavior

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Gray, Wayne D; Sims, Chris R; Schoelles, Michael J; Fu, Wai-Tat

    2006-01-01

    Soft constraints hypothesis (SCH) is a rational analysis approach that holds that the mixture of perceptual-motor and cognitive resources allocated for interactive behavior is adjusted based on temporal cost-benefit tradeoff...

  5. Comprehension priming as rational expectation for repetition: Evidence from syntactic processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myslín, Mark; Levy, Roger

    2016-02-01

    Why do comprehenders process repeated stimuli more rapidly than novel stimuli? We consider an adaptive explanation for why such facilitation may be beneficial: priming is a consequence of expectation for repetition due to rational adaptation to the environment. If occurrences of a stimulus cluster in time, given one occurrence it is rational to expect a second occurrence closely following. Leveraging such knowledge may be particularly useful in online processing of language, where pervasive clustering may help comprehenders negotiate the considerable challenge of continual expectation update at multiple levels of linguistic structure and environmental variability. We test this account in the domain of structural priming in syntax, making use of the sentential complement-direct object (SC-DO) ambiguity. We first show that sentences containing SC continuations cluster in natural language, motivating an expectation for repetition of this structure. Second, we show that comprehenders are indeed sensitive to the syntactic clustering properties of their current environment. In a series of between-groups self-paced reading studies, we find that participants who are exposed to clusters of SC sentences subsequently process repetitions of SC structure more rapidly than participants who are exposed to the same number of SCs spaced in time, and attribute the difference to the learned degree of expectation for repetition. We model this behavior through Bayesian belief update, showing that (the optimal degree of) sensitivity to clustering properties of syntactic structures is indeed learnable through experience. Comprehension priming effects are thus consistent with rational expectation for repetition based on adaptation to the linguistic environment. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Using survey data on inflation expectations in the estimation of learning and rational expectations models

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ormeño, A.

    2012-01-01

    Do survey data on inflation expectations contain useful information for estimating macroeconomic models? I address this question by using survey data in the New Keynesian model by Smets and Wouters (2007) to estimate and compare its performance when solved under the assumptions of Rational

  7. Inaugurating Rationalization: Three Field Studies Find Increased Rationalization When Anticipated Realities Become Current.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laurin, Kristin

    2018-04-01

    People will often rationalize the status quo, reconstruing it in an exaggeratedly positive light. They will even rationalize the status quo they anticipate, emphasizing the upsides and minimizing the downsides of sociopolitical realities they expect to take effect. Drawing on recent findings on the psychological triggers of rationalization, I present results from three field studies, one of which was preregistered, testing the hypothesis that an anticipated reality becoming current triggers an observable boost in people's rationalizations. San Franciscans rationalized a ban on plastic water bottles, Ontarians rationalized a targeted smoking ban, and Americans rationalized the presidency of Donald Trump, more in the days immediately after these realities became current compared with the days immediately before. Additional findings show evidence for a mechanism underlying these behaviors and rule out alternative accounts. These findings carry implications for scholarship on rationalization, for understanding protest behavior, and for policymakers.

  8. Federal government and the domestic uranium market: an application of the theory of rational expectations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Larsen, M.W.

    1978-01-01

    Domestic uranium prices began to rise dramatically in 1973 after having experienced virtually no change for nearly seven years. This thesis puts forth the proposal that the cause of the increase was the simultaneous occurrence of several unanticipated events. It is argued here that the government's aboutface decision not to sell uranium from its stockpiles, the sudden unavailability of low-cost foreign uranium, and the coincidental occurrence of the Arab oil embargo and widespread materials shortages, caused uranium prices to rise faster and higher than was or could have been anticipated at the time. A sudden change in the federal government's enrichment contracting procedure triggered the initial increases in early 1973. The sequence of events suggest that the instability witnessed in the market was due to the occurrence of unanticipated events, in general, and unexpected changes in government policies, in particular. The policy problem is due to the fact that the federal government has, from the inception of the domestic uranium industry, shaped its structure and direction. It is clear that this influence is likely to continue. To the extent that the hypothesis is correct, the government needs to better evaluate the indirect impact of its policies upon people's expectations. In order to evaluate the hypothesis an econometric model of the domestic uranium market incorporating the theory of rational expectations is developed

  9. On the uniqueness of fully informative rational expectations equilibria

    OpenAIRE

    Peter DeMarzo; Costis Skiadas

    1998-01-01

    This paper analyzes two equivalent equilibrium notions under asymmetric information: risk neutral rational expectations equilibria (rn-REE), and common knowledge equilibria. We show that the set of fully informative rn-REE is a singleton, and we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of partially informative rn-REE. In a companion paper (DeMarzo and Skiadas (1996)) we show that equilibrium prices for the larger class of quasi-complete economies can be characterized as r...

  10. ``From Fundamental Motives to Rational Expectation Equilibrium[REE, henceworth] of Indeterminacy''

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maksoed, Ssi, Wh-

    For ``Principle of Indeterminacy''from Heisenberg states: ``one of the fundamental cornerstone of quantum mechanics is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle''.whereas canonically conjugate quantities can be determined simultaneously only with a characteristic indeterminacy[M. Arevalo Aguilar, et.al]. Accompanying Alfred North Whitehead conclusion in ``The Aims of Education''that mathematical symbols are artificial before new meanings given, two kinds of fundamental motives: (i) expectation-expectation, (ii) expectation-certainty inherently occurs with determinacy properties of rational expectation equilibrium(REE, henceworth)- Guido Ascari & Tizano Ropele:''Trend inflation, Taylor principle & Indeterminacy'', Kiel Institute, June 2007. Furthers, relative price expression can be compare of their α and (1 - α) configurations in the expression of possible activity. Acknowledgment to Prof[asc]. Dr. Bobby Eka Gunara for ``made a rank through physics'' denotes...

  11. Rational expectations, psychology and inductive learning via moving thresholds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lamba, H.; Seaman, T.

    2008-06-01

    This paper modifies a previously introduced class of heterogeneous agent models in a way that allows for the inclusion of different types of agent motivations and behaviours in a consistent manner. The agents operate within a highly simplified environment where they are only able to be long or short one unit of the asset. The price of the asset is influenced by both an external information stream and the demand of the agents. The current strategy of each agent is defined by a pair of moving thresholds straddling the current price. When the price crosses either of the thresholds for a particular agent, that agent switches position and a new pair of thresholds is generated. The threshold dynamics can mimic different sources of investor motivation, running the gamut from purely rational information-processing, through rational (but often undesirable) behaviour induced by perverse incentives and moral hazards, to purely psychological effects. The simplest model of this kind precisely conforms to the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) and this allows causal relationships to be established between actions at the agent level and violations of EMH price statistics at the global level. In particular, the effects of herding behaviour and perverse incentives are examined.

  12. Rationality, practice variation and person-centred health policy: a threshold hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Djulbegovic, Benjamin; Hamm, Robert M; Mayrhofer, Thomas; Hozo, Iztok; Van den Ende, Jef

    2015-12-01

    Variation in practice of medicine is one of the major health policy issues of today. Ultimately, it is related to physicians' decision making. Similar patients with similar likelihood of having disease are often managed by different doctors differently: some doctors may elect to observe the patient, others decide to act based on diagnostic testing and yet others may elect to treat without testing. We explain these differences in practice by differences in disease probability thresholds at which physicians decide to act: contextual social and clinical factors and emotions such as regret affect the threshold by influencing the way doctors integrate objective data related to treatment and testing. However, depending on a theoretical construct each of the physician's behaviour can be considered rational. In fact, we showed that the current regulatory policies lead to predictably low thresholds for most decisions in contemporary practice. As a result, we may expect continuing motivation for overuse of treatment and diagnostic tests. We argue that rationality should take into account both formal principles of rationality and human intuitions about good decisions along the lines of Rawls' 'reflective equilibrium/considered judgment'. In turn, this can help define a threshold model that is empirically testable. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  13. Fiscal Effectiveness and Debt Illusion in a Rational Expectations Model

    OpenAIRE

    Basil A. DALAMAGAS

    1993-01-01

    The question of how substitution of debt for taxes affects private sector wealth and consumption has long been an unresolved macroeconomic theory and policy dispute. The present study attempts to address this problem within a modified fiscal-illusion setting, by utilizing an explicit rational expectations optimizing model of consumer behaviour for a sample of six developed countries. The empirical evidence presented is strongly supportive of the assertion that consumers make their consumption...

  14. Organization and Information: Firms' Governance Choices in Rational-Expectations Equilibrium

    OpenAIRE

    Robert Gibbons; Richard Holden; Michael Powell

    2012-01-01

    We analyze a rational-expectations model of price formation in an intermediate-good market under uncertainty. There is a continuum of firms, each consisting of a party who can reduce production cost and a party who can discover information about demand. Both parties can make specific investments at private cost, and there is a machine that either party can control. As in incomplete-contracting models, different governance structures (i.e., different allocations of control of the machine) crea...

  15. On a Numerical and Graphical Technique for Evaluating some Models Involving Rational Expectations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Søren; Swensen, Anders Rygh

    Campbell and Shiller (1987) proposed a graphical technique for the present value model which consists of plotting the spread and theoretical spread as calculated from the cointegrated vector autoregressive model. We extend these techniques to a number of rational expectation models and give...

  16. On a numerical and graphical technique for evaluating some models involving rational expectations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Søren; Swensen, Anders Rygh

    Campbell and Shiller (1987) proposed a graphical technique for the present value model which consists of plotting the spread and theoretical spread as calculated from the cointegrated vector autoregressive model. We extend these techniques to a number of rational expectation models and give...

  17. On a Graphical Technique for Evaluating Some Rational Expectations Models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Søren; Swensen, Anders R.

    2011-01-01

    Campbell and Shiller (1987) proposed a graphical technique for the present value model, which consists of plotting estimates of the spread and theoretical spread as calculated from the cointegrated vector autoregressive model without imposing the restrictions implied by the present value model....... In addition to getting a visual impression of the fit of the model, the purpose is to see if the two spreads are nevertheless similar as measured by correlation, variance ratio, and noise ratio. We extend these techniques to a number of rational expectation models and give a general definition of spread...

  18. Testing the junk-food hypothesis on marine birds: Effects of prey type on growth and development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romano, Marc D.; Piatt, John F.; Roby, D.D.

    2006-01-01

    The junk-food hypothesis attributes declines in productivity of marine birds and mammals to changes in the species of prey they consume and corresponding differences in nutritional quality of those prey. To test this hypothesis nestling Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) and Tufted Puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) were raised in captivity under controlled conditions to determine whether the type and quality of fish consumed by young seabirds constrains their growth and development. Some nestlings were fed rations of Capelin (Mallotus villosus), Herring (Clupea pallasi) or Sand Lance (Ammodytes hexapterus) and their growth was compared with nestlings raised on equal biomass rations of Walleye Pollock (Theragra chalcograma). Nestlings fed rations of herring, sand lance, or capelin experienced higher growth increments than nestlings fed pollock. The energy density of forage fish fed to nestlings had a marked effect on growth increments and could be expected to have an effect on pre- and post-fledging survival of nestlings in the wild. These results provide empirical support for the junk-food hypothesis.

  19. The impossibility of involuntary unemployment in an overlapping generations model with rational expectation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schultz, Christian

    1992-01-01

    If there is unemployment no matter how low the wage rate becomes, one speaks of involuntary unemployment. This phenomenon has been shown to arise in a variety of temporary or atemporal macro models with imperfect competition in the goods markets. In this paper we investigate whether the phenomeno...... of involuntary unemployment arises in a Hartian overlapping generations model with rational expectations. It does not, neither in the short nor in the long run...

  20. Gender and work-family conflict: testing the rational model and the gender role expectations model in the Spanish cultural context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calvo-Salguero, Antonia; Martínez-de-Lecea, José-María Salinas; del Carmen Aguilar-Luzón, María

    2012-01-01

    Gutek, Searle, and Klepa (1991) proposed two models to explain the gender differences in work-family conflict: the rational model and the gender role expectations model. Both models have mostly been tested on American and Canadian samples, and have obtained partial support. Given the cultural differences between North American countries and Spain, we should question whether the two models are equally applicable to Spanish society or whether one of them captures Spanish men and women's experience of work-family conflict better than the other. So, the aim of this study is to test which of the models better explains the gender differences in work-family conflict in the Spanish cultural context (or if, indeed, the two models apply equally well). Given the typical cultural dimensions of Spanish society, we expected to find greater support for the gender role expectations model than for the rational model. However, the results obtained in this study indicated that, while the rational model can explain the gender differences that were found, the gender role expectations model cannot capture Spanish people's work-family conflict experiences. The results are interpreted in terms of cultural dimensions characteristic of the Spanish context.

  1. Alternative Financial Policy Rules in an Open Economy Under Rational and Adaptive Expectations

    OpenAIRE

    Blackburn, Keith; Currie, David; Whittaker, R; Wren-Lewis, Simon

    1985-01-01

    The potential instability of a fixed monetary rule combined with automatic fixed stabilisers is a well-established feature of closed economy IS/LM models with wealth effects and asset accumulation. This paper examines the stability issue in a general open economy macromodel with alternative expectations mechanisms (rational or adaptive) in both the labour market and the foreign exchange market. The fixed monetary rule is found to be stabilising only in special cases, notably when post-tax rea...

  2. Traditional finance : behavioral finance distinction in the context of expected utility and prospect theories

    OpenAIRE

    Tekin, Bilgehan

    2016-01-01

    Traditional finance has developed based on two fundamental assumptions, including the expected utility theory and rational choice or decision. However, this hypothesis has been criticized heavily by put forward that are not realistic enough. The basis of behavioral finance theory is based on the “prospect theory”. According to this theory individuals cannot act fully rational, they install more sense to loses than at the same amount of profit and they exhibit risk and loss aversion behaviour....

  3. Evolutionary Expectations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nash, Ulrik William

    2014-01-01

    , they are correlated among people who share environments because these individuals satisfice within their cognitive bounds by using cues in order of validity, as opposed to using cues arbitrarily. Any difference in expectations thereby arise from differences in cognitive ability, because two individuals with identical...... cognitive bounds will perceive business opportunities identically. In addition, because cues provide information about latent causal structures of the environment, changes in causality must be accompanied by changes in cognitive representations if adaptation is to be maintained. The concept of evolutionary......The concept of evolutionary expectations descends from cue learning psychology, synthesizing ideas on rational expectations with ideas on bounded rationality, to provide support for these ideas simultaneously. Evolutionary expectations are rational, but within cognitive bounds. Moreover...

  4. Rational expectations and the effects of financial liberalization on price level and output

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rangan Gupta

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper develops a generalized short-term model of a small open financially repressed economy, characterized by unorganized money markets, intermediate goods imports, capital mobility, flexible exchange rates and rational expectations, to analyze the price- and output-effects of financial liberalization. The analysis shows that financial deregulation, in the form of increased rate of interest on deposits and higher cash reserve requirements, unambiguously and unconditionally reduces domestic price level, but fails to affect output. Moreover, the result does not depend on the degree of capital mobility. The paper recommends that a small open developing economy should deregulate interest rates and tighten monetary policy if reducing inflation is a priority. Such a policy, however, requires the establishment of a flexible exchange rate regime.

  5. Many faces of rationality: Implications of the great rationality debate for clinical decision‐making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elqayam, Shira

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Given that more than 30% of healthcare costs are wasted on inappropriate care, suboptimal care is increasingly connected to the quality of medical decisions. It has been argued that personal decisions are the leading cause of death, and 80% of healthcare expenditures result from physicians' decisions. Therefore, improving healthcare necessitates improving medical decisions, ie, making decisions (more) rational. Drawing on writings from The Great Rationality Debate from the fields of philosophy, economics, and psychology, we identify core ingredients of rationality commonly encountered across various theoretical models. Rationality is typically classified under umbrella of normative (addressing the question how people “should” or “ought to” make their decisions) and descriptive theories of decision‐making (which portray how people actually make their decisions). Normative theories of rational thought of relevance to medicine include epistemic theories that direct practice of evidence‐based medicine and expected utility theory, which provides the basis for widely used clinical decision analyses. Descriptive theories of rationality of direct relevance to medical decision‐making include bounded rationality, argumentative theory of reasoning, adaptive rationality, dual processing model of rationality, regret‐based rationality, pragmatic/substantive rationality, and meta‐rationality. For the first time, we provide a review of wide range of theories and models of rationality. We showed that what is “rational” behaviour under one rationality theory may be irrational under the other theory. We also showed that context is of paramount importance to rationality and that no one model of rationality can possibly fit all contexts. We suggest that in context‐poor situations, such as policy decision‐making, normative theories based on expected utility informed by best research evidence may provide the optimal approach to medical decision

  6. The Link between Health Complaints and Wind Turbines: Support for the Nocebo Expectations Hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crichton, Fiona; Chapman, Simon; Cundy, Tim; Petrie, Keith J

    2014-01-01

    The worldwide expansion of wind energy has met with opposition based on concerns that the infrasound generated by wind turbines causes health problems in nearby residents. In this paper, we argue that health complaints are more likely to be explained by the nocebo response, whereby adverse effects are generated by negative expectations. When individuals expect a feature of their environment or medical treatment to produce illness or symptoms, then this may start a process where the individual looks for symptoms or signs of illness to confirm these negative expectations. As physical symptoms are common in healthy people, there is considerable scope for people to match symptoms with their negative expectations. To support this hypothesis, we draw an evidence from experimental studies that show that, during exposure to wind farm sound, expectations about infrasound can influence symptoms and mood in both positive and negative directions, depending on how expectations are framed. We also consider epidemiological work showing that health complaints have primarily been located in areas that have received the most negative publicity about the harmful effects of turbines. The social aspect of symptom complaints in a community is also discussed as an important process in increasing symptom reports. Media stories, publicity, or social discourse about the reported health effects of wind turbines are likely to trigger reports of similar symptoms, regardless of exposure. Finally, we present evidence to show that the same pattern of health complaints following negative information about wind turbines has also been found in other types of environmental concerns and scares.

  7. Macroeconomic Expectations of Households and Professional Forecasters

    OpenAIRE

    Christopher D Carroll

    2002-01-01

    Economists have long emphasized the importance of expectations in determining macroeconomic outcomes Yet there has been almost no recent effort to model actual empirical expectations data; instead macroeconomists usually simply assume expectations are rational This paper shows that while empirical household expectations are not rational in the usual sense expectational dynamics are well captured by a model in which households' views derive from news reports of the views of professional foreca...

  8. Many faces of rationality: Implications of the great rationality debate for clinical decision-making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Djulbegovic, Benjamin; Elqayam, Shira

    2017-10-01

    Given that more than 30% of healthcare costs are wasted on inappropriate care, suboptimal care is increasingly connected to the quality of medical decisions. It has been argued that personal decisions are the leading cause of death, and 80% of healthcare expenditures result from physicians' decisions. Therefore, improving healthcare necessitates improving medical decisions, ie, making decisions (more) rational. Drawing on writings from The Great Rationality Debate from the fields of philosophy, economics, and psychology, we identify core ingredients of rationality commonly encountered across various theoretical models. Rationality is typically classified under umbrella of normative (addressing the question how people "should" or "ought to" make their decisions) and descriptive theories of decision-making (which portray how people actually make their decisions). Normative theories of rational thought of relevance to medicine include epistemic theories that direct practice of evidence-based medicine and expected utility theory, which provides the basis for widely used clinical decision analyses. Descriptive theories of rationality of direct relevance to medical decision-making include bounded rationality, argumentative theory of reasoning, adaptive rationality, dual processing model of rationality, regret-based rationality, pragmatic/substantive rationality, and meta-rationality. For the first time, we provide a review of wide range of theories and models of rationality. We showed that what is "rational" behaviour under one rationality theory may be irrational under the other theory. We also showed that context is of paramount importance to rationality and that no one model of rationality can possibly fit all contexts. We suggest that in context-poor situations, such as policy decision-making, normative theories based on expected utility informed by best research evidence may provide the optimal approach to medical decision-making, whereas in the context

  9. Peripherality, income inequality, and life expectancy: revisiting the income inequality hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Spencer

    2006-06-01

    Recent criticisms of the income inequality and health hypothesis have stressed the lack of consistent significant evidence for the stronger effects of income inequality among rich countries. Despite such criticisms, little attention has been devoted to the income-based criteria underlying the stratification of countries into rich/poor groups and whether trade patterns and world-system role provide an alternative means of stratifying groups. To compare income-based and trade-based criteria, 107 countries were grouped into four typologies: (I) high/low income, (II) OECD membership/non-membership, (III) core/non-core, and (IV) non-periphery/periphery. Each typology was tested separately for significant differences in the effects of income inequality between groups. Separate group comparison tests and regression analyses were conducted for each typology using Rodgers (1979) specification of income, income inequality, and life expectancy. Interaction terms were introduced into Rodgers specification to test whether group classification moderated the effects of income inequality on health. Results show that the effects of income inequality are stronger in the periphery than non-periphery (IV) (-0.76 vs -0.23; P income inequality and population health have assumed (i) income differences between countries best capture global stratification and (ii) the negative effects of income inequality are stronger in high-income countries. However, present findings emphasize (i) the importance of measuring global stratification according to trading patterns and (ii) the strong, negative effects of income inequality on life expectancy among peripheral populations.

  10. Probability and rational choice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Botting

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1808-1711.2014v18n1p1 In this paper I will discuss the rationality of reasoning about the future. There are two things that we might like to know about the future: which hypotheses are true and what will happen next. To put it in philosophical language, I aim to show that there are methods by which inferring to a generalization (selecting a hypothesis and inferring to the next instance (singular predictive inference can be shown to be normative and the method itself shown to be rational, where this is due in part to being based on evidence (although not in the same way and in part on a prior rational choice. I will also argue that these two inferences have been confused, being distinct not only conceptually (as nobody disputes but also in their results (the value given to the probability of the hypothesis being not in general that given to the next instance and that methods that are adequate for one are not by themselves adequate for the other. A number of debates over method founder on this confusion and do not show what the debaters think they show.

  11. Rational speculative bubbles: A critical view

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Radonjić Ognjen

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available According to the theory of rational bubbles, the bubble is present whenever asset prices progressively diverge from their fundamental value, which occurs because agents expect that asset prices will continue to grow exponentially (self-fulfilling prophecies far in the future and consistently, which promises the realization of ever larger capital gains. In our opinion, the basic shortcoming of this theory refers to the assumption that all market agents are perfectly informed and rational and, accordingly, form homogeneous expectations. The model does not explain decision-making processes or expectation formation, nor does it detect potential psychological and institutional factors that might significantly influence decision making processes and market participants’ reactions to news. Since assumptions of the model critically determine its validity, we conclude that comprehensiveness of the rational bubble model is, to put it mildly, limited.

  12. Does knowing that a suicide was "rational" influence grief?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brazda, Geoffrey F; Range, Lillian M; Remley, Theodore P; White, Carolyn C

    2018-03-15

    Counseling professionals and graduate students (N = 117) recruited online read a randomly assigned one-paragraph vignette about either a non-rational or rational suicide involving an imaginary loved one. Then, they completed the Grief Experiences Questionnaire (GEQ) about how they would feel. The non-rational suicide group expected significantly more search for explanation than the rational suicide group, but were not significantly different on the other six GEQ subscales. All participants expected few distressing reactions to either vignette, suggesting a one-paragraph vignette may not be sufficient to induce the kind of grief many experience when a loved one dies by suicide.

  13. Suicide mortality and agricultural rationalization in post-war Europe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mäkinen, Ilkka Henrik; Stickley, Andrew

    2006-06-01

    The relationship between agricultural rationalization and suicide mortality has been little researched. On the basis of the hypothesis that agricultural rationalization leads to more suicide, this study investigated whether a general relationship could be found between structural change in agriculture and suicide mortality in post-war Europe. Due to the expected small size of the effect, the data were deliberately collected so as to maximize the variation in the independent variable. Annual national-level data on suicide mortality, the percentage of the work force in agricultural employment, and the unemployment level were collected from those countries and 10-year periods where the structural changes (reductions in employment) in agriculture between 1950 and 1995 had been most and least pronounced. In order to avoid confounders, the annual changes in the variables' values were correlated with each other, adding a control for the level of unemployment, and allowing for lagged effects. The annual changes in the levels of agricultural employment and those of suicide mortality did not covary at all. Controlling for unemployment levels did not change this, nor could any lagged effects be found. At the most general level, no causal relation between agricultural rationalization and suicide mortality was detected. This lack of a universal relation does not, however, preclude the possibility of the relationship existing given certain socio-historical circumstances.

  14. The Least Costs Hypothesis: A rational analysis approach to the voluntary symbolic control of attention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pauszek, Joseph R; Gibson, Bradley S

    2018-04-30

    Here we propose a rational analysis account of voluntary symbolic attention control-the Least Costs Hypothesis (LCH)-that construes voluntary control as a decision between intentional cue use and unguided search. Consistent with the LCH, the present study showed that this decision is sensitive to variations in cue processing efficiency. In Experiment 1, observers demonstrated a robust preference for using "easy-to-process" arrow cues but not "hard-to-process" spatial word cues to satisfy an easy visual search goal; Experiment 2 showed that this preference persisted even when the temporal costs of cue processing were neutralized. Experiment 3 showed that observers reported this cue type preference outside the context of a speeded task, and Experiment 4 showed empirical measures of this bias to be relatively stable over the course of the task. Together with previous evidence suggesting that observers' decision between intentional cue use and unguided search is also influenced by variations in unguided search efficiency, these findings suggest that voluntary symbolic attention control is mediated by ongoing metacognitive evaluations of demand that are sensitive to perceived variations in the time, effort, and opportunity costs associated with each course of action. Thus, voluntary symbolic attention control is far more complex than previously held. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. Monetary and fiscal policy under bounded rationality and heterogeneous expectations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lustenhouwer, J.E.

    2017-01-01

    The goal of this thesis is to use plausible and intuitive models of bounded rationality to give new insights in monetary and fiscal policy. Particular focus is put on the zero lower bound on the nominal interest rate, forward guidance, and fiscal consolidations. The thesis considers different forms

  16. Game interrupted: The rationality of considering the future

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brandon Almy

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The ``problem of points'', introduced by Paccioli in 1494 and solved by Pascal and Fermat 160 years later, inspired the modern concept of probability. Incidentally, the problem also shows that rational decision-making requires the consideration of future events. We show that naive responses to the problem of points are more future oriented and thus more rational in this sense when the problem itself is presented in a future frame instead of the canonical past frame. A simple nudge is sufficient to make decisions more rational. We consider the implications of this finding for hypothesis testing and predictions of replicability.

  17. Empirical evidence for resource-rational anchoring and adjustment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lieder, Falk; Griffiths, Thomas L; M Huys, Quentin J; Goodman, Noah D

    2018-04-01

    People's estimates of numerical quantities are systematically biased towards their initial guess. This anchoring bias is usually interpreted as sign of human irrationality, but it has recently been suggested that the anchoring bias instead results from people's rational use of their finite time and limited cognitive resources. If this were true, then adjustment should decrease with the relative cost of time. To test this hypothesis, we designed a new numerical estimation paradigm that controls people's knowledge and varies the cost of time and error independently while allowing people to invest as much or as little time and effort into refining their estimate as they wish. Two experiments confirmed the prediction that adjustment decreases with time cost but increases with error cost regardless of whether the anchor was self-generated or provided. These results support the hypothesis that people rationally adapt their number of adjustments to achieve a near-optimal speed-accuracy tradeoff. This suggests that the anchoring bias might be a signature of the rational use of finite time and limited cognitive resources rather than a sign of human irrationality.

  18. Rationality and Emotions in Decision Making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga Markič

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Decision making is traditionally viewed as a rational process where reason calculates the best way to achieve the goal. Investigations from different areas of cognitive science have shown that human decisions and actions are much more influenced by intuition and emotional responses then it was previously thought. In this paper I examine the role of emotion in decision making, particularly Damasio’s hypothesis of somatic markers and Green’s dual process theory of moral judgment. I conclude the paper with the discussion of the threat that deliberation and conscious rationality is an illusion.

  19. Momentum effect in stocks’ returns between the rational and the behavioural financial theories: Proposition of the progressive rationality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Faten Zoghlami

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available     The puzzling momentum strategies’ payoffs defied the rational financial theory asserting the stocks returns’ unpredictability. Moreover, the momentum effect persist the main stocks returns’ anomaly escaping any risk-based explanation. The resilience of this phenomenon had favoured the development of behavioural financial field, which breaks with the investor’ full rationality hypothesis. This paper attempts to reconcile between the rational and behavioural financial theories, through the introduction of the progressive rationality concept. Especially, we argue that recognizing the temporary inappropriate investors’ reactions; can resolve the puzzling momentum anomaly. To fulfil our objective, we identify the appropriate autoregressive level that captures the significant autocorrelations involved by the investors’ over and under reactions. Then, we explore the profitability of the 6/6 momentum strategy implemented on the adjusted stocks’ returns. The adjusted momentum strategy is still profitable but no longer puzzling, since the related excess return is henceforth fully captured by a β and a size effect.Key words: Tunisian momentum effect, the rational finance theory, the behavioural finance theory, the three-factorial model and the autoregressive process.

  20. Rational choice in field archaelology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cătălin Pavel

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available In the present article I attempt to apply advances in the study of instrumental and epistemic rationality to field archaeology in order to gain insights into the ways archaeologists reason. The cognitive processes, particularly processes of decision making, that enable archaeologists to conduct the excavation in the trench have not been adequately studied so far. I take my cues from two different bodies of theory. I first inquire into the potential that rational choice theory (RCT may have in modeling archaeological behaviour, and I define subjective expected utility, which archaeologists attempt to maximize, in terms of knowledge acquisition and social gain. Following Elster’s criticism of RCT, I conclude that RCT’s standards for rational action do not correspond with those ostensibly used in field archaeology, but that instrumental rationality has a prominent role in the “archaeological experiment”. I further explore if models proposed as reaction to RCT may account for archaeological decision making. I focus on fast and frugal heuristics, and search for archaeological illustrations for some of the cognitive biases that are better documented in psychological literature. I document confirmation and congruence biases, the endowment effect, observer-expectancy bias, illusory correlation, clustering illusion, sunk cost bias, and anchoring, among others and I propose that some of these biases are used as cognitive tools by archaeologists at work and retain epistemic value. However, I find formal logic to be secondary in the development of archaeological reasoning, with default logic and defeasible logic being used instead. I emphasize scientific knowledge as an actively negotiated social product of human inquiry, and conclude that to describe rationality in field archaeology a bounded rationality model is the most promising avenue of investigation.

  1. Testing two mechanisms by which rational and irrational beliefs may affect the functionality of inferences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bond, F W; Dryden, W; Briscoe, R

    1999-12-01

    This article describes a role playing experiment that examined the sufficiency hypothesis of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). This proposition states that it is sufficient for rational and irrational beliefs to refer to preferences and musts, respectively, if those beliefs are to affect the functionality of inferences (FI). Consistent with the REBT literature (e.g. Dryden, 1994; Dryden & Ellis, 1988; Palmer, Dryden, Ellis & Yapp, 1995) results from this experiment showed that rational and irrational beliefs, as defined by REBT, do affect FI. Specifically, results showed that people who hold a rational belief form inferences that are significantly more functional than those that are formed by people who hold an irrational belief. Contrary to REBT theory, the sufficiency hypothesis was not supported. Thus, results indicated that it is not sufficient for rational and irrational beliefs to refer to preferences and musts, respectively, if those beliefs are to affect the FI. It appears, then, that preferences and musts are not sufficient mechanisms by which rational and irrational beliefs, respectively, affect the FI. Psychotherapeutic implications of these findings are considered.

  2. Development of rations for the enhanced survival of salmon

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ewing, R.D.; Lagasse, J.P.

    1990-12-01

    The nutritional quality of feed plays an important role in determining the health and ''fitness'' of smolts. Commercial fish meal, the major source of protein in salmon rations, may be reduced in quality from poor drying techniques during manufacture. Dietary stress in the hatchery may result. This investigation tests the hypothesis that protein quality of fish rations can influence the survival of smolts and the ultimate return of adults. The test involves a comparison between performances of coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) reared on rations containing very high quality protein derived from vacuum dried meals and those of fish reared on commercial rations, with commercial fish meal as a source of protein. Survival and return of several brood years of test and control fish are used to measure the influence of ration on survival. This report includes recovery data from these marked fish collected 1982 through September 1990

  3. Rationality and drug use: an experimental approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blondel, Serge; Lohéac, Youenn; Rinaudo, Stéphane

    2007-05-01

    In rational addiction theory, higher discount rates encourage drug use. We test this hypothesis in the general framework of rationality and behaviour under risk. We do so using an experimental design with real monetary incentives. The decisions of 34 drug addicts are compared with those of a control group. The decisions of drug users (DU) are not any less consistent with standard theories of behaviour over time and under risk. Further, there is no difference in the estimated discount rate between drug users and the control group, but the former do appear to be more risk-seeking.

  4. Heterogeneity, Bounded Rationality and Market Dysfunctionality

    OpenAIRE

    Xue-Zhong He; Lei Shi

    2008-01-01

    As the main building blocks of the modern finance theory, homogeneity and rational expectation have faced difficulty in explaining many market anomalies, stylized factors, and market inefficiency in empirical studies. As a result, heterogeneity and bounded rationality have been used as an alterative paradigm of asset price dynamics and this paradigm has been widely recognized recently in both academic and financial market practitioners. Within the framework of Chiarella, Dieci and He (2006a, ...

  5. F-theory and all things rational: surveying U(1) symmetries with rational sections

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lawrie, Craig; Schäfer-Nameki, Sakura; Wong, Jin-Mann

    2015-01-01

    We study elliptic fibrations for F-theory compactifications realizing 4d and 6d supersymmetric gauge theories with abelian gauge factors. In the fibration these U(1) symmetries are realized in terms of additional rational section. We obtain a universal characterization of all the possible U(1) charges of matter fields by determining the corresponding codimension two fibers with rational sections. In view of modelling supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories, one of the main examples that we analyze are U(1) symmetries for SU(5) gauge theories with 5̄ and 10 matter. We use a combination of constraints on the normal bundle of rational curves in Calabi-Yau three- and four-folds, as well as the splitting of rational curves in the fibers in codimension two, to determine the possible configurations of smooth rational sections. This analysis straightforwardly generalizes to multiple U(1)s. We study the flops of such fibers, as well as some of the Yukawa couplings in codimension three. Furthermore, we carry out a universal study of the U(1)-charged GUT singlets, including their KK-charges, and determine all realizations of singlet fibers. By giving vacuum expectation values to these singlets, we propose a systematic way to analyze the Higgsing of U(1)s to discrete gauge symmetries in F-theory.

  6. An Essay on the Foreign Exchange Rate Expectations in Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Luiza Louzada Pereira

    2005-06-01

    Full Text Available This article analyses the behavior of the Brazilian exchange rate (Real/US dollar and the corresponding values forecasted by the market agents, from 2001 (November to 2004 (may. We use the data-base of the Brazilian Central Bank, called Sistema de Expectativas de Mercado, which has been created in 1999. We evaluate the rational expectations hypothesis (REH for the exchange rate market, comparing the mean value predicted by some Brazilian financial institutions with the daily exchange rate that has really occurred (PTAX. The particular arrangement of the data-base allows us to make the analysis in two different ways: with fixed-event forecasts. The main result suggests that the Brazilian exchange rate market support the weak form of the REH, for short horizons of forecasting.

  7. Dynamic pricing of network goods with boundedly rational consumers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radner, Roy; Radunskaya, Ami; Sundararajan, Arun

    2014-01-07

    We present a model of dynamic monopoly pricing for a good that displays network effects. In contrast with the standard notion of a rational-expectations equilibrium, we model consumers as boundedly rational and unable either to pay immediate attention to each price change or to make accurate forecasts of the adoption of the network good. Our analysis shows that the seller's optimal price trajectory has the following structure: The price is low when the user base is below a target level, is high when the user base is above the target, and is set to keep the user base stationary once the target level has been attained. We show that this pricing policy is robust to a number of extensions, which include the product's user base evolving over time and consumers basing their choices on a mixture of a myopic and a "stubborn" expectation of adoption. Our results differ significantly from those that would be predicted by a model based on rational-expectations equilibrium and are more consistent with the pricing of network goods observed in practice.

  8. Techno-Optimism and Rational Superstition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wilson, Alexander

    2017-01-01

    our common understanding of reason and rationality? To adopt rational expectations about the world, after all, should we not attempt to avoid the emotional over-determination of our assessments? I show that applied reason is conceptually entangled with this superstitious optimism in the continued...... of retro-causation, where the future is held to somehow have a retroactive effect on the past. This suggests, I argue, that the underlying mechanism by which techno-optimism is supposed to be instrumental in bringing about the future is fundamentally superstitious. But does this superstition not go against...... successes of technology. The article thus reveals a curious sense in which reason is intrinsically superstitious. I offer an evolutionary explanation for this, showing that the biological origins of reason will by nature tend to produce rational agents which are superstitiously bound to realism...

  9. Lying for the Greater Good: Bounded Rationality in a Team

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oktay Sürücü

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper is concerned with the interaction between fully and boundedly rational agents in situations where their interests are perfectly aligned. The cognitive limitations of the boundedly rational agent do not allow him to fully understand the market conditions and lead him to take non-optimal decisions in some situations. Using categorization to model bounded rationality, we show that the fully rational agent can nudge, i.e., he can manipulate the information he sends and decrease the expected loss caused by the boundedly rational agent. Assuming different types for the boundedly rational agent, who differ only in the categories used, we show that the fully rational agent may learn the type of the boundedly rational agent along their interaction. Using this additional information, the outcome can be improved and the amount of manipulated information can be decreased. Furthermore, as the length of the interaction increases the probability that the fully rational agent learns the type of the boundedly rational agent grows

  10. Cooperation, psychological game theory, and limitations of rationality in social interaction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colman, Andrew M

    2003-04-01

    Rational choice theory enjoys unprecedented popularity and influence in the behavioral and social sciences, but it generates intractable problems when applied to socially interactive decisions. In individual decisions, instrumental rationality is defined in terms of expected utility maximization. This becomes problematic in interactive decisions, when individuals have only partial control over the outcomes, because expected utility maximization is undefined in the absence of assumptions about how the other participants will behave. Game theory therefore incorporates not only rationality but also common knowledge assumptions, enabling players to anticipate their co-players' strategies. Under these assumptions, disparate anomalies emerge. Instrumental rationality, conventionally interpreted, fails to explain intuitively obvious features of human interaction, yields predictions starkly at variance with experimental findings, and breaks down completely in certain cases. In particular, focal point selection in pure coordination games is inexplicable, though it is easily achieved in practice; the intuitively compelling payoff-dominance principle lacks rational justification; rationality in social dilemmas is self-defeating; a key solution concept for cooperative coalition games is frequently inapplicable; and rational choice in certain sequential games generates contradictions. In experiments, human players behave more cooperatively and receive higher payoffs than strict rationality would permit. Orthodox conceptions of rationality are evidently internally deficient and inadequate for explaining human interaction. Psychological game theory, based on nonstandard assumptions, is required to solve these problems, and some suggestions along these lines have already been put forward.

  11. Navigating the poverty of heroin addiction treatment and recovery opportunity in Kenya: access work, self-care and rationed expectations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhodes, Tim; Ndimbii, James; Guise, Andy; Cullen, Lucy; Ayon, Sylvia

    2015-01-01

    Drawing on the analyses of qualitative interview accounts of people who inject heroin in Kenya, we describe the narration of addiction treatment access and recovery desire in conditions characterised by a 'poverty of drug treatment opportunity'. We observe the performance of addiction recovery narrative in the face of heavy social constraints limiting access to care. Fee-based residential rehabilitation ('rehab') is the only treatment locally available and inaccessible to most. Its recovery potential is doubted, given normative expectations of relapse. Treating drug use is a product of tightly bounded agency. Individuals enact strategies to maximise their slim chances of treatment access ('access work'), develop self-care alternatives when these fail to materialise and ration their care expectations. The use of rehab as a primary means of respite and harm reduction rather than recovery and the individuation of care in the absence of an enabling recovery environment are key characteristics of drug treatment experience. The recent incorporation of 'harm reduction' into policy discourses may trouble the primacy of recovery narrative in addiction treatment and in how treatment desires are voiced. The diversification of drug treatments in combination with social interventions enabling their access are fundamental.

  12. Towards a classification of rational Hopf algebras

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fuchs, J.; Ganchev, A.; Vecsernyes, P.

    1994-02-01

    Rational Hopf algebras, i.e. certain quasitriangular weak quasi-Hopf *-algebras, are expected to describe the quantum symmetry of rational field theories. In this paper methods are developed which allow for a classification of all rational Hopf algebras that are compatible with some prescribed set of fusion rules. The algebras are parametrized by the solutions of the square, pentagon and hexagon identities. As examples, we classify all solutions for fusion rules with not more than three sectors, as well as for the level three affine A 1 (1) fusion rules. We also establish several general properties of rational Hopf algebras and present a graphical description of the coassociator in terms of labelled tetrahedra. The latter construction allows to make contact with conformal field theory fusing matrices and with invariants of three-manifolds and topological lattice field theory. (orig.)

  13. [Rationalization, rationing, prioritization: terminology and ethical approaches to the allocation of limited resources in hematology/oncology].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winkler, Eva

    2011-01-01

    The field of oncology with its numerous high-priced innovations contributes considerably to the fact that medical progress is expensive. Additionally, due to the demographic changes and the increasing life expectancy, a growing number of cancer patients want to profit from this progress. Since resources are limited also in the health system, the fair distribution of the available resources urgently needs to be addressed. Dealing with scarcity is a typical problem in the domain of justice theory; therefore, this article first discusses different strategies to manage limited resources: rationalization, rationing, and prioritization. It then presents substantive as well as procedural criteria that assist in the just distribution of effective health benefits. There are various strategies to reduce the utilization of limited resources: Rationalization means that efficiency reserves are being exhausted; by means of rationing, effective health benefits are withheld due to cost considerations. Rationing can occur implicitly and thus covertly, e.g. through budgeting or the implementation of waiting periods, or explicitly, through transparent rules or policies about healthcare coverage. Ranking medical treatments according to their importance (prioritization) is often a prerequisite for rationing decisions. In terms of requirements of justice, both procedural and substantive criteria (e.g. equality, urgency, benefit) are relevant for the acceptance and quality of a decision to limit access to effective health benefits. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  14. Multiple Equilibria in Noisy Rational Expectations Economies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pálvölgyi, Dömötör; Venter, Gyuri

    with a continuous price function. However, we also construct a tractable class of equilibria with discontinuous prices that have very different economic implications, including (i) jumps and crashes, (ii) significant revisions in uninformed belief due to small changes in the market price, (iii) “upward......-sloping” demand curves, (iv) higher prices leading to future returns that are higher in expectation (price drift) and (v) more positively skewed. Discontinuous equilibria can be arbitrarily close to being fully-revealing. Finally, discontinuous equilibria with the same construction also exist in Hellwig (1980)....

  15. Rationality and Emotions in Decision Making

    OpenAIRE

    Olga Markic

    2009-01-01

    Decision making is traditionally viewed as a rational process where reason calculates the best way to achieve the goal. Investigations from different areas of cognitive science have shown that human decisions and actions are much more influenced by intuition and emotional responses then it was previously thought. In this paper I examine the role of emotion in decision making, particularly Damasio’s hypothesis of somatic markers and Green’s dual process theory of moral judgment. I conclude the...

  16. Heterogeneity and the (de)stabilizing role of rationality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cavalli, Fausto; Naimzada, Ahmad; Pireddu, Marina

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • We analyze Cournot oligopolies with heterogeneous firms of generic size. • Rational and naive players are considered. • Stability with respect to oligopoly composition is studied. • In some settings, increasing the rational firms fraction introduces instability. - Abstract: In this paper we study oligopolies of generic size consisting of heterogeneous firms, which adopt best response adjustment mechanisms with either perfect foresight (rational firms) or static expectations (naive firms). Assuming an isoelastic demand function and possibly different marginal costs for the two groups of firms, we focus on the local stability of the Nash equilibrium. We show that, with respect to the oligopoly composition, described in terms of the fraction of rational firms, different scenarios are possible. We find that a high rationality degree may not always guarantee stability, in particular when rational firms have sufficiently larger marginal costs. In fact, in this situation, increasing the fraction of rational firms can even introduce instability. Besides the usual scenarios in which replacing some naive firms with rational ones leads to a stabilization of (or at least keeps unchanged) the dynamics, we provide a family of situations, characterized by costs ratio favorable to naive firms, in which equilibrium loses its stability when naive firms are replaced by rational ones. The results we present are both analytical and simulative.

  17. What You Know About Customer-Perceived Quality: The Role of Customer Expectation Distributions

    OpenAIRE

    Roland T. Rust; J. Jeffrey Inman; Jianmin Jia; Anthony Zahorik

    1999-01-01

    We show that some of the most common beliefs about customer-perceived quality are wrong. For example, 1) it is not necessary to exceed customer expectations to increase preference, 2) receiving an expected level of bad service does not reduce preference, 3) rational customers may rationally choose an option with lower expected quality, even if all non-quality attributes are equal, and 4) paying more attention to loyal, experienced customers can sometimes be counter-productive. These surprisin...

  18. Expectations on Track? High School Tracking and Adolescent Educational Expectations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karlson, Kristian Bernt

    2015-01-01

    This paper examines the role of adaptation in expectation formation processes by analyzing how educational tracking in high schools affects adolescents' educational expectations. I argue that adolescents view track placement as a signal about their academic abilities and respond to it in terms...... of modifying their educational expectations. Applying a difference-in-differences approach to the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, I find that being placed in an advanced or honors class in high school positively affects adolescents’ expectations, particularly if placement is consistent across...... subjects and if placement contradicts tracking experiences in middle school. My findings support the hypothesis that adolescents adapt their educational expectations to ability signals sent by schools....

  19. Local Choices: Rationality and the Contextuality of Decision-Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vlaev, Ivo

    2018-01-01

    Rational explanation is ubiquitous in psychology and social sciences, ranging from rational analysis, expectancy-value theories, ideal observer models, mental logic to probabilistic frameworks, rational choice theory, and informal “folk psychological” explanation. However, rational explanation appears to be challenged by apparently systematic irrationality observed in psychological experiments, especially in the field of judgement and decision-making (JDM). Here, it is proposed that the experimental results require not that rational explanation should be rejected, but that rational explanation is local, i.e., within a context. Thus, rational models need to be supplemented with a theory of contextual shifts. We review evidence in JDM that patterns of choices are often consistent within contexts, but unstable between contexts. We also demonstrate that for a limited, though reasonably broad, class of decision-making domains, recent theoretical models can be viewed as providing theories of contextual shifts. It is argued that one particular significant source of global inconsistency arises from a cognitive inability to represent absolute magnitudes, whether for perceptual variables, utilities, payoffs, or probabilities. This overall argument provides a fresh perspective on the scope and limits of human rationality. PMID:29301289

  20. Local Choices: Rationality and the Contextuality of Decision-Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vlaev, Ivo

    2018-01-02

    Rational explanation is ubiquitous in psychology and social sciences, ranging from rational analysis, expectancy-value theories, ideal observer models, mental logic to probabilistic frameworks, rational choice theory, and informal "folk psychological" explanation. However, rational explanation appears to be challenged by apparently systematic irrationality observed in psychological experiments, especially in the field of judgement and decision-making (JDM). Here, it is proposed that the experimental results require not that rational explanation should be rejected, but that rational explanation is local , i.e., within a context. Thus, rational models need to be supplemented with a theory of contextual shifts. We review evidence in JDM that patterns of choices are often consistent within contexts, but unstable between contexts. We also demonstrate that for a limited, though reasonably broad, class of decision-making domains, recent theoretical models can be viewed as providing theories of contextual shifts. It is argued that one particular significant source of global inconsistency arises from a cognitive inability to represent absolute magnitudes, whether for perceptual variables, utilities, payoffs, or probabilities. This overall argument provides a fresh perspective on the scope and limits of human rationality.

  1. The properties of inflation expectations: Evidence for India

    OpenAIRE

    Naresh Kumar Sharma; Motilal Bicchal

    2018-01-01

    Empirical inferences about particular forms of agents’ inflation expectations are crucial for the conduct of monetary policy. This paper is an attempt to explore the properties of the Reserve Bank of India’s survey data of households’ inflation expectations. The paper shows that survey respondents do not form expectations rationally, regardless of the reference measures of inflation used. Further, results indicate that inflation expectations are formed purely in backward-looking manner, sugge...

  2. Standby Gasoline Rationing Plan. Contingency gasoline rationing regulations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1979-02-01

    The Economic Regulatory Administration issues final rules with respect to standby gasoline rationing. The plan is designed for and would be used only in the event of a severe gasoline shortage. The plan provides that eligibility for ration allotments will be primarily on the basis of motor vehicle registrations. DOE will mail government ration checks to the parties named in a national vehicle registration file to be maintained by DOE. Ration recipients may cash these checks for ration coupons at various designated coupon issuance points. Retail outlets and other suppliers will be required to redeem the ration coupons received in exchange for gasoline sold. Supplemental gas will be given to high-priority activities. A ration banking system will be established with two separate and distinct of ration accounts: retail outlets and other suppliers will open redemption accounts for the deposit of redeemed ration rights; and individuals or firms may open ration rights accounts, which will operate in much the same manner as monetary checking accounts. A white market will be permitted for the sale of transfer of ration rights. A percentage of the total ration rights to be issued will be reserved for distribution to the states as a State Ration Reserve, to be used by the states primarily for the relief of hardship. A National Ration Reserave will also be established. All sections of the Standby Gasoline Rationing Regulations are analyzed. (MCW)

  3. Rational integration of noisy evidence and prior semantic expectations in sentence interpretation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibson, Edward; Bergen, Leon; Piantadosi, Steven T

    2013-05-14

    Sentence processing theories typically assume that the input to our language processing mechanisms is an error-free sequence of words. However, this assumption is an oversimplification because noise is present in typical language use (for instance, due to a noisy environment, producer errors, or perceiver errors). A complete theory of human sentence comprehension therefore needs to explain how humans understand language given imperfect input. Indeed, like many cognitive systems, language processing mechanisms may even be "well designed"--in this case for the task of recovering intended meaning from noisy utterances. In particular, comprehension mechanisms may be sensitive to the types of information that an idealized statistical comprehender would be sensitive to. Here, we evaluate four predictions about such a rational (Bayesian) noisy-channel language comprehender in a sentence comprehension task: (i) semantic cues should pull sentence interpretation towards plausible meanings, especially if the wording of the more plausible meaning is close to the observed utterance in terms of the number of edits; (ii) this process should asymmetrically treat insertions and deletions due to the Bayesian "size principle"; such nonliteral interpretation of sentences should (iii) increase with the perceived noise rate of the communicative situation and (iv) decrease if semantically anomalous meanings are more likely to be communicated. These predictions are borne out, strongly suggesting that human language relies on rational statistical inference over a noisy channel.

  4. Heterogeneous expectations in monetary DSGE models

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Massaro, D.

    2013-01-01

    This paper derives a general New Keynesian framework with heterogeneous expectations by explicitly solving the micro-foundations underpinning the model. The resulting reduced form is analytically tractable and encompasses the representative rational agent benchmark as a special case. We specify a

  5. The Soft Constraints Hypothesis: A Rational Analysis Approach to Resource Allocation for Interactive Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    2006-01-01

    Gray, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Carnegie Building, 110 8th St., Troy, NY 12180. E-mail: grayw@rpi.edu Psychological Review Copyright 2006 by...the American Psychological Association 2006, Vol. 113, No. 3, 461–482 0033-295X/06/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.113.3.461 461 Report Documentation...analysis approach from signal-detection theorists (Geisler, 2003; Macmillan & Creelman , 2004) with rational analysis (Anderson, 1990, 1991) to present an

  6. Rationality of limited rationality : some aggregate implications

    OpenAIRE

    Uri M. Possen; Mikko Puhakka

    1994-01-01

    In this paper we let economic agents choose whether to become fully rational or stay boundedly rational. Boundedly rational agents are less sophisticated in their information processing abilities. It is costly to acquire information needed to become fully rational, and thus not all agents are willing to incur those costs. We then explore the aggregate effects of endogenizing the decision whether the agent should or should not become fully rational in handling information. Since fully and boun...

  7. Moral Credentialing and the Rationalization of Misconduct

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Ryan P.; Tamborski, Michael; Wang, Xiaoqian; Barnes, Collin D.; Mumford, Michael D.; Connelly, Shane; Devenport, Lynn D.

    2010-01-01

    Recent studies lead to the paradoxical conclusion that the act of affirming one’s egalitarian or pro-social values and virtues might subsequently facilitate prejudiced or self-serving behavior, an effect previously referred to as “moral credentialing.” The present study extends this paradox to the domain of academic misconduct and investigates the hypothesis that such an effect might be limited by the extent to which misbehavior is rationalizable. Using a paradigm designed to investigate deliberative and rationalized forms of cheating (von Hippel, Lakin, & Shakarchi, 2005), we found that when participants had credentialed themselves (versus a non-close acquaintance) via a set of hypothetical moral dilemmas, they were more likely to cheat on a subsequent math task, but only if cheating was highly rationalizable. When cheating was difficult to rationalize, moral credentialing had almost no impact on cheating. PMID:21503267

  8. Rekonsiliasi Perseteruan antara Efficient Market Hypothesis dan Behavioral Finance melalui Perspektif Neuroeconomics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Satia Nur Maharani

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Behavioral finance evaluation on Efficient Market Hypothesis causes debates among scientists supporting both theories. This article describes a comprehensive debate between rational behavior perspective on the Efficient Market Hypothesis with irrational behavior on behavioral finance, and how neuroeconomics shed some light on these two perspectives. This article gives a wider range of colors to represent investors behavior that is very complex, and encourage the growth of new generations of related theory of capital markets through interdisciplinary collaboration. Findings indicated that neuroeconomics perspective identified economic behavior through psychological functions.

  9. Why high-risk, non-expected-utility-maximising gambles can be rational and beneficial: the case of HIV cure studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchak, Lara

    2017-02-01

    Some early phase clinical studies of candidate HIV cure and remission interventions appear to have adverse medical risk-benefit ratios for participants. Why, then, do people participate? And is it ethically permissible to allow them to participate? Recent work in decision theory sheds light on both of these questions, by casting doubt on the idea that rational individuals prefer choices that maximise expected utility, and therefore by casting doubt on the idea that researchers have an ethical obligation not to enrol participants in studies with high risk-benefit ratios. This work supports the view that researchers should instead defer to the considered preferences of the participants themselves. This essay briefly explains this recent work, and then explores its application to these two questions in more detail. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  10. Role Of Expectancy Manipulation In Systematic Desensitization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, H. Alan

    1973-01-01

    Expectancy, relaxation, and hierarchy content were manipulated. Findings did not support the hypothesis that expectancy was the only factor in desensitization, but did clarify the role of expectancy vis-a-vis the counterconditioning elements typically discussed in the literature. (Author)

  11. A discussion of theoretical and practical rationality

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wahlstroem, B. [Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo (Finland). VTT Automation

    1999-12-01

    Theoretical rationality as defined in Expected Utility Theory and amended with other considerations gives a good basis for decision making. One should however always keep in mind that practical rationality often is far more complicated. People use their everyday experience when placed before new problems and this may lead to apparently irrational choices which on a closer scrutiny may be completely rational. Theories in human decision making unfortunately becomes untestable, firstly because a theory taking all considerations into account would be to complex to be practical and secondly because the data needed to test the theory cannot be collected. The benefit of EUT is that it is simple and straightforward as compared with competing theories. In the natural sciences rationality is often seen simply as a problem of optimisation. This view is practical, but it has to include also psychological and sociological considerations. The apparent controversy between natural and behavioural sciences could at least in principle be resolved by a better understanding of the complexity of human rationality. The human mind does not work in isolation, but it is adapted to a social community and a continuously changing environment. Understanding all components of human rationality is a challenge which cannot be solved on a short term basis. An important part of human rationality is connected to the intricate balance between individual and societal utility. The human mind has over thousands of years learnt to resolve that balance, but in the modern society there are decisions which may not be solvable with an intuitive approach and a strategy of trial and error. For these decisions more solid theories of rationality will be needed. EUT can in spite of its dismerits be used as the backbone for such a theory, but it has to be extended with better explanations of both individual and social rationality. If this understanding of the practical aspects of human rationality can be reached

  12. A discussion of theoretical and practical rationality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wahlstroem, B.

    1999-01-01

    Theoretical rationality as defined in Expected Utility Theory and amended with other considerations gives a good basis for decision making. One should however always keep in mind that practical rationality often is far more complicated. People use their everyday experience when placed before new problems and this may lead to apparently irrational choices which on a closer scrutiny may be completely rational. Theories in human decision making unfortunately becomes untestable, firstly because a theory taking all considerations into account would be to complex to be practical and secondly because the data needed to test the theory cannot be collected. The benefit of EUT is that it is simple and straightforward as compared with competing theories. In the natural sciences rationality is often seen simply as a problem of optimisation. This view is practical, but it has to include also psychological and sociological considerations. The apparent controversy between natural and behavioural sciences could at least in principle be resolved by a better understanding of the complexity of human rationality. The human mind does not work in isolation, but it is adapted to a social community and a continuously changing environment. Understanding all components of human rationality is a challenge which cannot be solved on a short term basis. An important part of human rationality is connected to the intricate balance between individual and societal utility. The human mind has over thousands of years learnt to resolve that balance, but in the modern society there are decisions which may not be solvable with an intuitive approach and a strategy of trial and error. For these decisions more solid theories of rationality will be needed. EUT can in spite of its dismerits be used as the backbone for such a theory, but it has to be extended with better explanations of both individual and social rationality. If this understanding of the practical aspects of human rationality can be reached

  13. What characterises the expectations of gamblers?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Connie

    the gamblers have erroneous thoughts of gambling, their subjective estimates of the return rates of the games, expected gains and motives of consumption and investment for playing. These aspects will help to create a picture of how rational the gamblers are and whether there are significant differences between...

  14. Rationality in children: the first steps

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew Woodfield

    1991-12-01

    Full Text Available Not all categorization is conceptual. Many of the experimental findings concerning infant and animal categorization invite the hypothesis that the subjects form abstract perceptual representations, mental models or cognitive maps that are not composed of concepts. The paper is a reflection upon the idea that conceptual categorization involves the ability to make categorical judgements under the guidance of norms of rationality. These include a norm of truth-seeking and a norm of good evidence. Acceptance of these norms implies willingness to defer to cognitive authorities, unwillingness to commit oneself to contradictions, and knowledge of how to reorganize one's representational system upon discovering that one has made a mistake. It is proposed that the cognitive architecture required for basic rationality is similar to that which underlies pretend-play. The representational system must be able to make room for separate 'mental spaces' in which alternatives to the actual world are entertained. The same feature underlies the ability to understand modalities, time, the appearance-reality distinction, other minds, and ethics. Each area of understanding admits of degrees, and mastery (up to normal adult level takes years. But rational concept-management, at least in its most rudimentary form, does not require a capacity to form second-order representations. It requires knowledge of how to operate upon, and compare, the contents of different mental spaces.

  15. Rationing in the emergency department: the good, the bad, and the unacceptable.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cross, E; Goodacre, S; O'Cathain, A; Arnold, J

    2005-03-01

    Waiting times in emergency departments (EDs) are an important government priority. Although substantial efforts are currently being made to reduce waiting times, little attention has been paid to the patients' view. We used qualitative methods to explore patients' perspectives on waiting times and other approaches to rationing and prioritisation. Face to face, in depth, qualitative interviews (n = 11) explored how patients valued waiting times for non-urgent ED care. The framework approach (identifying a thematic framework through repeated re-reading) was used to analyse transcripts. Interviewees found some forms of rationing and prioritisation acceptable. They expected rationing by delay, but required explanations or information on the reason for their wait. They valued prioritisation by triage (rationing by selection) and thought that this role could be expanded for the re-direction of non-urgent patients elsewhere (rationing by deflection). Interviewees were mainly unwilling or unable to engage in prioritisation of different types of patients, openly prioritising only those with obvious clinical need, and children. However, some interviewees were willing to ration implicitly, labelling some attenders as inappropriate, such as those causing a nuisance. Others felt it was unacceptable to blame "inappropriate" attenders, as their attendance may relate to lack of information or awareness of service use. Explicit rationing between services was not acceptable, although some believed there were more important priorities for NHS resources than ED waiting times. Interviewees disagreed with the hypothetical notion of paying to be seen more quickly in the ED (rationing by charging). Interviewees expected to wait and accepted the need for prioritisation, although they were reluctant to engage in judgements regarding prioritisation. They supported the re-direction of patients with certain non-urgent complaints. However, they perceived a need for more explanation and

  16. Cross-Sectional Dispersion of Firm Valuations and Expected Stock Returns

    OpenAIRE

    Jiang, Danling

    2008-01-01

    This paper develops two competing hypotheses for the relation between the cross-sectional standard deviation of logarithmic firm fundamental-to-price ratios (``dispersion'') and expected aggregate returns. In models with fully rational beliefs, greater dispersion indicates greater risk and higher expected aggregate returns. In models with investor overconfidence, greater dispersion indicates greater mispricing and lower expected aggregate returns. Consistent with the behavioral models, the re...

  17. Rationalization: A Bibliography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedrini, D. T.; Pedrini, Bonnie C.

    Rationalization was studied by Sigmund Freud and was specifically labeled by Ernest Jones. Rationalization ought to be differentiated from rational, rationality, logical analysis, etc. On the one hand, rationalization is considered a defense mechanism, on the other hand, rationality is not. Haan has done much work with self-report inventories and…

  18. Rationality, Theory Acceptance and Decision Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Nicolas Kaufmann

    1998-06-01

    Full Text Available Following Kuhn's main thesis according to which theory revision and acceptance is always paradigm relative, I propose to outline some possible consequences of such a view. First, asking the question in what sense Bayesian decision theory could serve as the appropriate (normative theory of rationality examined from the point of view of the epistemology of theory acceptance, I argue that Bayesianism leads to a narrow conception of theory acceptance. Second, regarding the different types of theory revision, i.e. expansion, contraction, replacement and residuals shifts, I extract from Kuhn's view a series of indications showing that theory replacement cannot be rationalized within the framework of Bayesian decision theory, not even within a more sophisticated version of that model. Third, and finally, I will point to the need for a more comprehensive model of rationality than the Bayesian expected utility maximization model, the need for a model which could better deal with the different aspects of theory replacement. I will show that Kuhn's distinction between normal and revolutionary science gives us several hints for a more adequate theory of rationality in science. I will also show that Kuhn is not in a position to fully articulate his main ideas and that he well be confronted with a serious problem concerning collective choice of a paradigm.

  19. Natural Variation in the Sex Gap in Life Expectancy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lindahl-Jacobsen, Rune; Zarulli, Virginia; Christensen, Kaare

    of these environmental factors whereas small differences would reflect a lower action of the factors and approach the ‘natural’ biological level. Here we examine variability in sex differences in life expectancy in 47 historical and contemporary human populations to address our hypothesis: large sex differences in life...... that females withstand harsh environments better then males in terms of survival, partly explaining their higher life expectancy. If this hypothesis is true and females survive environmental stressors better then males then large sex differences in life expectancies could reflect the action...

  20. Rational Decision Making as Performative Praxis: Explaining Rationality's Éternel Retour

    OpenAIRE

    Cabantous, L.; Gond, J-P.

    2011-01-01

    Organizational theorists built their knowledge of decision making through a progressive critique of rational choice theory. Their positioning towards rationality, however, is at odds with the observation of rationality persistence in organizational life. This paper addresses this paradox. It proposes a new perspective on rationality that allows the theorizing of the production of rational decisions by organizations. To account for rationality's éternel retour, we approach rational decision ma...

  1. Is expected utility theory normative for medical decision making?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, B J

    1996-01-01

    Expected utility theory is felt by its proponents to be a normative theory of decision making under uncertainty. The theory starts with some simple axioms that are held to be rules that any rational person would follow. It can be shown that if one adheres to these axioms, a numerical quantity, generally referred to as utility, can be assigned to each possible outcome, with the preferred course of action being that which has the highest expected utility. One of these axioms, the independence principle, is controversial, and is frequently violated in experimental situations. Proponents of the theory hold that these violations are irrational. The independence principle is simply an axiom dictating consistency among preferences, in that it dictates that a rational agent should hold a specified preference given another stated preference. When applied to preferences between lotteries, the independence principle can be demonstrated to be a rule that is followed only when preferences are formed in a particular way. The logic of expected utility theory is that this demonstration proves that preferences should be formed in this way. An alternative interpretation is that this demonstrates that the independence principle is not a valid general rule of consistency, but in particular, is a rule that must be followed if one is to consistently apply the decision rule "choose the lottery that has the highest expected utility." This decision rule must be justified on its own terms as a valid rule of rationality by demonstration that violation would lead to decisions that conflict with the decision maker's goals. This rule does not appear to be suitable for medical decisions because often these are one-time decisions in which expectation, a long-run property of a random variable, would not seem to be applicable. This is particularly true for those decisions involving a non-trivial risk of death.

  2. Emotional see-saw affects rationality of decision-making: Evidence for metacognitive impairments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Folwarczny, Michał; Kaczmarek, Magdalena C; Doliński, Dariusz; Szczepanowski, Remigiusz

    2018-05-01

    This research investigated the cognitive mechanisms that underlie impairments in human reasoning triggered by the emotional see-saw technique. It has previously been stated that such manipulation is effective as it presumably induces a mindless state and cognitive deficits in compliant individuals. Based on the dual-system architecture of reasoning (system 2) and affective decision-making (system 1), we challenged the previous theoretical account by indicating that the main source of compliance is impairment of the meta-reasoning system when rapid affective changes occur. To examine this hypothesis, we manipulated affective feelings (system 1 processing) by violating participants' expectations regarding reward and performance in a go/no-go task in which individuals were to inhibit their responses to earn money. Aside from the go/no-go performance, we measured rationality (meta-reasoning system 2) in decision-making by asking participants to comply with a nonsensical request. We found that participants who were exposed to meta-reasoning impairments due to the emotional see-saw phenomenon exhibited mindless behavior. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. [Rational choice, prediction, and medical decision. Contribution of severity scores].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bizouarn, P; Fiat, E; Folscheid, D

    2001-11-01

    The aim of this study was to determine what type of representation the medical doctor adopted concerning the uncertainty about the future in critically ill patients in the context of preoperative evaluation and intensive care medicine and to explore through the representation of the patient health status the different possibilities of choice he was able to make. The role played by the severity classification systems in the process of medical decision-making under probabilistic uncertainty was assessed according to the theories of rational behaviour. In this context, a medical rationality needed to be discovered, going beyond the instrumental status of the objective and/or subjective constructions of rational choice theories and reaching a dimension where means and expected ends could be included.

  4. Breaking the Bounds of Rationality: Values, Relationships, and Decision-making in Mexican Fishing Communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicole D Peterson

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In fishing communities in Baja California Sur, Mexico, fisheries management is heavily influenced by models of individual economic rationality held by biologists and others involved in management, in which fishermen ′choose′ to overfish because they are motivated by selfish individual rationality. Yet there is much that is neglected by these models, including the pressures of economic markets, family and community expectations, and cultural and personal value systems. Actual decisions about fishing and resource management rarely match the expectations of classical or neoliberal economic models of individual behaviour. I argue here that rational choice theory is a historically and culturally constructed discourse that becomes a taken-for-granted lens for viewing behaviour around the world. The effects of this discourse can be seen in the policies that are derived from them, as shown through this case study.

  5. Deep Rationality: The Evolutionary Economics of Decision Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kenrick, Douglas T; Griskevicius, Vladas; Sundie, Jill M; Li, Norman P; Li, Yexin Jessica; Neuberg, Steven L

    2009-10-01

    What is a "rational" decision? Economists traditionally viewed rationality as maximizing expected satisfaction. This view has been useful in modeling basic microeconomic concepts, but falls short in accounting for many everyday human decisions. It leaves unanswered why some things reliably make people more satisfied than others, and why people frequently act to make others happy at a cost to themselves. Drawing on an evolutionary perspective, we propose that people make decisions according to a set of principles that may not appear to make sense at the superficial level, but that demonstrate rationality at a deeper evolutionary level. By this, we mean that people use adaptive domain-specific decision-rules that, on average, would have resulted in fitness benefits. Using this framework, we re-examine several economic principles. We suggest that traditional psychological functions governing risk aversion, discounting of future benefits, and budget allocations to multiple goods, for example, vary in predictable ways as a function of the underlying motive of the decision-maker and individual differences linked to evolved life-history strategies. A deep rationality framework not only helps explain why people make the decisions they do, but also inspires multiple directions for future research.

  6. Stability and Hopf bifurcation for a business cycle model with expectation and delay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xiangdong; Cai, Wenli; Lu, Jiajun; Wang, Yangyang

    2015-08-01

    According to rational expectation hypothesis, the government will take into account the future capital stock in the process of investment decision. By introducing anticipated capital stock into an economic model with investment delay, we construct a mixed functional differential system including delay and advanced variables. The system is converted to the one containing only delay by variable substitution. The equilibrium point of the system is obtained and its dynamical characteristics such as stability, Hopf bifurcation and its stability and direction are investigated by using the related theories of nonlinear dynamics. We carry out some numerical simulations to confirm these theoretical conclusions. The results indicate that both capital stock's anticipation and investment lag are the certain factors leading to the occurrence of cyclical fluctuations in the macroeconomic system. Moreover, the level of economic fluctuation can be dampened to some extent if investment decisions are made by the reasonable short-term forecast on capital stock.

  7. Explaining Compound Generalization in Associative and Causal Learning Through Rational Principles of Dimensional Generalization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soto, Fabian A.; Gershman, Samuel J.; Niv, Yael

    2014-01-01

    How do we apply learning from one situation to a similar, but not identical, situation? The principles governing the extent to which animals and humans generalize what they have learned about certain stimuli to novel compounds containing those stimuli vary depending on a number of factors. Perhaps the best studied among these factors is the type of stimuli used to generate compounds. One prominent hypothesis is that different generalization principles apply depending on whether the stimuli in a compound are similar or dissimilar to each other. However, the results of many experiments cannot be explained by this hypothesis. Here we propose a rational Bayesian theory of compound generalization that uses the notion of consequential regions, first developed in the context of rational theories of multidimensional generalization, to explain the effects of stimulus factors on compound generalization. The model explains a large number of results from the compound generalization literature, including the influence of stimulus modality and spatial contiguity on the summation effect, the lack of influence of stimulus factors on summation with a recovered inhibitor, the effect of spatial position of stimuli on the blocking effect, the asymmetrical generalization decrement in overshadowing and external inhibition, and the conditions leading to a reliable external inhibition effect. By integrating rational theories of compound and dimensional generalization, our model provides the first comprehensive computational account of the effects of stimulus factors on compound generalization, including spatial and temporal contiguity between components, which have posed longstanding problems for rational theories of associative and causal learning. PMID:25090430

  8. Emotions and Decisions: Beyond Conceptual Vagueness and the Rationality Muddle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Volz, Kirsten G; Hertwig, Ralph

    2016-01-01

    For centuries, decision scholars paid little attention to emotions: Decisions were modeled in normative and descriptive frameworks with little regard for affective processes. Recently, however, an "emotions revolution" has taken place, particularly in the neuroscientific study of decision making, putting emotional processes on an equal footing with cognitive ones. Yet disappointingly little theoretical progress has been made. The concepts and processes discussed often remain vague, and conclusions about the implications of emotions for rationality are contradictory and muddled. We discuss three complementary ways to move the neuroscientific study of emotion and decision making from agenda setting to theory building. The first is to use reverse inference as a hypothesis-discovery rather than a hypothesis-testing tool, unless its utility can be systematically quantified (e.g., through meta-analysis). The second is to capitalize on the conceptual inventory advanced by the behavioral science of emotions, testing those concepts and unveiling the underlying processes. The third is to model the interplay between emotions and decisions, harnessing existing cognitive frameworks of decision making and mapping emotions onto the postulated computational processes. To conclude, emotions (like cognitive strategies) are not rational or irrational per se: How (un)reasonable their influence is depends on their fit with the environment. © The Author(s) 2015.

  9. Income inequality, redistribution and poverty: Contrasting rational choices and behavioural perspectives

    OpenAIRE

    Luebker, Malte

    2012-01-01

    Based on the standard axiom of individual utility maximization, rational choice has postulated that higher income inequality translates into greater redistribution by shaping the median voter’s preferences. While numerous papers have tested this proposition, the literature has remained divided over the appropriate measure for redistribution. Revisiting the original contribution by Meltzer and Richard, the present paper argues that the median voter hypothesis implies that relative redistributi...

  10. Risk-Based, Hypothesis-Driven Framework for Hydrological Field Campaigns with Case Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harken, B.; Rubin, Y.

    2014-12-01

    There are several stages in any hydrological modeling campaign, including: formulation and analysis of a priori information, data acquisition through field campaigns, inverse modeling, and prediction of some environmental performance metric (EPM). The EPM being predicted could be, for example, contaminant concentration or plume travel time. These predictions often have significant bearing on a decision that must be made. Examples include: how to allocate limited remediation resources between contaminated groundwater sites or where to place a waste repository site. Answering such questions depends on predictions of EPMs using forward models as well as levels of uncertainty related to these predictions. Uncertainty in EPM predictions stems from uncertainty in model parameters, which can be reduced by measurements taken in field campaigns. The costly nature of field measurements motivates a rational basis for determining a measurement strategy that is optimal with respect to the uncertainty in the EPM prediction. The tool of hypothesis testing allows this uncertainty to be quantified by computing the significance of the test resulting from a proposed field campaign. The significance of the test gives a rational basis for determining the optimality of a proposed field campaign. This hypothesis testing framework is demonstrated and discussed using various synthetic case studies. This study involves contaminated aquifers where a decision must be made based on prediction of when a contaminant will arrive at a specified location. The EPM, in this case contaminant travel time, is cast into the hypothesis testing framework. The null hypothesis states that the contaminant plume will arrive at the specified location before a critical amount of time passes, and the alternative hypothesis states that the plume will arrive after the critical time passes. The optimality of different field campaigns is assessed by computing the significance of the test resulting from each one

  11. Rationing in the NHS: the dance of the seven veils-in reverse.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, R; Day, P; Redmayne, S

    1995-10-01

    The 1991 reforms of the National Health Service set up the expectation that rationing would in future be explicit instead of, as in the past, implicit. This has not happened. Research carried out at the University of Bath shows that very few health authorities are rationing by exclusion on the Oregon model. Instead, both central Government and health authorities are continuing to diffuse responsibility among the medical profession. This paper analyses the reasons why. Rationing by delay and dilution are more significant-as well as less visible-than rationing by exclusion. And it is the medical profession which controls the flow of patients through waiting lists and the way in which resources are used during treatment. Similarly, it is in the self-interest of both central Government and health authorities that their resource decisions should continue to be disguised behind the veils of clinical discretion. Despite pressures for greater transparency, Britain's opaque form of rationing may therefore survive.

  12. Children's understanding of the costs and rewards underlying rational action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jara-Ettinger, Julian; Gweon, Hyowon; Tenenbaum, Joshua B; Schulz, Laura E

    2015-07-01

    Humans explain and predict other agents' behavior using mental state concepts, such as beliefs and desires. Computational and developmental evidence suggest that such inferences are enabled by a principle of rational action: the expectation that agents act efficiently, within situational constraints, to achieve their goals. Here we propose that the expectation of rational action is instantiated by a naïve utility calculus sensitive to both agent-constant and agent-specific aspects of costs and rewards associated with actions. In four experiments, we show that, given an agent's choices, children (range: 5-6 year olds; N=96) can infer unobservable aspects of costs (differences in agents' competence) from information about subjective differences in rewards (differences in agents' preferences) and vice versa. Moreover, children can design informative experiments on both objects and agents to infer unobservable constraints on agents' actions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Rationality in Society

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Flache, Andreas; Dijkstra, Jacob; Wright, James D.

    2015-01-01

    Contemporary theories of rational behavior in human society augment the orthodox model of rationality both by adding various forms of bounded rationality and relaxing the assumptions of self-interest and materialistic preferences. This entry discusses how these extensions of the theory of rational

  14. A Rational Approach to Rational Suicide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richman, Joseph

    1992-01-01

    Describes suicide as reaction to internal and external sources of stress and the impact of life events. Notes that, in the elderly, these situations are prevalent in many who are not suicidal. Contends that much more is written about rational suicide than its alternative (rational nonsuicide). Reviews reasons for this and suggests rational…

  15. Alcohol expectancies, perceived norms, and drinking behavior among college students: examining the reciprocal determinism hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wardell, Jeffrey D; Read, Jennifer P

    2013-03-01

    Social learning mechanisms, such as descriptive norms for drinking behavior (norms) and positive alcohol expectancies (PAEs), play a major role in college student alcohol use. According to the principle of reciprocal determinism (Bandura, 1977), norms and PAEs should be reciprocally associated with alcohol use, each influencing one another over time. However, the nature of these prospective relationships for college students is in need of further investigation. This study provided the first examination of the unique reciprocal associations among norms, PAEs, and drinking together in a single model. PAEs become more stable with age, whereas norms are likely to be more dynamic upon college entry. Thus, we hypothesized that alcohol use would show stronger reciprocal associations with norms than with PAEs for college students. Students (N = 557; 67% women) completed online measures of PAEs, norms, and quantity and frequency of alcohol use in September of their first (T1), second (T2), and third (T3) years of college. Reciprocal associations were analyzed using a cross-lagged panel design. PAEs had unidirectional influences on frequency and quantity of alcohol use, with no prospective effects from alcohol use to PAEs. Reciprocal associations were observed between norms and alcohol use, but only for quantity and not for frequency. Specifically, drinking quantity prospectively predicted quantity norms and quantity norms prospectively predicted drinking quantity. This effect was observed across both years in the model. These findings support the reciprocal determinism hypothesis for norms but not for PAEs in college students and may help to inform norm-based interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

  16. The Drift Burst Hypothesis

    OpenAIRE

    Christensen, Kim; Oomen, Roel; Renò, Roberto

    2016-01-01

    The Drift Burst Hypothesis postulates the existence of short-lived locally explosive trends in the price paths of financial assets. The recent US equity and Treasury flash crashes can be viewed as two high profile manifestations of such dynamics, but we argue that drift bursts of varying magnitude are an expected and regular occurrence in financial markets that can arise through established mechanisms such as feedback trading. At a theoretical level, we show how to build drift bursts into the...

  17. Unemployment, Investment and Global Expected Returns: A Panel FAVAR Approach

    OpenAIRE

    Ron Smith; Gylfi Zoega

    2005-01-01

    We consider the hypothesis that a common factor, global expected returns, drives unemployment and investment in 21 OECD countries over the period 1960-2002. We investigate this hypothesis using a panel-factor augmented-vector autoregression (FAVAR). We first estimate the common factors of unemployment and investment by principal components and show that the first principal component of unemployment is almost identical to that of investment and that they both show the pattern one would expect ...

  18. Understanding Firms' Inflation Expectations Using the Bank of Canada's Business Outlook Survey

    OpenAIRE

    Richards, Simon; Verstraete, Matthieu

    2016-01-01

    Inflation expectations are a key determinant of actual and future inflation and thus matter for the conduct of monetary policy. We study how firms form their inflation expectations using quarterly firm-level data from the Bank of Canada's Business Outlook Survey, spanning the 2001 to 2015 period. The data are aggregated to construct an inflation expectations index. Results based on the index suggest that expectations are not consistent with the rationality assumption but are, still, more comp...

  19. On rationally supported surfaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gravesen, Jens; Juttler, B.; Sir, Z.

    2008-01-01

    We analyze the class of surfaces which are equipped with rational support functions. Any rational support function can be decomposed into a symmetric (even) and an antisymmetric (odd) part. We analyze certain geometric properties of surfaces with odd and even rational support functions....... In particular it is shown that odd rational support functions correspond to those rational surfaces which can be equipped with a linear field of normal vectors, which were discussed by Sampoli et al. (Sampoli, M.L., Peternell, M., Juttler, B., 2006. Rational surfaces with linear normals and their convolutions...... with rational surfaces. Comput. Aided Geom. Design 23, 179-192). As shown recently, this class of surfaces includes non-developable quadratic triangular Bezier surface patches (Lavicka, M., Bastl, B., 2007. Rational hypersurfaces with rational convolutions. Comput. Aided Geom. Design 24, 410426; Peternell, M...

  20. Effect of rational and irrational statements on intensity and 'inappropriateness' of emotional distress and irrational beliefs in psychotherapy patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cramer, D; Kupshik, G

    1993-09-01

    Ellis's rational-emotive theory postulates that since irrational statements augment emotional distress, replacing irrational with rational statements should lessen distress. This hypothesis was tested in the initial stages of psychotherapy by having 13 and 14 clinical out-patients respectively repeat for one minute either rational or irrational statements about their major presenting psychological problem. The distinction by Ellis & Harper (1975) that 'inappropriate' emotions differ qualitatively from 'appropriate' emotions was also examined. Although the experimental intervention had no effect on a post-test measure of irrational beliefs, patients repeating rational statements had significantly lower appropriate and inappropriate negative emotions at post-test, suggesting that inappropriate emotions do not differ qualitatively from appropriate emotions and that making rational statements may lower emotional distress in patients. Patients reiterating irrational statements showed no change in emotions, implying that these kinds of irrational cognitions may have already been present.

  1. Clinical reasoning in the real world is mediated by bounded rationality: implications for diagnostic clinical practice guidelines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonilauri Ferreira, Ana Paula Ribeiro; Ferreira, Rodrigo Fernando; Rajgor, Dimple; Shah, Jatin; Menezes, Andrea; Pietrobon, Ricardo

    2010-04-20

    Little is known about the reasoning mechanisms used by physicians in decision-making and how this compares to diagnostic clinical practice guidelines. We explored the clinical reasoning process in a real life environment. This is a qualitative study evaluating transcriptions of sixteen physicians' reasoning during appointments with patients, clinical discussions between specialists, and personal interviews with physicians affiliated to a hospital in Brazil. FOUR MAIN THEMES WERE IDENTIFIED: simple and robust heuristics, extensive use of social environment rationality, attempts to prove diagnostic and therapeutic hypothesis while refuting potential contradictions using positive test strategy, and reaching the saturation point. Physicians constantly attempted to prove their initial hypothesis while trying to refute any contradictions. While social environment rationality was the main factor in the determination of all steps of the clinical reasoning process, factors such as referral letters and number of contradictions associated with the initial hypothesis had influence on physicians' confidence and determination of the threshold to reach a final decision. Physicians rely on simple heuristics associated with environmental factors. This model allows for robustness, simplicity, and cognitive energy saving. Since this model does not fit into current diagnostic clinical practice guidelines, we make some propositions to help its integration.

  2. Growth-expectations among women entrepreneurs: embedded in networks and culture in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and in Belgium and France

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cheraghi, Maryam; Setti, Zakia; Schøtt, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    Entrepreneurship Monitor, randomly sampling 39,336 women, including 2,306 entrepreneurs. Analyses show that women entrepreneurs have growth-expectations based on their background and increased by their competence and opportunity-motive, which also promote business networks around their firms. Formation......An entrepreneur usually has an expectation for the firm, expecting expansion, stability or contraction. Expectation is influenced by the entrepreneur's attributes, but expectation is also embedded in the micro-environment of networking and the macro-environment of culture. Traditional culture...... and secular-rational culture differ in roles for women, which influence women entrepreneurs' networking and expectations. The design compares cultures, with data from three traditional societies, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia and two secular-rational societies, France and Belgium, surveyed in the Global...

  3. Pragmatics & rationality.

    OpenAIRE

    Allott, N. E.

    2007-01-01

    This thesis is about the reconciliation of realistic views of rationality with inferential-intentional theories of communication. Grice (1957 1975) argued that working out what a speaker meant by an utterance is a matter of inferring the speaker's intentions on the presumption that she is acting rationally. This is abductive inference: inference to the best explanation for the utterance. Thus an utterance both rationalises and causes the interpretation the hearer constructs. Human rationality...

  4. Baseline rationing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hougaard, Jens Leth; Moreno-Ternero, Juan D.; Østerdal, Lars Peter Raahave

    The standard problem of adjudicating conflicting claims describes a situation in which a given amount of a divisible good has to be allocated among agents who hold claims against it exceeding the available amount. This paper considers more general rationing problems in which, in addition to claims...... to international protocols for the reduction of greenhouse emissions, or water distribution in drought periods. We define a family of allocation methods for such general rationing problems - called baseline rationing rules - and provide an axiomatic characterization for it. Any baseline rationing rule within...... the family is associated with a standard rule and we show that if the latter obeys some properties reflecting principles of impartiality, priority and solidarity, the former obeys them too....

  5. Information Characteristics and Errors in Expectations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Antoniou, Constantinos; Harrison, Glenn W.; Lau, Morten Igel

    Behavioural finance theories draw on evidence from psychology that suggest that some people respond to information in a biased manner, and construct theories of inefficient markets. However, these biases are not always robust when tested in economic conditions, which casts doubt on their relevance...... to market efficiency. We design an economic experiment to test a psychological hypothesis of errors in expectations widely cited in finance, which states that, in violations of Bayes Rule, some people respond more forcefully to the strength of an information signal. The strength of a signal is how saliently...... it supports a specific hypothesis, as opposed to its weight, which is its predictive validity. We find that the strength-weight bias affects expectations, but that its magnitude is three times lower than originally reported in the psychology literature. This suggests that its impact on financial markets...

  6. Rationing with baselines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hougaard, Jens Leth; Moreno-Ternero, Juan D.; Østerdal, Lars Peter Raahave

    2013-01-01

    We introduce a new operator for general rationing problems in which, besides conflicting claims, individual baselines play an important role in the rationing process. The operator builds onto ideas of composition, which are not only frequent in rationing, but also in related problems...... such as bargaining, choice, and queuing. We characterize the operator and show how it preserves some standard axioms in the literature on rationing. We also relate it to recent contributions in such literature....

  7. A Bayesian Decision-Theoretic Approach to Logically-Consistent Hypothesis Testing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo Miranda da Silva

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available This work addresses an important issue regarding the performance of simultaneous test procedures: the construction of multiple tests that at the same time are optimal from a statistical perspective and that also yield logically-consistent results that are easy to communicate to practitioners of statistical methods. For instance, if hypothesis A implies hypothesis B, is it possible to create optimal testing procedures that reject A whenever they reject B? Unfortunately, several standard testing procedures fail in having such logical consistency. Although this has been deeply investigated under a frequentist perspective, the literature lacks analyses under a Bayesian paradigm. In this work, we contribute to the discussion by investigating three rational relationships under a Bayesian decision-theoretic standpoint: coherence, invertibility and union consonance. We characterize and illustrate through simple examples optimal Bayes tests that fulfill each of these requisites separately. We also explore how far one can go by putting these requirements together. We show that although fairly intuitive tests satisfy both coherence and invertibility, no Bayesian testing scheme meets the desiderata as a whole, strengthening the understanding that logical consistency cannot be combined with statistical optimality in general. Finally, we associate Bayesian hypothesis testing with Bayes point estimation procedures. We prove the performance of logically-consistent hypothesis testing by means of a Bayes point estimator to be optimal only under very restrictive conditions.

  8. A Rational Decision Maker with Ordinal Utility under Uncertainty: Optimism and Pessimism

    OpenAIRE

    Han, Ji

    2009-01-01

    In game theory and artificial intelligence, decision making models often involve maximizing expected utility, which does not respect ordinal invariance. In this paper, the author discusses the possibility of preserving ordinal invariance and still making a rational decision under uncertainty.

  9. Reference-dependent risk sensitivity as rational inference.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denrell, Jerker C

    2015-07-01

    Existing explanations of reference-dependent risk sensitivity attribute it to cognitive imperfections and heuristic choice processes. This article shows that behavior consistent with an S-shaped value function could be an implication of rational inferences about the expected values of alternatives. Theoretically, I demonstrate that even a risk-neutral Bayesian decision maker, who is uncertain about the reliability of observations, should use variability in observed outcomes as a predictor of low expected value for outcomes above a reference level, and as a predictor of high expected value for outcomes below a reference level. Empirically, I show that combining past outcomes using an S-shaped value function leads to accurate predictions about future values. The theory also offers a rationale for why risk sensitivity consistent with an inverse S-shaped value function should occur in experiments on decisions from experience with binary payoff distributions. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. [Expectations and patient satisfaction in hospitals: construction and application of an expectation-based experience typology and its use in the management of quality and expectations].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gehrlach, Christoph; Güntert, Bernhard

    2015-01-01

    Patient satisfaction (PS) surveys are frequently used evaluation methods to show performance from the customer's view. This approach has some fundamental deficits, especially with respect to theory, methodology and usage. Because of the significant theoretical value of the expectation confirmation/disconfirmation concept in the development of PS, an expectation-based experience typology has been developed and tested to check whether this approach could be a theoretical and practical alternative to the survey of PS. Due to the mainly cognitive-rational process of comparison between expectations and expectation fulfilment, it is easier to make changes in this stage of the process than in the subsequent stage of the development of PS that is mainly based on emotional-affective processes. The paper contains a literature review of the common concept of PS and its causal and influencing factors. Based on the theoretical part of this study, an expectation-based experience typology was developed. In the next step, the typology was subjected to exploratory testing, based on two patient surveys. In some parts of the tested typology explorative differences could be found between hospitals. Despite this rather more complex and unusual approach to expectation-based experience typology, this concept offers the chance to change conditions not only retrospectively (based on data), but also in a prospective way in terms of a "management of expectations". Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

  11. Testing the rationality of DOE's energy price forecasts under asymmetric loss preferences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mamatzakis, E.; Koutsomanoli-Filippaki, A.

    2014-01-01

    This paper examines the rationality of the price forecasts for energy commodities of the United States Department of Energy's (DOE), departing from the common assumption in the literature that DOE's forecasts are based on a symmetric underlying loss function with respect to positive vs. negative forecast errors. Instead, we opt for the methodology of Elliott et al. (2005) that allows testing the joint hypothesis of an asymmetric loss function and rationality and reveals the underlying preferences of the forecaster. Results indicate the existence of asymmetries in the shape of the loss function for most energy categories with preferences leaning towards optimism. Moreover, we also examine whether there is a structural break in those preferences over the examined period, 1997–2012. - Highlights: • Examine the rationality of DOE energy forecasts. • Departing from a symmetric underlying loss function. • Asymmetries exist in most energy prices. • Preferences lean towards optimism. • Examine structural breaks in those preferences

  12. Realization theory for rational systems: Minimal rational realizations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    J. Nemcová (Jana); J.H. van Schuppen (Jan)

    2010-01-01

    htmlabstractThe study of realizations of response maps is a topic of control and system theory. Realization theory is used in system identification and control synthesis. A minimal rational realization of a given response map p is a rational realization of p such that the dimension of its state

  13. A Theory of Rational Junk-Food Consumption

    OpenAIRE

    Levy, Amnon

    2002-01-01

    An expected lifetime-utility maximizing diet of junk and health food is analyzed. The stationary junk-food consumption level is equal to the ratio of the recovery capacity of a perfectly healthy person to the sensitivity of her health to junk food. The greater the difference between the relative taste and the stationary relative price of junk food, rate of time preference, and elasticity of satisfaction from food, the better the stationary health of the rational junk-food consumer. The greate...

  14. [Dilemma of null hypothesis in ecological hypothesis's experiment test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ji

    2016-06-01

    Experimental test is one of the major test methods of ecological hypothesis, though there are many arguments due to null hypothesis. Quinn and Dunham (1983) analyzed the hypothesis deduction model from Platt (1964) and thus stated that there is no null hypothesis in ecology that can be strictly tested by experiments. Fisher's falsificationism and Neyman-Pearson (N-P)'s non-decisivity inhibit statistical null hypothesis from being strictly tested. Moreover, since the null hypothesis H 0 (α=1, β=0) and alternative hypothesis H 1 '(α'=1, β'=0) in ecological progresses are diffe-rent from classic physics, the ecological null hypothesis can neither be strictly tested experimentally. These dilemmas of null hypothesis could be relieved via the reduction of P value, careful selection of null hypothesis, non-centralization of non-null hypothesis, and two-tailed test. However, the statistical null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) should not to be equivalent to the causality logistical test in ecological hypothesis. Hence, the findings and conclusions about methodological studies and experimental tests based on NHST are not always logically reliable.

  15. When is rational to order a diagnostic test, or prescribe treatment: the threshold model as an explanation of practice variation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Djulbegovic, Benjamin; van den Ende, Jef; Hamm, Robert M; Mayrhofer, Thomas; Hozo, Iztok; Pauker, Stephen G

    2015-05-01

    The threshold model represents an important advance in the field of medical decision-making. It is a linchpin between evidence (which exists on the continuum of credibility) and decision-making (which is a categorical exercise - we decide to act or not act). The threshold concept is closely related to the question of rational decision-making. When should the physician act, that is order a diagnostic test, or prescribe treatment? The threshold model embodies the decision theoretic rationality that says the most rational decision is to prescribe treatment when the expected treatment benefit outweighs its expected harms. However, the well-documented large variation in the way physicians order diagnostic tests or decide to administer treatments is consistent with a notion that physicians' individual action thresholds vary. We present a narrative review summarizing the existing literature on physicians' use of a threshold strategy for decision-making. We found that the observed variation in decision action thresholds is partially due to the way people integrate benefits and harms. That is, explanation of variation in clinical practice can be reduced to a consideration of thresholds. Limited evidence suggests that non-expected utility threshold (non-EUT) models, such as regret-based and dual-processing models, may explain current medical practice better. However, inclusion of costs and recognition of risk attitudes towards uncertain treatment effects and comorbidities may improve the explanatory and predictive value of the EUT-based threshold models. The decision when to act is closely related to the question of rational choice. We conclude that the medical community has not yet fully defined criteria for rational clinical decision-making. The traditional notion of rationality rooted in EUT may need to be supplemented by reflective rationality, which strives to integrate all aspects of medical practice - medical, humanistic and socio-economic - within a coherent

  16. Clinical reasoning in the real world is mediated by bounded rationality: implications for diagnostic clinical practice guidelines.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Paula Ribeiro Bonilauri Ferreira

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Little is known about the reasoning mechanisms used by physicians in decision-making and how this compares to diagnostic clinical practice guidelines. We explored the clinical reasoning process in a real life environment. METHOD: This is a qualitative study evaluating transcriptions of sixteen physicians' reasoning during appointments with patients, clinical discussions between specialists, and personal interviews with physicians affiliated to a hospital in Brazil. RESULTS: FOUR MAIN THEMES WERE IDENTIFIED: simple and robust heuristics, extensive use of social environment rationality, attempts to prove diagnostic and therapeutic hypothesis while refuting potential contradictions using positive test strategy, and reaching the saturation point. Physicians constantly attempted to prove their initial hypothesis while trying to refute any contradictions. While social environment rationality was the main factor in the determination of all steps of the clinical reasoning process, factors such as referral letters and number of contradictions associated with the initial hypothesis had influence on physicians' confidence and determination of the threshold to reach a final decision. DISCUSSION: Physicians rely on simple heuristics associated with environmental factors. This model allows for robustness, simplicity, and cognitive energy saving. Since this model does not fit into current diagnostic clinical practice guidelines, we make some propositions to help its integration.

  17. Standby Gasoline Rationing Plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None

    1980-06-01

    The final rules adopted by the President for a Standby Gasoline Rationing Plan are presented. The plan provides that eligibility for ration allotments will be determined primarily on the basis of motor vehicle registrations, taking into account historical differences in the use of gasoline among states. The regulations also provide authority for supplemental allotments to firms so that their allotment will equal a specified percentage of gasoline use during a base period. Priority classifications, i.e., agriculture, defense, etc., are established to assure adequate gasoline supplies for designated essential services. Ration rights must be provided by end-users to their suppliers for each gallon sold. DOE will regulate the distribution of gasoline at the wholesale level according to the transfer by suppliers of redeemed ration rights and the gasoline allocation regulations. Ration rights are transferable. A ration banking system is created to facilitate transfers of ration rights. Each state will be provided with a reserve of ration rights to provide for hardship needs and to alleviate inequities. (DC)

  18. The Public Goods Hypothesis for the evolution of life on Earth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McInerney, James O; Pisani, Davide; Bapteste, Eric; O'Connell, Mary J

    2011-08-23

    It is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile the observed extent of horizontal gene transfers with the central metaphor of a great tree uniting all evolving entities on the planet. In this manuscript we describe the Public Goods Hypothesis and show that it is appropriate in order to describe biological evolution on the planet. According to this hypothesis, nucleotide sequences (genes, promoters, exons, etc.) are simply seen as goods, passed from organism to organism through both vertical and horizontal transfer. Public goods sequences are defined by having the properties of being largely non-excludable (no organism can be effectively prevented from accessing these sequences) and non-rival (while such a sequence is being used by one organism it is also available for use by another organism). The universal nature of genetic systems ensures that such non-excludable sequences exist and non-excludability explains why we see a myriad of genes in different combinations in sequenced genomes. There are three features of the public goods hypothesis. Firstly, segments of DNA are seen as public goods, available for all organisms to integrate into their genomes. Secondly, we expect the evolution of mechanisms for DNA sharing and of defense mechanisms against DNA intrusion in genomes. Thirdly, we expect that we do not see a global tree-like pattern. Instead, we expect local tree-like patterns to emerge from the combination of a commonage of genes and vertical inheritance of genomes by cell division. Indeed, while genes are theoretically public goods, in reality, some genes are excludable, particularly, though not only, when they have variant genetic codes or behave as coalition or club goods, available for all organisms of a coalition to integrate into their genomes, and non-rival within the club. We view the Tree of Life hypothesis as a regionalized instance of the Public Goods hypothesis, just like classical mechanics and euclidean geometry are seen as regionalized

  19. The public goods hypothesis for the evolution of life on Earth

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    McInerney, James O

    2011-08-23

    Abstract It is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile the observed extent of horizontal gene transfers with the central metaphor of a great tree uniting all evolving entities on the planet. In this manuscript we describe the Public Goods Hypothesis and show that it is appropriate in order to describe biological evolution on the planet. According to this hypothesis, nucleotide sequences (genes, promoters, exons, etc.) are simply seen as goods, passed from organism to organism through both vertical and horizontal transfer. Public goods sequences are defined by having the properties of being largely non-excludable (no organism can be effectively prevented from accessing these sequences) and non-rival (while such a sequence is being used by one organism it is also available for use by another organism). The universal nature of genetic systems ensures that such non-excludable sequences exist and non-excludability explains why we see a myriad of genes in different combinations in sequenced genomes. There are three features of the public goods hypothesis. Firstly, segments of DNA are seen as public goods, available for all organisms to integrate into their genomes. Secondly, we expect the evolution of mechanisms for DNA sharing and of defense mechanisms against DNA intrusion in genomes. Thirdly, we expect that we do not see a global tree-like pattern. Instead, we expect local tree-like patterns to emerge from the combination of a commonage of genes and vertical inheritance of genomes by cell division. Indeed, while genes are theoretically public goods, in reality, some genes are excludable, particularly, though not only, when they have variant genetic codes or behave as coalition or club goods, available for all organisms of a coalition to integrate into their genomes, and non-rival within the club. We view the Tree of Life hypothesis as a regionalized instance of the Public Goods hypothesis, just like classical mechanics and euclidean geometry are seen as

  20. On the consistency of backward looking expectations. The case of the cobweb

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hommes, C.H.

    1998-01-01

    In dynamic models of economic fluctuations backward-looking expectations with systematic forecasting errors are inconsistent with rational behaviour. In non-linear dynamic models exhibiting seemingly unpredictable, chaotic fluctuations, however, simple habitual ‘rule of thumb’ backward-looking

  1. A Critical Examination of Kant's Hypothesis that Citizens should have an Interest in Avoiding War

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jarvad, Ib Martin

    In the paper I discuss the hypothesis that citizens of any well ordered republic will put their own rational interests before the ambitions of their rulers  suggesting that it is the hub of the entire project for a pacific federation  which lends some power of enforcement behind otherwise unsanct...... unsanctioned contractual international obligations. If so the premises need critical examination for their apparent simplicity is deceptive....

  2. Adolescent rationality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moshman, David

    2013-01-01

    Adolescents are commonly seen as irrational, a position supported to varying degrees by many developmentalists, who often appeal to recent research on adolescent brains. Careful review of relevant evidence, however, shows that (1) adults are less rational than is generally assumed, (2) adolescents (and adults) are categorically different from children with respect to the attainment of advanced levels of rationality and psychological functioning, and (3) adolescents and adults do not differ categorically from each other with respect to any rational competencies, irrational tendencies, brain structures, or neurological functioning. Development often continues in adolescence and beyond but categorical claims about adolescents as distinct from adults cannot be justified. A review of U.S. Supreme Court decisions concerning intellectual freedom, reproductive freedom, and criminal responsibility shows ongoing ambivalence and confusion about the rationality of adolescents. Developmental theory and research suggest that adolescents should be conceptualized as young adults, not immature brains, with important implications for their roles, rights, and responsibilities.

  3. Love and rationality: on some possible rational effects of love

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo Ortiz-Millán

    Full Text Available In this paper I defend the idea that rather than disrupting rationality, as the common-sense conception has done it, love may actually help us to develop rational ways of thinking and acting. I make the case for romantic or erotic love, since this is the kind of love that is more frequently associated with irrationality in acting and thinking. I argue that this kind of love may make us develop epistemic and practical forms of rationality. Based on an analysis of its characteristic action tendencies, I argue that love may help us to develop an instrumental form of rationality in determining the best means to achieve the object of love. It may also narrow down the number of practical considerations that may help us to achieve our goals. Finally, love may generate rational ways of belief-formation by framing the parameters taken into account in perception and attention, and by bringing into light only a small portion of the epistemic information available. Love may make us perceive reality more acutely.

  4. The necessity to rationalize library procedures and activities

    OpenAIRE

    Matjaž Žaucer

    2007-01-01

    The necessity of the rationalization of work and procedures in libraries due to the altered requirements and needs of users and due to the expected aggravated demands of the environment are displayed in the article. The causes for the changes in the librarianship and the causes for the changes in the environment are stated. The article analyzes the searching procedure in the Slovenian union bibliographic and catalogue database using the UDC. Upon a practical experiment it was established that...

  5. Starlings uphold principles of economic rationality for delay and probability of reward.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monteiro, Tiago; Vasconcelos, Marco; Kacelnik, Alex

    2013-04-07

    Rationality principles are the bedrock of normative theories of decision-making in biology and microeconomics, but whereas in microeconomics, consistent choice underlies the notion of utility; in biology, the assumption of consistent selective pressures justifies modelling decision mechanisms as if they were designed to maximize fitness. In either case, violations of consistency contradict expectations and attract theoretical interest. Reported violations of rationality in non-humans include intransitivity (i.e. circular preferences) and lack of independence of irrelevant alternatives (changes in relative preference between options when embedded in different choice sets), but the extent to which these observations truly represent breaches of rationality is debatable. We tested both principles with starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), training subjects either with five options differing in food delay (exp. 1) or with six options differing in reward probability (exp. 2), before letting them choose repeatedly one option out of several binary and trinary sets of options. The starlings conformed to economic rationality on both tests, showing strong stochastic transitivity and no violation of the independence principle. These results endorse the rational choice and optimality approaches used in behavioural ecology, and highlight the need for functional and mechanistic enquiring when apparent violations of such principles are observed.

  6. CONTRIBUTIONS TO RATIONAL APPROXIMATION,

    Science.gov (United States)

    Some of the key results of linear Chebyshev approximation theory are extended to generalized rational functions. Prominent among these is Haar’s...linear theorem which yields necessary and sufficient conditions for uniqueness. Some new results in the classic field of rational function Chebyshev...Furthermore a Weierstrass type theorem is proven for rational Chebyshev approximation. A characterization theorem for rational trigonometric Chebyshev approximation in terms of sign alternation is developed. (Author)

  7. Rational points, rational curves, and entire holomorphic curves on projective varieties

    CERN Document Server

    Gasbarri, Carlo; Roth, Mike; Tschinkel, Yuri

    2015-01-01

    This volume contains papers from the Short Thematic Program on Rational Points, Rational Curves, and Entire Holomorphic Curves and Algebraic Varieties, held from June 3-28, 2013, at the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada. The program was dedicated to the study of subtle interconnections between geometric and arithmetic properties of higher-dimensional algebraic varieties. The main areas of the program were, among others, proving density of rational points in Zariski or analytic topology on special varieties, understanding global geometric properties of rationally connected varieties, as well as connections between geometry and algebraic dynamics exploring new geometric techniques in Diophantine approximation.

  8. Hypothesis analysis methods, hypothesis analysis devices, and articles of manufacture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanfilippo, Antonio P [Richland, WA; Cowell, Andrew J [Kennewick, WA; Gregory, Michelle L [Richland, WA; Baddeley, Robert L [Richland, WA; Paulson, Patrick R [Pasco, WA; Tratz, Stephen C [Richland, WA; Hohimer, Ryan E [West Richland, WA

    2012-03-20

    Hypothesis analysis methods, hypothesis analysis devices, and articles of manufacture are described according to some aspects. In one aspect, a hypothesis analysis method includes providing a hypothesis, providing an indicator which at least one of supports and refutes the hypothesis, using the indicator, associating evidence with the hypothesis, weighting the association of the evidence with the hypothesis, and using the weighting, providing information regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis.

  9. Rational Multiparty Computation

    OpenAIRE

    Wallrabenstein, John Ross

    2014-01-01

    The field of rational cryptography considers the design of cryptographic protocols in the presence of rational agents seeking to maximize local utility functions. This departs from the standard secure multiparty computation setting, where players are assumed to be either honest or malicious. ^ We detail the construction of both a two-party and a multiparty game theoretic framework for constructing rational cryptographic protocols. Our framework specifies the utility function assumptions neces...

  10. Role of rational surfaces on fluctuations and transport in the plasma edge of the TJ-II stellarator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pedrosa, M.A.; Hidalgo, C.; Lopez-Fraguas, A.

    2000-01-01

    It has been shown that transport barriers in toroidal magnetically confined plasmas tend to be linked to regions of unique magnetic topology such as the location of a minimum in the safety factor, rational surfaces or the boundary between closed and open flux surfaces. In the absence of E x B sheared flows, fluctuations are expected to show maximum amplitude near rational surfaces, and plasma confinement might tend to deteriorate. On the other hand, if the generation of E x B sheared flows were linked to low order rational surfaces, these would be beneficial to confinement. Experimental evidence of E x B sheared flows linked to rational surfaces has been obtained in the plasma edge region of the TJ-II stellarator. (author)

  11. Motivational orientation, expectancies, and vulnerability for depression in women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horvath, Peter; Bissix, Glyn; Sumarah, John; Crouchman, Erin; Bowdrey, Jennifer

    2008-01-01

    In this study, motivational components in the personal styles of sociotropy and autonomy were examined in a sample of 284 women. One hypothesis was that self-validation needs would account for the vulnerability for depressive symptoms in these personal styles. A second hypothesis was that the association of these personal styles with depressive symptoms would be moderated by expectations and perceptions of how likely these validation needs would be met. As predicted, it was found that validation seeking mediated the association of sociotropy and autonomy with depressive symptoms in these women. Another finding was that expectancies moderated the effects of sociotropy and autonomy to predict depressive symptoms. Negative expectancies in women high on these personal styles together further increased the level of depressive symptoms. These findings are compatible with theories emphasizing the importance of situational factors in the onset and maintenance of depression in women.

  12. The (not so) immortal strand hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomasetti, Cristian; Bozic, Ivana

    2015-03-01

    Non-random segregation of DNA strands during stem cell replication has been proposed as a mechanism to minimize accumulated genetic errors in stem cells of rapidly dividing tissues. According to this hypothesis, an "immortal" DNA strand is passed to the stem cell daughter and not the more differentiated cell, keeping the stem cell lineage replication error-free. After it was introduced, experimental evidence both in favor and against the hypothesis has been presented. Using a novel methodology that utilizes cancer sequencing data we are able to estimate the rate of accumulation of mutations in healthy stem cells of the colon, blood and head and neck tissues. We find that in these tissues mutations in stem cells accumulate at rates strikingly similar to those expected without the protection from the immortal strand mechanism. Utilizing an approach that is fundamentally different from previous efforts to confirm or refute the immortal strand hypothesis, we provide evidence against non-random segregation of DNA during stem cell replication. Our results strongly suggest that parental DNA is passed randomly to stem cell daughters and provides new insight into the mechanism of DNA replication in stem cells. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  13. Irrational Rationality of Terrorism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Nalbandov

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The present article deals with the ontological problem of applying the rational choice frameworks to the study of terrorism. It testing the application of the rational choice to the “old” (before the end of the Cold War and the “new” (after the end of the Cold War terrorisms. It starts with analyzing the fundamentals of rationality and applies it at two levels: the individual (actors and group (collective via two outlooks: tactical (short-term and strategic (long-term. The main argument of the article is that while the “old” terrorism can be explained by the rational choice theory its “new” version represents a substantial departure from rationality.

  14. Lying for Strategic Advantage: Rational and Boundedly Rational Misrepresentation of Intentions

    OpenAIRE

    Crawford, Vincent P.

    2001-01-01

    Starting from Hendricks and McAfee's (2000) example of the Allies' decision to feint at Calais and attack at Normandy on D-Day, this paper models misrepresentation of intentions to competitors or enemies. Allowing for the possibility of bounded strategic rationality and rational players' responses to it yields a sensible account of lying via costless, noiseless messages. In many cases the model has generically unique pure-strategy sequential equilibria, in which rational players exploit bound...

  15. The Myth of the Rational Decision Maker: A Framework for Applying and Enhancing Heuristic and Intuitive Decision Making by School Leaders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Stephen H.

    2004-01-01

    This article takes a critical look at administrative decision making in schools and the extent to which complex decisions conform to normative models and common expectations of rationality. An alternative framework for administrative decision making is presented that is informed, but not driven, by theories of rationality. The framework assumes…

  16. Expected Term Structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buraschi, Andrea; Piatti, Ilaria; Whelan, Paul

    We construct and study the cross-sectional properties of survey-based bond risk premia and compare them to their traditional statistical counterparts. We document large heterogeneity in skill, identify top forecasters, and learn about the importance of subjective risk premia in long-term bonds...... dynamics. The consensus is not a sufficient statistics of the cross-section of expectations and we propose an alternative real-time aggregate measure of risk premia consistent with Friedmans market selection hypothesis. We then use this measure to evaluate structural models and find support...

  17. Determinants of Actor Rationality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ellegaard, Chris

    Industrial companies must exercise influence on their suppliers (or supplier actors). Actor rationality is a central theme connected to this management task. In this article, relevant literature is studied with the purpose of shedding light on determinants of actor rationality. Two buyer-supplier...... relations are investigated in a multiple case study, leading to the proposal of various additional factors that determine and shape actor rationality. Moreover a conceptual model of rationality determinants in the buyer-supplier relation is proposed, a model that may help supply managers analyse...

  18. Two Concepts of Rationality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danny Frederick

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available The dominant tradition in Western philosophy sees rationality as dictating. Thus rationality may require that we believe the best explanation and simple conceptual truths and that we infer in accordance with evident rules of inference. I argue that, given what we know about the growth of knowledge, this authoritarian concept of rationality leads to absurdities and should be abandoned. I then outline a libertarian concept of rationality, derived from Popper, which eschews the dictates and which sees a rational agent as one who questions, criticises, conjectures and experiments. I argue that, while the libertarian approach escapes the absurdities of the authoritarian, it requires two significant developments and an important clarification to be made fully consistent with itself.

  19. Rationality and institutions : an inquiry into the normative implications of rational choice theory

    OpenAIRE

    Engelen, Bart

    2007-01-01

    I aim to analyze in this dissertation what a desirable basic institutional structure looks like from the perspective of rationality. While the main topic is thus normative in nature, I start by clarifying in the first part what the notion of rationality exactly entails. I do so by focusing explicitly on the economic conception of rationality, according to which a rational individual is motivated to serve his self-interest on the basis of cost-benefit calculations. Such a Homo Economicus is ch...

  20. Expecting the holistic regulation from Chinese medicine based on the "solar system" hypothesis of ischemic heart disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Jing; Wang, An-Lu; Xu, Hao; Shi, Da-Zhuo; Chen, Ke-Ji

    2016-11-01

    Stenosis of the coronary artery has been considered as an essential component of ischemic heart disease (IHD). Consequently, revascularization [e.g., percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass] has been the primary therapeutic approach to IHD. Such strategy has indeed revolutionized the management of IHD patients. However, not all patients with myocardial ischemia have visible coronary stenosis. Moreover, cardiovascular events occur in nearly 20% patients with stable coronary artery disease who have undergone PCI. The recently proposed "solar system" hypothesis of IHD postulates that coronary stenosis is only one (albeit important) of its features. Mechanistic contribution and clinical implication of multiple pathophysiological processes beyond coronary stenosis are highlighted in this hypothesis. On the basis of a holistic regulation and individualized medicine, Chinese medicine (CM) has been used in the real-world setting to manage a variety of diseases, including IHD, for more than two thousands years. In this article, we summarize the evidence of CM that supports the "solar system" IHD hypothesis, and argue for a comprehensive approach to IHD. At the theoretical level, the central features of this approach include a holistic view of disease and human subjects, as well as individualized medicine. At the practical level, this approach emphasizes anoxia-tolerance and self-healing.

  1. Rationing medical education.

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper discussed the pros and cons of the application of rationing to medical education and the different ... Different types of rationing exist in healthcare professional education. ... state-of-the-art resources, technology and tutors con-.

  2. Attentional Capture by an Unannounced Color Singleton Depends on Expectation Discrepancy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horstmann, Gernot

    2005-01-01

    Eight experiments examined the conditions under which a color singleton that is presented for the 1st time without prior announcement captures attention. The main hypothesis is that an unannounced singleton captures attention to the extent that it deviates from expectations. This hypothesis was tested within a visual-search paradigm in which…

  3. TESTS OF THE PLANETARY HYPOTHESIS FOR PTFO 8-8695b

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yu, Liang; Winn, Joshua N.; Rappaport, Saul; Dai, Fei; Triaud, Amaury H. M. J.; Gillon, Michaël; Delrez, Laetitia; Jehin, Emmanuel; Lendl, Monika; Albrecht, Simon; Bieryla, Allyson; Holman, Matthew J.; Montet, Benjamin T.; Hillenbrand, Lynne; Howard, Andrew W.; Huang, Chelsea X.; Isaacson, Howard; Sanchis-Ojeda, Roberto; Muirhead, Philip

    2015-01-01

    The T Tauri star PTFO 8-8695 exhibits periodic fading events that have been interpreted as the transits of a giant planet on a precessing orbit. Here we present three tests of the planet hypothesis. First, we sought evidence for the secular changes in light-curve morphology that are predicted to be a consequence of orbital precession. We observed 28 fading events spread over several years and did not see the expected changes. Instead, we found that the fading events are not strictly periodic. Second, we attempted to detect the planet's radiation, based on infrared observations spanning the predicted times of occultations. We ruled out a signal of the expected amplitude. Third, we attempted to detect the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect by performing high-resolution spectroscopy throughout a fading event. No effect was seen at the expected level, ruling out most (but not all) possible orientations for the hypothetical planetary orbit. Our spectroscopy also revealed strong, time-variable, high-velocity Hα and Ca H and K emission features. All these observations cast doubt on the planetary hypothesis, and suggest instead that the fading events represent starspots, eclipses by circumstellar dust, or occultations of an accretion hotspot

  4. Rationality problem for algebraic tori

    CERN Document Server

    Hoshi, Akinari

    2017-01-01

    The authors give the complete stably rational classification of algebraic tori of dimensions 4 and 5 over a field k. In particular, the stably rational classification of norm one tori whose Chevalley modules are of rank 4 and 5 is given. The authors show that there exist exactly 487 (resp. 7, resp. 216) stably rational (resp. not stably but retract rational, resp. not retract rational) algebraic tori of dimension 4, and there exist exactly 3051 (resp. 25, resp. 3003) stably rational (resp. not stably but retract rational, resp. not retract rational) algebraic tori of dimension 5. The authors make a procedure to compute a flabby resolution of a G-lattice effectively by using the computer algebra system GAP. Some algorithms may determine whether the flabby class of a G-lattice is invertible (resp. zero) or not. Using the algorithms, the suthors determine all the flabby and coflabby G-lattices of rank up to 6 and verify that they are stably permutation. The authors also show that the Krull-Schmidt theorem for G-...

  5. Rational Approximations to Rational Models: Alternative Algorithms for Category Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanborn, Adam N.; Griffiths, Thomas L.; Navarro, Daniel J.

    2010-01-01

    Rational models of cognition typically consider the abstract computational problems posed by the environment, assuming that people are capable of optimally solving those problems. This differs from more traditional formal models of cognition, which focus on the psychological processes responsible for behavior. A basic challenge for rational models…

  6. Examination of the embargo hypothesis as an explanation for the Great Silence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deardorff, J. W.

    1987-08-01

    The embargo or quarantine hypothesis for explaining the 'Great Silence' is reviewed and found to be more plausible than the view that, at most, earth might expect to receive radio messages from some distant star. The latter hypothesis is shown to be compatible with extraterrestrial technologies only a few hundred years in advance of those on earth, whereas the embargo hypothesis more reasonably infers that they should be tens of thousands of years in advance and in control of any contact with humanity. Reasons why the embargo hypothesis has received insufficient attention are presented; they involve failure to allow for the application of both greatly advanced technology and high ethical values by maturing societies of extraterrestrial intelligence. The implication of the embargo hypothesis for space development is that planets already harboring diverse biota are ethically off-limits for exploitive colonization.

  7. Beyond rational imitation: learning arbitrary means actions from communicative demonstrations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Király, Ildikó; Csibra, Gergely; Gergely, György

    2013-10-01

    The principle of rationality has been invoked to explain that infants expect agents to perform the most efficient means action to attain a goal. It has also been demonstrated that infants take into account the efficiency of observed actions to achieve a goal outcome when deciding whether to reenact a specific behavior or not. It is puzzling, however, that they also tend to imitate an apparently suboptimal unfamiliar action even when they can bring about the same outcome more efficiently by applying a more rational action alternative available to them. We propose that this apparently paradoxical behavior is explained by infants' interpretation of action demonstrations as communicative manifestations of novel and culturally relevant means actions to be acquired, and we present empirical evidence supporting this proposal. In Experiment 1, we found that 14-month-olds reenacted novel arbitrary means actions only following a communicative demonstration. Experiment 2 showed that infants' inclination to reproduce communicatively manifested novel actions is restricted to behaviors they can construe as goal-directed instrumental acts. The study also provides evidence that infants' reenactment of the demonstrated novel actions reflects epistemic motives rather than purely social motives. We argue that ostensive communication enables infants to represent the teleological structure of novel actions even when the causal relations between means and end are cognitively opaque and apparently violate the efficiency expectation derived from the principle of rationality. This new account of imitative learning of novel means shows how the teleological stance and natural pedagogy--two separate cognitive adaptations to interpret instrumental versus communicative actions--are integrated as a system for learning socially constituted instrumental knowledge in humans. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. The Dividend-Price Ratio and Expectations of Future Dividends and Discount Factors

    OpenAIRE

    John Y. Campbell; Robert J. Shiller

    1986-01-01

    A linearization of a rational expectations present value model for corporate stock prices produces a simple relation between the log dividend-price ratio and mathematical expectations of future log real dividend changes and future real discount rates. This relation can be tested using vector autoregressive methods. Three versions of the linearized model, differing in the measure of discount rates, are tested for U. S. time series 1871-1986: versions using real interest rate data, aggregate re...

  9. PREMISES OF BEHAVIORAL FINANCE IN RATIONAL DECISION-MAKING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laurentiu Droj

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available One cannot separate decision from psychology of human being. People see world by perception and this leads to various ways of understanding even the most concrete or certain things. Financial literature reflects the subjective nature of human being in making decisions by classifying decision-making process into being 'rationally' oriented or the opposite, 'irrational', according to individual’s attitude towards risk – 'appetite' or 'aversion'. Process of understanding risk associated with future financial returns implies attaching mental probabilities to it. This activity is always affected by human nature of agents that take financial decisions, therefore bearing risk. Psychological factors such as perception, framing effect, information asymmetry, irrationality, emotions are accompanying every financial decision. Paper intends to study the direct relationship between psychological traits of a human being playing the role of a decisional agent in financial context. Financial decisions are always accompanied by the notion of probability in defining what we call as 'expected' returns that translate into risk associated with financial investments. Empirical analysis done on the financial market reflects that agents use their perception on risk of gaining or losing from a certain financial transaction to decide whether to invest or not. The notion of 'expected utility' has been complementary used with the one of 'prospect value' as financial literature evolved over time and researchers brought new insights into the mechanism of financial decision. This paper studies direct relationship between psychological traits of a human being according to classical and rational decision-making process in the light of the prospect theory and risk attitude regarding financial outcome of decisions. In this sense, an econometric model is tested on the international financial market in order to find out what kind of subjective factors lie hidden in an investor

  10. Optimal public rationing and price response.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grassi, Simona; Ma, Ching-To Albert

    2011-12-01

    We study optimal public health care rationing and private sector price responses. Consumers differ in their wealth and illness severity (defined as treatment cost). Due to a limited budget, some consumers must be rationed. Rationed consumers may purchase from a monopolistic private market. We consider two information regimes. In the first, the public supplier rations consumers according to their wealth information (means testing). In equilibrium, the public supplier must ration both rich and poor consumers. Rationing some poor consumers implements price reduction in the private market. In the second information regime, the public supplier rations consumers according to consumers' wealth and cost information. In equilibrium, consumers are allocated the good if and only if their costs are below a threshold (cost effectiveness). Rationing based on cost results in higher equilibrium consumer surplus than rationing based on wealth. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Fourth-quarter Economic Growth and Time-varying Expected Returns

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Møller, Stig V.; Rangvid, Jesper

    not predict returns. Fourth-quarter economic growth rates contain considerably more information about expected returns than standard variables used in the literature, are robust to the choice of macro variable, and work in-sample, out-of-sample, and in subsamples. To help explain these results, we show...... that economic growth and growth in consumer confidence are correlated during the fourth quarter, but not during the other quarters: When economic growth is low during the fourth quarter, confidence in the economy is also low such that investors require higher future returns. We discuss rational and behavioral...... reasons why fourth-quarter economic growth, growth in consumer confidence, and expected returns are related....

  12. Prospective detection of large prediction errors: a hypothesis testing approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruan, Dan

    2010-01-01

    Real-time motion management is important in radiotherapy. In addition to effective monitoring schemes, prediction is required to compensate for system latency, so that treatment can be synchronized with tumor motion. However, it is difficult to predict tumor motion at all times, and it is critical to determine when large prediction errors may occur. Such information can be used to pause the treatment beam or adjust monitoring/prediction schemes. In this study, we propose a hypothesis testing approach for detecting instants corresponding to potentially large prediction errors in real time. We treat the future tumor location as a random variable, and obtain its empirical probability distribution with the kernel density estimation-based method. Under the null hypothesis, the model probability is assumed to be a concentrated Gaussian centered at the prediction output. Under the alternative hypothesis, the model distribution is assumed to be non-informative uniform, which reflects the situation that the future position cannot be inferred reliably. We derive the likelihood ratio test (LRT) for this hypothesis testing problem and show that with the method of moments for estimating the null hypothesis Gaussian parameters, the LRT reduces to a simple test on the empirical variance of the predictive random variable. This conforms to the intuition to expect a (potentially) large prediction error when the estimate is associated with high uncertainty, and to expect an accurate prediction when the uncertainty level is low. We tested the proposed method on patient-derived respiratory traces. The 'ground-truth' prediction error was evaluated by comparing the prediction values with retrospective observations, and the large prediction regions were subsequently delineated by thresholding the prediction errors. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to describe the performance of the proposed hypothesis testing method. Clinical implication was represented by miss

  13. Exploring rationality in schizophrenia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Revsbech, Rasmus; Mortensen, Erik Lykke; Owen, Gareth

    2015-01-01

    Background Empirical studies of rationality (syllogisms) in patients with schizophrenia have obtained different results. One study found that patients reason more logically if the syllogism is presented through an unusual content. Aims To explore syllogism-based rationality in schizophrenia. Meth...... differences became non-significant. Conclusions When taking intelligence and neuropsychological performance into account, patients with schizophrenia and controls perform similarly on syllogism tests of rationality.......Background Empirical studies of rationality (syllogisms) in patients with schizophrenia have obtained different results. One study found that patients reason more logically if the syllogism is presented through an unusual content. Aims To explore syllogism-based rationality in schizophrenia. Method...... Thirty-eight first-admitted patients with schizophrenia and 38 healthy controls solved 29 syllogisms that varied in presentation content (ordinary v. unusual) and validity (valid v. invalid). Statistical tests were made of unadjusted and adjusted group differences in models adjusting for intelligence...

  14. Respect for rational autonomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Rebecca L

    2009-12-01

    The standard notion of autonomy in medical ethics does not require that autonomous choices not be irrational. The paper gives three examples of seemingly irrational patient choices and discusses how a rational autonomy analysis differs from the standard view. It then considers whether a switch to the rational autonomy view would lead to overriding more patient decisions but concludes that this should not be the case. Rather, a determination of whether individual patient decisions are autonomous is much less relevant than usually considered in determining whether health care providers must abide by these decisions. Furthermore, respect for rational autonomy entails strong positive requirements of respect for the autonomy of the person as a rational decision maker. The rationality view of autonomy is conceptually stronger than the standard view, allows for a more nuanced understanding of the practical moral calculus involved in respecting patient autonomy, and promotes positive respect for patient autonomy.

  15. The predictive power of dividend yields for future inflation: Money illusion or rational causes?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Engsted, Tom; Pedersen, Thomas Quistgaard

    slope coefficients that increase numerically with the horizon in regressions of future inflation onto the dividend yield, in accordance with the data. A purely rational version of the model with no money illusion, but with a link from expected inflation to real consumption growth, also generates...

  16. Embodying rationality

    OpenAIRE

    Mastrogiorgio, Antonio; Petracca, Enrico

    2016-01-01

    The current notions of bounded rationality in economics share distinctive features with Simon’s original notion, which still influences the theoretical and experimental research in the fields of choice, judgment, decision making, problem solving, and social cognition. All these notions of bounded rationality are in fact equally rooted in the information-processing approach to human cognition, expressing the view that reasoning is disembodied and that it can be reduced to the processing of abs...

  17. Capital Requirements and Credit Rationing

    OpenAIRE

    Itai Agur

    2010-01-01

    This paper analyzes the trade-off between financial stability and credit rationing that arises when increasing capital requirements. It extends the Stiglitz-Weiss model of credit rationing to allow for bank default. Bank capital structure then matters for lending incentives. With default and rationing endogenous, optimal capital requirements can be analyzed. Introducing bank financiers, the paper also shows that uninsured funding raises the sensitivity of rationing to capital requirements. In...

  18. [Rationalization and rationing at the bedside. A normative and empirical status quo analysis].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strech, D

    2014-02-01

    The topic of bedside rationing is increasingly discussed in Germany. Further need for clarification exists for the question how bedside rationing (e.g., in the area of overcare) can be justified despite coexistent inefficiencies. This paper outlines and analyses the relationship of waste avoidance and rationing from an ethical perspective. Empirical findings regarding the status quo of bedside rationing and rationalization are presented. These normative and empirical explorations will then be further specified regarding opportunities for future physician-driven activities to tackle overuse. The self-government partners in Germany should communicate more explicitly within their communities and to the public how and with which benchmarks they aim to reduce inefficient health care (overuse) in an appropriate manner. Physician-driven activities such as the "Choosing Wisely®" initiative in the USA could provide a first step to raise the awareness for overuse among physicians as well as in the public.

  19. Nelene Ehlers and Rudi Steinbach - WP/07/06- The formation of inflation expectations in South Africa

    OpenAIRE

    Nelene Ehlers; Rudi Steinbach

    2007-01-01

    Abstract- A key factor in the inflation-targeting regime is the psychological process by which individuals and firms form their expectations of future inflation. From a monetary policy perspective, it is important to analyse this process, since under full rationality, only unexpected changes in inflation will affect real variables. In this paper, data from both the Bureau for Economic Research’s Inflation Expectations Survey and the Reuters Inflation Expectations Survey are evaluated, over di...

  20. Fórmula de valoração racional (RVF e variabilidade no tempo das taxas de retornos de ativos Rational valuation formula (RVF and time variability in asset rates of return

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandre Ripamonti

    2013-04-01

    's (1961 theory of rational expectations and price movements. The study assumes the variability of asset rates of return and tests the null hypotheses of error-correction mechanisms for time-constant cointegration vectors and inequality between fundamental value and share price. The series used were provided by Shiller (2005 and refer to aggregate price and dividend data for the U.S. stock market over the period 1871 to 2010. The data were analyzed using Johansen's cointegration models with the use of restricted variables resulting from the combination of the variables studied with the Chebyshev time polynomial, as proposed by Bierens and Martins (2010. The results indicate rejection of the null hypothesis of constancy of cointegration vectors as well as the non-rejection of the null hypothesis of inequality between fundamental value and share price. These results are consistent with those obtained by Bierens and Martins (2010 and do not corroborate Muth's (1961 theory of rational expectations. It is therefore concluded that investors have different expectations of return for different future periods. The results suggest the validation of the model used and that there is a possibility of the occurrence of speculative movements supported by rationality or rational speculative bubbles.

  1. The Impact of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Economic Choice and Rationality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lazzaro, Stephanie C; Rutledge, Robb B; Burghart, Daniel R; Glimcher, Paul W

    2016-01-01

    It is well known that hormones affect both brain and behavior, but less is known about the extent to which hormones affect economic decision-making. Numerous studies demonstrate gender differences in attitudes to risk and loss in financial decision-making, often finding that women are more loss and risk averse than men. It is unclear what drives these effects and whether cyclically varying hormonal differences between men and women contribute to differences in economic preferences. We focus here on how economic rationality and preferences change as a function of menstrual cycle phase in women. We tested adherence to the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preference (GARP), the standard test of economic rationality. If choices satisfy GARP then there exists a well-behaved utility function that the subject's decisions maximize. We also examined whether risk attitudes and loss aversion change as a function of cycle phase. We found that, despite large fluctuations in hormone levels, women are as technically rational in their choice behavior as their male counterparts at all phases of the menstrual cycle. However, women are more likely to choose risky options that can lead to potential losses while ovulating; during ovulation women are less loss averse than men and therefore more economically rational than men in this regard. These findings may have market-level implications: ovulating women more effectively maximize expected value than do other groups.

  2. The Impact of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Economic Choice and Rationality.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephanie C Lazzaro

    Full Text Available It is well known that hormones affect both brain and behavior, but less is known about the extent to which hormones affect economic decision-making. Numerous studies demonstrate gender differences in attitudes to risk and loss in financial decision-making, often finding that women are more loss and risk averse than men. It is unclear what drives these effects and whether cyclically varying hormonal differences between men and women contribute to differences in economic preferences. We focus here on how economic rationality and preferences change as a function of menstrual cycle phase in women. We tested adherence to the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preference (GARP, the standard test of economic rationality. If choices satisfy GARP then there exists a well-behaved utility function that the subject's decisions maximize. We also examined whether risk attitudes and loss aversion change as a function of cycle phase. We found that, despite large fluctuations in hormone levels, women are as technically rational in their choice behavior as their male counterparts at all phases of the menstrual cycle. However, women are more likely to choose risky options that can lead to potential losses while ovulating; during ovulation women are less loss averse than men and therefore more economically rational than men in this regard. These findings may have market-level implications: ovulating women more effectively maximize expected value than do other groups.

  3. Rational choice and the political bases of changing Israeli counterinsurgency strategy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brym, Robert J; Andersen, Robert

    2011-09-01

    Israeli counterinsurgency doctrine holds that the persistent use of credible threat and disproportionate military force results in repeated victories that eventually teach the enemy the futility of aggression. The doctrine thus endorses classical rational choice theory's claim that narrow cost-benefit calculations shape fixed action rationales. This paper assesses whether Israel's strategic practice reflects its counterinsurgency doctrine by exploring the historical record and the association between Israeli and Palestinian deaths due to low-intensity warfare. In contrast to the expectations of classical rational choice theory, the evidence suggests that institutional, cultural and historical forces routinely override simple cost-benefit calculations. Changing domestic and international circumstances periodically cause revisions in counterinsurgency strategy. Credible threat and disproportionate military force lack the predicted long-term effect. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2011.

  4. Rational BRDF.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pacanowski, Romain; Salazar Celis, Oliver; Schlick, Christophe; Granier, Xavier; Poulin, Pierre; Cuyt, Annie

    2012-11-01

    Over the last two decades, much effort has been devoted to accurately measuring Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions (BRDFs) of real-world materials and to use efficiently the resulting data for rendering. Because of their large size, it is difficult to use directly measured BRDFs for real-time applications, and fitting the most sophisticated analytical BRDF models is still a complex task. In this paper, we introduce Rational BRDF, a general-purpose and efficient representation for arbitrary BRDFs, based on Rational Functions (RFs). Using an adapted parametrization, we demonstrate how Rational BRDFs offer 1) a more compact and efficient representation using low-degree RFs, 2) an accurate fitting of measured materials with guaranteed control of the residual error, and 3) efficient importance sampling by applying the same fitting process to determine the inverse of the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) generated from the BRDF for use in Monte-Carlo rendering.

  5. Is It Rational to Assume that Infants Imitate Rationally? A Theoretical Analysis and Critique

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paulus, Markus

    2012-01-01

    It has been suggested that preverbal infants evaluate the efficiency of others' actions (by applying a "principle of rational action") and that they imitate others' actions rationally. The present contribution presents a conceptual analysis of the claim that preverbal infants imitate rationally. It shows that this ability rests on at least three…

  6. Bounded Rationality and Budgeting

    OpenAIRE

    Ibrahim, Mukdad

    2016-01-01

    This article discusses the theory of bounded rationality which had been introduced by Herbert Simon in the 1950s. Simon introduced the notion of bounded rationality stating that while decision-makers strive for rationality, they are limited by the effect of the environment, their information process capacity and by the constraints on their information storage and retrieval capabilities. Moreover, this article tries to specifically blend this notion into budgeting, using the foundations of inc...

  7. The properties of inflation expectations: Evidence for India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naresh Kumar Sharma

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Empirical inferences about particular forms of agents’ inflation expectations are crucial for the conduct of monetary policy. This paper is an attempt to explore the properties of the Reserve Bank of India’s survey data of households’ inflation expectations. The paper shows that survey respondents do not form expectations rationally, regardless of the reference measures of inflation used. Further, results indicate that inflation expectations are formed purely in backward-looking manner, suggesting that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI has a low degree of credibility within the survey respondents. The study then formulates a model to identify individual elements of the backward-looking expectations in the data. The results suggest that the respondents’ short term expectations for WPI inflation are purely naïve type of expectations, only influenced by respondents earlier period expectations. In the case of CPIIW inflation, the results however suggest that the short-term expectations are not purely naïve type, but also contain adaptive as well as a static forms of expectations. This means that respondents consider their previous forecast errors about CPIIW inflation and draw recent price developments in the CPIIW while forming their overall short-term inflation expectations. This finding provides some formal evidence that the CPI based inflation measure is better suited, than WPI inflation, as a nominal anchor in the RBI’s recent transition to inflation targeting regime. JEL classification: D84, E31, E52, E37, Keywords: Inflation, Inflation expectations, Survey data, Price index, Monetary policy, Forecasting

  8. The Link between Educational Expectations and Effort in the College-for-All Era

    Science.gov (United States)

    Domina, Thurston; Conley, AnneMarie; Farkas, George

    2011-01-01

    From the Wisconsin status attainment model to rational choice, classical sociological, social-psychological, and economic theories of student educational transitions have assumed that students' expectations are positively related to their ultimate attainment. However, the growth of the college-for-all ethos raises questions about that assumption.…

  9. Implicit Statistical Learning in Real-World Environments Leads to Ecologically Rational Decision Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perkovic, Sonja; Orquin, Jacob Lund

    2018-01-01

    Ecological rationality results from matching decision strategies to appropriate environmental structures, but how does the matching happen? We propose that people learn the statistical structure of the environment through observation and use this learned structure to guide ecologically rational behavior. We tested this hypothesis in the context of organic foods. In Study 1, we found that products from healthful food categories are more likely to be organic than products from nonhealthful food categories. In Study 2, we found that consumers' perceptions of the healthfulness and prevalence of organic products in many food categories are accurate. Finally, in Study 3, we found that people perceive organic products as more healthful than nonorganic products when the statistical structure justifies this inference. Our findings suggest that people believe organic foods are more healthful than nonorganic foods and use an organic-food cue to guide their behavior because organic foods are, on average, 30% more healthful.

  10. The external expectations of potential real estate buyers in Slovenia and Japan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bojan Grum

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This article presents partial results of a survey being conducted in Slovenia and Japan. It seeks to determine the factors that have a decisive influence over potential real estate buyers when deciding to purchase. The article focuses on the role of potential buyers’ external expectations in relation to their various cultural identities. We follow the hypothesis that these differences in external expectations are statistically significant. The primary instrument for measuring participants’ expectations was a survey in which 1,270 people participated. We statistically analysed the results by conducting a one-way analysis of variance related to the participants’ various cultural identities. By analysing the results of the statistical analyses, we confirmed the hypothesis. It is evident from the results that Slovenian participants had lower expectations in terms of Slovenia’s legal, taxation and other regulatory measures in housing compared to Japanese participants. Considering that legislation represents the Slovenian government’s primary influence over the real estate market, the expectations of the participants in our survey show that Slovenian buyers’ confidence should be increased in this area.

  11. Rational valuations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Georg Spielthenner

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Valuations are ubiquitous. We may be for or against genetically modified food; we find some politicians irresponsible; we prefer Beethoven to rock ‘n’ roll or vice versa; some enjoy bird-watching while others find it boring; and we may think that we have to tighten up on green-house gas emissions. Valuing is pervasive and often we are not even aware that we are valuing. However, many of ourvaluations are ill grounded and rationally defective. They are frequently based on misinformation, sloppy thinking, prejudice, and are biased in many ways as psychological research shows. For this reason there is widespread agreement among phi-losophers that we need an account of substantive valuational rationality, both for the theory of practical reasoning and for ethics as well. My main objectin this paper is to outline such an account and to present a principle that allows a non-technical rational criticism of valuations

  12. Rational emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meshulam, Meir; Winter, Eyal; Ben-Shakhar, Gershon; Aharon, Itzhak

    2012-01-01

    We present here the concept of rational emotions: Emotions may be directly controlled and utilized in a conscious, analytic fashion, enabling an individual to size up a situation, to determine that a certain "mental state" is strategically advantageous and adjust accordingly. Building on the growing body of literature recognizing the vital role of emotions in determining decisions, we explore the complementary role of rational choice in choosing emotional states. Participants played the role of "recipient" in the dictator game, in which an anonymous "dictator" decides how to split an amount of money between himself and the recipient. A subset of recipients was given a monetary incentive to be angry at low-split offers. That subset demonstrated increased physiological arousal at low offers relative to high offers as well as more anger than other participants. These results provide a fresh outlook on human decision-making and contribute to the continuing effort to build more complete models of rational behavior.

  13. Models for Rational Number Bases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedersen, Jean J.; Armbruster, Frank O.

    1975-01-01

    This article extends number bases to negative integers, then to positive rationals and finally to negative rationals. Methods and rules for operations in positive and negative rational bases greater than one or less than negative one are summarized in tables. Sample problems are explained and illustrated. (KM)

  14. Are security analysts rational? a literature review

    OpenAIRE

    Peixinho, Rúben; Coelho, Luís; Taffler, Richard J.

    2005-01-01

    Rational choice theory and bounded rationality constitute the basis for the discussion in several areas regarding human rationality. In finance, this discussion has been made between traditional finance and behavioural finance approach, which have different perspectives concerning market agents’ rationality. This paper reviews several studies addressing rationality among security analysts. The analysis shows that analysts’systematic optimism seems to be inconsistent with rationality....

  15. Neurobiological studies of risk assessment: A comparison of expected utility and mean-variance approaches

    OpenAIRE

    d'Acremont, M.; Bossaerts, Peter

    2008-01-01

    When modeling valuation under uncertainty, economists generally prefer expected utility because it has an axiomatic foundation, meaning that the resulting choices will satisfy a number of rationality requirements. In expected utility theory, values are computed by multiplying probabilities of each possible state of nature by the payoff in that state and summing the results. The drawback of this approach is that all state probabilities need to be dealt with separately, which becomes extremely ...

  16. A Reward-Maximizing Spiking Neuron as a Bounded Rational Decision Maker.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leibfried, Felix; Braun, Daniel A

    2015-08-01

    Rate distortion theory describes how to communicate relevant information most efficiently over a channel with limited capacity. One of the many applications of rate distortion theory is bounded rational decision making, where decision makers are modeled as information channels that transform sensory input into motor output under the constraint that their channel capacity is limited. Such a bounded rational decision maker can be thought to optimize an objective function that trades off the decision maker's utility or cumulative reward against the information processing cost measured by the mutual information between sensory input and motor output. In this study, we interpret a spiking neuron as a bounded rational decision maker that aims to maximize its expected reward under the computational constraint that the mutual information between the neuron's input and output is upper bounded. This abstract computational constraint translates into a penalization of the deviation between the neuron's instantaneous and average firing behavior. We derive a synaptic weight update rule for such a rate distortion optimizing neuron and show in simulations that the neuron efficiently extracts reward-relevant information from the input by trading off its synaptic strengths against the collected reward.

  17. Emotion, rationality, and decision-making: how to link affective and social neuroscience with social theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verweij, Marco; Senior, Timothy J; Domínguez D, Juan F; Turner, Robert

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, we argue for a stronger engagement between concepts in affective and social neuroscience on the one hand, and theories from the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology on the other. Affective and social neuroscience could provide an additional assessment of social theories. We argue that some of the most influential social theories of the last four decades-rational choice theory, behavioral economics, and post-structuralism-contain assumptions that are inconsistent with key findings in affective and social neuroscience. We also show that another approach from the social sciences-plural rationality theory-shows greater compatibility with these findings. We further claim that, in their turn, social theories can strengthen affective and social neuroscience. The former can provide more precise formulations of the social phenomena that neuroscientific models have targeted, can help neuroscientists who build these models become more aware of their social and cultural biases, and can even improve the models themselves. To illustrate, we show how plural rationality theory can be used to further specify and test the somatic marker hypothesis. Thus, we aim to accelerate the much-needed merger of social theories with affective and social neuroscience.

  18. Emotion, rationality, and decision-making: how to link affective and social neuroscience with social theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verweij, Marco; Senior, Timothy J.; Domínguez D., Juan F.; Turner, Robert

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, we argue for a stronger engagement between concepts in affective and social neuroscience on the one hand, and theories from the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology on the other. Affective and social neuroscience could provide an additional assessment of social theories. We argue that some of the most influential social theories of the last four decades—rational choice theory, behavioral economics, and post-structuralism—contain assumptions that are inconsistent with key findings in affective and social neuroscience. We also show that another approach from the social sciences—plural rationality theory—shows greater compatibility with these findings. We further claim that, in their turn, social theories can strengthen affective and social neuroscience. The former can provide more precise formulations of the social phenomena that neuroscientific models have targeted, can help neuroscientists who build these models become more aware of their social and cultural biases, and can even improve the models themselves. To illustrate, we show how plural rationality theory can be used to further specify and test the somatic marker hypothesis. Thus, we aim to accelerate the much-needed merger of social theories with affective and social neuroscience. PMID:26441506

  19. Emotion, rationality and decision-making: How to link affective and social neuroscience with social theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco eVerweij

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we argue for a stronger engagement between concepts in affective and social neuroscience on the one hand, and theories from the fields of anthropology, economics, political science and sociology on the other. Affective and social neuroscience could provide an additional assessment of social theories. We argue that some of the most influential social theories of the last four decades –rational choice theory, behavioral economics, and post-structuralism– contain assumptions that are inconsistent with key findings in affective and social neuroscience. We also show that another approach from the social sciences –plural rationality theory– shows greater compatibility with these findings. We further claim that, in their turn, social theories can strengthen affective and social neuroscience. The former can provide more precise formulations of the social phenomena that neuroscientific models have targeted, can help neuroscientists who build these models become more aware of their social and cultural biases, and can even improve the models themselves. To illustrate, we show how plural rationality theory can be used to further specify and test the somatic marker hypothesis. Thus, we aim to accelerate the much-needed merger of social theories with affective and social neuroscience.

  20. Limited rationality and strategic interaction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fehr, Ernst; Tyran, Jean-Robert

    2008-01-01

    Much evidence suggests that people are heterogeneous with regard to their abilities to make rational, forward-looking decisions. This raises the question as to when the rational types are decisive for aggregate outcomes and when the boundedly rational types shape aggregate results. We examine...... this question in the context of a long-standing and important economic problem: the adjustment of nominal prices after an anticipated monetary shock. Our experiments suggest that two types of bounded rationality-money illusion and anchoring-are important behavioral forces behind nominal inertia. However......, depending on the strategic environment, bounded rationality has vastly different effects on aggregate price adjustment. If agents' actions are strategic substitutes, adjustment to the new equilibrium is extremely quick, whereas under strategic complementarity, adjustment is both very slow and associated...

  1. Interpolation of rational matrix functions

    CERN Document Server

    Ball, Joseph A; Rodman, Leiba

    1990-01-01

    This book aims to present the theory of interpolation for rational matrix functions as a recently matured independent mathematical subject with its own problems, methods and applications. The authors decided to start working on this book during the regional CBMS conference in Lincoln, Nebraska organized by F. Gilfeather and D. Larson. The principal lecturer, J. William Helton, presented ten lectures on operator and systems theory and the interplay between them. The conference was very stimulating and helped us to decide that the time was ripe for a book on interpolation for matrix valued functions (both rational and non-rational). When the work started and the first partial draft of the book was ready it became clear that the topic is vast and that the rational case by itself with its applications is already enough material for an interesting book. In the process of writing the book, methods for the rational case were developed and refined. As a result we are now able to present the rational case as an indepe...

  2. Interstellar colonization and the zoo hypothesis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, E.M.

    1978-01-01

    Michael Hart and others have pointed out that current estimates of the number of technological civilizations arisen in the Galaxy since its formation is in fundamental conflict with the expectation that such a civilization could colonize and utilize the entire Galaxy in 10 to 20 million years. This dilemma can be called Hart's paradox. Resolution of the paradox requires that one or more of the following are true: we are the Galaxy's first technical civilization; interstellar travel is immensely impractical or simply impossible; technological civilizations are very short-lived; or we inhabit a wildnerness preserve. The latter is the zoo hypothesis

  3. State-dependent decisions cause apparent violations of rationality in animal choice.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cynthia Schuck-Paim

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available Normative models of choice in economics and biology usually expect preferences to be consistent across contexts, or "rational" in economic language. Following a large body of literature reporting economically irrational behaviour in humans, breaches of rationality by animals have also been recently described. If proven systematic, these findings would challenge long-standing biological approaches to behavioural theorising, and suggest that cognitive processes similar to those claimed to cause irrationality in humans can also hinder optimality approaches to modelling animal preferences. Critical differences between human and animal experiments have not, however, been sufficiently acknowledged. While humans can be instructed conceptually about the choice problem, animals need to be trained by repeated exposure to all contingencies. This exposure often leads to differences in state between treatments, hence changing choices while preserving rationality. We report experiments with European starlings demonstrating that apparent breaches of rationality can result from state-dependence. We show that adding an inferior alternative to a choice set (a "decoy" affects choices, an effect previously interpreted as indicating irrationality. However, these effects appear and disappear depending on whether state differences between choice contexts are present or not. These results open the possibility that some expressions of maladaptive behaviour are due to oversights in the migration of ideas between economics and biology, and suggest that key differences between human and nonhuman research must be recognised if ideas are to safely travel between these fields.

  4. State-dependent decisions cause apparent violations of rationality in animal choice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schuck-Paim, Cynthia; Pompilio, Lorena; Kacelnik, Alex

    2004-12-01

    Normative models of choice in economics and biology usually expect preferences to be consistent across contexts, or "rational" in economic language. Following a large body of literature reporting economically irrational behaviour in humans, breaches of rationality by animals have also been recently described. If proven systematic, these findings would challenge long-standing biological approaches to behavioural theorising, and suggest that cognitive processes similar to those claimed to cause irrationality in humans can also hinder optimality approaches to modelling animal preferences. Critical differences between human and animal experiments have not, however, been sufficiently acknowledged. While humans can be instructed conceptually about the choice problem, animals need to be trained by repeated exposure to all contingencies. This exposure often leads to differences in state between treatments, hence changing choices while preserving rationality. We report experiments with European starlings demonstrating that apparent breaches of rationality can result from state-dependence. We show that adding an inferior alternative to a choice set (a "decoy") affects choices, an effect previously interpreted as indicating irrationality. However, these effects appear and disappear depending on whether state differences between choice contexts are present or not. These results open the possibility that some expressions of maladaptive behaviour are due to oversights in the migration of ideas between economics and biology, and suggest that key differences between human and nonhuman research must be recognised if ideas are to safely travel between these fields.

  5. History of Economic Rationalities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    This book concentrates upon how economic rationalities have been embedded into particular historical practices, cultures, and moral systems. Through multiple case-studies, situated in different historical contexts of the modern West, the book shows that the development of economic rationalities...... takes place in the meeting with other regimes of thought, values, and moral discourses. The book offers new and refreshing insights, ranging from the development of early economic thinking to economic aspects and concepts in the works of classical thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Karl Marx......, to the role of economic reasoning in contemporary policies of art and health care. With economic rationalities as the read thread, the reader is offered a unique chance of historical self-awareness and recollection of how economic rationality became the powerful ideological and moral force that it is today....

  6. Rational Choice Theory and Addiction Behaviour

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miloš Krstić

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to explore the construct of student satisfaction and analyze its relationship with student loyalty in the context of state and private universities. The rational choice theory assumes that, when deciding whether to consume some goods or not, consumers use analysis in order to estimate the values of individual preference indicators. From this point of view, there are risk and time preferences. The former show aversion to a risk and are expressed through the risk aversion coefficient, while the latter measure the degree of preference for present satisfaction in relation to the same satisfaction in the future. The degree of preference for present satisfaction regarding the same satisfaction in the future is expressed by the time preference rate. Smokers with a low time preference rate and high risk aversion coefficient level can be expected to be successful in cessation. The aim of this paper is to study smokers from the perspective of rational choice theory, in order to detect factors influencing their behavior. The study (investigation found that the significant factors for smokers’ behavior are: gender, age, education, risk aversion coefficient, and the time preference rate. Analysis of smokers’ behavior, with appropriate limits and qualifications, is a well-developed and highly effective tool for exploring and interpreting reality.

  7. Psychology and the Rationality of Emotion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clore, Gerald L

    2011-04-01

    Questions addressed by recent psychological research on emotion include questions about how thought shapes emotion and how emotion, in turn, shapes thought. Research on emotion and cognition paints a somewhat different picture than that seen in traditional discussions of passion and reason. This article reviews several aspects of this research, concentrating specifically on three views of rationality: Rationality as Process, Rationality as Product, and Rationality as Outcome.

  8. Psychology and the Rationality of Emotion*

    OpenAIRE

    Clore, Gerald L.

    2011-01-01

    Questions addressed by recent psychological research on emotion include questions about how thought shapes emotion and how emotion, in turn, shapes thought. Research on emotion and cognition paints a somewhat different picture than that seen in traditional discussions of passion and reason. This article reviews several aspects of this research, concentrating specifically on three views of rationality: Rationality as Process, Rationality as Product, and Rationality as Outcome.

  9. Greater expectations: using hierarchical linear modeling to examine expectancy for treatment outcome as a predictor of treatment response.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Matthew; Anderson, Page; Henrich, Christopher C; Rothbaum, Barbara Olasov

    2008-12-01

    A client's expectation that therapy will be beneficial has long been considered an important factor contributing to therapeutic outcomes, but recent empirical work examining this hypothesis has primarily yielded null findings. The present study examined the contribution of expectancies for treatment outcome to actual treatment outcome from the start of therapy through 12-month follow-up in a clinical sample of individuals (n=72) treated for fear of flying with either in vivo exposure or virtual reality exposure therapy. Using a piecewise hierarchical linear model, outcome expectancy predicted treatment gains made during therapy but not during follow-up. Compared to lower levels, higher expectations for treatment outcome yielded stronger rates of symptom reduction from the beginning to the end of treatment on 2 standardized self-report questionnaires on fear of flying. The analytic approach of the current study is one potential reason that findings contrast with prior literature. The advantages of using hierarchical linear modeling to assess interindividual differences in longitudinal data are discussed.

  10. Rationally reduced libraries for combinatorial pathway optimization minimizing experimental effort.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeschek, Markus; Gerngross, Daniel; Panke, Sven

    2016-03-31

    Rational flux design in metabolic engineering approaches remains difficult since important pathway information is frequently not available. Therefore empirical methods are applied that randomly change absolute and relative pathway enzyme levels and subsequently screen for variants with improved performance. However, screening is often limited on the analytical side, generating a strong incentive to construct small but smart libraries. Here we introduce RedLibs (Reduced Libraries), an algorithm that allows for the rational design of smart combinatorial libraries for pathway optimization thereby minimizing the use of experimental resources. We demonstrate the utility of RedLibs for the design of ribosome-binding site libraries by in silico and in vivo screening with fluorescent proteins and perform a simple two-step optimization of the product selectivity in the branched multistep pathway for violacein biosynthesis, indicating a general applicability for the algorithm and the proposed heuristics. We expect that RedLibs will substantially simplify the refactoring of synthetic metabolic pathways.

  11. Geographic variation in chin shape challenges the universal facial attractiveness hypothesis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zaneta M Thayer

    Full Text Available The universal facial attractiveness (UFA hypothesis proposes that some facial features are universally preferred because they are reliable signals of mate quality. The primary evidence for this hypothesis comes from cross-cultural studies of perceived attractiveness. However, these studies do not directly address patterns of morphological variation at the population level. An unanswered question is therefore: Are universally preferred facial phenotypes geographically invariant, as the UFA hypothesis implies? The purpose of our study is to evaluate this often overlooked aspect of the UFA hypothesis by examining patterns of geographic variation in chin shape. We collected symphyseal outlines from 180 recent human mandibles (90 male, 90 female representing nine geographic regions. Elliptical Fourier functions analysis was used to quantify chin shape, and principle components analysis was used to compute shape descriptors. In contrast to the expectations of the UFA hypothesis, we found significant geographic differences in male and female chin shape. These findings are consistent with region-specific sexual selection and/or random genetic drift, but not universal sexual selection. We recommend that future studies of facial attractiveness take into consideration patterns of morphological variation within and between diverse human populations.

  12. Psychology and the Rationality of Emotion*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clore, Gerald L.

    2014-01-01

    Questions addressed by recent psychological research on emotion include questions about how thought shapes emotion and how emotion, in turn, shapes thought. Research on emotion and cognition paints a somewhat different picture than that seen in traditional discussions of passion and reason. This article reviews several aspects of this research, concentrating specifically on three views of rationality: Rationality as Process, Rationality as Product, and Rationality as Outcome. PMID:25125770

  13. Neural basis of quasi-rational decision making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Daeyeol

    2006-04-01

    Standard economic theories conceive homo economicus as a rational decision maker capable of maximizing utility. In reality, however, people tend to approximate optimal decision-making strategies through a collection of heuristic routines. Some of these routines are driven by emotional processes, and others are adjusted iteratively through experience. In addition, routines specialized for social decision making, such as inference about the mental states of other decision makers, might share their origins and neural mechanisms with the ability to simulate or imagine outcomes expected from alternative actions that an individual can take. A recent surge of collaborations across economics, psychology and neuroscience has provided new insights into how such multiple elements of decision making interact in the brain.

  14. DISTRIBUTED RC NETWORKS WITH RATIONAL TRANSFER FUNCTIONS,

    Science.gov (United States)

    A distributed RC circuit analogous to a continuously tapped transmission line can be made to have a rational short-circuit transfer admittance and...one rational shortcircuit driving-point admittance. A subcircuit of the same structure has a rational open circuit transfer impedance and one rational ...open circuit driving-point impedance. Hence, rational transfer functions may be obtained while considering either generator impedance or load

  15. Adaptive and Rational Anticipations in Risk Management Systems and Economy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dubois, Daniel M.; Holmberg, Stig C.

    2010-11-01

    The global financial crisis of year 2009 is explained as a result of uncoordinated risk management decisions in business firms and economic organisations. The underlying reason for this can be found in the current financial system. As the financial market has lost much of its direct coupling to the concrete economy it provides misleading information to economic decision makers at all levels. Hence, the financial system has moved from a state of moderate and slow cyclical fluctuations into a state of fast and chaotic ones. Those misleading decisions can further be described, but not explained, by help of adaptive and rational expectations from macroeconomic theory. In this context, AE, the Adaptive Expectations are related to weak passive Exo-anticipation, and RE, the Rational expectations can be related to a strong, active and design oriented anticipation. The shortcomings of conventional cures, which builds on a reactive paradigm, have already been demonstrated in economic literature and are here further underlined by help of Ashby's "Law of Requisite Variety", Weaver's distinction between systems of "Disorganized Complexity" and those of "Organized Complexity", and Klir's "Reconstructability Analysis". Anticipatory decision-making is hence here proposed as a replacement to current expectation based and passive risk management. An anticipatory model of the business cycle is presented for supporting that proposition. The model, which is an extension of the Kaldor-Kalecki model, includes both retardation and anticipation. While cybernetics with the feedback process in control system deals with an explicit goal or purpose given to a system, the anticipatory system discussed here deals with a behaviour for which the future state of the system is built by the system itself, without explicit goal. A system with weak anticipation is based on a predictive model of the system, while a system with strong anticipation builds its own future by itself. Numerical simulations on

  16. Milk Production, Physiological Condition and Performance of Etawa Crossbreed Goats Feed by Ration Supplemented with Mangosteen Peel Flour

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dzarnisa; Rachmadi, D.; Azhar, A.; Fakhrur Riza, R.; Hidayati, A.

    2018-02-01

    Study on the effect of the addition of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) peel flour on physiological condition and performance of Etawa crossbreed goats was done. This was to grant the use of mangosteen peel flour that rich of antioxidants and has variety good benefits for health as feed additive for cattle. This study used a Complete Randomized Block Design consisting of 4 treatment groups and 4 replications each. Subjects were 16 female Etawa crossbreed goats randomly designed into treatments group based on lactation periods. Subjects were feed with traditional rations (control, A), traditional rations and 2.5% mangosteen peel flour (B), tradition rations and 5% mangosteen peel flour (C), and traditional rations and 7,5 % mangosteen peel flour (D). Data on performance (milk production) and physiological condition (respiratory frequency, rectal temperature, and heart rate) obtained were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that the addition of mangosteen peel flour as food additive in the rations resulted in variations in the milk production, physiological condition (rectal temperature, heart rate and respiration frequency) and performances (daily weigh gain, food consumption, ration conversion and breast volume) of Etawa crossbreed goats, but significant effect was only observed in the respiration frequency. The addition of 2.5% mangosteen peel flour in the ration caused the best, expected effects on milk production physiological condition and performance of Etawa crossbreed goats.

  17. Max Weber's Types of Rationality: Cornerstones for the Analysis of Rationalization Processes in History.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalberg, Stephen

    1980-01-01

    Explores rationality in Max Weber's works and identifies four types of rationality which play major roles in his writing--practical, theoretical, substantive, and formal. Implications for society and education are discussed. (DB)

  18. The concept of rational suicide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayo, D J

    1986-05-01

    Suicide has been condemned in our culture in one way or another since Augustine offered theological arguments against it in the sixth century. More recently, theological condemnation has given way to the view that suicidal behavior must always be symptomatic of emotional disturbance and mental illness. However, suicide has not always been viewed so negatively. In other times and cultures, it has been held that circumstances might befall a person in which suicide would be a perfectly rational course of action, in the same sense that any other course of action could be rational: that it could be sensible, i.e., defensible by good reasons, or that it could be in keeping with the agent's fundamental interests. Indiscriminate use of modern life-sustaining technologies has renewed interest in the possibility of rational suicide. Today proponents of rational suicide tend to equate the rationality of suicide with the competence of the decision to commit suicide.

  19. RATGRAPH: Computer Graphing of Rational Functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minch, Bradley A.

    1987-01-01

    Presents an easy-to-use Applesoft BASIC program that graphs rational functions and any asymptotes that the functions might have. Discusses the nature of rational functions, graphing them manually, employing a computer to graph rational functions, and describes how the program works. (TW)

  20. Hypothesis Designs for Three-Hypothesis Test Problems

    OpenAIRE

    Yan Li; Xiaolong Pu

    2010-01-01

    As a helpful guide for applications, the alternative hypotheses of the three-hypothesis test problems are designed under the required error probabilities and average sample number in this paper. The asymptotic formulas and the proposed numerical quadrature formulas are adopted, respectively, to obtain the hypothesis designs and the corresponding sequential test schemes under the Koopman-Darmois distributions. The example of the normal mean test shows that our methods are qu...

  1. "Leaky" Rationality: How Research on Behavioral Decision Making Challenges Normative Standards of Rationality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keys, Daniel J; Schwartz, Barry

    2007-06-01

    For more than 30 years, decision-making research has documented that people often violate various principles of rationality, some of which are so fundamental that theorists of rationality rarely bother to state them. We take these characteristics of decision making as a given but argue that it is problematic to conclude that they typically represent departures from rationality. The very psychological processes that lead to "irrational" decisions (e.g., framing, mental accounting) continue to exert their influence when one experiences the results of the decisions. That is, psychological processes that affect decisions may be said also to "leak" into one's experience. The implication is that formal principles of rationality do not provide a good enough normative standard against which to assess decision making. Instead, what is needed is a substantive theory of rationality-one that takes subjective experience seriously, considers both direct and indirect consequences of particular decisions, considers how particular decisions fit into life as a whole, and considers the effects of decisions on others. Formal principles may play a role as approximations of the substantive theory that can be used by theorists and decision makers in cases in which the formal principles can capture most of the relevant considerations and leakage into experience is negligible. © 2007 Association for Psychological Science.

  2. Compounding artefacts with uncertainty, and an amyloid cascade hypothesis that is 'too big to fail'.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castellani, Rudy J; Smith, Mark A

    2011-06-01

    With each failure of anti-amyloid-β therapy in clinical trials, new trials are initiated with no hint of slowing down. This may be due, in part, to the fact that the amyloid cascade hypothesis has been so modified over time that it is now impossible to confirm or deny. The hypothesis now states, in effect, that invisible molecules target invisible structures. Still relevant, however, are multiple factors that surely cast some doubt but have either been rationalized or overlooked. Among these are the poor correlation between amyloid-β deposits and disease, the substantial differences between familial and sporadic disease, pathological assessment that indicates the secondary nature of lesions/proteins/cascades, the fact that soluble species are poorly reproducible laboratory phenomena, and the irrelevance of synaptic assessment to pathological interpretation. Although not yet dogma, the premature addition of mild cognitive impairment as the implied in vivo homologue to the soluble toxin-synapse interaction is also problematic. In either case, the amyloid cascade hypothesis continues to dominate the Alzheimer's disease literature and grant applications. The more the neuroscience community perseverates along these lines in the face of accumulating outcome data to the contrary, the more one is left to wonder whether the hypothesis is too big to fail. Copyright © 2011 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  3. Popper, Rationality and the Possibility of Social Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danny Frederick

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Social science employs teleological explanations which depend upon the rationality principle, according to which people exhibit instrumental rationality. Popper points out that people also exhibit critical rationality, the tendency to stand back from, and to question or criticise, their views. I explain how our critical rationality impugns the explanatory value of the rationality principle and thereby threatens the very possibility of social science. I discuss the relationship between instrumental and critical rationality and show how we can reconcile our critical rationality with the possibility of social science if we invoke Popper’s conception of limited rationality and his indeterminism.

  4. Ethics of rationing of nursing care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rooddehghan, Zahra; Yekta, Zohreh Parsa; Nasrabadi, Alireza N

    2016-09-21

    Rationing of various needed services, for example, nursing care, is inevitable due to unlimited needs and limited resources. Rationing of nursing care is considered an ethical issue since it requires judgment about potential conflicts between personal and professional values. The present research sought to explore aspects of rationing nursing care in Iran. This study applied qualitative content analysis, a method to explore people's perceptions of everyday life phenomena and interpret the subjective content of text data. Data collection was performed through in-depth, unstructured, face-to-face interviews with open-ended questions. The study population included Iranian nurses of all nursing positions, from clinical nurses to nurse managers. Purposive sampling was employed to select 15 female and 3 male nurses (11 clinical nurses, 3 supervisors, 1 matron, 1 nurse, and 2 members of the Nursing Council) working in hospitals of three cities in Iran. The study protocol was approved by Tehran University of Medical Sciences (91D1302870). Written informed consent was also obtained from all participants. According to the participants, rationing of nursing care consisted of two categories, that is, causes of rationing and consequences of rationing. The first category comprised three subcategories, namely, patient needs and demands, routinism, and VIP patients. The three subcategories forming the second category were missed nursing care, patient dissatisfaction, and nurses' feeling of guilt. Levels at which healthcare practices are rationed and clarity of the rationing are important structural considerations in the development of an equal, appropriate, and ethical healthcare system. Moreover, the procedure of rationing is critical as it not only influences people's lives but also reflects the values that dominate in the society. Therefore, in order to minimize the negative consequences of rationing of nursing care, further studies on the ethical dimensions of this phenomenon

  5. Casebook on rationalization of power use

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-06-01

    This book introduces the cases on rationalization of power use, which is divided into four parts. The first part refers the goal of rational use of energy and the result. The second part deals with the excellent cases on rationalization of domestic power use, which list the name of the company, hotel and factory according to the field such as building, textile and food. The third part contains the outstanding cases on rationalization of foreign power use, which were listed by the specific way to reduce electricity use each section. The fourth part is comprised of two chapters, which deals with the cases of domestic technical data and foreign technical data for rational use of energy.

  6. [Use of Cone Beam Computed Tomography in endodontics: rational case selection criteria].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosen, E; Tsesis, I

    2016-01-01

    To present rational case selection criteria for the use of CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography) in endodontics. This article reviews the literature concerning the benefits of CBCT in endodontics, alongside its radiation risks, and present case selection criteria for referral of endodontic patients to CBCT. Up to date, the expected ultimate benefit of CBCT to the endodontic patient is yet uncertain, and the current literature is mainly restricted to its technical efficacy. In addition, the potential radiation risks of CBCT scan are stochastic in nature and uncertain, and are worrying especially in pediatric patients. Both the efficacy of CBCT in supporting the endodontic practitioner decision making and in affecting treatment outcomes, and its long term potential radiation risks are yet uncertain. Therefore, a cautious rational decision making is essential when a CBCT scan is considered in endodontics. Risk-benefit considerations are presented.

  7. From rational creatures to the rational Creator: ancient and patristic analogies of the “fine-tuning” argument

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexey Fokin

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In this article the author deals with the proofs of the existence of God, based on the fact of the presence of rational beings in the world. These proofs can be found in Greek and Roman Classical philosophy and early Patristics, and can be viewed as an analogue of the modern “fine-tuning argument”. The author considers the origins and development of this argument in the Greek and Roman philosophy: in Socrates, Plato, Cicero, Sextus Empiricus, and especially the Stoics, who gave to the argument a logical form, based on the relationship between “the parts and the whole”: if the world as a whole produces and contains rational beings as its parts, it should also be rational or contain a rational principle that generates all its parts and governs them, just as human soul governs human body. The correction of this argument was proposed by Sextus Empiricus, who introduced the concept of "spermatic logoi", or rational principles, to explain the generation of the rational beings by the world, so that if the world contains the spermatic logoi of rational and living beings, then the world as a whole is also rational. The author also investigates the reception of the argument based on the existence of rational beings in the world in Latin Patristics: in Minucius Felix, Tertullian and especially Lactantius, in whom this argument has reached the climax of its development. At the same time it was shown, that the ancient argument has undergone a transformation from the postulation of the rationality of the world as a whole or its equation with God himself to a genuine proof of the existence of the one God who is the Creator both of the world and human beings, superior to the both as the all-powerful and transcendent Mind.

  8. Rationing medical education | Walsh | African Health Sciences

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Even though some stakeholders in medical education might be taken aback at the prospect of rationing, the truth is that rationing has always occurred in one form or another in medical education and in healthcare more broadly. Different types of rationing exist in healthcare professional education. For example rationing may ...

  9. Life Origination Hydrate Hypothesis (LOH-Hypothesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victor Ostrovskii

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper develops the Life Origination Hydrate Hypothesis (LOH-hypothesis, according to which living-matter simplest elements (LMSEs, which are N-bases, riboses, nucleosides, nucleotides, DNA- and RNA-like molecules, amino-acids, and proto-cells repeatedly originated on the basis of thermodynamically controlled, natural, and inevitable processes governed by universal physical and chemical laws from CH4, niters, and phosphates under the Earth's surface or seabed within the crystal cavities of the honeycomb methane-hydrate structure at low temperatures; the chemical processes passed slowly through all successive chemical steps in the direction that is determined by a gradual decrease in the Gibbs free energy of reacting systems. The hypothesis formulation method is based on the thermodynamic directedness of natural movement and consists ofan attempt to mentally backtrack on the progression of nature and thus reveal principal milestones alongits route. The changes in Gibbs free energy are estimated for different steps of the living-matter origination process; special attention is paid to the processes of proto-cell formation. Just the occurrence of the gas-hydrate periodic honeycomb matrix filled with LMSEs almost completely in its final state accounts for size limitation in the DNA functional groups and the nonrandom location of N-bases in the DNA chains. The slowness of the low-temperature chemical transformations and their “thermodynamic front” guide the gross process of living matter origination and its successive steps. It is shown that the hypothesis is thermodynamically justified and testable and that many observed natural phenomena count in its favor.

  10. Electricity generation, rational energy use and CO2 emissions. The Electrabel approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bulteel, P.

    1995-01-01

    Electrabel (Belgium) commitments in integrating the goals of rational and sustainable energy use and CO 2 emissions control are presented: demand side measures with promotion and decision-making help to the customers in order to reduce technical, commercial and financial barriers, and supply side measures such as integrated resource planning, high efficiency fossil-fuel generating stations (gas fired combined cycle units), cogeneration schemes. The expected impact on CO 2 emissions are discussed

  11. Effects of Rational-Emotive Therapy, Rational Role Reversal, and Rational-Emotive Imagery on the Emotional Adjustment of Community Mental Health Center Patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lipsky, Marc J.; And Others

    1980-01-01

    Results showed that rational-emotive therapy (RET), with the addition of rational role reversal, produced significantly better results than did relaxation training and support or no contact. This was the first study to demonstrate the efficacy of RET with multisymptomatic applicants to a community mental health center. (Author/BEF)

  12. Argumentation, rationality, and psychology of reasoning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Godden

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper explicates an account of argumentative rationality by articulating the common, basic idea of its nature, and then identifying a collection of assumptions inherent in it. Argumentative rationality is then contrasted with dual-process theories of reasoning and rationality prevalent in the psychology of reasoning. It is argued that argumentative rationality properly corresponds only with system-2 reasoning in dual-process theories. This result challenges the prescriptive force of argumentative norms derives if they derive at all from their descriptive accuracy of our cognitive capacities. In response, I propose an activity-based account of reasoning which retains the assumptions of argumentative rationality while recontextualizing the relationship between reasoning as a justificatory activity and the psychological states and processes underlying that activity.

  13. "Saying no is no easy matter" A qualitative study of competing concerns in rationing decisions in general practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Norheim Ole

    2005-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The general practitioner in Norway is expected to ensure equity and effectiveness through fair rationing. At the same time, due to recent reforms of the Norwegian health care sector, both the role of economic incentives and patient autonomy have been strengthened. Studies indicate that modern general practitioners, both in Norway and in other countries are uncomfortable with the gatekeeper role, but there is little knowledge about how general practitioners experience rationing in practice. Methods Through focus group interviews with Norwegian general practitioners, we explore physicians' attitudes toward factors of influence on medical decision making and how rationing dilemmas are experienced in everyday practice. Results Four major concerns appeared in the group discussions: The obligation to ration health care, professional autonomy, patient autonomy, and competition. A central finding was that the physicians find rationing difficult because saying no in face to face relations often is felt uncomfortable and in conflict with other important objectives for the general practitioner. Conclusion It is important to understand the association between using economic incentives in the management of health care, increasing patient autonomy, and the willingness among physicians to contribute to efficient, fair and legitimate resource allocation.

  14. Rational Thinking in School-Based Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Mary Kristen; Flynn, Perry

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: We reflect on Alan Kamhi's (2011) prologue on balancing certainty and uncertainty as it pertains to school-based practice. Method: In schools, rational thinking depends on effective team processes, much like professional learning communities. We consider the conditions that are required for rational thinking and how rational team dialogue…

  15. Rationality in Machiavelli and in Kant

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vadim Chaly

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The paper contains interpretation and comparative analysis of Machiavelli’s and Kant’s conceptions on rationality as two prime examples of “realist” and “idealist” modes of agency. Kantian model of rationality is viewed as an augmentation of the Machiavellian one, not an opposition to it. To elaborate the point, Robert Aumann’s model of act-rationality and rulerationality is applied to the two philosophical models. Kantian practical reason is interpreted as an addition to Aumann’s instrumental rationality, providing rules for rules, or “rule-rule-rationality”.

  16. Effective Entrepreneurial Choice: The Role of Rationality and Non-Rationality in Three Entrepreneurs Success Stories

    OpenAIRE

    Chong, Anne Michele, Siang Yoon

    2007-01-01

    Good entrepreneurship is important for economic growth and productivity in any modern economy. The purpose of this dissertation is to research how good entrepreneurial decisions are made. In theory, optimal or rational decision making means choosing the best alternative in response to the problem. However, in reality, people do not act rationally because they often cannot make rational choices. The reason is that people do not have enough brain power, time or resources to process the compl...

  17. Deflation Expectation Financial System and Decline in Money Multiplier(in Japanese)

    OpenAIRE

    IIDA Yasuyuki

    2005-01-01

    The money multiplier is in a continuous downward trend now since the bubble burst, and, in addition, the trend has accelerated after 2000. It is said that the monetary policy is difficult because the money multiplier has declined. To think about the monetary policy for the future, we should think about the cause of the decline of the money multiplier. I want to verify two typical hypotheses "Deflation Expectation Hypothesis" and "Financial System Hypothesis" for the decision of the money mult...

  18. Discrete Choice and Rational Inattention

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fosgerau, Mogens; Melo, Emerson; de Palma, André

    2017-01-01

    This paper establishes a general equivalence between discrete choice and rational inattention models. Matejka and McKay (2015, AER) showed that when information costs are modelled using the Shannon entropy, the result- ing choice probabilities in the rational inattention model take the multinomial...... logit form. We show that when information costs are modelled using a class of generalized entropies, then the choice probabilities in any rational inattention model are observationally equivalent to some additive random utility discrete choice model and vice versa. This equivalence arises from convex...

  19. Rational top and its classical r-matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aminov, G; Arthamonov, S; Smirnov, A; Zotov, A

    2014-01-01

    We construct a rational integrable system (the rational top) on a co-adjoint orbit of SL N Lie group. It is described by the Lax operator with spectral parameter and classical non-dynamical skew-symmetric r-matrix. In the case of the orbit of minimal dimension the model is gauge equivalent to the rational Calogero–Moser (CM) system. To obtain the results we represent the Lax operator of the CM model in two different factorized forms—without spectral parameter (related to the spinless case) and another one with the spectral parameter. The latter gives rise to the rational top while the first one is related to generalized Cremmer–Gervais r-matrices. The gauge transformation relating the rational top and CM model provides the classical rational version of the IRF-Vertex correspondence. From the geometrical point of view it describes the modification of SL(N,C)-bundles over degenerated elliptic curve. In view of the Symplectic Hecke Correspondence the rational top is related to the rational spin CM model. Possible applications and generalizations of the suggested construction are discussed. In particular, the obtained r-matrix defines a class of KZB equations. (paper)

  20. Fiber sources for complete calf starter rations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murdock, F R; Wallenius, R W

    1980-11-01

    Complete calf starter rations containing either 1) alfalfa hay, 2) cottonseed hulls, or 3) alfalfa-beet pulp as sources of fiber were fed to Holstein heifer calves at two locations on a limited milk program from 3 days to 12 wk of age. Rations were isonitrogenous and similar in content of crude fiber and acid detergent fiber. Although growth and development were normal on all rations, calves fed the cottonseed hull ration consumed more starter and gained more body weight than calves fed the other sources of fiber. The similarity of feed efficiencies, rumen pH, and molar ratios of volatile fatty acids between rations indicated no appreciable differences in rumen development or function. The growth response of calves fed the cottonseed hull ration appeared to be a result of better ration acceptability for which no reason was evident. Calves raised at Puyallup gained more body weight than calves at Pullman, and these gains were made more efficiently. These location effects may be related to seasonal differences and greater demands for production of body heat. Although the incidence of scours was less for calves fed alfalfa hay starter, the incidence and severity of bloat were higher for that ration.

  1. Investigating Miranda waiver decisions: An examination of the rational consequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blackwood, Hayley L; Rogers, Richard; Steadham, Jennifer A; Fiduccia, Chelsea E

    2015-01-01

    Millions of custodial suspects waive their Miranda rights each year without the benefit of legal counsel. Miranda understanding, appreciation, and reasoning abilities are essential to courts' acceptance of Miranda waivers (Grisso, 2003; Rogers & Shuman, 2005). The question posed to forensic psychologists and psychiatrists in the disputed Miranda waivers is whether a particular waiver decision was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary. Despite the remarkable development of Miranda research in recent decades, studies have generally focused on understanding and appreciation of Miranda rights, but with comparatively minimal emphasis on Miranda reasoning and attendant waiver decisions. Research on defendants' decisional capacities constitutes a critical step in further developing theoretical and clinical models for Miranda waiver decisions. The current study evaluated Miranda waiver decisions for 80 pretrial defendants from two Oklahoma jails to study systematically how rational decision abilities affect defendants' personal waiver decisions. In stark contrast to what was expected, many defendants were able to identify a rational decisional process in their own legal cases, yet cast such reasoning aside and chose a completely contradictory Miranda waiver decision. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  2. Menopause: developing a rational treatment plan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vitiello, Danielle; Naftolin, Frederick; Naftoilin, Frederick; Taylor, Hugh S

    2007-12-01

    In recent years, growing importance has been afforded to assisting women in coping with the menopausal transition. Menopause is a normal stage of development and a woman's attitude toward this transition embodies biological, psychological and social influences. An enlarging body of conflicting data concerning menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) demands reassessment of established paradigms of disease prevention and menopausal health. Currently, a woman's decision to participate in or abstain from menopausal HT is personal. It involves not only consideration of risk stratification of potential harm and benefit, but also involves her expectations and attitudes toward perceived physical and emotional changes associated with this change. Through the use of extensive patient history, quality-of-life questionnaires and powerful biological profiling, we may be able to develop a rational approach to menopausal HT that safely guides our patients through this transition.

  3. Why humans deviate from rational choice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hewig, Johannes; Kretschmer, Nora; Trippe, Ralf H; Hecht, Holger; Coles, Michael G H; Holroyd, Clay B; Miltner, Wolfgang H R

    2011-04-01

    Rational choice theory predicts that humans always optimize the expected utility of options when making decisions. However, in decision-making games, humans often punish their opponents even when doing so reduces their own reward. We used the Ultimatum and Dictator games to examine the affective correlates of decision-making. We show that the feedback negativity, an event-related brain potential that originates in the anterior cingulate cortex that has been related to reinforcement learning, predicts the decision to reject unfair offers in the Ultimatum game. Furthermore, the decision to reject is positively related to more negative emotional reactions and to increased autonomic nervous system activity. These findings support the idea that subjective emotional markers guide decision-making and that the anterior cingulate cortex integrates instances of reinforcement and punishment to provide such affective markers. Copyright © 2010 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  4. Strategy selection as rational metareasoning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lieder, Falk; Griffiths, Thomas L

    2017-11-01

    Many contemporary accounts of human reasoning assume that the mind is equipped with multiple heuristics that could be deployed to perform a given task. This raises the question of how the mind determines when to use which heuristic. To answer this question, we developed a rational model of strategy selection, based on the theory of rational metareasoning developed in the artificial intelligence literature. According to our model people learn to efficiently choose the strategy with the best cost-benefit tradeoff by learning a predictive model of each strategy's performance. We found that our model can provide a unifying explanation for classic findings from domains ranging from decision-making to arithmetic by capturing the variability of people's strategy choices, their dependence on task and context, and their development over time. Systematic model comparisons supported our theory, and 4 new experiments confirmed its distinctive predictions. Our findings suggest that people gradually learn to make increasingly more rational use of fallible heuristics. This perspective reconciles the 2 poles of the debate about human rationality by integrating heuristics and biases with learning and rationality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  5. Should informed consent be based on rational beliefs?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Savulescu, J; Momeyer, R W

    1997-10-01

    Our aim is to expand the regulative ideal governing consent. We argue that consent should not only be informed but also based on rational beliefs. We argue that holding true beliefs promotes autonomy. Information is important insofar as it helps a person to hold the relevant true beliefs. But in order to hold the relevant true beliefs, competent people must also think rationally. Insofar as information is important, rational deliberation is important. Just as physicians should aim to provide relevant information regarding the medical procedures prior to patients consenting to have those procedures, they should also assist patients to think more rationally. We distinguish between rational choice/action and rational belief. While autonomous choice need not necessarily be rational, it should be based on rational belief. The implication for the doctrine of informed consent and the practice of medicine is that, if physicians are to respect patient autonomy and help patients to choose and act more rationally, not only must they provide information, but they should care more about the theoretical rationality of their patients. They should not abandon their patients to irrationality. They should help their patients to deliberate more effectively and to care more about thinking rationally. We illustrate these arguments in the context of Jehovah's Witnesses refusing life-saving blood transfusions. Insofar as Jehovah's Witnesses should be informed of the consequences of their actions, they should also deliberate rationally about these consequences.

  6. Risk Judgment by General Dental practitioners: Rational but Uninformed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellervall, Eva; Brehmer, Berndt; Knutsson, Kerstin

    2010-01-01

    Decisions by dentists to administer antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent infectious complications in patients involves professional risk assessment. While recommendations for rational use have been published, several studies have shown that dentists have low adherence to these recommendations. To examine general dental practitioners' (GDPs') assessments of the risk of complications if not administering antibiotic prophylaxis in connection with dental procedures in patients with specific medical conditions. Postal questionnaires in combination with telephone interviews. Risk assessments were made using visual analogue scales (VAS), where zero represented "insignificant risk" and 100 represented a "very significant risk". Response rate: 51%. The mean risk assessments were higher for GDPs who administered antibiotics (mean = 54, SD = 23, range 26-72 mm on the VAS) than those who did not (mean = 14, SD = 12, range 7-31 mm) (P rational but uninformed. They administered antibiotics in a manner that was consistent with their risk assessments. Their risk assessments, however, were overestimated. Inaccurate judgments of risk should not be expected to disappear in the presence of new information. To achieve change, clinicians must be motivated to improve behaviour and an evidence-based implementation strategy is required.

  7. Rational Inference of Beliefs and Desires From Emotional Expressions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Yang; Baker, Chris L; Tenenbaum, Joshua B; Schulz, Laura E

    2018-04-01

    We investigated people's ability to infer others' mental states from their emotional reactions, manipulating whether agents wanted, expected, and caused an outcome. Participants recovered agents' desires throughout. When the agent observed, but did not cause the outcome, participants' ability to recover the agent's beliefs depended on the evidence they got (i.e., her reaction only to the actual outcome or to both the expected and actual outcomes; Experiments 1 and 2). When the agent caused the event, participants' judgments also depended on the probability of the action (Experiments 3 and 4); when actions were improbable given the mental states, people failed to recover the agent's beliefs even when they saw her react to both the anticipated and actual outcomes. A Bayesian model captured human performance throughout (rs ≥ .95), consistent with the proposal that people rationally integrate information about others' actions and emotional reactions to infer their unobservable mental states. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  8. Product differentiation under bounded rationality

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vermeulen, B.; Poutré, La J.A.; Kok, de A.G.; Pyka, A.; Handa, H.; Ishibuchi, H.; Ong, Y.-S.; Tan, K.-C.

    2015-01-01

    We study product differentiation equilibria and dynamics on the Salop circle under bounded rationality. Due to bounded rationality, firms tend to agglomerate in pairs. Upon adding a second tier of component suppliers, downstream assemblers may escape pairwise horizontal agglomeration. Moreover, we

  9. The Application of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy to Reduce Stress among Mother with Leukemia Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuni Sufyanti Arief

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: A child who is diagnosed with Leukemia will undergo several procedures are long and painful action. During the process of hospitalization due to leukemia children and parents can experience a variety of events or actions handling according to various studies shown by the experience very traumatic and stressful (Supartini 2004 in Arif, SY, 2007. Some of the methods used to deal with anxiety is psikoprofilaksis, relaxation and imagination (Reeder et al., 2011. Rational-emotive behavior therapy by Albert Ellis in 1990 describes a unique man who is basically have a tendency to think rational and irrational. Methods: aim of this study is to explain the effect of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT for stress levels of mothers with children suffering from Leukemia. The study design used was a pre-experiment Quasy-post control group design. The sample was 10 mothers of children diagnosed with leukemia are treated in a child hematology ward Soetomo hospital. Variable in this study is the level of depression and anxiety mothers with children suffering from leukemia. Result: Based on the results obtained Wilcoxon statistical test p = 0.025 in the treatment group and p = 0.32 in the control group. Mann Whitney test results obtained p = 0.012. Conclution: Rational-emotive behavior therapy can reduce levels of depression and anxiety (stress mothers with children suffering from leukemia. It is expected that the application of rational -emotive behavior therapy can be done to reduce depression and anxiety in women with chronic disease cases while maintaining the effectiveness the goal of REBT. Keywords: stress, anxiety, depression, rational-emotive behavior

  10. An evaluation of rational-emotive imagery as a component of rational-emotive therapy in the treatment of test anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hymen, S P; Warren, R

    1978-06-01

    This study evaluated the efficacy of rational-emotive imagery as a component of rational-emotive therapy in reduction of college students' test anxiety. 11 volunteers met for 6 1-hr. group treatment sessions over a 3-wk. period. After 2 initial treatment sessions subjects were randomly assigned to groups given either rational-emotive therapy with rational-emotive imagery or rational-emotive therapy without imagery. Contrary to predictions, improvement between groups on self-report and performance measures was nonsignificant. Failure to obtain differences was attributed to similarities in content of treatment sessions and short treatment time. Combined groups reported significant improvement on all dependent measures. Although the study did not yield the predicted benefits of the imagery, results lend further support to the efficacy of rational-emotive therapy procedures in the reduction of test anxiety.

  11. Rationing in health systems: A critical review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keliddar, Iman; Mosadeghrad, Ali Mohammad; Jafari-Sirizi, Mehdi

    2017-01-01

    Background: It is difficult to provide health care services to all those in need of such services due to limited resources and unlimited demands. Thus, priority setting and rationing have to be applied. This study aimed at critically examining the concept of rationing in health sector and identifying its purposes, influencing factors, mechanisms, and outcomes. Methods: The critical interpretive synthesis methodology was used in this study. PubMed, Cochrane, and Proquest databases were searched using the related key words to find related documents published between 1970 and 2015. In total, 161 published reports were reviewed and included in the study. Thematic content analysis was applied for data analysis. Results: Health services rationing means restricting the access of some people to useful or potentially useful health services due to budgetary limitation. The inherent features of the health market and health services, limited resources, and unlimited needs necessitate health services rationing. Rationing can be applied in 4 levels: health care policy- makers, health care managers, health care providers, and patients. Health care rationing can be accomplished through fixed budget, benefit package, payment mechanisms, queuing, copayments, and deductibles. Conclusion: This paper enriched our understanding of health services rationing and its mechanisms at various levels and contributed to the literature by broadly conceptualizing health services rationing.

  12. Research on Bounded Rationality of Fuzzy Choice Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xinlin Wu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The rationality of a fuzzy choice function is a hot research topic in the study of fuzzy choice functions. In this paper, two common fuzzy sets are studied and analyzed in the framework of the Banerjee choice function. The complete rationality and bounded rationality of fuzzy choice functions are defined based on the two fuzzy sets. An assumption is presented to study the fuzzy choice function, and especially the fuzzy choice function with bounded rationality is studied combined with some rationality conditions. Results show that the fuzzy choice function with bounded rationality also satisfies some important rationality conditions, but not vice versa. The research gives supplements to the investigation in the framework of the Banerjee choice function.

  13. Intraclutch variation in avian eggshell pigmentation: the anaemia hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Coster, Greet; De Neve, Liesbeth; Lens, Luc

    2012-10-01

    Many passerine species lay eggs that are speckled with dark protoporphyrin pigmentation. Because protoporphyrin is mainly derived from the blood, we here formulate and test a new hypothesis that links an increase in anaemia along the laying sequence to within-clutch variation in egg pigmentation. More intense pigmentation is expected if pigments accumulate during enhanced red blood cell production in response to anaemia. Reduced pigmentation is expected if pigments are derived from the degradation of red blood cells that circulate in smaller numbers due to blood loss. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated anaemia in great tit (Parus major) females by infesting the nests with hen fleas (Ceratophyllus gallinae) prior to egg laying. Polychromatophil (i.e., immature red blood cells) percentage, as a measure of blood cell production, was positively correlated with parasite load confirming that female great tits experienced stronger anaemia when infested with haematophagous parasites during egg laying. We found a positive relationship between spot darkness and laying order that weakened under high parasite load. This result suggests that anaemia in females due to blood-sucking parasites led to diminished protoporphyrin from disintegrated red blood cells and hence a decreased deposition of protoporphyrin. However, the overall increase in pigment darkness along the laying sequence suggests that pigments also accumulate by enhanced red blood cell production caused by anaemia due to egg production itself.

  14. Lying to ourselves: rationality, critical reflexivity, and the moral order as 'structured agency'.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goodman, Benny

    2016-07-01

    A report suggests that United States' army officers may engage in dishonest reporting regarding their compliance procedures. Similarly, nurses with espoused high ethical standards sometimes fail to live up to them and may do so while deceiving themselves about such practices. Reasons for lapses are complex. However, multitudinous managerial demands arising within 'technical and instrumental rationality' may impact on honest decision-making. This paper suggests that compliance processes, which operates within the social structural context of the technical and instrumental rationality manifest as 'managerialism', contributes to professional 'dishonesty' about lapses in care, sometimes through 'thoughtlessness'. The need to manage risk, measure, account, and control in order to deliver efficiency, effectiveness, and economy (technical rationality) thus has both unintended and dysfunctional consequences. Meeting compliance requirements may be mediated by factors such as the 'affect heuristic' and 'reflexive deliberations' as part of the 'structured agency' of nurses. It is the complexity of 'structured agency' which may explain why some nurses fail to respond to such things as sentinel events, a failure to recognize 'personal troubles' as 'public issues', a failure which to outsiders who expect rational and professional responses may seem inconceivable. There is a need to understand these processes so that nurses can critique the context in which they work and to move beyond either/or explanations of structure or agency for care failures, and professional dishonesty. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  15. Environmental Management: the Ideology of Natural Resource Rational Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zolotukhin, V. M.; Gogolin, V. A.; Yazevich, M. Yu; Baumgarten, M. I.; Dyagileva, A. V.

    2017-01-01

    The article presents an analysis of the ontological and methodological principles of environmental management. These principles form the united ideology of natural resource rational use as the environment preservation basis. Consideration of environmental issues from the environmental management point of view is stipulated by the concern of the scientific community about the existence of mankind and the sphere of its inhabiting. The need to overcome the stereotypes existing in mass consciousness about safe and environmentally friendly consumption is stressed. The process of forming environmental management policy should contribute to the stabilization (balancing) of the consumers’ expectations and collective decision-making based on a public ecological consensus.

  16. An intermediary enhances out-group trust and in-group profit expectation of Chinese but not Australians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ye, Jiawen; Ng, Sik Hung

    2017-06-01

    In this research, we made a theoretical distinction between direct and intermediary-mediated trust situations, and conducted a cross-cultural (Chinese vs. Australians) investment trust game to test the overlooked effects of an intermediary on investors' trust decisions, with respect to how much to invest in and expect from trustees. Compared to situations of direct trust, a nominal intermediary increased the number of Chinese investors expecting in-group trustees to repay a profit on their investments (Hypothesis 1) and raised their level of investment in out-group trustees (Hypothesis 2). These results applied to Chinese, but not Australians in support of the proposal that a nominal intermediary would serve as a cue to activate different cultural stereotypes of the functions and meanings of an intermediary with respect to trust and expectation of reciprocity. Coexisting with these culture-specific effects of an intermediary, the minimal categorisation of people into in-group and out-group on trivial grounds leads to a highly significant in-group favouritism in investment levels of both Chinese and Australians (Hypothesis 3). © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

  17. Micro-foundation using percolation theory of the finite time singular behavior of the crash hazard rate in a class of rational expectation bubbles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seyrich, Maximilian; Sornette, Didier

    2016-04-01

    We present a plausible micro-founded model for the previously postulated power law finite time singular form of the crash hazard rate in the Johansen-Ledoit-Sornette (JLS) model of rational expectation bubbles. The model is based on a percolation picture of the network of traders and the concept that clusters of connected traders share the same opinion. The key ingredient is the notion that a shift of position from buyer to seller of a sufficiently large group of traders can trigger a crash. This provides a formula to estimate the crash hazard rate by summation over percolation clusters above a minimum size of a power sa (with a>1) of the cluster sizes s, similarly to a generalized percolation susceptibility. The power sa of cluster sizes emerges from the super-linear dependence of group activity as a function of group size, previously documented in the literature. The crash hazard rate exhibits explosive finite time singular behaviors when the control parameter (fraction of occupied sites, or density of traders in the network) approaches the percolation threshold pc. Realistic dynamics are generated by modeling the density of traders on the percolation network by an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, whose memory controls the spontaneous excursion of the control parameter close to the critical region of bubble formation. Our numerical simulations recover the main stylized properties of the JLS model with intermittent explosive super-exponential bubbles interrupted by crashes.

  18. Using Rational-Emotive Therapy to Prevent Classroom Problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Webber, Jo; Coleman, Maggie

    1988-01-01

    Teachers are encouraged to utilize rational-emotive therapy to prevent and deal with classroom behavior problems. Rational-emotive therapy is defined, the ABC model of rational thinking briefly explained, types of irrational thinking identified, and suggestions for becoming a rational thinker are offered. Classroom examples are given. (DB)

  19. Differential Rationality and Personal Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fincher, Cameron

    This publication discusses differential rationality; it asserts that the development of institutions, professions, and individuals involves the differentiation of forms and styles of thinking and knowing that are, in various ways, idiosyncratic. Based on this understanding, differential rationality can be seen as a developmental construct that…

  20. Rational reconstructions of modern physics

    CERN Document Server

    Mittelstaedt, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Newton’s classical physics and its underlying ontology are loaded with several metaphysical hypotheses that cannot be justified by rational reasoning nor by experimental evidence. Furthermore, it is well known that some of these hypotheses are not contained in the great theories of Modern Physics, such as the theory of Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. This book shows that, on the basis of Newton’s classical physics and by rational reconstruction, the theory of Special Relativity as well as Quantum Mechanics can be obtained by partly eliminating or attenuating the metaphysical hypotheses. Moreover, it is shown that these reconstructions do not require additional hypotheses or new experimental results. In the second edition the rational reconstructions are completed with respect to General Relativity and Cosmology. In addition, the statistics of quantum objects is elaborated in more detail with respect to the rational reconstruction of quantum mechanics. The new material completes the approach of t...

  1. Rational Choice and the Framing of Decisions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1986-05-29

    survival in a competitive environment , and a minority of rational individuals can sometimes impose rationality on the whole market. Third, the...intuitive appeal of the axioms of rational choice makes it plausible that the theory derived from these axioms should provide an acceptable account of choice...rn-use U? RATIONAL CHOICE AMD THE FINNING OF KCISIOUS(U mi/ STANFORD UNIV CR A TYERSEY ET AL. 29 NAYN4-S4-K-S61SWICLASS IF lED FO 5/10S IL EEEEEEEE

  2. Intergroup conflict and rational decision making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martínez-Tur, Vicente; Peñarroja, Vicente; Serrano, Miguel A; Hidalgo, Vanesa; Moliner, Carolina; Salvador, Alicia; Alacreu-Crespo, Adrián; Gracia, Esther; Molina, Agustín

    2014-01-01

    The literature has been relatively silent about post-conflict processes. However, understanding the way humans deal with post-conflict situations is a challenge in our societies. With this in mind, we focus the present study on the rationality of cooperative decision making after an intergroup conflict, i.e., the extent to which groups take advantage of post-conflict situations to obtain benefits from collaborating with the other group involved in the conflict. Based on dual-process theories of thinking and affect heuristic, we propose that intergroup conflict hinders the rationality of cooperative decision making. We also hypothesize that this rationality improves when groups are involved in an in-group deliberative discussion. Results of a laboratory experiment support the idea that intergroup conflict -associated with indicators of the activation of negative feelings (negative affect state and heart rate)- has a negative effect on the aforementioned rationality over time and on both group and individual decision making. Although intergroup conflict leads to sub-optimal decision making, rationality improves when groups and individuals subjected to intergroup conflict make decisions after an in-group deliberative discussion. Additionally, the increased rationality of the group decision making after the deliberative discussion is transferred to subsequent individual decision making.

  3. Intergroup Conflict and Rational Decision Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martínez-Tur, Vicente; Peñarroja, Vicente; Serrano, Miguel A.; Hidalgo, Vanesa; Moliner, Carolina; Salvador, Alicia; Alacreu-Crespo, Adrián; Gracia, Esther; Molina, Agustín

    2014-01-01

    The literature has been relatively silent about post-conflict processes. However, understanding the way humans deal with post-conflict situations is a challenge in our societies. With this in mind, we focus the present study on the rationality of cooperative decision making after an intergroup conflict, i.e., the extent to which groups take advantage of post-conflict situations to obtain benefits from collaborating with the other group involved in the conflict. Based on dual-process theories of thinking and affect heuristic, we propose that intergroup conflict hinders the rationality of cooperative decision making. We also hypothesize that this rationality improves when groups are involved in an in-group deliberative discussion. Results of a laboratory experiment support the idea that intergroup conflict –associated with indicators of the activation of negative feelings (negative affect state and heart rate)– has a negative effect on the aforementioned rationality over time and on both group and individual decision making. Although intergroup conflict leads to sub-optimal decision making, rationality improves when groups and individuals subjected to intergroup conflict make decisions after an in-group deliberative discussion. Additionally, the increased rationality of the group decision making after the deliberative discussion is transferred to subsequent individual decision making. PMID:25461384

  4. Intergroup conflict and rational decision making.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vicente Martínez-Tur

    Full Text Available The literature has been relatively silent about post-conflict processes. However, understanding the way humans deal with post-conflict situations is a challenge in our societies. With this in mind, we focus the present study on the rationality of cooperative decision making after an intergroup conflict, i.e., the extent to which groups take advantage of post-conflict situations to obtain benefits from collaborating with the other group involved in the conflict. Based on dual-process theories of thinking and affect heuristic, we propose that intergroup conflict hinders the rationality of cooperative decision making. We also hypothesize that this rationality improves when groups are involved in an in-group deliberative discussion. Results of a laboratory experiment support the idea that intergroup conflict -associated with indicators of the activation of negative feelings (negative affect state and heart rate- has a negative effect on the aforementioned rationality over time and on both group and individual decision making. Although intergroup conflict leads to sub-optimal decision making, rationality improves when groups and individuals subjected to intergroup conflict make decisions after an in-group deliberative discussion. Additionally, the increased rationality of the group decision making after the deliberative discussion is transferred to subsequent individual decision making.

  5. Expected Signal Observability at Future Experiments

    CERN Document Server

    Bartsch, Valeria

    2005-01-01

    Several methods to quantify the ''significance'' of an expected signal at future experiments have been used or suggested in literature. In this note, comparisons are presented with a method based on the likelihood ratio of the ''background hypothesis'' and the ''signal-plus-background hypothesis''. A large number of Monte Carlo experiments are performed to investigate the properties of the various methods and to check whether the probability of a background fluctuation having produced the claimed significance of the discovery is properly described. In addition, the best possible separation between the two hypotheses should be provided, in other words, the discovery potential of a future experiment be maximal. Finally, a practical method to apply a likelihood-based definition of the significance is suggested in this note. Signal and background contributions are determined from a likelihoo d fit based on shapes only, and the probability density distributions of the significance thus determined are found to be o...

  6. Rational customs clearance technology choice

    OpenAIRE

    Shramenko, N.; Andriets, V.

    2008-01-01

    Issues concerning cargo delivery efficiencyincrease by choice of rational customs clearance technology have been considered. Three possible variants of customs clearance andmethods which allow to define the most rational version of cargo delivery in international road communication based on main efficiency criteria for definite distance have been presented.

  7. Network approach for decision making under risk-How do we choose among probabilistic options with the same expected value?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pan, Wei; Chen, Yi-Shin

    2018-01-01

    Conventional decision theory suggests that under risk, people choose option(s) by maximizing the expected utility. However, theories deal ambiguously with different options that have the same expected utility. A network approach is proposed by introducing 'goal' and 'time' factors to reduce the ambiguity in strategies for calculating the time-dependent probability of reaching a goal. As such, a mathematical foundation that explains the irrational behavior of choosing an option with a lower expected utility is revealed, which could imply that humans possess rationality in foresight.

  8. Transient behaviour in the plasma core of TJ-II stellarator and its relation with rational surfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Estrada, T.; Luna, E. de la; Ascasibar, E; Jimenez, J.A.; Castejon, F.; Garcia-Cortes, I.; Lopez-Fraguas, A.; Sanchez, J.; Tribaldos, V.

    2002-01-01

    A transient behaviour is observed in the plasma core of TJ-II stellarator with fast drops in the electron temperature. Changes in the line-averaged density are observed synchronized with temperature drops. This phenomenon appears in plasmas created and heated using 300 kW of electron cyclotron heating with high power density. The transient behaviour resembles both, the electric pulsation discovered in CHS and the 'electron root' feature reported by the W7-AS team. The flexibility and low magnetic shear of TJ-II have permitted the identification of the plasma current as the control parameter for the appearance of this phenomenon. The results obtained during the magnetic configuration scans carried out in TJ-II points to the hypothesis that the transient behaviour is connected with the presence of a rational surface close to the plasma centre. Equilibrium calculations performed with the VMEC code reinforce this hypothesis. (author)

  9. Cognitive Rationality and Its Logic-Mathematical Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masalova, Svetlana

    2012-01-01

    The article deals with the cognitive (flexible) rationality, combining rational and irrational moments of the scientific search of the cognizing subject. Linguo-cognitive model of the concept as the flexible regulative rationality reveals the activity of the cognitive processes and the mentality of the epistemological-ontic subject, its leading…

  10. THE FRACTAL MARKET HYPOTHESIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    FELICIA RAMONA BIRAU

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available In this article, the concept of capital market is analysed using Fractal Market Hypothesis which is a modern, complex and unconventional alternative to classical finance methods. Fractal Market Hypothesis is in sharp opposition to Efficient Market Hypothesis and it explores the application of chaos theory and fractal geometry to finance. Fractal Market Hypothesis is based on certain assumption. Thus, it is emphasized that investors did not react immediately to the information they receive and of course, the manner in which they interpret that information may be different. Also, Fractal Market Hypothesis refers to the way that liquidity and investment horizons influence the behaviour of financial investors.

  11. Embodied Feeling and Reason in Decision-Making: Assessing the Somatic-Marker Hypothesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Warren TenHouten

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Whether or not reason and affect are complementary depends on the task at hand. In ordinary circumstances, problemsolving and decision-making involve both somatic feelings and limbic-structure-based emotions. Feelings, experienced as states of the body, can contribute to decision-making by triggering heuristic cues and rapidly eliminating negative behavioral alternatives, in part by providing what Damasio call somatic markers (Damasio, Tranel and Damasio, 1991; Damasio, 1994, 1999, 2003. However, if task-performance is motivated by potentially large rewards, with high demands on short-term memory and on concentration, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortexcan inhibit affects manifested in the medial prefrontal cortex in order to carry out the necessary cognitive operations. We interpret these two different mental task situations using dual process models. Although experimental evidence from studies of normal subjects and frontal-lobe-damaged patients performing the Iowa Gambling Task has been interpreted as supportive of the somatic-marker hypothesis (SMH, we show that this evidence has been called into question due to faulty study designs. However, studies of normal and psychopathic subjects playing the ultimatum game show that pulse-rate deceleration occurring during the brief period preceding decision-making constitutes a somatic marker. Compared to normal controls, psychopaths show less somatic (electro dermal activity and act with cool, economic rationality, accepting unfair (<50/50 offers that normal subjects reject on the basis of non-economic values of fairness. The somatic-marker hypothesis is discussed and criticized, and various theories based on this hypothesis are identified.

  12. THE FRACTAL MARKET HYPOTHESIS

    OpenAIRE

    FELICIA RAMONA BIRAU

    2012-01-01

    In this article, the concept of capital market is analysed using Fractal Market Hypothesis which is a modern, complex and unconventional alternative to classical finance methods. Fractal Market Hypothesis is in sharp opposition to Efficient Market Hypothesis and it explores the application of chaos theory and fractal geometry to finance. Fractal Market Hypothesis is based on certain assumption. Thus, it is emphasized that investors did not react immediately to the information they receive and...

  13. Learning-Related Changes in Adolescents' Neural Networks during Hypothesis-Generating and Hypothesis-Understanding Training

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jun-Ki; Kwon, Yongju

    2012-01-01

    Fourteen science high school students participated in this study, which investigated neural-network plasticity associated with hypothesis-generating and hypothesis-understanding in learning. The students were divided into two groups and participated in either hypothesis-generating or hypothesis-understanding type learning programs, which were…

  14. A novel hypothesis splitting method implementation for multi-hypothesis filters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bayramoglu, Enis; Ravn, Ole; Andersen, Nils Axel

    2013-01-01

    The paper presents a multi-hypothesis filter library featuring a novel method for splitting Gaussians into ones with smaller variances. The library is written in C++ for high performance and the source code is open and free1. The multi-hypothesis filters commonly approximate the distribution tran...

  15. Patients' and parents' expectations of orthodontic treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hiemstra, Renske; Bos, Annemieke; Hoogstraten, Johan

    2009-12-01

    To investigate the expectations of children and their primary care-givers towards orthodontic treatment and to compare the results with those of a UK sample. A questionnaire survey of children and their primary care-givers attending for their first consultation. The Department of Orthodontics at the Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), the Netherlands. A total of 168 subjects (84 patients and 84 parents) completed the questionnaire. The children were aged 10 to 14 years. The responses of the children and parents and differences between boys and girls were examined using parametric statistical methods. The data from the Dutch sample were compared with a similar UK sample. Patients and parents shared similar expectations of orthodontic treatment, with the exception of expectations of having a brace fitted at the first appointment, orthodontic treatment involving headgear, any problems with orthodontic treatment, duration of orthodontic treatment and concerning reactions from the public. Among the child participants, boys and girls only differed in their expectations of orthodontic treatment involving jaw surgery. Differences between Dutch and English participants were found regarding the first visit, type of orthodontic treatment, reactions from the public, and pain and problems with orthodontic treatment. Since the expectations of patients and their parents differ on several aspects, effective communication between the orthodontist, patient and parent is considered to be essential. Our hypothesis that Dutch patients' and parents' expectations of orthodontic treatment differ from the expectations of English patients and parents was supported.

  16. Technique on rationalization of using electricity and cases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-04-01

    This book deals with rationalization of using electric and cases. It is divided into four parts. The first part introduces necessity and of progression rationalization of using electric. The second part describes the technique on rationalization of using electric with management of electric energy. The third part depicts domestic cases of rationalization on using of electric such as substation and motor. The last part also introduces foreign cases of rationalization on using of electric with measure of generator circuit, design of motor, design of lighting and design of other equipment.

  17. Book Selection, Collection Development, and Bounded Rationality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwartz, Charles A.

    1989-01-01

    Reviews previously proposed schemes of classical rationality in book selection, describes new approaches to rational choice behavior, and presents a model of book selection based on bounded rationality in a garbage can decision process. The role of tacit knowledge and symbolic content in the selection process are also discussed. (102 references)…

  18. Love and rationality: on some possible rational effects of love

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo Ortiz-Millán

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper I defend the idea that rather than disrupting rationality, as the common-sense conception has done it, love may actually help us to develop rational ways of thinking and acting. I make the case for romantic or erotic love, since this is the kind of love that is more frequently associated with irrationality in acting and thinking. I argue that this kind of love may make us develop epistemic and practical forms of rationality. Based on an analysis of its characteristic action tendencies, I argue that love may help us to develop an instrumental form of rationality in determining the best means to achieve the object of love. It may also narrow down the number of practical considerations that may help us to achieve our goals. Finally, love may generate rational ways of belief-formation by framing the parameters taken into account in perception and attention, and by bringing into light only a small portion of the epistemic information available. Love may make us perceive reality more acutely.Neste artigo defendo a idéia de que, em vez de perturbar a racionalidade, como a concepção do senso comum o faz, o amor pode, na verdade, ajudar-nos a desenvolver modos racionais de pensar e agir. Dou bons argumentos para o amor romântico ou erótico, uma vez que esse é o tipo de amor que é mais freqüentemente associado à irracionalidade no agir e no pensar. Argumento que esse tipo de amor pode fazer-nos desenvolver formas epistêmicas e práticas de racionalidade. Com base em uma análise de suas tendências características para a ação, argumento que o amor pode ajudar-nos a desenvolver uma forma instrumental de racionalidade para se determinar o melhor meio de atingir o objeto de amor. Ele também pode limitar o número de considerações práticas que podem ajudar-nos a atingir os nossos objetivos. Finalmente, o amor pode gerar modos racionais de formação de crenças ao estruturar os parâmetros considerados na percepção e na aten

  19. Variability: A Pernicious Hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noddings, Nel

    1992-01-01

    The hypothesis of greater male variability in test results is discussed in its historical context, and reasons feminists have objected to the hypothesis are considered. The hypothesis acquires political importance if it is considered that variability results from biological, rather than cultural, differences. (SLD)

  20. THE HICKSIAN RATIONAL CONSUMER

    OpenAIRE

    Manuel FERNÁNDEZ-GRELA

    2005-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to trace the evolution of the concept of ''rational consumer'' in Hicks's writings. After being one of the pioneers in the introduction of rationality assumptions about consumer behaviour in economic models, Hicks gradually developed a sceptical view about some of the uses to which those assumptions were put into. The focus of the paper is on continuity in Hicksian views, providing a picture of gradual changes in the long series of Hicks's works

  1. Sex ratios in the two Germanies: a test of the economic stress hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catalano, Ralph A

    2003-09-01

    Literature describing temporal variation in the secondary sex ratio among humans reports an association between population stressors and declines in the odds of male birth. Explanations of this phenomenon draw on reports that stressed females spontaneously abort male more than female fetuses, and that stressed males exhibit reduced sperm motility. This work has led to the argument that population stress induced by a declining economy reduces the human sex ratio. No direct test of this hypothesis appears in the literature. Here, a test is offered based on a comparison of the sex ratio in East and West Germany for the years 1946 to 1999. The theory suggests that the East German sex ratio should be lower in 1991, when East Germany's economy collapsed, than expected from its own history and from the sex ratio in West Germany. The hypothesis is tested using time-series modelling methods. The data support the hypothesis. The sex ratio in East Germany was at its lowest in 1991. This first direct test supports the hypothesis that economic decline reduces the human sex ratio.

  2. Coping More Effectively Through Rational Self-Counseling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogers, George W., Jr.

    1981-01-01

    Rational Self-Counseling, a variation of rational-emotive therapy, is a self-help therapeutic technique in which students are encouraged to be responsible for their own behavior and emotions. The primary function of self-counseling is to evaluate whether thoughts are rational. A list of questions which students might ask themselves is presented.…

  3. Freedom and Rationality : Rousseau on Citizenship

    OpenAIRE

    Salvat, Christophe

    2008-01-01

    This paper deals with Rousseau's idea of freedom in terms of rationality and deliberation. It gives support to Berlin's interpretation of the general will as a rational and objective will but dismisses the idea that Rousseau's theory necessarily leads to authoritarianism. The general will, publicly expressed by the law, may be defined as the rational and self-regarding will agents would have if put in an independent and objective state, i.e. the state of nature. The general and the particular...

  4. The rational maps Fλ(z)

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    It is proved that the rational maps in the family {z → zm +λ/zd : λ ∈ C\\{0}} for integers m, d ≥ 2 ... The problem of the existence of Herman rings of a rational map has been studied by. Lyubich in [9] ..... Surveys 41(4) (1986) 35–95. [10] Milnor J ...

  5. State-Dependent Decisions Cause Apparent Violations of Rationality in Animal Choice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schuck-Paim, Cynthia; Pompilio, Lorena

    2004-01-01

    Normative models of choice in economics and biology usually expect preferences to be consistent across contexts, or “rational” in economic language. Following a large body of literature reporting economically irrational behaviour in humans, breaches of rationality by animals have also been recently described. If proven systematic, these findings would challenge long-standing biological approaches to behavioural theorising, and suggest that cognitive processes similar to those claimed to cause irrationality in humans can also hinder optimality approaches to modelling animal preferences. Critical differences between human and animal experiments have not, however, been sufficiently acknowledged. While humans can be instructed conceptually about the choice problem, animals need to be trained by repeated exposure to all contingencies. This exposure often leads to differences in state between treatments, hence changing choices while preserving rationality. We report experiments with European starlings demonstrating that apparent breaches of rationality can result from state-dependence. We show that adding an inferior alternative to a choice set (a “decoy”) affects choices, an effect previously interpreted as indicating irrationality. However, these effects appear and disappear depending on whether state differences between choice contexts are present or not. These results open the possibility that some expressions of maladaptive behaviour are due to oversights in the migration of ideas between economics and biology, and suggest that key differences between human and nonhuman research must be recognised if ideas are to safely travel between these fields. PMID:15550984

  6. Network approach for decision making under risk—How do we choose among probabilistic options with the same expected value?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yi-Shin

    2018-01-01

    Conventional decision theory suggests that under risk, people choose option(s) by maximizing the expected utility. However, theories deal ambiguously with different options that have the same expected utility. A network approach is proposed by introducing ‘goal’ and ‘time’ factors to reduce the ambiguity in strategies for calculating the time-dependent probability of reaching a goal. As such, a mathematical foundation that explains the irrational behavior of choosing an option with a lower expected utility is revealed, which could imply that humans possess rationality in foresight. PMID:29702665

  7. Network approach for decision making under risk-How do we choose among probabilistic options with the same expected value?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Pan

    Full Text Available Conventional decision theory suggests that under risk, people choose option(s by maximizing the expected utility. However, theories deal ambiguously with different options that have the same expected utility. A network approach is proposed by introducing 'goal' and 'time' factors to reduce the ambiguity in strategies for calculating the time-dependent probability of reaching a goal. As such, a mathematical foundation that explains the irrational behavior of choosing an option with a lower expected utility is revealed, which could imply that humans possess rationality in foresight.

  8. Rationality and the Logic of Good Reasons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, Walter R.

    This paper contends that the rationality of the logic of good reasons is constituted in its use. To support this claim, the paper presents an analysis of the relationship between being reasonable and being rational. It then considers how following the logic of good reasons leads to rationality in the behavior of individuals and groups; the latter…

  9. Rationality, mental causation and social sciences

    OpenAIRE

    Mladenović Ivan

    2009-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of mental causation in the context of rational choice theory. The author defends psychological aspect of rational explanation against the challenge of contemporary reductive materialism.

  10. Physiopathological Hypothesis of Cellulite

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Godoy, José Maria Pereira; de Godoy, Maria de Fátima Guerreiro

    2009-01-01

    A series of questions are asked concerning this condition including as regards to its name, the consensus about the histopathological findings, physiological hypothesis and treatment of the disease. We established a hypothesis for cellulite and confirmed that the clinical response is compatible with this hypothesis. Hence this novel approach brings a modern physiological concept with physiopathologic basis and clinical proof of the hypothesis. We emphasize that the choice of patient, correct diagnosis of cellulite and the technique employed are fundamental to success. PMID:19756187

  11. Physiological responses to rational-emotive self-verbalizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Master, S; Gershman, L

    1983-12-01

    This study tested Albert Ellis' Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) theory which predicts that cognitive beliefs, not the stimulus situation, generate human emotions. According to RET, emotions created by rational beliefs are adaptive, while irrational beliefs result in an unadaptive anxiety level. Results demonstrated that at high levels of problem relevance there was (1) a significantly greater GSR in direct response to the stimulus situation, and also to irrational statements, than to rational and control statements, and (2) no significant difference between rational and neutral control statements. The authors argue that these results are more parsimoniously explained by conditioning theory than by RET theory.

  12. Psychometric evaluations of the efficacy expectations and Outcome Expectations for Exercise Scales in African American women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murrock, Carolyn J; Gary, Faye

    2014-01-01

    This secondary analysis tested the reliability and validity of the Self-Efficacy for Exercise (SEE) and the Outcome Expectations for Exercise (OEE) scales in 126 community dwelling, middle aged African American women. Social Cognitive Theory postulates self-efficacy is behavior age, gender and culture specific. Therefore, it is important to determine ifself-efficacy scales developed and tested in older Caucasian female adults are reliable and valid in middle aged, minority women. Cronbach's alpha and construct validity using hypothesis testing and confirmatory factor analysis supported the reliability and validity of the SEE and OEE scales in community dwelling, middle aged African American women.

  13. The discrepancy between emotional vs. rational estimates of body size, actual size, and ideal body ratings: theoretical and clinical implications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, J K; Dolce, J J

    1989-05-01

    Thirty-two asymptomatic college females were assessed on multiple aspects of body image. Subjects' estimation of the size of three body sites (waist, hips, thighs) was affected by instructional protocol. Emotional ratings, based on how they "felt" about their body, elicited ratings that were larger than actual and ideal size measures. Size ratings based on rational instructions were no different from actual sizes, but were larger than ideal ratings. There were no differences between actual and ideal sizes. The results are discussed with regard to methodological issues involved in body image research. In addition, a working hypothesis that differentiates affective/emotional from cognitive/rational aspects of body size estimation is offered to complement current theories of body image. Implications of the findings for the understanding of body image and its relationship to eating disorders are discussed.

  14. Rational inattention or rational overreaction?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Browning, Martin; Hansen, Lars Gårn; Smed, Sinne

    We investigate differences in how consumers of fish react to health information in the mass media. We specify a dynamic empirical model that allows for heterogeneity in all basic parameters of consumer behavior as well as in how consumers react to information. We estimate the model using a unique...... houshold panel tracking consumption, prices, news stories and media habits over 24 quarters. We fi nd that the consumers most likely to be ’rationally ignorant’ of health effects react more dramatically to health news than the consumers who most likely are well informed....

  15. Asymmetrically dominated choice problems, the isolation hypothesis and random incentive mechanisms.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James C Cox

    Full Text Available This paper presents an experimental study of the random incentive mechanisms which are a standard procedure in economic and psychological experiments. Random incentive mechanisms have several advantages but are incentive-compatible only if responses to the single tasks are independent. This is true if either the independence axiom of expected utility theory or the isolation hypothesis of prospect theory holds. We present a simple test of this in the context of choice under risk. In the baseline (one task treatment we observe risk behavior in a given choice problem. We show that by integrating a second, asymmetrically dominated choice problem in a random incentive mechanism risk behavior can be manipulated systematically. This implies that the isolation hypothesis is violated and the random incentive mechanism does not elicit true preferences in our example.

  16. Asymmetrically dominated choice problems, the isolation hypothesis and random incentive mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, James C; Sadiraj, Vjollca; Schmidt, Ulrich

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents an experimental study of the random incentive mechanisms which are a standard procedure in economic and psychological experiments. Random incentive mechanisms have several advantages but are incentive-compatible only if responses to the single tasks are independent. This is true if either the independence axiom of expected utility theory or the isolation hypothesis of prospect theory holds. We present a simple test of this in the context of choice under risk. In the baseline (one task) treatment we observe risk behavior in a given choice problem. We show that by integrating a second, asymmetrically dominated choice problem in a random incentive mechanism risk behavior can be manipulated systematically. This implies that the isolation hypothesis is violated and the random incentive mechanism does not elicit true preferences in our example.

  17. Rational choice, neuroeconomy and mixed emotions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Livet, Pierre

    2010-01-01

    Experimental psychology has shown differences between predictions of theory of decision and human choices. Emotions like regret can partly explain these differences. Neuroimagery used in combination with behavioural economics (neuroeconomics) has been used in order to try to disentangle the different emotional and rational factors (regret, rejoicing, reward, costs, uncertainty, trade-off between positive and negative aspects of different options). Emotions then appear as much more complex and mixed affective states than usually assumed. Not only might we feel a positive affect in punishing unfair partners, but mixed emotions can, for example, combine transmutation of previous anxiety into relief and elation by comparison with another less exciting option (elating relief). At the level of complexity of these mixed emotions—which we formally represent by comparisons between ‘unexpected utilities’ and expected ones—the main biases that Kahnemann and Tversky have shown can be explained. In spite of the complexity of these mixed emotions, some of these hypotheses might be partially tested by brain imagery. PMID:20026464

  18. Rational choice, neuroeconomy and mixed emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Livet, Pierre

    2010-01-27

    Experimental psychology has shown differences between predictions of theory of decision and human choices. Emotions like regret can partly explain these differences. Neuroimagery used in combination with behavioural economics (neuroeconomics) has been used in order to try to disentangle the different emotional and rational factors (regret, rejoicing, reward, costs, uncertainty, trade-off between positive and negative aspects of different options). Emotions then appear as much more complex and mixed affective states than usually assumed. Not only might we feel a positive affect in punishing unfair partners, but mixed emotions can, for example, combine transmutation of previous anxiety into relief and elation by comparison with another less exciting option (elating relief). At the level of complexity of these mixed emotions--which we formally represent by comparisons between 'unexpected utilities' and expected ones--the main biases that Kahnemann and Tversky have shown can be explained. In spite of the complexity of these mixed emotions, some of these hypotheses might be partially tested by brain imagery.

  19. Rationality, mental causation and social sciences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mladenović Ivan

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of mental causation in the context of rational choice theory. The author defends psychological aspect of rational explanation against the challenge of contemporary reductive materialism.

  20. Causes of decreased life expectancy over the life span in bipolar disorder

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kessing, Lars Vedel; Vradi, Eleni; McIntyre, Roger S

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Accelerated aging has been proposed as a mechanism explaining the increased prevalence of comorbid general medical illnesses in bipolar disorder. AIMS: To test the hypothesis that lost life years due to natural causes starts in early and mid-adulthood, supporting the hypothesis...... of accelerated aging. METHODS: Using individual data from nationwide registers of patient with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder we calculated remaining life expectancies before age 90 years for values of age 15, 25, 35…75 years among all individuals alive in year 2000. Further, we estimated the reduction in life...... expectancy due to natural causes (physical illnesses) and unnatural causes (suicide and accidents) in relation to age. RESULTS: A total of 22,635 patients with bipolar disorder were included in the study in addition to data from the entire Danish general population of 5.4 million people. At age 15 years...

  1. Pandemic ventilator rationing and appeals processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patrone, Daniel; Resnik, David

    2011-06-01

    In a severe influenza pandemic, hospitals will likely experience serious and widespread shortages of patient pulmonary ventilators and of staff qualified to operate them. Deciding who will receive access to mechanical ventilation will often determine who lives and who dies. This prospect raises an important question whether pandemic preparedness plans should include some process by which individuals affected by ventilator rationing would have the opportunity to appeal adverse decisions. However, the issue of appeals processes to ventilator rationing decisions has been largely neglected in state pandemic planning efforts. If we are to devise just and effective plans for coping with a severe influenza pandemic, more attention to the issue of appeals processes for pandemic ventilator rationing decisions is needed. Arguments for and against appeals processes are considered, and some suggestions are offered to help efforts at devising more rational pandemic preparedness plans.

  2. INTERNET AMONG STUDENTS – FROM MATHEMATICAL RATIONALITY TO UNREALITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tarik Bazdalić

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Today’s modern lifestyle and contemporary ways of working and gaining knowledge in schools and universities could not be imagined without high technology – the Internet. Simply said, internet entered all the pores of contemporary life in big style. If used rationally, internet can truly facilitate work in all spheres of modern man’s life. However, internet also has a dark side which comes to light if its excessive use becomes internet addiction, or internet infatuation. We reached this hypothesis through everyday contact with students in class as well as our colleagues teachers. In order to determine if and to what extent internet addiction among students exists, we applied a generic method, that is, we used survey as one of techniques of research. The survey was conducted in October of academic year 2017/2018. Sample of 79 students was selectedfrom first and fourth grades in Secondary school “Muhsin Rizvić” in Kakanj.

  3. RATIONAL APPROXIMATIONS TO GENERALIZED HYPERGEOMETRIC FUNCTIONS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Under weak restrictions on the various free parameters, general theorems for rational representations of the generalized hypergeometric functions...and certain Meijer G-functions are developed. Upon specialization, these theorems yield a sequency of rational approximations which converge to the

  4. Gaussian Hypothesis Testing and Quantum Illumination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilde, Mark M; Tomamichel, Marco; Lloyd, Seth; Berta, Mario

    2017-09-22

    Quantum hypothesis testing is one of the most basic tasks in quantum information theory and has fundamental links with quantum communication and estimation theory. In this paper, we establish a formula that characterizes the decay rate of the minimal type-II error probability in a quantum hypothesis test of two Gaussian states given a fixed constraint on the type-I error probability. This formula is a direct function of the mean vectors and covariance matrices of the quantum Gaussian states in question. We give an application to quantum illumination, which is the task of determining whether there is a low-reflectivity object embedded in a target region with a bright thermal-noise bath. For the asymmetric-error setting, we find that a quantum illumination transmitter can achieve an error probability exponent stronger than a coherent-state transmitter of the same mean photon number, and furthermore, that it requires far fewer trials to do so. This occurs when the background thermal noise is either low or bright, which means that a quantum advantage is even easier to witness than in the symmetric-error setting because it occurs for a larger range of parameters. Going forward from here, we expect our formula to have applications in settings well beyond those considered in this paper, especially to quantum communication tasks involving quantum Gaussian channels.

  5. Many faces of rationality: Implications of the great rationality debate for clinical decision-making

    OpenAIRE

    Djulbegovic, B.; Elqayam, Shira

    2017-01-01

    open access article Given that more than 30% of healthcare costs are wasted on inappropriate care, suboptimal care is increasingly connected to the quality of medical decisions. It has been argued that personal decisions are the leading cause of death, and 80% of healthcare expenditures result from physicians' decisions. Therefore, improving healthcare necessitates improving medical decisions, ie, making decisions (more) rational. Drawing on writings fromThe Great Rationality Debate from t...

  6. Rationalizing the Promotion of Non-Rational Behaviors in Organizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Peter A. C.; Sharma, Meenakshi

    2002-01-01

    Organizations must balance rational/technical efficiency and emotions. Action learning has been proven to be effective for developing emotional openness in the workplace. Facilitators of action learning should draw upon the disciplines of counseling, Gestalt, psychodynamics, and Eastern philosophies. (Contains 23 references.) (SK)

  7. Association of parental self-esteem and expectations with adolescents' anxiety about career and education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salimi, Seyed-Hossein; Mirzamani, Seyed-Mahmoud; Shahiri-Tabarestani, Mostafa

    2005-06-01

    The views of students in their last year of high school on the effects of parental expectations on students' anxiety about education and a career were studied with 214 boys and girls from six single-sex high schools. Participants were asked to reply to two questionnaires, the Educational and Career Anxiety Questionnaire and the Parent's Self-esteem and Expectancy Questionnaire as well as to respond to a personal informational form. Analysis yielded negative significance for relations between parental self-esteem and expectations and students' anxiety about education and career. Moreover, the study showed that adolescent girls had significantly higher self-esteem than boys. In addition, comparing adolescents' views by their fathers' education showed that fathers with high education were more likely to have children with high parental self-esteem and rational expectations and lower anxiety about education and careers than those whose fathers had only primary education.

  8. Generalized NLS hierarchies from rational W algebras

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toppan, F.

    1993-11-01

    Finite rational W algebras are very natural structures appearing in coset constructions when a Kac-Moody subalgebra is factored out. The problem of relating these algebras to integrable hierarchies of equations is studied by showing how to associate to a rational W algebra its corresponding hierarchy. Two examples are worked out, the sl(2)/U(1) coset, leading to the Non-Linear Schroedinger hierarchy, and the U(1) coset of the Polyakov-Bershadsky W algebra, leading to a 3-field representation of the KP hierarchy already encountered in the literature. In such examples a rational algebra appears as algebra of constraints when reducing a KP hierarchy to a finite field representation. This fact arises the natural question whether rational algebras are always associated to such reductions and whether a classification of rational algebras can lead to a classification of the integrable hierarchies. (author). 19 refs

  9. The DTIC Review. Volume 1, Number 1: Nuclear Proliferation and Deterrence in a Changing Political World

    Science.gov (United States)

    1995-08-01

    Mathematical Expectation" by David Schmeidler and Peter Wakker, "Expected Utility Hypothesis" by Mark Machina, "Rational Behavior" by Amartya Sen ...other regional adversaries are not secure and, hence, are highly sen - sitive to this form of pressure. The question is whether such threats can be used...Warsaw Pact." Moreover, conventional military capabilities are constantly changing through advances in armor, avionics, sen - sors, munitions. etc

  10. An empirical analysis of price expectations formation: Evidence from the crude oil reserves acquisitions market

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vielhaber, L.M.

    1991-01-01

    Reasons for the recent scant empirical attention to price expectations theory are twofold. First, except for futures markets and the occasional expectations survey, price expectations are rarely documented. Second, results of empirical tests of rational expectations are fundamentally flawed by the subjective input of the researcher. Subjectivity taints the results of the test, first, in the form of model specification and, second, in the form of the identification of the relevant information set. This study addresses each of these shortcomings. First, crude oil price expectations are recovered in the market for reserves by using a standard engineering model commonly used in reserves evaluation. Second, the crude oil futures market is used to estimate an index of information. This index circumvents the need to subjectively identify the elements of the information set, removing a key source of subjective input. The results show that agents involved in the crude oil reserves acquisitions market form expectations of futures prices in a way that does not conform with the adaptive expectations model

  11. Between hope and fear: patient's expectations prior to pelvic organ prolapse surgery

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lawndy, S.S.S.; Withagen, M.I.J.; Kluivers, K.B.; Vierhout, M.E.

    2011-01-01

    INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: The aim of our study was to analyse the patient's expectations (fears and goals (hopes)) in women who are scheduled for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) surgery. METHODS: All consecutive women awaiting surgery for POP in a tertiary urogynaecological centre were included. A

  12. Expected value information improves financial risk taking across the adult life span.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samanez-Larkin, Gregory R; Wagner, Anthony D; Knutson, Brian

    2011-04-01

    When making decisions, individuals must often compensate for cognitive limitations, particularly in the face of advanced age. Recent findings suggest that age-related variability in striatal activity may increase financial risk-taking mistakes in older adults. In two studies, we sought to further characterize neural contributions to optimal financial risk taking and to determine whether decision aids could improve financial risk taking. In Study 1, neuroimaging analyses revealed that individuals whose mesolimbic activation correlated with the expected value estimates of a rational actor made more optimal financial decisions. In Study 2, presentation of expected value information improved decision making in both younger and older adults, but the addition of a distracting secondary task had little impact on decision quality. Remarkably, provision of expected value information improved the performance of older adults to match that of younger adults at baseline. These findings are consistent with the notion that mesolimbic circuits play a critical role in optimal choice, and imply that providing simplified information about expected value may improve financial risk taking across the adult life span.

  13. Normative and descriptive rationality: from nature to artifice and back

    Science.gov (United States)

    Besold, T. R.; Uckelman, S. L.

    2018-03-01

    Rationality plays a key role in both the study of human reasoning and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Certain notions of rationality have been adopted in AI as guides for the development of intelligent machines and these notions have been given a normative function. The notions of rationality in AI are often taken to be closely related to conceptions of rationality in human contexts. In this paper, we argue that the normative role of rationality differs in the human and artificial contexts. While rationality in human-focused fields of study is normative, prescribing how humans ought to reason, the normative conception in AI is built on a notion of human rationality which is descriptive, not normative, in the human context, as AI aims at building agents which reason as humans do. In order to make this point, we review prominent notions of rationality used in psychology, cognitive science, and (the history of) philosophy, as well as in AI, and discuss some factors that contributed to rationality being assigned the differing normative statuses in the differing fields of study. We argue that while 'rationality' is a normative notion in both AI and in human reasoning, the normativity of the AI conception of 'rationality' is grounded in a descriptive account of human rationality.

  14. Brain systems underlying encounter expectancy bias in spider phobia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aue, Tatjana; Hoeppli, Marie-Eve; Piguet, Camille; Hofstetter, Christoph; Rieger, Sebastian W; Vuilleumier, Patrik

    2015-06-01

    Spider-phobic individuals are characterized by exaggerated expectancies to be faced with spiders (so-called encounter expectancy bias). Whereas phobic responses have been linked to brain systems mediating fear, little is known about how the recruitment of these systems relates to exaggerated expectancies of threat. We used fMRI to examine spider-phobic and control participants while they imagined visiting different locations in a forest after having received background information about the likelihood of encountering different animals (spiders, snakes, and birds) at these locations. Critically, imagined encounter expectancies modulated brain responses differently in phobics as compared with controls. Phobics displayed stronger negative modulation of activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and visual cortex by encounter expectancies for spiders, relative to snakes or birds (within-participants analysis); these effects were not seen in controls. Between-participants correlation analyses within the phobic group further corroborated the hypothesis that these phobia-specific modulations may underlie irrationality in encounter expectancies (deviations of encounter expectancies from objective background information) in spider phobia; the greater the negative modulation a phobic participant displayed in the lateral prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and visual cortex, the stronger was her bias in encounter expectancies for spiders. Interestingly, irrationality in expectancies reflected in frontal areas relied on right rather than left hemispheric deactivations. Our data accord with the idea that expectancy biases in spider phobia may reflect deficiencies in cognitive control and contextual integration that are mediated by right frontal and parietal areas.

  15. Neurophysiology and Rationality in Political Thinking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peterson, Steven A.

    Research both in cognitive psychology and psychobiology suggests that political behavior is often less rational than individuals believe it to be. Information processing, memory, and decision making are interlinked processes. Studies in cognitive psychology reveal that even though decision making requires rationality, individuals often adopt…

  16. Positroids Induced by Rational Dyck Paths

    OpenAIRE

    Gotti, Felix

    2017-01-01

    A rational Dyck path of type $(m,d)$ is an increasing unit-step lattice path from $(0,0)$ to $(m,d) \\in \\mathbb{Z}^2$ that never goes above the diagonal line $y = (d/m)x$. On the other hand, a positroid of rank $d$ on the ground set $[d+m]$ is a special type of matroid coming from the totally nonnegative Grassmannian. In this paper we describe how to naturally assign a rank $d$ positroid on the ground set $[d+m]$, which we name rational Dyck positroid, to each rational Dyck path of type $(m,d...

  17. Rationalization and the Role of the School Counselor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Arthur J.

    1995-01-01

    Examines rationalization in counselors' interactions with students, parents, and teachers--provides examples of each kind of interaction. Describes the dynamics of rationalization in the schools and outlines interventions that may be used with students, parents, and teachers. Also explores counselors' use of rationalization and gives examples of…

  18. Rationality in the Cryptographic Model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hubacek, Pavel

    This thesis presents results in the field of rational cryptography. In the first part we study the use of cryptographic protocols to avoid mediation and binding commitment when implementing game theoretic equilibrium concepts. First, we concentrate on the limits of cryptographic cheap talk...... to implement correlated equilibria of two-player strategic games in a sequentially rational way. We show that there exist two-player games for which no cryptographic protocol can implement the mediator in a sequentially rational way; that is, without introducing empty threats. In the context of computational...... with appealing economic applications. Our implementation puts forward a notion of cryptographically blinded games that exploits the power of encryption to selectively restrict the information available to players about sampled action profiles, such that these desirable equilibria can be stably achieved...

  19. A quantitative approach to choose among multiple mutually exclusive decisions: comparative expected utility theory

    OpenAIRE

    Zhu, Pengyu

    2018-01-01

    Mutually exclusive decisions have been studied for decades. Many well-known decision theories have been defined to help people either to make rational decisions or to interpret people's behaviors, such as expected utility theory, regret theory, prospect theory, and so on. The paper argues that none of these decision theories are designed to provide practical, normative and quantitative approaches for multiple mutually exclusive decisions. Different decision-makers should naturally make differ...

  20. Proposed standby gasoline rationing plan: public comments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1978-12-01

    Under the proposed plan, DOE would allocate ration rights (rights to purchase gasoline) to owners of registered vehicles. All vehicles in a given class would receive the same entitlement. Essential services would receive supplemental allotments of ration rights as pririty firms. Once every 3 months, ration checks would be mailed out to all vehicle registrants, allotting them a certain amount of ration rights. These checks would then be cashed at Coupon Issuance Points, where the bearer would receive ration coupons to be used at gasoline stations. Large users of gasoline could deposit their allotment checks in accounts at ration banks. Coupons or checks would be freely exchangeable in a white market. A certain percentage of the gasoline supply would be set aside in reserve for use in national emergencies. When the plan was published in the Federal Register, public comments were requested. DOE also solicited comments from private citizens, public interest groups, business and industry, state and local governments. A total of 1126 responses were reveived and these are analyzed in this paper. The second part of the report describes how the comments were classified, and gives a statistical breakdown of the major responses. The last section is a discussion and analysis of theissue raised by commenting agencies, firms, associations, and individuals. (MCW)

  1. What to expect from an evolutionary hypothesis for a human disease: The case of type 2 diabetes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watve, Milind; Diwekar-Joshi, Manawa

    2016-10-01

    Evolutionary medicine has a promise to bring in a conceptual revolution in medicine. However, as yet the field does not have the same theoretical rigour as that of many other fields in evolutionary studies. We discuss here with reference to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) what role an evolutionary hypothesis should play in the development of thinking in medicine. Starting with the thrifty gene hypothesis, evolutionary thinking in T2DM has undergone several transitions, modifications and refinements of the thrift family of hypotheses. In addition alternative hypotheses independent of thrift are also suggested. However, most hypotheses look at partial pictures; make selective use of supportive data ignoring inconvenient truths. Most hypotheses look at a superficial picture and avoid getting into the intricacies of underlying molecular, neuronal and physiological processes. Very few hypotheses have suggested clinical implications and none of them have been tested with randomized clinical trials. In the meanwhile the concepts in the pathophysiology of T2DM are undergoing radical changes and evolutionary hypotheses need to take them into account. We suggest an approach and a set of criteria to evaluate the relative merits of the alternative hypotheses. A number of hypotheses are likely to fail when critically evaluated against these criteria. It is possible that more than one selective process are at work in the evolution of propensity to T2DM, but the intercompatibility of the alternative selective forces and their relative contribution needs to be examined. The approach we describe could potentially lead to a sound evolutionary theory that is clinically useful and testable by randomized controlled clinical trials. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  2. Privacy-Enhancing Auctions Using Rational Cryptography

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Miltersen, Peter Bro; Nielsen, Jesper Buus; Triandopoulos, Nikolaos

    2009-01-01

    show how to use rational cryptography to approximately implement any given ex interim individually strictly rational equilibrium of such an auction without a trusted mediator through a cryptographic protocol that uses only point-to-point authenticated channels between the players. By “ex interim...

  3. TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS THAT METHANOL MASER RINGS TRACE CIRCUMSTELLAR DISKS: HIGH-RESOLUTION NEAR-INFRARED AND MID-INFRARED IMAGING

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De Buizer, James M.; Bartkiewicz, Anna; Szymczak, Marian

    2012-01-01

    Milliarcsecond very long baseline interferometry maps of regions containing 6.7 GHz methanol maser emission have lead to the recent discovery of ring-like distributions of maser spots and the plausible hypothesis that they may be tracing circumstellar disks around forming high-mass stars. We aimed to test this hypothesis by imaging these regions in the near- and mid-infrared at high spatial resolution and compare the observed emission to the expected infrared morphologies as inferred from the geometries of the maser rings. In the near-infrared we used the Gemini North adaptive optics system of ALTAIR/NIRI, while in the mid-infrared we used the combination of the Gemini South instrument T-ReCS and super-resolution techniques. Resultant images had a resolution of ∼150 mas in both the near-infrared and mid-infrared. We discuss the expected distribution of circumstellar material around young and massive accreting (proto)stars and what infrared emission geometries would be expected for the different maser ring orientations under the assumption that the masers are coming from within circumstellar disks. Based upon the observed infrared emission geometries for the four targets in our sample and the results of spectral energy distribution modeling of the massive young stellar objects associated with the maser rings, we do not find compelling evidence in support of the hypothesis that methanol masers rings reside in circumstellar disks.

  4. An Alternative to the Carlson-Parkin Method for the Quantification of Qualitative Inflation Expectations: Evidence from the Ifo World Economic Survey

    OpenAIRE

    Henzel, Steffen; Wollmershäuser, Timo

    2005-01-01

    This paper presents a new methodology for the quantification of qualitative survey data. Traditional conversion methods, such as the probability approach of Carlson and Parkin (1975) or the time-varying parameters model of Seitz (1988), require very restrictive assumptions concerning the expectations formation process of survey respondents. Above all, the unbiasedness of expectations, which is a necessary condition for rationality, is imposed. Our approach avoids these assumptions. The novelt...

  5. Principles of Economic Rationality in Mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rivalan, Marion; Winter, York; Nachev, Vladislav

    2017-12-12

    Humans and non-human animals frequently violate principles of economic rationality, such as transitivity, independence of irrelevant alternatives, and regularity. The conditions that lead to these violations are not completely understood. Here we report a study on mice tested in automated home-cage setups using rewards of drinking water. Rewards differed in one of two dimensions, volume or probability. Our results suggest that mouse choice conforms to the principles of economic rationality for options that differ along a single reward dimension. A psychometric analysis of mouse choices further revealed that mice responded more strongly to differences in probability than to differences in volume, despite equivalence in return rates. This study also demonstrates the synergistic effect between the principles of economic rationality and psychophysics in making quantitative predictions about choices of healthy laboratory mice. This opens up new possibilities for the analyses of multi-dimensional choice and the use of mice with cognitive impairments that may violate economic rationality.

  6. A note on effects of rational bubble on portfolios

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Chan; Nie, Pu-yan

    2018-02-01

    In general, demand increases in wealth and decreases in price in microeconomics. We thereby propose a completely different perspective. By establishing expected utility function of investors, this article introduces one rational bubble asset and one bubble free asset in portfolios and focuses on the effects of bubble on investment portfolios from wealth and price perspectives. All conclusions are obtained by theoretical analysis with microeconomics theory. We argue that inferior goods and Giffen behavior can occur for the bubble free asset in microeconomic fields. The results can help investors to recognize bubble assets and bubble free assets more scientifically. Both bubble and bubble free assets can be inferior goods under some conditions, so we cannot to say which asset better than the other one absolutely.

  7. Decision Making: Rational, Nonrational, and Irrational.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simon, Herbert A.

    1993-01-01

    Describes the current state of knowledge about human decision-making and problem-solving processes, explaining recent developments and their implications for management and management training. Rational goal-setting is the key to effective decision making and accomplishment. Bounded rationality is a realistic orientation, because the world is too…

  8. Asymmetrically Dominated Choice Problems, the Isolation Hypothesis and Random Incentive Mechanisms

    OpenAIRE

    Cox, James C.; Sadiraj, Vjollca; Schmidt, Ulrich

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents an experimental study of the random incentive mechanisms which are a standard procedure in economic and psychological experiments. Random incentive mechanisms have several advantages but are incentive-compatible only if responses to the single tasks are independent. This is true if either the independence axiom of expected utility theory or the isolation hypothesis of prospect theory holds. We present a simple test of this in the context of choice under risk. In the baseli...

  9. The delphic oracle and the ethylene-intoxication hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foster, J; Lehoux, D

    2007-01-01

    An interdisciplinary team of scientists--including an archeologist, a geologist, a chemist, and a toxicologist--has argued that ethylene intoxication was the probable cause of the High Priestess of Delphi's divinatory (mantic) trances. The claim that the High Priestess of Delphi entered a mantic state because of ethylene intoxication enjoyed widespread reception in specialist academic journals, science magazines, and newspapers. This article uses a similar interdisciplinary approach to show that this hypothesis is implausible since it is based on problematic scientific and textual evidence, as well as a fallacious argument. The main issue raised by this counterargument is not that a particular scientific hypothesis or conjecture turned out to be false. (This is expected in scientific investigation.) Rather, the main issue is that it was a positivist disposition that originally led readers to associate the evidence presented in such a way that it seemed to point to the conclusion, even when the evidence did not support the conclusion. We conclude by observing that positivist dispositions can lead to the acceptance of claims because they have a scientific form, not because they are grounded in robust evidence and sound argument.

  10. Simplifications of rational matrices by using UML

    OpenAIRE

    Tasić, Milan B.; Stanimirović, Ivan P.

    2013-01-01

    The simplification process on rational matrices consists of simplifying each entry represented by a rational function. We follow the classic approach of dividing the numerator and denominator polynomials by their common GCD polynomial, and provide the activity diagram in UML for this process. A rational matrix representation as the quotient of a polynomial matrix and a polynomial is also discussed here and illustrated via activity diagrams. Also, a class diagram giving the links between the c...

  11. Beyond the income inequality hypothesis and human health: a worldwide exploration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Idrovo, Alvaro J; Ruiz-Rodríguez, Myriam; Manzano-Patiño, Abigail P

    2010-08-01

    To analyze whether the relationship between income inequality and human health is mediated through social capital, and whether political regime determines differences in income inequality and social capital among countries. Path analysis of cross sectional ecological data from 110 countries. Life expectancy at birth was the outcome variable, and income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient), social capital (measured by the Corruption Perceptions Index or generalized trust), and political regime (measured by the Index of Freedom) were the predictor variables. Corruption Perceptions Index (an indirect indicator of social capital) was used to include more developing countries in the analysis. The correlation between Gini coefficient and predictor variables was calculated using Spearman's coefficients. The path analysis was designed to assess the effect of income inequality, social capital proxies and political regime on life expectancy. The path coefficients suggest that income inequality has a greater direct effect on life expectancy at birth than through social capital. Political regime acts on life expectancy at birth through income inequality. Income inequality and social capital have direct effects on life expectancy at birth. The "class/welfare regime model" can be useful for understanding social and health inequalities between countries, whereas the "income inequality hypothesis" which is only a partial approach is especially useful for analyzing differences within countries.

  12. Variation in the Gender Gap in Inactive and Active Life Expectancy by the Definition of Inactivity Among Older Adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malhotra, Rahul; Chan, Angelique; Ajay, Shweta; Ma, Stefan; Saito, Yasuhiko

    2016-10-01

    To assess variation in gender gap (female-male) in inactive life expectancy (IALE) and active life expectancy (ALE) by definition of inactivity. Inactivity, among older Singaporeans, was defined as follows: Scenario 1-health-related difficulty in activities of daily living (ADLs); Scenario 2-health-related difficulty in ADLs/instrumental ADLs (IADLs); Scenario 3-health-related difficulty in ADLs/IADLs or non-health-related non-performance of IADLs. Multistate life tables computed IALE and ALE at age 60, testing three hypotheses: In all scenarios, life expectancy, absolute and relative IALE, and absolute ALE are higher for females (Hypothesis 1 [H1]); gender gap in absolute and relative IALE expands, and in absolute ALE, it contracts in Scenario 2 versus 1 (Hypothesis 2 [H2]); gender gap in absolute and relative IALE decreases, and in absolute ALE, it increases in Scenario 3 versus 2 (Hypothesis 3 [H3]). H1 was supported in Scenarios 1 and 3 but not Scenario 2. Both H2 and H3 were supported. Definition of inactivity influences gender gap in IALE and ALE. © The Author(s) 2016.

  13. Information-Theoretic Bounded Rationality and ε-Optimality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel A. Braun

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Bounded rationality concerns the study of decision makers with limited information processing resources. Previously, the free energy difference functional has been suggested to model bounded rational decision making, as it provides a natural trade-off between an energy or utility function that is to be optimized and information processing costs that are measured by entropic search costs. The main question of this article is how the information-theoretic free energy model relates to simple ε-optimality models of bounded rational decision making, where the decision maker is satisfied with any action in an ε-neighborhood of the optimal utility. We find that the stochastic policies that optimize the free energy trade-off comply with the notion of ε-optimality. Moreover, this optimality criterion even holds when the environment is adversarial. We conclude that the study of bounded rationality based on ε-optimality criteria that abstract away from the particulars of the information processing constraints is compatible with the information-theoretic free energy model of bounded rationality.

  14. Rationing critical care medicine: recent studies and current trends.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, Nicholas S

    2005-12-01

    This paper reviews the literature on the rationing of critical care resources. Although much has been written about the concept of rationing, there have been few scientific studies as to its prevalence. A recent meta-analysis reviewed all previously published studies on rationing access to intensive care units but little is known about practices within the intensive care unit. Much literature in the past few years has focused on the growing use of critical care resources and projections for the future. Several authors suggest there may be a crisis in financial or personnel resources if some rationing does not take place. Other papers have argued that the methods of rationing critical care previously proposed, such as limiting the care of dying patients or using cost-effectiveness analysis to determine care, may not be effective or viewed as ethical by some. Finally, several recent papers review how critical care is practiced and allocated in India and Asian countries that already practice open rationing in their health care systems. There is currently no published evidence that overt rationing is taking place in critical care medicine. There is growing evidence that in the future, the need for critical care may outstrip financial resources unless some form of rationing takes place. It is also clear from the literature that choosing how to ration critical care will be a difficult task.

  15. Are smokers rational addicts? Empirical evidence from the Indonesian Family Life Survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thabrany Hasbullah

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Indonesia is one of the largest consumers of tobacco in the world, however there has been little work done on the economics addiction of tobacco. This study provides an empirical test of a rational addiction (henceforth RA hypothesis of cigarette demand in Indonesia. Methods Four estimators (OLS, 2SLS, GMM, and System-GMM were explored to test the RA hypothesis. The author adopted several diagnostics tests to select the best estimator to overcome econometric problems faced in presence of the past and future cigarette consumption (suspected endogenous variables. A short-run and long-run price elasticities of cigarettes demand was then calculated. The model was applied to individuals pooled data derived from three-waves a panel of the Indonesian Family Life Survey spanning the period 1993-2000. Results The past cigarette consumption coefficients turned out to be a positive with a p-value Conclusions Health policymakers should redesign current public health campaign against cigarette smoking in the country. Given the demand for cigarettes to be more prices sensitive for the long run (and female than the short run (and male, an increase in the price of cigarettes could lead to a significant fall in cigarette consumption in the long run rather than as a constant source of government revenue.

  16. Decision rules and group rationality: cognitive gain or standstill?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petru Lucian Curşeu

    Full Text Available Recent research in group cognition points towards the existence of collective cognitive competencies that transcend individual group members' cognitive competencies. Since rationality is a key cognitive competence for group decision making, and group cognition emerges from the coordination of individual cognition during social interactions, this study tests the extent to which collaborative and consultative decision rules impact the emergence of group rationality. Using a set of decision tasks adapted from the heuristics and biases literature, we evaluate rationality as the extent to which individual choices are aligned with a normative ideal. We further operationalize group rationality as cognitive synergy (the extent to which collective rationality exceeds average or best individual rationality in the group, and we test the effect of collaborative and consultative decision rules in a sample of 176 groups. Our results show that the collaborative decision rule has superior synergic effects as compared to the consultative decision rule. The ninety one groups working in a collaborative fashion made more rational choices (above and beyond the average rationality of their members than the eighty five groups working in a consultative fashion. Moreover, the groups using a collaborative decision rule were closer to the rationality of their best member than groups using consultative decision rules. Nevertheless, on average groups did not outperformed their best member. Therefore, our results reveal how decision rules prescribing interpersonal interactions impact on the emergence of collective cognitive competencies. They also open potential venues for further research on the emergence of collective rationality in human decision-making groups.

  17. Decision rules and group rationality: cognitive gain or standstill?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curşeu, Petru Lucian; Jansen, Rob J G; Chappin, Maryse M H

    2013-01-01

    Recent research in group cognition points towards the existence of collective cognitive competencies that transcend individual group members' cognitive competencies. Since rationality is a key cognitive competence for group decision making, and group cognition emerges from the coordination of individual cognition during social interactions, this study tests the extent to which collaborative and consultative decision rules impact the emergence of group rationality. Using a set of decision tasks adapted from the heuristics and biases literature, we evaluate rationality as the extent to which individual choices are aligned with a normative ideal. We further operationalize group rationality as cognitive synergy (the extent to which collective rationality exceeds average or best individual rationality in the group), and we test the effect of collaborative and consultative decision rules in a sample of 176 groups. Our results show that the collaborative decision rule has superior synergic effects as compared to the consultative decision rule. The ninety one groups working in a collaborative fashion made more rational choices (above and beyond the average rationality of their members) than the eighty five groups working in a consultative fashion. Moreover, the groups using a collaborative decision rule were closer to the rationality of their best member than groups using consultative decision rules. Nevertheless, on average groups did not outperformed their best member. Therefore, our results reveal how decision rules prescribing interpersonal interactions impact on the emergence of collective cognitive competencies. They also open potential venues for further research on the emergence of collective rationality in human decision-making groups.

  18. Anxiety reduction through group instruction in rational therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maxwell, J W; Wilkerson, J

    1982-09-01

    This study investigated the effects of group Rational Therapy in promoting rational thinking and self-enhancing emotions among 24 college students. Each subject was administered the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire as a pre- and post-test measurement. Results reveal that some aspects of personality are affected by Rational Therapy group programs while others are not.

  19. Thinking about acting logical foundations for rational decision making

    CERN Document Server

    Pollock, John L

    2006-01-01

    John Pollock aims to construct a theory of rational decision making for real agents--not ideal agents. Real agents have limited cognitive powers, but traditional theories of rationality have applied only to idealized agents that lack such constraints. Pollock argues that theories of ideal rationality are largely irrelevant to the decision making of real agents. Thinking about Acting aims to provide a theory of ""real rationality.""

  20. Choice, internal consistency, and rationality

    OpenAIRE

    Aditi Bhattacharyya; Prasanta K. Pattanaik; Yongsheng Xu

    2010-01-01

    The classical theory of rational choice is built on several important internal consistency conditions. In recent years, the reasonableness of those internal consistency conditions has been questioned and criticized, and several responses to accommodate such criticisms have been proposed in the literature. This paper develops a general framework to accommodate the issues raised by the criticisms of classical rational choice theory, and examines the broad impact of these criticisms from both no...

  1. Management between Rationality and Irrationality

    OpenAIRE

    Cene Bavec

    2012-01-01

    In the paper, we discuss theoretical and practical aspects of management and its rational and irrational behavior in the light of traditional management theories and contemporary social theories and theories of complexity. We exposed differences between middle and top management, where rationality is ascribed mainly to middle management, while top management often acts on seemingly irrational way. For the part of this irrationality, we cannot blame management because it originates from the na...

  2. Self-Reported Rationing Behavior Among US Physicians: A National Survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheeler, Robert D; Mundell, Tim; Hurst, Samia A; Goold, Susan Dorr; Thorsteinsdottir, Bjorg; Tilburt, Jon C; Danis, Marion

    2016-12-01

    Rationing is a controversial topic among US physicians. Understanding their attitudes and behaviors around rationing may be essential to a more open and sensible professional discourse on this important but controversial topic. To describe rationing behavior and associated factors among US physicians. Survey mailed to US physicians in 2012 to evaluate self-reported rationing behavior and variables related to this behavior. US physicians across a full spectrum of practice settings. A total of 2541 respondents, representing 65.6 % of the original mailing list of 3872 US addresses. The study was a cross-sectional analysis of physician attitudes and self-reported behaviors, with neutral language representations of the behaviors as well as an embedded experiment to test the influence of the word "ration" on perceived responsibility. Overall percentage of respondents reporting rationing behavior in various contexts and assessment of attitudes toward rationing. In total, 1348 respondents (53.1 %) reported having personally refrained within the past 6 months from using specific clinical services that would have provided the best patient care, because of health system cost. Prescription drugs (n = 1073 [48.3 %]) and magnetic resonance imaging (n = 922 [44.5 %]) were most frequently rationed. Surgical and procedural specialists were less likely to report rationing behavior (adjusted odds ratio [OR] [95 % CI], 0.8 [0.9-0.9] and 0.5 [0.4-0.6], respectively) compared to primary care. Compared with small or solo practices, those in medical school settings reported less rationing (adjusted OR [95 % CI], 0.4 [0.2-0.7]). Physicians who self-identified as very or somewhat liberal were significantly less likely to report rationing (adjusted OR [95 % CI], 0.7 [0.6-0.9]) than those self-reporting being very or somewhat conservative. A more positive opinion about rationing tended to align with greater odds of rationing. More than one-half of respondents engaged in

  3. The Income Inequality Hypothesis Revisited : Assessing the Hypothesis Using Four Methodological Approaches

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kragten, N.; Rözer, J.

    The income inequality hypothesis states that income inequality has a negative effect on individual’s health, partially because it reduces social trust. This article aims to critically assess the income inequality hypothesis by comparing several analytical strategies, namely OLS regression,

  4. Rational-driver approximation in car-following theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lubashevsky, Ihor; Wagner, Peter; Mahnke, Reinhard

    2003-11-01

    The problem of a car following a lead car driven with constant velocity is considered. To derive the governing equations for the following car dynamics a cost functional is constructed. This functional ranks the outcomes of different driving strategies, which applies to fairly general properties of the driver behavior. Assuming rational-driver behavior, the existence of the Nash equilibrium is proved. Rational driving is defined by supposing that a driver corrects continuously the car motion to follow the optimal path minimizing the cost functional. The corresponding car-following dynamics is described quite generally by a boundary value problem based on the obtained extremal equations. Linearization of these equations around the stationary state results in a generalization of the widely used optimal velocity model. Under certain conditions (the “dense traffic” limit) the rational car dynamics comprises two stages, fast and slow. During the fast stage a driver eliminates the velocity difference between the cars, the subsequent slow stage optimizes the headway. In the dense traffic limit an effective Hamiltonian description is constructed. This allows a more detailed nonlinear analysis. Finally, the differences between rational and bounded rational driver behavior are discussed. The latter, in particular, justifies some basic assumptions used recently by the authors to construct a car-following model lying beyond the frameworks of rationality.

  5. Rationality and ritual

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wynne, B.

    1982-01-01

    The book concerns the Windscale Public Inquiry, held to investigate the application by British Nuclear Fuels to build a 1200 tonne per year thermal oxide reprocessing plant (THORP) for spent nuclear fuels from Britain and overseas. The subject is discussed under the headings: introduction (international dimensions; the Windscale Inquiry; conflict resolution and social drama; public debate and the sociology of knowledge); the decision-making legacy; oxide reprocessing - the background; the public inquiry tradition - a comparative perspective; the emergence of THORP from a private to a public issue (local and national planning politics); the process and impact of the Inquiry (opposition groups); judicial rationality, expert conflict, and political authority); the rationality and politics of analysis (proliferation; radiation risks; relative risks; the Ravenglass issue; discharge targets; general radiation protection arrangements); conclusion. (U.K.)

  6. Rational accountability and rational autonomy in academic practice: An extended case study of the communicative ethic of interdisciplinary science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robertson, Susan Margaret

    The dissertation investigates the interaction of rational accountability and rational autonomy in interdisciplinary science within the lifeworld of the university. It focuses on the cultural, social and motivational forces that university researchers draw on, and develop, to constitute and regulate interdisciplinary science. Findings are analyzed within an applied critical social theory framework that attends to the interaction of instrumental and communicative rational action within the public spaces that constitute the lifeworld of the university as a public sphere in society. The research raises questions of how academics practice interdisciplinary science and how these practices relate to the reproduction of the regulative ideal of the university as a community that practices public reason. The conceptual framework informing the research is Habermas' (1984) theory of communicative action. Using Burawoy's (1991) extended case study method as an operational strategy, two modes of constituting and regulating interdisciplinary science were found. Instrumental rational modes dominated in social contexts of interdisciplinary science where consensus on the normative goals and purposes of rational academic action were pre-existing and pre-supposed by participants. Communicative rational modes dominated in social contexts of interdisciplinary science where the normative goals and purposes of rational academic action entered a contested domain. Endorsements for interdisciplinary science policies are coinciding with demands for increased accountability and relevance of Canada's university system. At the same time that the university system must respond to external demands, it must reproduce itself as a public institution open to the discursive redemption of factual and normative validity claims. The study found that academics participate in, but also contest the instrumental regulation of academic inquiry and conduct by using their constitutional autonomy and freedom to

  7. Parent Expectations Mediate Outcomes for Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirby, Anne V

    2016-05-01

    Understanding the complex relationships among factors that may predict the outcomes of young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is of utmost importance given the increasing population undergoing and anticipating the transition to adulthood. With a sample of youth with ASD (n = 1170) from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2, structural equation modeling techniques were used to test parent expectations as a mediator of young adult outcomes (i.e., employment, residential independence, social participation) in a longitudinal analysis. The mediation hypothesis was confirmed; family background and functional performance variables significantly predicted parent expectations which significantly predicted outcomes. These findings add context to previous studies examining the role of parent expectations on young adult outcomes and inform directions for family-centered interventions and future research.

  8. Immunological Monitoring to Rationally Guide AAV Gene Therapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cedrik Michael Britten

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Recent successes with adeno-associated virus (AAV-based gene therapies fuel the hope for new treatments for hereditary diseases. Pre-existing as well as therapy-induced immune responses against both AAV and the encoded transgenes have been described and may impact on safety and efficacy of gene-therapy approaches. Consequently, monitoring of vector- and transgene-specific immunity is mandated and may rationally guide clinical development. Next to the humoral immune response, the cellular response is central in our understanding of the host reaction in gene therapy. But in contrast to the monitoring of antibodies, which has matured over many decades, sensitive and robust monitoring of T cells is a relatively new development. To make cellular immune assessments fit for purpose, investigators need to know, control and report the critical assay variables that influence the results. In addition, the quality of immune assays needs to be continuously adjusted to allow for exploratory hypothesis generation in early stages and confirmatory hypothesis validation in later stages of clinical development. The concept of immune assay harmonization which includes use of field-wide benchmarks, harmonization guidelines, and external quality control can support the context-specific evolution of immune assays. Multi-center studies pose particular challenges to sample logistics and quality control of sample specimens. Cooperative groups need to define if immune assessments should be performed in one central facility, in peripheral labs or including a combination of both. Finally, engineered reference samples that contain a defined number of antigen-specific T cells may become broadly applicable tools to control assay performance over time or across institutions.

  9. RATIONAL-IRRATIONAL ELECTORAL PREFERENCES, ALTRUISM AND EXPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mihai Ungureanu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Caplan (2000, 2001, 2006 proposed the rational-irrationality model arguing that irrationality is a good as any other, whose consumption is maximized in relation to its costs and benefits. Applying this model to the problem of electoral behavior Caplan implies that voters ‘afford’ many irrational beliefs, because the lack of individual decisiveness renders vote as a consequenceless act. This paper contributes to the development of knowledge by analyzing the compatibility of rational irrationality with active electoral behavior. Two important arguments are being proposed: First, Wittman’s (2008 intuition that rational irrationality is incompatible with voting could be supported only about a particular type of altruism, which Caplan actually seems to reject. Second, rational irrationality seems to be compatible with expressive motivations, reinforcing the conclusion that rational-irrational individuals are active voters in mass elections.

  10. The Problem of Rational Moral Enlistment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tillson, John

    2017-01-01

    How can one bring children to recognize the requirements of morality without resorting only to non-rational means of persuasion (i.e. what rational ground can be offered to children for their moral enlistment)? Michael Hand has recently defended a foundationalist approach to answering this question and John White has responded by (a) criticizing…

  11. Confucian Rationalism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lam, Chi-Ming

    2014-01-01

    Nowadays, there is still a widely held view that the Chinese and Western modes of thought are quite distinct from each other. In particular, the Chinese mode of thought derived from Confucianism is considered as comparatively less rational than the Western one. In this article, I first argue that although the analogical mode of argumentation,…

  12. Cognitive distance, absorptive capacity and group rationality: a simulation study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petru Lucian Curşeu

    Full Text Available We report the results of a simulation study in which we explore the joint effect of group absorptive capacity (as the average individual rationality of the group members and cognitive distance (as the distance between the most rational group member and the rest of the group on the emergence of collective rationality in groups. We start from empirical results reported in the literature on group rationality as collective group level competence and use data on real-life groups of four and five to validate a mathematical model. We then use this mathematical model to predict group level scores from a variety of possible group configurations (varying both in cognitive distance and average individual rationality. Our results show that both group competence and cognitive distance are necessary conditions for emergent group rationality. Group configurations, in which the groups become more rational than the most rational group member, are groups scoring low on cognitive distance and scoring high on absorptive capacity.

  13. Cognitive distance, absorptive capacity and group rationality: a simulation study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curşeu, Petru Lucian; Krehel, Oleh; Evers, Joep H M; Muntean, Adrian

    2014-01-01

    We report the results of a simulation study in which we explore the joint effect of group absorptive capacity (as the average individual rationality of the group members) and cognitive distance (as the distance between the most rational group member and the rest of the group) on the emergence of collective rationality in groups. We start from empirical results reported in the literature on group rationality as collective group level competence and use data on real-life groups of four and five to validate a mathematical model. We then use this mathematical model to predict group level scores from a variety of possible group configurations (varying both in cognitive distance and average individual rationality). Our results show that both group competence and cognitive distance are necessary conditions for emergent group rationality. Group configurations, in which the groups become more rational than the most rational group member, are groups scoring low on cognitive distance and scoring high on absorptive capacity.

  14. Emotions as a Vehicle for Rationality: Rational Decision Making Models Based on Emotion-Related Valuing and Hebbian Learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Treur, J.; Umair, M.

    2015-01-01

    In this paper an adaptive decision model based on predictive loops through feeling states is analysed from the perspective of rationality. Hebbian learning is considered for different types of connections in the decision model. To assess the extent of rationality, a measure is introduced reflecting

  15. Re-visions of rationality?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newell, Ben R

    2005-01-01

    The appeal of simple algorithms that take account of both the constraints of human cognitive capacity and the structure of environments has been an enduring theme in cognitive science. A novel version of such a boundedly rational perspective views the mind as containing an 'adaptive toolbox' of specialized cognitive heuristics suited to different problems. Although intuitively appealing, when this version was proposed, empirical evidence for the use of such heuristics was scant. I argue that in the light of empirical studies carried out since then, it is time this 'vision of rationality' was revised. An alternative view based on integrative models rather than collections of heuristics is proposed.

  16. Rationing medical education.

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper discussed the pros and cons of the application of rationing to medical education and the different ... Even though some stakeholders in medical education might be taken aback at .... Walsh K. Online educational tools to improve the.

  17. THE THEORY OF EFFICIENT MARKETS AND A MODEL OF RATIONAL INVESTOR – FROM CONDITIONS OF RISK TO TERMS OF CONFLICT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krzysztof Dobrowolski

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available The theoretical assumption about the informative effectiveness of financial markets is very important, although the discussion about its compatibility with the reality still re-mains open. The article summarises the key elements of the theory of efficient markets, paying particular attention to the adopted in this theory assumption about a rational inves-tor, which also appears in other models and theories related to the financial markets (such as capital asset pricing model CAPM or Markowitz Portfolio Theory. The views on the way and criteria for decision-making by a rational investor have changed over the centu-ries. Today, the dominant theory in this regard is the theory of expected utility. However, it characterizes the decision-making process under risk conditions, which are not the most common economic environment, particularly in an economy subjected to the process of globalisation. Thus, the problem of using the models of decision making under conditions of uncertainty, ignorance and terms of conflict in the efficient market theory and the theo-ry of expected utility is under consideration in the final part of the article.

  18. Bayesian networks and boundedly rational expectations

    OpenAIRE

    Ran Spiegler

    2014-01-01

    I present a framework for analyzing decision makers with an imperfect understanding of their environment's correlation structure. The framework borrows the tool of "Bayesian networks", which is ubiquitous in statistics and artificial intelligence. In the model, a decision maker faces an objective multivariate probability distribution (his own action is one of the random variables). He is characterized by a directed acyclic graph over the set of random variables. His subjective belief filters ...

  19. Rational expectations modelling in O.R

    OpenAIRE

    Phelps, R I; Warwick, J P

    1984-01-01

    The conventional OR approach to managing a system is, in outline, firstly to create a model of the existing system, secondly, to investigate changes in the model which improve or control the behaviour of the model and thirdly, to implement these changes in the system. It is assumed that the model incorporating these changes will be a valid representation of the system after the changes, in as far as the original model was a valid representation of the original system, and can thus be used to ...

  20. Solving rational expectations models using Excel

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Strulik, Holger

    2004-01-01

    Problems of discrete time optimal control can be solved using backward iteration and Microsoft Excel. The author explains the method in general and shows how the basic models of neoclassical growth and real business cycles are solved......Problems of discrete time optimal control can be solved using backward iteration and Microsoft Excel. The author explains the method in general and shows how the basic models of neoclassical growth and real business cycles are solved...

  1. Rationality, perception, and the all-seeing eye.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Felin, Teppo; Koenderink, Jan; Krueger, Joachim I

    2017-08-01

    Seeing-perception and vision-is implicitly the fundamental building block of the literature on rationality and cognition. Herbert Simon and Daniel Kahneman's arguments against the omniscience of economic agents-and the concept of bounded rationality-depend critically on a particular view of the nature of perception and vision. We propose that this framework of rationality merely replaces economic omniscience with perceptual omniscience. We show how the cognitive and social sciences feature a pervasive but problematic meta-assumption that is characterized by an "all-seeing eye." We raise concerns about this assumption and discuss different ways in which the all-seeing eye manifests itself in existing research on (bounded) rationality. We first consider the centrality of vision and perception in Simon's pioneering work. We then point to Kahneman's work-particularly his article "Maps of Bounded Rationality"-to illustrate the pervasiveness of an all-seeing view of perception, as manifested in the extensive use of visual examples and illusions. Similar assumptions about perception can be found across a large literature in the cognitive sciences. The central problem is the present emphasis on inverse optics-the objective nature of objects and environments, e.g., size, contrast, and color. This framework ignores the nature of the organism and perceiver. We argue instead that reality is constructed and expressed, and we discuss the species-specificity of perception, as well as perception as a user interface. We draw on vision science as well as the arts to develop an alternative understanding of rationality in the cognitive and social sciences. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our arguments for the rationality and decision-making literature in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics, along with suggesting some ways forward.

  2. Bounded rational choice behaviour: applications in transport

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Anders Fjendbo

    2016-01-01

    Even though the theory of rational behaviour has been challenged for almost 100 years, the dominant approach within the field of transport has been based upon the assumptions of neoclassical economics that we live in a world of rational decision makers who always have perfect knowledge and aim...... rational choice behaviour focuses on how the latter approach can be seriously taken into account within transport applications. As the editors discuss in the introduction, a true optimal choice can only be made if an individual has full and perfect information of all relevant attributes in his/her choice...... set. An individual is said to demonstrate bounded rational behaviour if he/she does not systematically consider all attributes deemed relevant for the decision problem at hand, does not consider all choice options and/or does not choose the best choice alternative. Such simplified representation...

  3. Nonlinear delay monopoly with bounded rationality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsumoto, Akio; Szidarovszky, Ferenc

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamics of a monopolistic firm in a continuous-time framework. The firm is assumed to be boundedly rational and to experience time delays in obtaining and implementing information on output. The dynamic adjustment process is based on the gradient of the expected profit. The paper is divided into three parts: we examine delay effects on dynamics caused by one-time delay and two-time delays in the first two parts. Global dynamics and analytical results on local dynamics are numerically confirmed in the third part. Four main results are demonstrated. First, the stability switch from stability to instability occurs only once in the case of a single delay. Second, the alternation of stability and instability can continue if two time delays are involved. Third, the occurence of Hopf bifurcation is analytically shown if stability is lost. Finally, in a bifurcation process, there are a period-doubling cascade to chaos and a period-halving cascade to the equilibrium point in the case of two time delays if the difference between the two delays is large.

  4. Economic Rationality in the Ultimatum Game

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan Fiala

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Rigorous application of experimental methodology to the interdisciplinary research of economic decision making is the main purpose of our work. In this paper, we introduce the main decisionmaking theories and outline economic rationality. We explain why we find it useful to discriminate between the “irrational” and “non-rational” components of decision making. We offer an oriented interdisciplinary point of view on economic rationality. In the applied section, we describe the main features of the Ultimatum game and summarize the up-to-date theories explaining the non-rational course of the game. We discuss in detail the reported relations between the nominal value of the stakes and the distribution of the offers and responses. We introduce the blinded, randomized Ultimatum game experiment that we conducted in our laboratory. We stress the importance of anonymity of the study subjects and the difference in salience of a factual reward against a  hypothetical reward. We present the results of our study, showing that a  duly chosen non-monetary reward, directly inconvertible into money, leads to a different offer distribution in the Ultimatum game without the necessity to invest excessive sums of money in the rewards. We compare our results to research published by other authors. According to our theory, the rational, non-rational and irrational components contribute to the decision making in Ultimatum differently depending on the different reward stakes.

  5. The anchoring bias reflects rational use of cognitive resources

    OpenAIRE

    Goodman, Noah; Huys, Quentin; Griffiths, Tom; Lieder, Falk

    2017-01-01

    © 2017, Psychonomic Society, Inc. Cognitive biases, such as the anchoring bias, pose a serious challenge to rational accounts of human cognition. We investigate whether rational theories can meet this challenge by taking into account the mind’s bounded cognitive resources. We asked what reasoning under uncertainty would look like if people made rational use of their finite time and limited cognitive resources. To answer this question, we applied a mathematical theory of bounded rationality to...

  6. Organizational coordination and costly communication with boundedly rational agents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dietrichson, Jens; Jochem, Torsten

    How does costly communication affect organizational coordination? This paper develops a model of costly communication based on the weakest-link game and boundedly rational agents. Solving for the stochastically stable states, we find that communication increases the possibilities for efficient...... coordination compared to a setting where agents cannot communicate. But as agents face a trade-off between lowering the strategic uncertainty for the group and the costs of communication, the least efficient state is still the unique stochastically stable one for many parameter values. Simulations show...... that this is not just a long run phenomena, the stochastically stable state is the most frequent outcome also in the short run. Making communication mandatory induces efficient coordination, whereas letting a team leader handle communication increases efficiency when the leader expects others to follow and has enough...

  7. On the Keyhole Hypothesis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mikkelsen, Kaare B.; Kidmose, Preben; Hansen, Lars Kai

    2017-01-01

    simultaneously recorded scalp EEG. A cross-validation procedure was employed to ensure unbiased estimates. We present several pieces of evidence in support of the keyhole hypothesis: There is a high mutual information between data acquired at scalp electrodes and through the ear-EEG "keyhole," furthermore we......We propose and test the keyhole hypothesis that measurements from low dimensional EEG, such as ear-EEG reflect a broadly distributed set of neural processes. We formulate the keyhole hypothesis in information theoretical terms. The experimental investigation is based on legacy data consisting of 10...

  8. Rational points on elliptic curves

    CERN Document Server

    Silverman, Joseph H

    2015-01-01

    The theory of elliptic curves involves a pleasing blend of algebra, geometry, analysis, and number theory. This book stresses this interplay as it develops the basic theory, thereby providing an opportunity for advanced undergraduates to appreciate the unity of modern mathematics. At the same time, every effort has been made to use only methods and results commonly included in the undergraduate curriculum. This accessibility, the informal writing style, and a wealth of exercises make Rational Points on Elliptic Curves an ideal introduction for students at all levels who are interested in learning about Diophantine equations and arithmetic geometry. Most concretely, an elliptic curve is the set of zeroes of a cubic polynomial in two variables. If the polynomial has rational coefficients, then one can ask for a description of those zeroes whose coordinates are either integers or rational numbers. It is this number theoretic question that is the main subject of this book. Topics covered include the geometry and ...

  9. The Intensive Care Lifeboat: a survey of lay attitudes to rationing dilemmas in neonatal intensive care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arora, C; Savulescu, J; Maslen, H; Selgelid, M; Wilkinson, D

    2016-11-08

    Resuscitation and treatment of critically ill newborn infants is associated with relatively high mortality, morbidity and cost. Guidelines relating to resuscitation have traditionally focused on the best interests of infants. There are, however, limited resources available in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), meaning that difficult decisions sometimes need to be made. This study explores the intuitions of lay people (non-health professionals) regarding resource allocation decisions in the NICU. The study design was a cross-sectional quantitative survey, consisting of 20 hypothetical rationing scenarios. There were 119 respondents who entered the questionnaire, and 109 who completed it. The respondents were adult US and Indian participants of the online crowdsourcing platform Mechanical Turk. Respondents were asked to decide which of two infants to treat in a situation of scarce resources. Demographic characteristics, personality traits and political views were recorded. Respondents were also asked to respond to a widely cited thought experiment involving rationing. The majority of respondents, in all except one scenario, chose the utilitarian option of directing treatment to the infant with the higher chance of survival, higher life expectancy, less severe disability, and less expensive treatment. As discrepancy between outcomes decreased, however, there was a statistically significant increase in egalitarian responses and decrease in utilitarian responses in scenarios involving chance of survival (P = 0.001), life expectancy (P = 0.0001), and cost of treatment (P = 0.01). In the classic 'lifeboat' scenario, all but two respondents were utilitarian. This survey suggests that in situations of scarcity and equal clinical need, non-health professionals support rationing of life-saving treatment based on probability of survival, duration of survival, cost of treatment or quality of life. However, where the difference in prognosis or cost is very

  10. The limited impact of indeterminacy for healthcare rationing: how indeterminacy problems show the need for a hybrid theory, but nothing more.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herlitz, Anders

    2016-01-01

    A notorious debate in the ethics of healthcare rationing concerns whether to address rationing decisions with substantial principles or with a procedural approach. One major argument in favour of procedural approaches is that substantial principles are indeterminate so that we can reasonably disagree about how to apply them. To deal with indeterminacy, we need a just decision process. In this paper I argue that it is a mistake to abandon substantial principles just because they are indeterminate. It is true that reasonable substantial principles designed to deal with healthcare rationing can be expected to be indeterminate. Yet, the indeterminacy is only partial. In some situations we can fully determine what to do in light of the principles, in some situations we cannot. The conclusion to draw from this fact is not that we need to develop procedural approaches to healthcare rationing, but rather that we need a more complex theory in which both substantial principles and procedural approaches are needed. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  11. Rationality, perception, and the all-seeing eye

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Felin, Teppo; Koenderink, Jan|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/070864543; Krueger, Joachim I

    Seeing-perception and vision-is implicitly the fundamental building block of the literature on rationality and cognition. Herbert Simon and Daniel Kahneman's arguments against the omniscience of economic agents-and the concept of bounded rationality-depend critically on a particular view of the

  12. Dimension counts for singular rational curves via semigroups

    OpenAIRE

    Cotterill, Ethan; Feital, Lia; Martins, Renato Vidal

    2015-01-01

    We study singular rational curves in projective space, deducing conditions on their parametrizations from the value semigroups $\\sss$ of their singularities. In particular, we prove that a natural heuristic for the codimension of the space of nondegenerate rational curves of arithmetic genus $g>0$ and degree $d$ in $\\mb{P}^n$, viewed as a subspace of all degree-$d$ rational curves in $\\mb{P}^n$, holds whenever $g$ is small.

  13. The anchoring bias reflects rational use of cognitive resources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lieder, Falk; Griffiths, Thomas L; M Huys, Quentin J; Goodman, Noah D

    2018-02-01

    Cognitive biases, such as the anchoring bias, pose a serious challenge to rational accounts of human cognition. We investigate whether rational theories can meet this challenge by taking into account the mind's bounded cognitive resources. We asked what reasoning under uncertainty would look like if people made rational use of their finite time and limited cognitive resources. To answer this question, we applied a mathematical theory of bounded rationality to the problem of numerical estimation. Our analysis led to a rational process model that can be interpreted in terms of anchoring-and-adjustment. This model provided a unifying explanation for ten anchoring phenomena including the differential effect of accuracy motivation on the bias towards provided versus self-generated anchors. Our results illustrate the potential of resource-rational analysis to provide formal theories that can unify a wide range of empirical results and reconcile the impressive capacities of the human mind with its apparently irrational cognitive biases.

  14. Approaches to informed consent for hypothesis-testing and hypothesis-generating clinical genomics research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Facio, Flavia M; Sapp, Julie C; Linn, Amy; Biesecker, Leslie G

    2012-10-10

    Massively-parallel sequencing (MPS) technologies create challenges for informed consent of research participants given the enormous scale of the data and the wide range of potential results. We propose that the consent process in these studies be based on whether they use MPS to test a hypothesis or to generate hypotheses. To demonstrate the differences in these approaches to informed consent, we describe the consent processes for two MPS studies. The purpose of our hypothesis-testing study is to elucidate the etiology of rare phenotypes using MPS. The purpose of our hypothesis-generating study is to test the feasibility of using MPS to generate clinical hypotheses, and to approach the return of results as an experimental manipulation. Issues to consider in both designs include: volume and nature of the potential results, primary versus secondary results, return of individual results, duty to warn, length of interaction, target population, and privacy and confidentiality. The categorization of MPS studies as hypothesis-testing versus hypothesis-generating can help to clarify the issue of so-called incidental or secondary results for the consent process, and aid the communication of the research goals to study participants.

  15. Causes of decreased life expectancy over the life span in bipolar disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kessing, Lars Vedel; Vradi, Eleni; McIntyre, Roger S; Andersen, Per Kragh

    2015-07-15

    Accelerated aging has been proposed as a mechanism explaining the increased prevalence of comorbid general medical illnesses in bipolar disorder. To test the hypothesis that lost life years due to natural causes starts in early and mid-adulthood, supporting the hypothesis of accelerated aging. Using individual data from nationwide registers of patient with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder we calculated remaining life expectancies before age 90 years for values of age 15, 25, 35…75 years among all individuals alive in year 2000. Further, we estimated the reduction in life expectancy due to natural causes (physical illnesses) and unnatural causes (suicide and accidents) in relation to age. A total of 22,635 patients with bipolar disorder were included in the study in addition to data from the entire Danish general population of 5.4 million people. At age 15 years, remaining life expectancy before age 90 years was decreased 12.7 and 8.9 life years, respectively, for men and women with bipolar disorder. For 15-year old boys with bipolar disorder, natural causes accounted for 58% of all lost life years and for 15-year old girls, natural causes accounted for 67% increasing to 74% and 80% for 45-year old men and women, respectively. Data concern patients who get contact to hospital psychiatry only. Natural causes of death is the most prevalent reason for lost life years already from adolescence and increases substantially during early and mid-adulthood, in this way supporting the hypothesis of accelerated aging. Early intervention in bipolar disorder should not only focus on improving outcome of the bipolar disorder but also on decreasing the risk of comorbid general medical illnesses. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Adaptive Rationality, Adaptive Behavior and Institutions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Volchik Vyacheslav, V.

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The economic literature focused on understanding decision-making and choice processes reveals a vast collection of approaches to human rationality. Theorists’ attention has moved from absolutely rational, utility-maximizing individuals to boundedly rational and adaptive ones. A number of economists have criticized the concepts of adaptive rationality and adaptive behavior. One of the recent trends in the economic literature is to consider humans irrational. This paper offers an approach which examines adaptive behavior in the context of existing institutions and constantly changing institutional environment. It is assumed that adaptive behavior is a process of evolutionary adjustment to fundamental uncertainty. We emphasize the importance of actors’ engagement in trial and error learning, since if they are involved in this process, they obtain experience and are able to adapt to existing and new institutions. The paper aims at identifying relevant institutions, adaptive mechanisms, informal working rules and practices that influence actors’ behavior in the field of Higher Education in Russia (Rostov Region education services market has been taken as an example. The paper emphasizes the application of qualitative interpretative methods (interviews and discourse analysis in examining actors’ behavior.

  17. The effectiveness of rational emotive therapy on achievement ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The effectiveness of rational emotive therapy on achievement motivation of students. ... PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... the effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy on Students Achievement Motivation.

  18. Cognitive rationalizations for tanning-bed use: a preliminary exploration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Banerjee, Smita C; Hay, Jennifer L; Greene, Kathryn

    2013-09-01

    To examine construct and predictive utility of an adapted cognitive rationalization scale for tanning-bed use. Current/former tanning-bedusing undergraduate students (N = 216; 87.6% females; 78.4% white) at a large northeastern university participated in a survey. A cognitive rationalization for tanning-bed use scale was adapted. Standardized self-report measures of past tanning-bed use, advantages of tanning, perceived vulnerability to photoaging, tanning-bed use dependence, and tanning-bed use intention were also administered. The cognitive rationalization scale exhibited strong construct and predictive validity. Current tanners and tanning-bed-use-dependent participants endorsed rationalizations more strongly than did former tanners and not-tanning-bed-use-dependent participants respectively. Findings indicate that cognitive rationalizations help explain discrepancy between inconsistent cognitions.

  19. Multivariate rational data fitting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cuyt, Annie; Verdonk, Brigitte

    1992-12-01

    Sections 1 and 2 discuss the advantages of an object-oriented implementation combined with higher floating-point arithmetic, of the algorithms available for multivariate data fitting using rational functions. Section 1 will in particular explain what we mean by "higher arithmetic". Section 2 will concentrate on the concepts of "object orientation". In sections 3 and 4 we shall describe the generality of the data structure that can be dealt with: due to some new results virtually every data set is acceptable right now, with possible coalescence of coordinates or points. In order to solve the multivariate rational interpolation problem the data sets are fed to different algorithms depending on the structure of the interpolation points in then-variate space.

  20. Positivity Preserving Interpolation Using Rational Bicubic Spline

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samsul Ariffin Abdul Karim

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the positivity preserving interpolation for positive surfaces data by extending the C1 rational cubic spline interpolant of Karim and Kong to the bivariate cases. The partially blended rational bicubic spline has 12 parameters in the descriptions where 8 of them are free parameters. The sufficient conditions for the positivity are derived on every four boundary curves network on the rectangular patch. Numerical comparison with existing schemes also has been done in detail. Based on Root Mean Square Error (RMSE, our partially blended rational bicubic spline is on a par with the established methods.

  1. Competition Law and the Bounded Rationality of Firms

    OpenAIRE

    Bhattacharya, Shilpi

    2016-01-01

    Firm rationality plays a role in several aspects of competition law. Yet, the conception of the firm as a rational, profit maximizing entity has been disputed in different disciplines. This literature shows that neoclassical economic assumptions on which competition law is based can fall short of explaining the full range of observed firm behaviour. Accordingly, an alternative conception of the firm as boundedly rational can impact the understanding of firm conduct in competition law. Be...

  2. Public policy, rationality and reason

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rodolfo Canto Sáenz

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available This work suggests the incorporation of practical reason in the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies, alongside instrumental rationality. It takes two proposals that today point in this direction: Rawls distinction between reasonable (practical reason and rational (instrumental reason and what this author calls the CI Procedure (categorical imperative procedure and Habermas model of deliberative democracy. The main conclusion is that the analysis of public policies can not be limited to rather narrow limits of science, but requires the contribution of political and moral philosophy.

  3. MARSI: metabolite analogues for rational strain improvement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cardoso, João G. R.; Zeidan, Ahmad A; Jensen, Kristian

    2018-01-01

    reactions in an organism can be used to predict effects of MAs on cellular phenotypes. Here, we present the Metabolite Analogues for Rational Strain Improvement (MARSI) framework. MARSI provides a rational approach to strain improvement by searching for metabolites as targets instead of genes or reactions...

  4. Simple market equilibria with rationally inattentive consumers

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Matějka, Filip; McKay, A.

    2012-01-01

    Roč. 102, č. 3 (2012), s. 24-29 ISSN 0002-8282 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GPP402/11/P236 Institutional support: RVO:67985998 Keywords : rational choice theory * bounded rationality * consumer research Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 2.792, year: 2012

  5. Demarketing fear: Bring the nuclear issue back to rational discourse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han, Charles C.

    2014-01-01

    This paper attempts to explore the strategies for breaking the deadlock between the demand for resolving climate crisis and the resistance to deploying nuclear power. Since our present renewable technology is not advanced enough to replace fossil fuel power plants, nuclear power becomes the only available means that can buy us more time to explore better energy sources for coping with the dilemma of global warming and energy security. Therefore, this paper proposes an elaborated fear appeal framework that may shed light on the intervention points for mitigating fear. By examining the influence of fear appeal on the nuclear issue, three strategies for demarketing the nuclear fear of the public are recommended. The paper concludes that only when energy policy makers and the nuclear industry recognize the significance of minimizing fear and begin to work on removing the sources of fear, can we then expect to bring the nuclear issue back to rational discourse. - Highlights: • Both cognition and emotion are critical in decision-making processes. • Dealing with the emotion of fear is essential for resolving the nuclear issue. • Fear should be mitigated to make rational discourses on nuclear power happen. • Fear can be mitigated by manipulating issue familiarity and response feasibility. • Using equivalency and issue framing may alter public perceptions of nuclear power

  6. Fields of rational constants of cyclic factorizable derivations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janusz Zielinski

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available We describe all rational constants of a large family of four-variable cyclic factorizable derivations. Thus, we determine all rational first integrals of their corresponding systems of differential equations. Moreover, we give a characteristic of all four-variable Lotka-Volterra derivations with a nontrivial rational constant. All considerations are over an arbitrary field of characteristic zero. Our main tool is the investigation of the cofactors of strict Darboux polynomials. Factorizable derivations are important in derivation theory. Namely, we may associate the factorizable derivation with any given derivation of a polynomial ring and that construction helps to determine rational constants of arbitrary derivations. Besides, Lotka-Volterra systems play a significant role in population biology, laser physics and plasma physics.

  7. Crab Rationalization Permit Program

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Crab Rationalization Program (Program) allocates BSAI crab resources among harvesters, processors, and coastal communities. The North Pacific Fishery Management...

  8. Should informed consent be based on rational beliefs?

    OpenAIRE

    Savulescu, J; Momeyer, R W

    1997-01-01

    Our aim is to expand the regulative ideal governing consent. We argue that consent should not only be informed but also based on rational beliefs. We argue that holding true beliefs promotes autonomy. Information is important insofar as it helps a person to hold the relevant true beliefs. But in order to hold the relevant true beliefs, competent people must also think rationally. Insofar as information is important, rational deliberation is important. Just as physicians should aim to provide ...

  9. Positive Feedback Investment Strategies and Destabilizing Rational Speculation

    OpenAIRE

    J. Bradford De Long; Andrei Shleifer; Lawrence H. Summers; Robert J. Waldmann

    1989-01-01

    Analyses of the role of rational speculators in financial markets usually presume that such investors dampen price fluctuations by trading against liquidity or noise traders. This conclusion does not necessarily hold when noise traders follow positive-feedback investment strategies buy when prices rise and sell when prices fall. In such cases, it may pay rational speculators to try to jump on the bandwagon early and to purchase ahead of noise trader demand. If rational speculators' attempts t...

  10. Brief Report: Risk-Aversion and Rationality in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gosling, Corentin J; Moutier, Sylvain

    2018-05-30

    Risk-aversion and rationality have both been highlighted as core features of decision making in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This study tested whether risk-aversion is related to rational decision-making in ASD individuals. ASD and matched control adults completed a decision-making task that discriminated between the use of risk-averse and rational strategies. Results showed that overall, ASD participants were more risk-averse than control participants. Specifically, both groups made similar choices when risk-aversion was the less rational strategy but ASD participants chose more rational options than control participants when risk-aversion was the most rational strategy. This study confirmed that risk-aversion is a core feature of ASD and revealed that ASD individuals can switch their decision-making strategy adaptively to avoid negative consequences.

  11. The effect of group rational emotive behavior therapy on inefficient ideas of female high school students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Hassani

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The perpose of this stud was to determiine the effpyct of group rational emotive therapy on inefficient ideas of female high school students . Therfor 24 students were randomly selected and two therapy and control groups. The therapy group received 10 sessions of 90 minute therapy while the control groups did not receive any thing. The inefficient ideas quertomaire was administered to all subjects as the pre and post tests. The results of analysis of covariance showed that the mean total scores of the therapy group was significantly less on the following sub-scales : expectations (p=0/05 , excessive anxiety (p=0/04 , helplessness with change (p=0/05 , expecting others support (p=0/03 , and dependency (p=0/0001 .

  12. The impact of economic rationalization, prioritization and rationing on job satisfaction, motivation and team cohesion in hospitals: a survey among retired physician executives in Germany.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schnoor, Joerg; Braehler, Elmar; Ghanem, Mohamed; Heyde, Christoph E

    2017-01-01

    The growing economization of the health care system and implication of market principles in the medical field have risen new and serious questions on the meaning of the medical profession, the doctor-patient relationship and the orientation of medicine itself. The impact of the dynamic clinical structures on the doctor-doctor and the doctor-patient interaction appear even unpredictable. Therefore, the impact of market-based methods, i.e. rationalization, prioritization and rationing, on job satisfaction, motivation and team cohesion should be quantified. The experiences of former and now retired physician executives in numerous hospitals in Saxony were determined. For this purpose, an anonymously written survey using a standardized questionnaire was conducted in the first quarter of 2016. Rationalization measures were confirmed by 88% of respondents. In more than a third of cases, former executives also experienced prioritization and rationing. The impact of these management techniques on job satisfaction, motivation and team cohesion was carried out in a differentiated manner. There was a tendency to regard rationalization and prioritization measures indifferently to rather disadvantageous, while rationing was predominantly rated negatively. In addition to rationalization, prioritization and rationing measures have now been part of working strategy at the hospitals. On one hand, the conceptual distinction between the terms still seems imprecise; on the other hand, a creeping and imperceptible medico-ethical transgression of the prioritization to rationing seems to have already taken place.

  13. Rational Emotive Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knaus, William

    1977-01-01

    Rational Emotive Education--an outgrowth of theories developed by Albert Ellis--is a teaching design of mental health concepts and problem-solving activities designed to help students to approach and cope with their problems through experiential learning, via a structured, thematic sequence of emotive education lessons. (MJB)

  14. Self-deception as pseudo-rational regulation of belief.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michel, Christoph; Newen, Albert

    2010-09-01

    Self-deception is a special kind of motivational dominance in belief-formation. We develop criteria which set paradigmatic self-deception apart from related phenomena of auto-manipulation such as pretense and motivational bias. In self-deception rational subjects defend or develop beliefs of high subjective importance in response to strong counter-evidence. Self-deceivers make or keep these beliefs tenable by putting prima-facie rational defense-strategies to work against their established standards of rational evaluation. In paradigmatic self-deception, target-beliefs are made tenable via reorganizations of those belief-sets that relate relevant data to target-beliefs. This manipulation of the evidential value of relevant data goes beyond phenomena of motivated perception of data. In self-deception belief-defense is pseudo-rational. Self-deceivers will typically apply a dual standard of evaluation that remains intransparent to the subject. The developed model of self-deception as pseudo-rational belief-defense is empirically anchored. So, we hope to put forward a promising candidate. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Hypothesis in research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eudaldo Enrique Espinoza Freire

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available It is intended with this work to have a material with the fundamental contents, which enable the university professor to formulate the hypothesis, for the development of an investigation, taking into account the problem to be solved. For its elaboration, the search of information in primary documents was carried out, such as thesis of degree and reports of research results, selected on the basis of its relevance with the analyzed subject, current and reliability, secondary documents, as scientific articles published in journals of recognized prestige, the selection was made with the same terms as in the previous documents. It presents a conceptualization of the updated hypothesis, its characterization and an analysis of the structure of the hypothesis in which the determination of the variables is deepened. The involvement of the university professor in the teaching-research process currently faces some difficulties, which are manifested, among other aspects, in an unstable balance between teaching and research, which leads to a separation between them.

  16. Exuberance in China's renewable energy investment: Rationality, capital structure and implications with firm level evidence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Dayong; Cao, Hong; Zou, Peijiang

    2016-01-01

    The new century has witnessed phenomenal worldwide growth in renewable energy investments. China has been especially remarkable, surpassing both the US and the EU in 2013. Some recent facts, however, have raised the question of whether exuberant investment in China’s renewable energy sector is rational. This paper aims to contribute to the literature and to the debate in two ways. First, it tests the over-investment hypothesis based on the main stream finance methodology; second, it analyzes the role of capital structure in the performance of China's renewable energy firms. Empirical results show that overinvestment in the renewable energy sector exists. The problem is more significant in the biomass and wind sector. Capital structure is found to be more important to downstream firms, indicating that policy makers may provide support that enables these firms to finance their investments through corporate bonds, commercial credit, or long-terms debts. - Highlights: •We test the over-investment hypothesis of renewable energy firms in China. •The role of capital structure is also empirically investigated. •We find irrational investment and confirm the role of financing structure. •The results are sensitive to the main business sectors and industrial line.

  17. Rational-Emotive Staff Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forman, Susan G.; Forman, Bruce D.

    1980-01-01

    The application of Rational-Emotive Therapy principles and techniques in in-service education for school personnel is discussed. Teacher and counselor participation in a staff development program is described. (Author)

  18. Adaptive information-theoretic bounded rational decision-making with parametric priors

    OpenAIRE

    Grau-Moya, Jordi; Braun, Daniel A.

    2015-01-01

    Deviations from rational decision-making due to limited computational resources have been studied in the field of bounded rationality, originally proposed by Herbert Simon. There have been a number of different approaches to model bounded rationality ranging from optimality principles to heuristics. Here we take an information-theoretic approach to bounded rationality, where information-processing costs are measured by the relative entropy between a posterior decision strategy and a given fix...

  19. Using expectations to monitor robotic progress and recover from problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurup, Unmesh; Lebiere, Christian; Stentz, Anthony; Hebert, Martial

    2013-05-01

    How does a robot know when something goes wrong? Our research answers this question by leveraging expectations - predictions about the immediate future - and using the mismatch between the expectations and the external world to monitor the robot's progress. We use the cognitive architecture ACT-R (Adaptive Control of Thought - Rational) to learn the associations between the current state of the robot and the world, the action to be performed in the world, and the future state of the world. These associations are used to generate expectations that are then matched by the architecture with the next state of the world. A significant mismatch between these expectations and the actual state of the world indicate a problem possibly resulting from unexpected consequences of the robot's actions, unforeseen changes in the environment or unanticipated actions of other agents. When a problem is detected, the recovery model can suggest a number of recovery options. If the situation is unknown, that is, the mismatch between expectations and the world is novel, the robot can use a recovery solution from a set of heuristic options. When a recovery option is successfully applied, the robot learns to associate that recovery option with the mismatch. When the same problem is encountered later, the robot can apply the learned recovery solution rather than using the heuristics or randomly exploring the space of recovery solutions. We present results from execution monitoring and recovery performed during an assessment conducted at the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF) at Fort Indiantown Gap.

  20. Rational Verification in Iterated Electric Boolean Games

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Youssouf Oualhadj

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Electric boolean games are compact representations of games where the players have qualitative objectives described by LTL formulae and have limited resources. We study the complexity of several decision problems related to the analysis of rationality in electric boolean games with LTL objectives. In particular, we report that the problem of deciding whether a profile is a Nash equilibrium in an iterated electric boolean game is no harder than in iterated boolean games without resource bounds. We show that it is a PSPACE-complete problem. As a corollary, we obtain that both rational elimination and rational construction of Nash equilibria by a supervising authority are PSPACE-complete problems.

  1. Rational use of water: interdisciplinary actions in a rural school in the Brazilian semiarid

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elka Taiusky Ferreira Santos Brito

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available In Brazil, terms such as "drought industry" and "drought polygon" are constantly used in reference to the semiarid region of the country. Besides climatic factors and political and infrastructural issues, there is a consensus that the best way to deal with water scarcity is its rational use. While offering to contribute to the development of farmers’ communities in this region, the project "Citizen Universities", in partnership with the project "Space of Water", developed strategies involving the interdisciplinary rational management and conservation of hydric resources, to include knowledge and specific technologies in cooperation with the faculty and students of a rural public school in the Community of Uruçu, Gurinhém, PB. Progress can be seen in the practical applications of the project in the community and surrounding areas, such as forming teams to collect trash and the cleaning up of springs, and the inclusion of issues related to water together with the mandatory curriculum, in the expectation that students can apply the academic issues to their everyday life.

  2. Mate choice in fruit flies is rational and adaptive.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arbuthnott, Devin; Fedina, Tatyana Y; Pletcher, Scott D; Promislow, Daniel E L

    2017-01-17

    According to rational choice theory, beneficial preferences should lead individuals to sort available options into linear, transitive hierarchies, although the extent to which non-human animals behave rationally is unclear. Here we demonstrate that mate choice in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster results in the linear sorting of a set of diverse isogenic female lines, unambiguously demonstrating the hallmark of rational behaviour, transitivity. These rational choices are associated with direct benefits, enabling males to maximize offspring production. Furthermore, we demonstrate that female behaviours and cues act redundantly in mate detection and assessment, as rational mate choice largely persists when visual or chemical sensory modalities are impaired, but not when both are impaired. Transitivity in mate choice demonstrates that the quality of potential mates varies significantly among genotypes, and that males and females behave in such a way as to facilitate adaptive mate choice.

  3. Neuroethics transformation of economic rationality: implications for decision making in business

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José-Félix Lozano

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The economy and business field has traditionally been dominated by a conception of calculator, strategic and profit-maximizing individual rationality. This model of rationality has important theoretical limitations and practical consequences. In recent decades the results of neuroethics´ research seems open new ways for understanding the practical rationality. These new routes, representing a revaluation of emotional and intuitive dimension in cognitive ability and have great relevance for business and economic decision making. The aim of this paper is to analyse the implications of a rational dialogic-friendly (cor-cordis concept for economic and business decision-making. Our work proposes a version of the dialogic-friendly practical rationality that integrate advances in neuroethics with the discursive rationality perspective in order to overcome the strategic rationality and emotivist intuitionism.

  4. [Maintenance ration and conversion efficiency of Hyporhamphus sajori].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, X; Tang, Q

    2001-04-01

    The maintenance ration and conversion efficiency of Japanese halfbeak, Hyporhamphus sajori were tested with enclosures installed in a shrimp raising pond. The results showed that there existed an evident relationship between daily ration(DR) and growth rate(GR) of the fish, GR = 140.37 DR - 24.03. The conversion efficiency was 13.96% in biomass or 16.12% in energy. The maintenance ration was 17.12% and 20.39% of body weight in terms of growth rate and specific growth rate, respectively, indicating that it could be deduced from growth rate quite differently from that from specific growth rate in the same experiment. The abnormal growth rate appeared when daily ration was below 3.30% of body weight, implied that Japanese halfbeak may get other food resources besides supplied net zooplankton.

  5. Rational and moral action : a critical survey of rational choice theory

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Jonge, J.P.R.

    2009-01-01

    This book is about rational choice theory from a different point of view. It is different for three reasons. First, it pays attention to the unintended consequences of intended actions. Second, it employs a non-instrumental approach to moral actions. And third, it argues that choice opportunities

  6. Is the Aluminum Hypothesis Dead?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    The Aluminum Hypothesis, the idea that aluminum exposure is involved in the etiology of Alzheimer disease, dates back to a 1965 demonstration that aluminum causes neurofibrillary tangles in the brains of rabbits. Initially the focus of intensive research, the Aluminum Hypothesis has gradually been abandoned by most researchers. Yet, despite this current indifference, the Aluminum Hypothesis continues to attract the attention of a small group of scientists and aluminum continues to be viewed with concern by some of the public. This review article discusses reasons that mainstream science has largely abandoned the Aluminum Hypothesis and explores a possible reason for some in the general public continuing to view aluminum with mistrust. PMID:24806729

  7. Life Expectancy in Patients Treated for Osteoporosis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Abrahamsen, Bo; Osmond, Clive; Cooper, Cyrus

    2015-01-01

    Osteoporosis is a chronic disease, carrying an elevated risk of fractures, morbidity, and death. Long-term treatment may be required, but the long-term risks with osteoporosis drugs remain incompletely understood. The competing risk of death may be a barrier to treating the oldest, yet this may...... not be rational if the risk of death is reduced by treatment. It is difficult to devise goal-directed long-term strategies for managing osteoporosis without firm information about residual life expectancy in treated patients. We conducted an observational study in Danish national registries tracking prescriptions...... for osteoporosis drugs, comorbid conditions, and deaths. We included 58,637 patients and 225,084 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Information on deaths until the end of 2013 was retrieved, providing a follow-up period of 10 to 17 years. In men younger than 80 years and women younger than 60 years...

  8. Economic rationality and health and lifestyle choices for people with diabetes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Rachel Mairi

    2006-11-01

    Economic rationality is traditionally represented by goal-oriented, maximising behaviour, or 'instrumental rationality'. Such a consequentialist, instrumental model of choice is often implicit in a biomedical approach to health promotion and education. The research reported here assesses the relevance of a broader conceptual framework of rationality, which includes 'procedural' and 'expressive' rationality as complements to an instrumental model of rationality, in a health context. Q methodology was used to derive 'factors' underlying health and lifestyle choices, based on a factor analysis of the results of a card sorting procedure undertaken by 27 adult respondents with type 2 diabetes in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. These factors were then compared with the rationality framework and the appropriateness of an extended model of economic rationality as a means of better understanding health and lifestyle choices was assessed. Taking a wider rational choice perspective, choices which are rendered irrational within a narrow-biomedical or strictly instrumental model, can be understood in terms of a coherent rationale, grounded in the accounts of respondents. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of rational choice theory and diabetes management and research.

  9. The Role of Rationality in University Budgeting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaffee, Ellen Earle

    1983-01-01

    Although empirical accounts of organizational decision making often show that the process is not a rational one, a study of budgeting at Stanford University during the 1970s, while not conclusive or comprehensive, supported the claim that the institution's process was rational and provided a procedure for testing a decision-making model. (MSE)

  10. Should Teachers Be Taught to Be Rational?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Floden, Robert E.; Feiman, Sharon

    1981-01-01

    Teacher education programs have long attempted to teach students to follow a rational mode of thinking. Recent research on teacher thinking has shown that a gap exists between how teachers think and the rational model. Such research should be used to give teacher educators insight into how their students think and learn. (JN)

  11. Men’s Perception of Raped Women: Test of the Sexually Transmitted Disease Hypothesis and the Cuckoldry Hypothesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prokop Pavol

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Rape is a recurrent adaptive problem of female humans and females of a number of non-human animals. Rape has various physiological and reproductive costs to the victim. The costs of rape are furthermore exaggerated by social rejection and blaming of a victim, particularly by men. The negative perception of raped women by men has received little attention from an evolutionary perspective. Across two independent studies, we investigated whether the risk of sexually transmitted diseases (the STD hypothesis, Hypothesis 1 or paternity uncertainty (the cuckoldry hypothesis, Hypothesis 2 influence the negative perception of raped women by men. Raped women received lower attractiveness score than non-raped women, especially in long-term mate attractiveness score. The perceived attractiveness of raped women was not influenced by the presence of experimentally manipulated STD cues on faces of putative rapists. Women raped by three men received lower attractiveness score than women raped by one man. These results provide stronger support for the cuckoldry hypothesis (Hypothesis 2 than for the STD hypothesis (Hypothesis 1. Single men perceived raped women as more attractive than men in a committed relationship (Hypothesis 3, suggesting that the mating opportunities mediate men’s perception of victims of rape. Overall, our results suggest that the risk of cuckoldry underlie the negative perception of victims of rape by men rather than the fear of disease transmission.

  12. Consumers' evaluations of ecological packaging - rational and emotional approaches

    OpenAIRE

    Koenig-Lewis, Nicole; Palmer, Adrian; Dermody, Janine; Urbye, Andreas

    2014-01-01

    Ecological marketing claims have been criticized for confusing or misleading buyers, leading to calls for more rationality in promoting and evaluating ‘green’ products. However, emotions are important drivers influencing pro-environmental purchase decisions. This study investigates consumers' emotional and rational evaluations of pro-environmental packaging. A conceptual model incorporates individuals' general environmental concerns, their rational beliefs about environmental effects of produ...

  13. Génération Y : much ado about nothing ? Le talent des jeunes

    OpenAIRE

    Wilkin, Luc

    2015-01-01

    Introduction Baby Boomers, Génération X, Génération Y, Génération du Millénaire, Génération Z, Génération Nintendo, Génération Wii, Génération Internet, Génération C, Génération Google, Génération Mobile, Génération Powerpoint, Génération couper/coller, natifs et immigrants digitaux, Homo sapiens digital ou Homo-zappiens, les vocables ne manquent pas pour désigner, séparer, opposer et segmenter les générations. Celles-ci évoluent, dans les discours, au gré des révolutions proclamées qui survi...

  14. Lying for the Greater Good: Bounded Rationality in a Team

    OpenAIRE

    Oktay Sürücü

    2014-01-01

    This paper is concerned with the interaction between fully and boundedly rational agents in situations where their interests are perfectly aligned. The cognitive limitations of the boundedly rational agent do not allow him to fully understand the market conditions and lead him to take non-optimal decisions in some situations. Using categorization to model bounded rationality, we show that the fully rational agent can nudge, i.e., he can manipulate the information he sends and decrease the exp...

  15. Bounded rationality alters the dynamics of paediatric immunization acceptance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oraby, Tamer; Bauch, Chris T

    2015-06-02

    Interactions between disease dynamics and vaccinating behavior have been explored in many coupled behavior-disease models. Cognitive effects such as risk perception, framing, and subjective probabilities of adverse events can be important determinants of the vaccinating behaviour, and represent departures from the pure "rational" decision model that are often described as "bounded rationality". However, the impact of such cognitive effects in the context of paediatric infectious disease vaccines has received relatively little attention. Here, we develop a disease-behavior model that accounts for bounded rationality through prospect theory. We analyze the model and compare its predictions to a reduced model that lacks bounded rationality. We find that, in general, introducing bounded rationality increases the dynamical richness of the model and makes it harder to eliminate a paediatric infectious disease. In contrast, in other cases, a low cost, highly efficacious vaccine can be refused, even when the rational decision model predicts acceptance. Injunctive social norms can prevent vaccine refusal, if vaccine acceptance is sufficiently high in the beginning of the vaccination campaign. Cognitive processes can have major impacts on the predictions of behaviour-disease models, and further study of such processes in the context of vaccination is thus warranted.

  16. Rational desires and the limitation of life-sustaining treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Savulescu, Julian

    1994-07-01

    It is accepted that treatment of previously competent, now incompetent patients can be limited if that is what the patient would desire, if she were now competent. Expressed past preferences or an advance directive are often taken to constitute sufficient evidence of what a patient would now desire. I distinguish between desires and rational desires. I argue that for a desire to be an expression of a person's autonomy, it must be or satisfy that person's rational desires. A person rationally desires a course of action if that person desires it while being in possession of all available relevant facts, without committing relevant error of logic, and "vividly imagining" what its consequences would be like for her. I argue that some competent, expressed desires obstruct autonomy. I show that several psychological mechanisms operate to prevent a person rationally evaluating what future life in a disabled state would be like. Rational evaluation is difficult. However, treatment limitation, if it is to respect autonomy, must be in accord with a patient's rational desires, and not merely her expressed desires. I illustrate the implications of these arguments for the use of advance directives and for the treatment of competent patients.

  17. Rational emotive behaviour therapy: distinctive features

    OpenAIRE

    Dryden, Windy

    2008-01-01

    Rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) encourages the client to focus on their emotional problems in order to understand, challenge and change the irrational beliefs that underpin these problems. REBT can help clients to strengthen conviction in their alternative rational beliefs by acting in ways that are consistent with them and thus encourage a healthier outlook.\\ud \\ud This accessible and direct guide introduces the reader to REBT while indicating how it is different from other approac...

  18. Rationally Addicted to Drinking and Smoking?

    OpenAIRE

    Bask, Mikael; Melkersson, Maria

    2001-01-01

    When modeling demand for addictive consumption goods, the most widely used framework is the rational addiction model proposed by Becker and Murphy (1988). In the present paper, we extend the rational addiction model to include two addictive consumption goods, alcohol and cigarettes. We estimate the aggregate demand for alcohol and cigarettes in Sweden, using aggregate annual time series on sales volumes for the period 1955-1999. OLS estimates are compared to GMM estimates allowing for possibl...

  19. The Emotional and Moral Basis of Rationality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boostrom, Robert

    2013-01-01

    This chapter explores the basis of rationality, arguing that critical thinking tends to be taught in schools as a set of skills because of the failure to recognize that choosing to think critically depends on the prior development of stable sentiments or moral habits that nourish a rational self. Primary among these stable sentiments are the…

  20. Peer and cyber aggression in secondary school students: the role of moral disengagement, hostile attribution bias, and outcome expectancies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pornari, Chrisa D; Wood, Jane

    2010-01-01

    This study investigated the relationship between cognitive mechanisms, applied by people to rationalize and justify harmful acts, and engagement in traditional peer and cyber aggression among school children. We examined the contribution of moral disengagement (MD), hostile attribution bias, and outcome expectancies, and we further explored the individual contribution of each MD mechanism. Our aim was to identify shared and unique cognitive factors of the two forms of aggression. Three hundred and thirty-nine secondary school children completed self-report measures that assessed MD, hostile attribution bias, outcome expectancies, and their roles and involvement in traditional and cyber aggression. We found that the MD total score positively related to both forms of peer-directed aggression. Furthermore, traditional peer aggression positively related to children's moral justification, euphemistic language, displacement of responsibility and outcome expectancies, and negatively associated with hostile attribution bias. Moral justification also related positively to cyber aggression. Cyber aggression and cyber victimization were associated with high levels of traditional peer aggression and victimization, respectively. The results suggest that MD is a common feature of both traditional and cyber peer aggression, but it seems that traditional forms of aggression demand a higher level of rationalization or justification. Moreover, the data suggest that the expectation of positive outcomes from harmful behavior facilitates engagement in traditional peer aggression. The differential contribution of specific cognitive mechanisms indicates the need for future research to elaborate on the current findings, in order to advance theory and inform existing and future school interventions tackling aggression and bullying. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  1. Toward the rational use of standardized infection ratios to benchmark surgical site infections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fukuda, Haruhisa; Morikane, Keita; Kuroki, Manabu; Taniguchi, Shinichiro; Shinzato, Takashi; Sakamoto, Fumie; Okada, Kunihiko; Matsukawa, Hiroshi; Ieiri, Yuko; Hayashi, Kouji; Kawai, Shin

    2013-09-01

    The National Healthcare Safety Network transitioned from surgical site infection (SSI) rates to the standardized infection ratio (SIR) calculated by statistical models that included perioperative factors (surgical approach and surgery duration). Rationally, however, only patient-related variables should be included in the SIR model. Logistic regression was performed to predict expected SSI rate in 2 models that included or excluded perioperative factors. Observed and expected SSI rates were used to calculate the SIR for each participating hospital. The difference of SIR in each model was then evaluated. Surveillance data were collected from a total of 1,530 colon surgery patients and 185 SSIs. C-index in the model with perioperative factors was statistically greater than that in the model including patient-related factors only (0.701 vs 0.621, respectively, P operative process or the competence of surgical teams, these factors should not be considered predictive variables. Copyright © 2013 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Caregiving decision making by older mothers and adult children: process and expected outcome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cicirelli, Victor G

    2006-06-01

    Dyadic caregiving decision making was studied in 30 mother-son and 29 mother-daughter pairs (mother's age=65-94 years) who responded to a vignette depicting a caregiving decision situation. The observed decision-making process of mother-child pairs was largely naturalistic, with few alternatives proposed and quick convergence to a decision followed by a postdecision justification; a degree of more rational decision making was seen in some pairs. Among significant findings, adult children, especially sons, dominated the decision process, doing more talking and introducing more alternatives than did their mothers, who played a more subordinate role. Mother-son pairs expected more negative outcomes and greater regrets regarding their decisions than mother-daughter pairs. Closeness of the parent-child relationship influenced the decision-making process, expected outcomes, and regrets. Copyright (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

  3. The necessity to rationalize library procedures and activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matjaž Žaucer

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The necessity of the rationalization of work and procedures in libraries due to the altered requirements and needs of users and due to the expected aggravated demands of the environment are displayed in the article. The causes for the changes in the librarianship and the causes for the changes in the environment are stated. The article analyzes the searching procedure in the Slovenian union bibliographic and catalogue database using the UDC. Upon a practical experiment it was established that the users can not make a successful use of the UDC because neither on the web nor in the database there are freely accessible UDC tables; there are also no exact usage instructions available. The outcomes of some tests in public and academic libraries reveal that the assistance of librarians with retrievals by the UDC is unpractical, timeconsuming and does not always lead to the correct result. Based on an international comparison of foreign academic libraries and one Slovenian library, the latter shows a substantial ineffectiveness in cataloging which leads to the assumption of the highdemanding or incomplete cataloguing rules. The case of the digital patent documents in one of the libraries reveals the incapability of processing of a large amount of documents according to the existing rules. The conclusion of the article is the appeal for more rational cataloging rules, for the accessibility of cataloging records directly via web search engines and for an optional indication of the UDC in the records. However, as the conditions in Slovenian libraries are not critical yet, the author has doubts about a quick response to those appeals.

  4. The ecological rationality of state-dependent valuation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNamara, J M; Trimmer, P C; Houston, A I

    2012-01-01

    Laboratory studies on a range of animals have identified a bias that seems to violate basic principles of rational behavior: a preference is shown for feeding options that previously provided food when reserves were low, even though another option had been found to give the same reward with less delay. The bias presents a challenge to normative models of decision making (which only take account of expected rewards and the state of the animal at the decision time). To understand the behavior, we take a broad ecological perspective and consider how valuation mechanisms evolve when the best action depends upon the environment being faced. We show that in a changing and uncertain environment, state-dependent valuation can be favored by natural selection: Individuals should allow their hunger to affect learning for future decisions. The valuation mechanism that typically evolves produces the kind of behavior seen in standard laboratory tests. By providing an insight into why learning should be affected by the state of an individual, we provide a basis for understanding psychological principles in terms of an animal's ecology.

  5. 50 CFR 660.337 - Trawl rationalization program - data collection requirements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 9 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Trawl rationalization program - data... COAST STATES West Coast Groundfish Fisheries § 660.337 Trawl rationalization program - data collection... guarantee that they will qualify for quota share under a future trawl rationalization program. The following...

  6. The two-model problem in rational decision making

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Boumans, Marcel

    2011-01-01

    A model of a decision problem frames that problem in three dimensions: sample space, target probability and information structure. Each specific model imposes a specific rational decision. As a result, different models may impose different, even contradictory, rational decisions, creating choice

  7. Realization and elimination in rational representations of behaviors

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gottimukkala, Sasanka V.; Trentelman, Hendrikus; Fiaz, Shaik

    This article deals with the relationship between rational representations of linear differential systems and their state representations. In particular we study the relationship between rational representations on the one hand, and output nulling and driving variable representations on the other. In

  8. Rational first integrals of geodesic equations and generalised hidden symmetries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aoki, Arata; Houri, Tsuyoshi; Tomoda, Kentaro

    2016-01-01

    We discuss novel generalisations of Killing tensors, which are introduced by considering rational first integrals of geodesic equations. We introduce the notion of inconstructible generalised Killing tensors, which cannot be constructed from ordinary Killing tensors. Moreover, we introduce inconstructible rational first integrals, which are constructed from inconstructible generalised Killing tensors, and provide a method for checking the inconstructibility of a rational first integral. Using the method, we show that the rational first integral of the Collinson–O’Donnell solution is not inconstructible. We also provide several examples of metrics admitting an inconstructible rational first integral in two and four-dimensions, by using the Maciejewski–Przybylska system. Furthermore, we attempt to generalise other hidden symmetries such as Killing–Yano tensors. (paper)

  9. Decision making in the short and long run: repeated gambles and rationality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aloysius, John A

    2007-05-01

    Experimental evidence indicates that decision makers who reject a single play of a gamble may accept repeated plays of that gamble. The rationality of this pattern of preference has been investigated beginning with Samuelson's colleague (SC) who gained notoriety in a well-known paper. SC's pattern of preference is commonly viewed as a behavioural anomaly. Researchers from branches of psychology and economics have analysed the choice and, despite much debate, there remains considerable confusion. An axiomatic analysis of SC's choice has been used to motivate experimental studies in several disciplines. This paper identifies the axiomatic violation as that of an assumed rather than a normative condition. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, SC's choice is consistent with expected utility theory.

  10. Mental health as rational autonomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, R B

    1981-08-01

    Rather than eliminate the terms "mental health and illness" because of the grave moral consequences of psychiatric labeling, conservative definitions are proposed and defended. Mental health is rational autonomy, and mental illness is the sustained loss of such. Key terms are explained, advantages are explored, and alternative concepts are criticized. The value and descriptive components of all such definitions are consciously acknowledged. Where rational autonomy is intact, mental hospitals and psychotherapists should not think of themselves as treating an illness. Instead, they are functioning as applied axiologists, moral educators, spiritual mentors, etc. They deal with what Szasz has called "personal, social, and ethical problems in living." But mental illness is real.

  11. Risk Judgment by General Dental Practitioners: Rational but Uninformed

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eva Ellervall

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Background: Decisions by dentists to administer antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent infectious complications in patients involves professional risk assessment. While recommendations for rational use have been published, several studies have shown that dentists have low adherence to these recommendations. Objective: To examine general dental practitioners’ (GDPs’ assessments of the risk of complications if not administering antibiotic prophylaxis in connection with dental procedures in patients with specific medical conditions. Methods: Postal questionnaires in combination with telephone interviews. Risk assessments were made using visual analogue scales (VAS, where zero represented “insignificant risk” and 100 represented a “very significant risk”. Results: Response rate: 51%. The mean risk assessments were higher for GDPs who administered antibiotics (mean = 54, SD = 23, range 26–72 mm on the VAS than those who did not (mean = 14, SD = 12, range 7–31 mm (P < 0.05. Generally, GDPs made higher risk assessments for patients with medical conditions that are included in recommendations than those with conditions that are not included. Overall, risk assessments were higher for tooth removal than for scaling or root canal treatment, even though the risk assessments should be considered equal for these interventions. Conclusions: GDPs’ risk assessments were rational but uninformed. They administered antibiotics in a manner that was consistent with their risk assessments. Their risk assessments, however, were overestimated. Inaccurate judgments of risk should not be expected to disappear in the presence of new information. To achieve change, clinicians must be motivated to improve behaviour and an evidence- based implementation strategy is required.

  12. The effects of current and expected future income on stated preferences for environmental improvements

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jacobsen, Jette Bredahl; Lundhede, Thomas; Thorsen, Bo Jellesmark

    2013-01-01

    We formulate and test the hypothesis that expectations regarding changes in future income influences the WTP for environmental goods. For valuation of environmental goods in forests and other habitats in Denmark, we find that both current income and expected changes in future income are significant...... determinants for preferences. The effect of income on WTP seems to be caused by changes in preferences for environmental attributes rather than by marginal utility of income. The results suggest that to evaluate the distributional impacts of environmental improvements, researchers need a better measure...

  13. Design rationalization and the logic of design: a case study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Galle, Per

    1996-01-01

    various ‘sources of credibility’ of premises, items of general background knowledge, and several (abductive and deductive) patterns of inference which suggest a possible ‘logic of design’. Rationalization of decisions is defined, and many decisions are found not to be fully rationalized, despite...... the apparent rationality of the reasoning....

  14. Neurobiological studies of risk assessment: a comparison of expected utility and mean-variance approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Acremont, Mathieu; Bossaerts, Peter

    2008-12-01

    When modeling valuation under uncertainty, economists generally prefer expected utility because it has an axiomatic foundation, meaning that the resulting choices will satisfy a number of rationality requirements. In expected utility theory, values are computed by multiplying probabilities of each possible state of nature by the payoff in that state and summing the results. The drawback of this approach is that all state probabilities need to be dealt with separately, which becomes extremely cumbersome when it comes to learning. Finance academics and professionals, however, prefer to value risky prospects in terms of a trade-off between expected reward and risk, where the latter is usually measured in terms of reward variance. This mean-variance approach is fast and simple and greatly facilitates learning, but it impedes assigning values to new gambles on the basis of those of known ones. To date, it is unclear whether the human brain computes values in accordance with expected utility theory or with mean-variance analysis. In this article, we discuss the theoretical and empirical arguments that favor one or the other theory. We also propose a new experimental paradigm that could determine whether the human brain follows the expected utility or the mean-variance approach. Behavioral results of implementation of the paradigm are discussed.

  15. Rationally designed synthetic protein hydrogels with predictable mechanical properties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Junhua; Li, Pengfei; Dong, Chenling; Jiang, Heting; Bin Xue; Gao, Xiang; Qin, Meng; Wang, Wei; Bin Chen; Cao, Yi

    2018-02-12

    Designing synthetic protein hydrogels with tailored mechanical properties similar to naturally occurring tissues is an eternal pursuit in tissue engineering and stem cell and cancer research. However, it remains challenging to correlate the mechanical properties of protein hydrogels with the nanomechanics of individual building blocks. Here we use single-molecule force spectroscopy, protein engineering and theoretical modeling to prove that the mechanical properties of protein hydrogels are predictable based on the mechanical hierarchy of the cross-linkers and the load-bearing modules at the molecular level. These findings provide a framework for rationally designing protein hydrogels with independently tunable elasticity, extensibility, toughness and self-healing. Using this principle, we demonstrate the engineering of self-healable muscle-mimicking hydrogels that can significantly dissipate energy through protein unfolding. We expect that this principle can be generalized for the construction of protein hydrogels with customized mechanical properties for biomedical applications.

  16. Emergence of scale-free characteristics in socio-ecological systems with bounded rationality

    OpenAIRE

    Kasthurirathna, Dharshana; Piraveenan, Mahendra

    2015-01-01

    Socio?ecological systems are increasingly modelled by games played on complex networks. While the concept of Nash equilibrium assumes perfect rationality, in reality players display heterogeneous bounded rationality. Here we present a topological model of bounded rationality in socio-ecological systems, using the rationality parameter of the Quantal Response Equilibrium. We argue that system rationality could be measured by the average Kullback?-Leibler divergence between Nash and Quantal Res...

  17. Adaptation gap hypothesis: How differences between users’ expected and perceived agent functions affect their subjective impression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takanori Komatsu

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available We describe an “adaptation gap” that indicates the differences between the functions of artificial agents that users expect before starting their interactions and the functions they perceive after their interactions. We investigated the effect of this adaptation gap on users’ impressions of artificial agents because any variations in impression before and after the start of an interaction determines whether the user feels that this agent is worth interacting with. The results showed that positive or negative signs of the adaptation gap and subjective impression scores of agents before the experiment significantly affected the users’ final impressions of the agents.

  18. Teaching Rational Entitlement and Responsibility: A Socratic Exercise

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Godden

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available The paper reports on a Socratic exercise that introduces participants to the norm of rational entitlement, as distinct from political entitlement, and the attendant norm of rational responsibility. The exercise demonstrates that, because participants are not willing to exchange their own opinion at random for another differing opinion to which the owner is, by the participants’ own admission, entitled, they treat their entitlement to their own opinion differently, giving it a special status. This gives rise to rational obligations such as the obligation to provide reasons, and a willingness to risk those opinions to the force of the better reason.

  19. Rational equity bubbles

    OpenAIRE

    Zhou, Ge

    2012-01-01

    This paper discusses the existence of a bubble in the pricing of an asset that pays positive dividends. I show that rational bubbles can exist in a growing economy. The existence of bubbles depends on the relative magnitudes of risk aversion to consumption and to wealth. Furthermore, I examine how an exogenous shock in technology might trigger bubbles.

  20. Rationalization of water consumption in paper industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Žarković Darja

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available The subject of this paper was to consider the possibilities of economical paper production with rationalization of water consumption. In accordance with the principles of viable development. The pulp & paper industry has had to face global market needs and strict regulation concerning the environment. The basic motive was to provide consistent and high product quality, which is competitive on the market. The pulp & paper industry is one of the largest consumers and pollutants of natural resources. In that light, the rationalization of raw material, water, energy and chemicals consumption with minimization of environmental impact is essential. The European directive on environmental protection obliges producers of pulp & paper to decrease the volume of wastewater and to increase the efficiency treatment. Pulp and paper industry in Serbia and Montenegro will also be faced with the demands for environmental protection. Numerous examples of water consumption rationalization and improvement of water quality in the pulp & paper industry could be found in different literature sources. It is necessary to increase water system closure and implement up-to-date treatment methods. The possibilities for water consumption rationalization, in a real system the paperboard mill UMKA, were examined.

  1. Imagination and the Pursuit of a Rational Rhetoric.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foster, David E.

    The works of certain rhetorical thinkers contain strategies directed at achieving assent or cooperation. Such writings demonstrate means by which readers' rational responses can be deliberately challenged and disrupted. While people often cite Aristotle's maxim "Man is a rational animal," critics have asserted that the statement…

  2. Cassapro in broiler ration : effect of halquinol Supplementation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I.P Kompiang

    1997-10-01

    Full Text Available A trial was conducted to determine the effect of various level of cassapro (fermented cassava and halquinol supplementation on the performance of broiler chickens . Experimental rations were formulated isoprotein and isoenergy with graded level of cassapro (0, 10, 20 and 30% . The 20 and 30% cassapro ration were prepared without and with halquinol supplementation (60 ppm. Each ration was fed to 40 of three day old broilers, divided into 4 cages ( 5 males and 5 females per cage for 4 weeks. Increasing the level of cassapro significantly reduced body weight gain (P < 0.005, increased feed conversion ratio (FCR (P < 0.0005 with no effect on feed intake (P < 0.10 . Halquinol supplementation has no effect on feed intake, but significantly increased body weight gain (P <0.05 and improved the FCR (P < 0.01 . It is concluded that high level of cassapro in the ration will cause poorer performance of the birds, however it can be alleviated by halquinolsupplementation.

  3. The rational complementarity problem

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heemels, W.P.M.H.; Schumacher, J.M.; Weiland, S.

    1999-01-01

    An extension of the linear complementarity problem (LCP) of mathematical programming is the so-called rational complementarity problem (RCP). This problem occurs if complementarity conditions are imposed on input and output variables of linear dynamical input/state/output systems. The resulting

  4. Consumer rationality in choice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Conlon, B.J.

    2001-01-01

    The dissertation concentrates on consumer choice and the ability of current modelling approaches to capture the underlying behaviour of the individual decision-makers. The standard assumption of a rational utility maximising individual and its implications for observed behaviour are examined and

  5. Universal and Relative Rationality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nathaniel Goldberg

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper I illustrate how a basic kind of universal rationality can be profitably combined with undeniable instances of relativism. I do so by engaging Michael Friedman’s recent response to a challenge from Thomas Kuhn.

  6. Rational Emotive Education as a Short-Term Primary Prevention Technique.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hooper, Stephen R.; Layne, C. Clinton

    1985-01-01

    Fifth- to seventh-grade students (N=586) who participated in one hour of Rational Emotive Education (a directive approach to teaching rational thinking skills) for six weeks scored higher in posttests of the Com oA Belief Inventory for Students than control Ss (N=738) who received no Rational Emotive Education. Findings suggested the utility of a…

  7. 'Ethical rationality': A subjective-objective concept of risk assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaiser, H.

    1991-01-01

    'Ethical rationality' as a concept of risk assessment means that risks are assessed using an integrative, ethical-normative approach (taking values, world views and people's understanding of what it means to be a human being and of what makes life worth living into account). Thus risks cannot be assessed on a mathematical and statistical basis alone. It is much more important to reflect upon what makes life worth living. In order to answer this question, the rationality of probability calculus does not suffice. Instead, this form of rationality must be transformed into or replaced by ethical discourse (an open, iterative and complex process of making ethical judgement). Proposals for an ethical assessment of risk are made which are substantiated by the theoretical concept of ethical rationality comprising the following steps: - Consideration of the nature of ethics (understanding of the viewer's perspective); - A look at an ethical interpretation of the traditional mathematical concept of risk (description); - Scheme for an ethical conception of rationality (theoretical reflections); - Weighing risks from an ethical perspective in practice. (orig./HSCH) [de

  8. Reassessing the Trade-off Hypothesis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rosas, Guillermo; Manzetti, Luigi

    2015-01-01

    Do economic conditions drive voters to punish politicians that tolerate corruption? Previous scholarly work contends that citizens in young democracies support corrupt governments that are capable of promoting good economic outcomes, the so-called trade-off hypothesis. We test this hypothesis based...

  9. A Nonlinear Super-Exponential Rational Model of Speculative Financial Bubbles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sornette, D.; Andersen, J. V.

    Keeping a basic tenet of economic theory, rational expectations, we model the nonlinear positive feedback between agents in the stock market as an interplay between nonlinearity and multiplicative noise. The derived hyperbolic stochastic finite-time singularity formula transforms a Gaussian white noise into a rich time series possessing all the stylized facts of empirical prices, as well as accelerated speculative bubbles preceding crashes. We use the formula to invert the two years of price history prior to the recent crash on the Nasdaq (April 2000) and prior to the crash in the Hong Kong market associated with the Asian crisis in early 1994. These complex price dynamics are captured using only one exponent controlling the explosion, the variance and mean of the underlying random walk. This offers a new and powerful detection tool of speculative bubbles and herding behavior.

  10. Rationalization with ruled surfaces in architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Steenstrup, Kasper Hornbak

    This thesis addresses the problems of rationalizing and segmenting large scale 3D models, and how to handle difficult production constraints in this area. The design choices when constructing large scale architecture are influenced by the budget. Therefore I strive to minimize the amount of time...... and material needed for production. This makes advanced free form architecture viable for low cost projects, allowing the architects to realize their designs. By pre-cutting building blocks using hot wire robots, the amount of milling necessary can be reduced drastically. I do this by rationalizing...

  11. Rational homotopy theory and differential forms

    CERN Document Server

    Griffiths, Phillip

    2013-01-01

    This completely revised and corrected version of the well-known Florence notes circulated by the authors together with E. Friedlander examines basic topology, emphasizing homotopy theory. Included is a discussion of Postnikov towers and rational homotopy theory. This is then followed by an in-depth look at differential forms and de Tham's theorem on simplicial complexes. In addition, Sullivan's results on computing the rational homotopy type from forms is presented.  New to the Second Edition: *Fully-revised appendices including an expanded discussion of the Hirsch lemma*Presentation of a natu

  12. Short-Term Expectation Formation Versus Long-Term Equilibrium Conditions: The Danish Housing Market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreas Hetland

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The primary contribution of this paper is to establish that the long-swings behavior observed in the market price of Danish housing since the 1970s can be understood by studying the interplay between short-term expectation formation and long-run equilibrium conditions. We introduce an asset market model for housing based on uncertainty rather than risk, which under mild assumptions allows for other forms of forecasting behavior than rational expectations. We test the theory via an I(2 cointegrated VAR model and find that the long-run equilibrium for the housing price corresponds closely to the predictions from the theoretical framework. Additionally, we corroborate previous findings that housing markets are well characterized by short-term momentum forecasting behavior. Our conclusions have wider relevance, since housing prices play a role in the wider Danish economy, and other developed economies, through wealth effects.

  13. Selective REM Sleep Deprivation Improves Expectation-Related Placebo Analgesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chouchou, Florian; Chauny, Jean-Marc; Rainville, Pierre; Lavigne, Gilles J

    2015-01-01

    The placebo effect is a neurobiological and psychophysiological process known to influence perceived pain relief. Optimization of placebo analgesia may contribute to the clinical efficacy and effectiveness of medication for acute and chronic pain management. We know that the placebo effect operates through two main mechanisms, expectations and learning, which is also influenced by sleep. Moreover, a recent study suggested that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is associated with modulation of expectation-mediated placebo analgesia. We examined placebo analgesia following pharmacological REM sleep deprivation and we tested the hypothesis that relief expectations and placebo analgesia would be improved by experimental REM sleep deprivation in healthy volunteers. Following an adaptive night in a sleep laboratory, 26 healthy volunteers underwent classical experimental placebo analgesic conditioning in the evening combined with pharmacological REM sleep deprivation (clonidine: 13 volunteers or inert control pill: 13 volunteers). Medication was administered in a double-blind manner at bedtime, and placebo analgesia was tested in the morning. Results revealed that 1) placebo analgesia improved with REM sleep deprivation; 2) pain relief expectations did not differ between REM sleep deprivation and control groups; and 3) REM sleep moderated the relationship between pain relief expectations and placebo analgesia. These results support the putative role of REM sleep in modulating placebo analgesia. The mechanisms involved in these improvements in placebo analgesia and pain relief following selective REM sleep deprivation should be further investigated.

  14. Rational approximation of vertical segments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salazar Celis, Oliver; Cuyt, Annie; Verdonk, Brigitte

    2007-08-01

    In many applications, observations are prone to imprecise measurements. When constructing a model based on such data, an approximation rather than an interpolation approach is needed. Very often a least squares approximation is used. Here we follow a different approach. A natural way for dealing with uncertainty in the data is by means of an uncertainty interval. We assume that the uncertainty in the independent variables is negligible and that for each observation an uncertainty interval can be given which contains the (unknown) exact value. To approximate such data we look for functions which intersect all uncertainty intervals. In the past this problem has been studied for polynomials, or more generally for functions which are linear in the unknown coefficients. Here we study the problem for a particular class of functions which are nonlinear in the unknown coefficients, namely rational functions. We show how to reduce the problem to a quadratic programming problem with a strictly convex objective function, yielding a unique rational function which intersects all uncertainty intervals and satisfies some additional properties. Compared to rational least squares approximation which reduces to a nonlinear optimization problem where the objective function may have many local minima, this makes the new approach attractive.

  15. Teaching Rational Decision-Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woolever, Roberts

    1978-01-01

    Presented is an outline of a college course, "Education in American Society," that focused on teaching students rational decision-making skills while examining current issues in American Education. The outline is followed by student comments, reactions, and evaluations of the course. (JMD)

  16. Geometry of minimal rational curves on Fano manifolds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hwang, J -M [Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2001-12-15

    This lecture is an introduction to my joint project with N. Mok where we develop a geometric theory of Fano manifolds of Picard number 1 by studying the collection of tangent directions of minimal rational curves through a generic point. After a sketch of some historical background, the fundamental object of this project, the variety of minimal rational tangents, is defined and various examples are examined. Then some results on the variety of minimal rational tangents are discussed including an extension theorem for holomorphic maps preserving the geometric structure. Some applications of this theory to the stability of the tangent bundles and the rigidity of generically finite morphisms are given. (author)

  17. A comparative study of expectant parents ' childbirth expectations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kao, Bi-Chin; Gau, Meei-Ling; Wu, Shian-Feng; Kuo, Bih-Jaw; Lee, Tsorng-Yeh

    2004-09-01

    The purpose of this study was to understand childbirth expectations and differences in childbirth expectations among expectant parents. For convenience sampling, 200 couples willing to participate in this study were chosen from two hospitals in central Taiwan. Inclusion criteria were at least 36 weeks of gestation, aged 18 and above, no prenatal complications, and willing to consent to participate in this study. Instruments used to collect data included basic demographic data and the Childbirth Expectations Questionnaire. Findings of the study revealed that (1) five factors were identified by expectant parents regarding childbirth expectations including the caregiving environment, expectation of labor pain, spousal support, control and participation, and medical and nursing support; (2) no general differences were identified in the childbirth expectations between expectant fathers and expectant mothers; and (3) expectant fathers with a higher socioeconomic status and who had received prenatal (childbirth) education had higher childbirth expectations, whereas mothers displayed no differences in demographic characteristics. The study results may help clinical healthcare providers better understand differences in expectations during labor and birth and childbirth expectations by expectant parents in order to improve the medical and nursing system and promote positive childbirth experiences and satisfaction for expectant parents.

  18. Working Memory Strategies during Rational Number Magnitude Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hurst, Michelle; Cordes, Sara

    2017-01-01

    Rational number understanding is a critical building block for success in more advanced mathematics; however, how rational number magnitudes are conceptualized is not fully understood. In the current study, we used a dual-task working memory (WM) interference paradigm to investigate the dominant type of strategy (i.e., requiring verbal WM…

  19. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: Origins, Constructs, and Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Joshua C.

    In 1956, Dr. Albert Ellis presented his seminal work on Rational Therapy, subsequently renamed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) in 1993. This paper explores the origins, theoretical foundations, applications, and implications of REBT and provides a look at the empirical research available in support of the approach's efficacy. REBT is…

  20. Rationality and Integration in a Family Childrearing Decision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diana, Mark S.

    This paper illuminates how concepts of rationality developed by Diesing in l962 are reflected in parents' childrearing decisions. After examining technical (TR), economic (ER), social (SR), legal (LR), and political (PR) rationalities or decision-making styles, consideration is given to integrative effects and the influence of parents' friends and…

  1. Tests of the lunar hypothesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, S. R.

    1984-01-01

    The concept that the Moon was fissioned from the Earth after core separation is the most readily testable hypothesis of lunar origin, since direct comparisons of lunar and terrestrial compositions can be made. Differences found in such comparisons introduce so many ad hoc adjustments to the fission hypothesis that it becomes untestable. Further constraints may be obtained from attempting to date the volatile-refractory element fractionation. The combination of chemical and isotopic problems suggests that the fission hypothesis is no longer viable, and separate terrestrial and lunar accretion from a population of fractionated precursor planetesimals provides a more reasonable explanation.

  2. An fMRI investigation of expectation violation in magic tricks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amory H. Danek

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Magic tricks violate the expected causal relationships that form an implicit belief system about what is possible in the world around us. Observing a magic effect seemingly invalidates our implicit assumptions about what action causes which outcome. We aimed at identifying the neural correlates of such expectation violations by contrasting 24 video clips of magic tricks with 24 control clips in which the expected action-outcome relationship is upheld. Using fMRI, we measured the brain activity of 25 normal volunteers while they watched the clips in the scanner. Additionally, we measured the professional magician who had performed the magic tricks under the assumption that, in contrast to naïve observers, the magician himself would not perceive his own magic tricks as an expectation violation. As the main effect of magic – control clips in the normal sample, we found higher activity for magic in the head of the caudate nucleus bilaterally, the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left anterior insula. As expected, the magician’s brain activity substantially differed from these results, with mainly parietal areas (supramarginal gyrus bilaterally activated, supporting our hypothesis that he did not experience any expectation violation. These findings are in accordance with previous research that has implicated the head of the caudate nucleus in processing changes in the contingency between action and outcome, even in the absence of reward or feedback.

  3. Vacuum expectation values of high-dimensional operators and their contributions to the Bjorken and Ellis-Jaffe sum rules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oganesian, A.G.

    1998-01-01

    A method is proposed for estimating unknown vacuum expectation values of high-dimensional operators. The method is based on the idea that the factorization hypothesis is self-consistent. Results are obtained for all vacuum expectation values of dimension-7 operators, and some estimates for dimension-10 operators are presented as well. The resulting values are used to compute corrections of higher dimensions to the Bjorken and Ellis-Jaffe sum rules

  4. Heterogeneous Parking Market Subject to Parking Rationing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saeed Asadi Bagloee

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Different types of drivers and parking spaces delineate a heterogeneous parking market for which the literature has yet to provide a model applicable to the real world. The main obstacle is computational complexities of considering various parking restrictions along with traffic congestion on the road network. In this study, the heterogeneity aspects are considered within a Logit parking choice model. A mathematical programming problem was introduced to explicitly consider parking capacities and parking rationing constraints. The parking rationing is defined as any arrangement to reserve parking space for some specific demand such as parking permit, private parking, VIP parking, and different parking durations. Introduction of parking rationing in the presence of other constraints is a unique factor in this study which makes the model more realistic. The algorithm was tested on a central business district case study. The results prove that the algorithm is able to converge rapidly. Among the algorithm’s output are shadow prices of the parking capacity and parking rationing constraints. The shadow prices contain important information which is key to addressing a variety of parking issues, such as the location of parking shortages, identification of fair parking charges, viability of parking permits, and the size of reserved parking.

  5. Developing and Testing Rational Models of Message Design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Keefe, Barbara J.

    1992-01-01

    Responds to an article in the same issue regarding research methods for conversational cognition. Argues for a noncognitive view of rational models in communication research. Sets out an analysis of the kinds of claims made by rational models of message design. Discusses the implications of this analysis for studies of the cognitive processes…

  6. Coalescent Simulation and Paleodistribution Modeling for Tabebuia rosealba Do Not Support South American Dry Forest Refugia Hypothesis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Warita Alves de Melo

    Full Text Available Studies based on contemporary plant occurrences and pollen fossil records have proposed that the current disjunct distribution of seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs across South America is the result of fragmentation of a formerly widespread and continuously distributed dry forest during the arid climatic conditions associated with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, which is known as the modern-day dry forest refugia hypothesis. We studied the demographic history of Tabebuia rosealba (Bignoniaceae to understand the disjunct geographic distribution of South American SDTFs based on statistical phylogeography and ecological niche modeling (ENM. We specifically tested the dry forest refugia hypothesis; i.e., if the multiple and isolated patches of SDTFs are current climatic relicts of a widespread and continuously distributed dry forest during the LGM. We sampled 235 individuals across 18 populations in Central Brazil and analyzed the polymorphisms at chloroplast (trnS-trnG, psbA-trnH and ycf6-trnC intergenic spacers and nuclear (ITS nrDNA genomes. We performed coalescence simulations of alternative hypotheses under demographic expectations from two a priori biogeographic hypotheses (1. the Pleistocene Arc hypothesis and, 2. a range shift to Amazon Basin and other two demographic expectances predicted by ENMs (3. expansion throughout the Neotropical South America, including Amazon Basin, and 4. retraction during the LGM. Phylogenetic analyses based on median-joining network showed haplotype sharing among populations with evidence of incomplete lineage sorting. Coalescent analyses showed smaller effective population sizes for T. roseoalba during the LGM compared to the present-day. Simulations and ENM also showed that its current spatial pattern of genetic diversity is most likely due to a scenario of range retraction during the LGM instead of the fragmentation from a once extensive and largely contiguous SDTF across South America, not supporting the

  7. Coalescent Simulation and Paleodistribution Modeling for Tabebuia rosealba Do Not Support South American Dry Forest Refugia Hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Melo, Warita Alves; Lima-Ribeiro, Matheus S; Terribile, Levi Carina; Collevatti, Rosane G

    2016-01-01

    Studies based on contemporary plant occurrences and pollen fossil records have proposed that the current disjunct distribution of seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs) across South America is the result of fragmentation of a formerly widespread and continuously distributed dry forest during the arid climatic conditions associated with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which is known as the modern-day dry forest refugia hypothesis. We studied the demographic history of Tabebuia rosealba (Bignoniaceae) to understand the disjunct geographic distribution of South American SDTFs based on statistical phylogeography and ecological niche modeling (ENM). We specifically tested the dry forest refugia hypothesis; i.e., if the multiple and isolated patches of SDTFs are current climatic relicts of a widespread and continuously distributed dry forest during the LGM. We sampled 235 individuals across 18 populations in Central Brazil and analyzed the polymorphisms at chloroplast (trnS-trnG, psbA-trnH and ycf6-trnC intergenic spacers) and nuclear (ITS nrDNA) genomes. We performed coalescence simulations of alternative hypotheses under demographic expectations from two a priori biogeographic hypotheses (1. the Pleistocene Arc hypothesis and, 2. a range shift to Amazon Basin) and other two demographic expectances predicted by ENMs (3. expansion throughout the Neotropical South America, including Amazon Basin, and 4. retraction during the LGM). Phylogenetic analyses based on median-joining network showed haplotype sharing among populations with evidence of incomplete lineage sorting. Coalescent analyses showed smaller effective population sizes for T. roseoalba during the LGM compared to the present-day. Simulations and ENM also showed that its current spatial pattern of genetic diversity is most likely due to a scenario of range retraction during the LGM instead of the fragmentation from a once extensive and largely contiguous SDTF across South America, not supporting the South

  8. Autonomy, rationality and the wish to die.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clarke, D M

    1999-12-01

    Although suicide has traditionally carried a negative sanction in Western societies, this is now being challenged, and while there remains substantial public concern surrounding youth and elder suicide, there is a paradoxical push to relax the prohibition under certain circumstances. Central to the arguments behind this are the principles of respect for autonomy and the importance of rationality. It is argued here that the concepts of rationality and autonomy, while valuable, are not strong enough to substantiate a categorical "right to suicide" and that the concepts of "understandability" and "respect" are more useful and able to provide the foundation for responding to a person expressing a wish to die. Roman suicide, sometimes held as an example of "rational suicide", illustrates the effects of culture, tradition and values on the attitudes to, and the practice of, suicide.

  9. Changing Conspiracy Beliefs through Rationality and Ridiculing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orosz, Gábor; Krekó, Péter; Paskuj, Benedek; Tóth-Király, István; Bőthe, Beáta; Roland-Lévy, Christine

    2016-01-01

    Conspiracy theory (CT) beliefs can be harmful. How is it possible to reduce them effectively? Three reduction strategies were tested in an online experiment using general and well-known CT beliefs on a comprehensive randomly assigned Hungarian sample ( N = 813): exposing rational counter CT arguments, ridiculing those who hold CT beliefs, and empathizing with the targets of CT beliefs. Several relevant individual differences were measured. Rational and ridiculing arguments were effective in reducing CT, whereas empathizing with the targets of CTs had no effect. Individual differences played no role in CT reduction, but the perceived intelligence and competence of the individual who conveyed the CT belief-reduction information contributed to the success of the CT belief reduction. Rational arguments targeting the link between the object of belief and its characteristics appear to be an effective tool in fighting conspiracy theory beliefs.

  10. Likely values of the Higgs vacuum expectation value

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Donoghue, John F.; Dutta, Koushik; Ross, Andreas; Tegmark, Max

    2010-01-01

    We make an estimate of the likelihood function for the Higgs vacuum expectation value (vev) by imposing anthropic constraints on the existence of atoms while allowing the other parameters of the standard model to also be variable. We argue that the most important extra ingredients are the Yukawa couplings, and for the intrinsic distribution of Yukawa couplings we use the scale-invariant distribution which is favored phenomenologically. The result is successful phenomenologically, favoring values close to the observed vev. We also discuss modifications that can change these conclusions. Our work supports the hypothesis that the anthropic constraints could be the origin of the small Higgs vev.

  11. Changing Conspiracy Beliefs through Rationality and Ridiculing

    OpenAIRE

    Orosz, Gábor; Krekó, Péter; Paskuj, Benedek; Tóth-Király, István; Bőthe, Beáta; Roland-Lévy, Christine

    2016-01-01

    Conspiracy theory (CT) beliefs can be harmful. How is it possible to reduce them effectively? Three reduction strategies were tested in an online experiment using general and well-known CT beliefs on a comprehensive randomly assigned Hungarian sample (N = 813): exposing rational counter CT arguments, ridiculing those who hold CT beliefs, and empathizing with the targets of CT beliefs. Several relevant individual differences were measured. Rational and ridiculing arguments were effective in re...

  12. The Development and Validation of the Rational and Intuitive Decision Styles Scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamilton, Katherine; Shih, Shin-I; Mohammed, Susan

    2016-01-01

    Decision styles reflect the typical manner by which individuals make decisions. The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a decision style scale that addresses conceptual and psychometric problems with current measures. The resulting 10-item scale captures a broad range of the rational and intuitive styles construct domain. Results from 5 independent samples provide initial support for the dimensionality and reliability of the new scale, as demonstrated by a clear factor structure and high internal consistency. In addition, our results show evidence of convergent and discriminant validity through expected patterns of correlations across decision-making individual differences and the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) Big Five traits. Research domains that would benefit from incorporating the concept of decision styles are discussed.

  13. A Rational, Successive G-Index Applied to Economics Departments in Ireland

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tol, R.S.J.

    2008-01-01

    A rational, successive g-index is proposed, and applied to economics departments in Ireland. The successive g-index has greater discriminatory power than the successive h-index, and the rational index performs better still. The rational, successive g-index is also more robust to differences in

  14. Rational Behavior Skills: A Teaching Sequence for Students with Emotional Disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patton, Patricia Lucey

    1995-01-01

    Rational behavior training is a proactive teaching model concerned with helping students with behavior disorders or serious emotional disturbances develop rational thinking and appropriate social skills. Describes a seven-session sequence for teaching rational behavior skills in a middle school setting. Pre- and posttest data revealed significant…

  15. Rationality, morality and Economic Coordination: The Contours of Interaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sushentsova Maria, S.

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The article represents an overview of general tendencies in interaction between the notions of rationality and morality, and their influence on the foundations of economic coordination. Firstly, two main directions of evolution of rationality model are considered: the theory of perspectives of D. Kahneman and A. Tverski (the empirical restriction and economic imperialism of G. Becker (the conceptual widening, the role of the modern institutionalism being emphasized. The theoretical evolution of economic rationality had mainly instrumental character and didn’t change its ethical core – the central idea of welfare in economic motivation. In this regard, the two main ways of integration of rationality and morality in modern discussion are considered: conceptions of “multiple preferences” (1 and “moral obligations” (2. The first conception assumes the existence of stable beliefs or “meta-preferences”, which range ordinal desires or preferences. According to the second approach, a distinction of a qualitative nature is drawn between rational behavior, motivated by personal benefit or “sympathy”, and exclusively moral behavior, underlain by “obligation”. An approach according to which a distinction between rational and moral arguments is drawn, directly determines the principles of economic coordination, including the foundations of social justice. Among the latter, there are two ethical grounds – mutual benefit, based on the “sympathy” principle, and impartiality, grounded on the “obligation of power”. These conceptions imply the corresponding types of economic coordination: market-evolutional (focused on effectiveness and constructivist (focused on redistribution.

  16. Suicide: rationality and responsibility for life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ho, Angela Onkay

    2014-03-01

    Death by suicide is widely held as an undesirable outcome. Most Western countries place emphasis on patient autonomy, a concept of controversy in relation to suicide. This paper explores the tensions between patients' rights and many societies' overarching desire to prevent suicide, while clarifying the relations between mental disorders, mental capacity, and rational suicide. A literature search was conducted using search terms of suicide and ethics in the PubMed and LexisNexis Academic databases. Article titles and abstracts were reviewed and deemed relevant if the paper addressed topics of rational suicide, patient autonomy or rights, or responsibility for life. Further articles were found from reference lists and by suggestion from preliminary reviewers of this paper. Suicidal behaviour in a person cannot be reliably predicted, yet various associations and organizations have developed standards of care for managing patients exhibiting suicidal behaviour. The responsibility for preventing suicide tends to be placed on the treating clinician. In cases where a person is capable of making treatment decisions--uninfluenced by any mental disorder--there is growing interest in the concept of rational suicide. There is much debate about whether suicide can ever be rational. Designating suicide as an undesirable event that should never occur raises the debate of who is responsible for one's life and runs the risk of erroneously attributing blame for suicide. While upholding patient rights of autonomy in psychiatric care is laudable, cases of suicidality warrant a delicate consideration of clinical judgment, duty of care, and legal obligations.

  17. Rational Solutions of the Painlevé-II Equation Revisited

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Peter D.; Sheng, Yue

    2017-08-01

    The rational solutions of the Painlevé-II equation appear in several applications and are known to have many remarkable algebraic and analytic properties. They also have several different representations, useful in different ways for establishing these properties. In particular, Riemann-Hilbert representations have proven to be useful for extracting the asymptotic behavior of the rational solutions in the limit of large degree (equivalently the large-parameter limit). We review the elementary properties of the rational Painlevé-II functions, and then we describe three different Riemann-Hilbert representations of them that have appeared in the literature: a representation by means of the isomonodromy theory of the Flaschka-Newell Lax pair, a second representation by means of the isomonodromy theory of the Jimbo-Miwa Lax pair, and a third representation found by Bertola and Bothner related to pseudo-orthogonal polynomials. We prove that the Flaschka-Newell and Bertola-Bothner Riemann-Hilbert representations of the rational Painlevé-II functions are explicitly connected to each other. Finally, we review recent results describing the asymptotic behavior of the rational Painlevé-II functions obtained from these Riemann-Hilbert representations by means of the steepest descent method.

  18. Rational maps, monopoles and skyrmions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Houghton, C.J.; Manton, N.S.

    1998-01-01

    We discuss the similarities between BPS monopoles and skyrmions, and point to an underlying connection in terms of rational maps between Riemann spheres. This involves the introduction of a new ansatz for Skyrme fields. We use this to construct good approximations to several known skyrmions, including all the minimal energy configurations up to baryon number nine, and some new solutions such as a baryon number seventeen Skyrme field with the truncated icosahedron structure of a buckyball. The new approach is also used to understand the low-lying vibrational modes of skyrmions, which are required for quantization. Along the way we discover an interesting Morse function on the space of rational maps which may be of use in understanding the Sen forms on the monopole moduli spaces. (orig.)

  19. Bounded Rationality in Transposition Processes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vollaard, Hans; Martinsen, Dorte Sindbjerg

    2014-01-01

    Studies explaining the timeliness and correctness of the transposition of EU directives into national legislation have provided rather inconclusive findings. They do not offer a clear-cut prediction concerning the transposition of the patients’ rights directive, which is one of the first that con......Studies explaining the timeliness and correctness of the transposition of EU directives into national legislation have provided rather inconclusive findings. They do not offer a clear-cut prediction concerning the transposition of the patients’ rights directive, which is one of the first...... that concerns the organisation and financing of national healthcare systems. This article applies the perspective of bounded rationality to explain (irregularities in) the timely and correct transposition of EU directives. The cognitive and organisational constraints long posited by the bounded rationality...

  20. Matrix factorisations for rational boundary conditions by defect fusion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Behr, Nicolas; Fredenhagen, Stefan

    2015-01-01

    A large class of two-dimensional N=(2,2) superconformal field theories can be understood as IR fixed-points of Landau-Ginzburg models. In particular, there are rational conformal field theories that also have a Landau-Ginzburg description. To understand better the relation between the structures in the rational conformal field theory and in the Landau-Ginzburg theory, we investigate how rational B-type boundary conditions are realised as matrix factorisations in the SU(3)/U(2) Grassmannian Kazama-Suzuki model. As a tool to generate the matrix factorisations we make use of a particular interface between the Kazama-Suzuki model and products of minimal models, whose fusion can be realised as a simple functor on ring modules. This allows us to formulate a proposal for all matrix factorisations corresponding to rational boundary conditions in the SU(3)/U(2) model.

  1. Rasmussen's legacy and the long arm of rational choice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dekker, Sidney W A

    2017-03-01

    Rational choice theory says that operators and others make decisions by systematically and consciously weighing all possible outcomes along all relevant criteria. This paper first traces the long historical arm of rational choice thinking in the West to Judeo-Christian thinking, Calvin and Weber. It then presents a case study that illustrates the consequences of the ethic of rational choice and individual responsibility. It subsequently examines and contextualizes Rasmussen's legacy of pushing back against the long historical arm of rational choice, showing that bad outcomes are not the result of human immoral choice, but the product of normal interactions between people and systems. If we don't understand why people did what they did, Rasmussen suggested, it is not because people behaved inexplicably, but because we took the wrong perspective. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Matrix factorisations for rational boundary conditions by defect fusion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Behr, Nicolas [Department of Mathematics, Heriot-Watt University,Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS (United Kingdom); Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences,Edinburgh (United Kingdom); Fredenhagen, Stefan [Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Albert-Einstein-Institut,D-14424 Golm (Germany)

    2015-05-11

    A large class of two-dimensional N=(2,2) superconformal field theories can be understood as IR fixed-points of Landau-Ginzburg models. In particular, there are rational conformal field theories that also have a Landau-Ginzburg description. To understand better the relation between the structures in the rational conformal field theory and in the Landau-Ginzburg theory, we investigate how rational B-type boundary conditions are realised as matrix factorisations in the SU(3)/U(2) Grassmannian Kazama-Suzuki model. As a tool to generate the matrix factorisations we make use of a particular interface between the Kazama-Suzuki model and products of minimal models, whose fusion can be realised as a simple functor on ring modules. This allows us to formulate a proposal for all matrix factorisations corresponding to rational boundary conditions in the SU(3)/U(2) model.

  3. [The impact of ethical and moral competence in decision making on rationalism and rationing nursing interventions].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwerdt, R

    2005-08-01

    The intraprofessional discourse about economical aspects in nursing from an ethical point of view has not taken place yet. To cope with the increasing restriction of resources, some preconditions have to be met: It is necessary to communicate issues in rationalizing and rationing in nursing openly. Person-oriented criteria in the nursing process indicate a high level of competence and user-oriented quality in nursing care. But nursing professionals do not decide in favor or against resources to perform this task on a high or poor quality level. Democratic decision-making on providing nursing services depends on a continuous societal discourse about allocation criteria.

  4. CIME-CIRM course Rationality Problems in Algebraic Geometry

    CERN Document Server

    Pirola, Gian

    2016-01-01

    Providing an overview of the state of the art on rationality questions in algebraic geometry, this volume gives an update on the most recent developments. It offers a comprehensive introduction to this fascinating topic, and will certainly become an essential reference for anybody working in the field. Rationality problems are of fundamental importance both in algebra and algebraic geometry. Historically, rationality problems motivated significant developments in the theory of abelian integrals, Riemann surfaces and the Abel–Jacobi map, among other areas, and they have strong links with modern notions such as moduli spaces, Hodge theory, algebraic cycles and derived categories. This text is aimed at researchers and graduate students in algebraic geometry.

  5. Diagnosis, Dogmatism, and Rationality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rabinowitz, Jonathan; Efron, Noah J.

    1997-01-01

    Presents findings suggesting that misdiagnoses frequently stem from flaws in human information processing, particularly in collecting and using information. Claims that improved diagnostic tools will not remedy the problem. Drawing on the work of Karl Popper and Robin Collingwood, proposes operational principles to ensure a rational diagnostic…

  6. Ideal Theory, Real Rationality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Flyvbjerg, Bent

    Understanding rationality and power are key to understanding actual political and administrative behavior. Political and administrative theory that ignores this fact stand in danger of being at best irrelevant or, at worst part of the problem it whishes to solve. The paper presents Jürgen Habermas...

  7. Evolutionary Steps in the Emergence of Life Deduced from the Bottom-Up Approach and GADV Hypothesis (Top-Down Approach).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikehara, Kenji

    2016-01-26

    It is no doubt quite difficult to solve the riddle of the origin of life. So, firstly, I would like to point out the kinds of obstacles there are in solving this riddle and how we should tackle these difficult problems, reviewing the studies that have been conducted so far. After that, I will propose that the consecutive evolutionary steps in a timeline can be rationally deduced by using a common event as a juncture, which is obtained by two counter-directional approaches: one is the bottom-up approach through which many researchers have studied the origin of life, and the other is the top-down approach, through which I established the [GADV]-protein world hypothesis or GADV hypothesis on the origin of life starting from a study on the formation of entirely new genes in extant microorganisms. Last, I will describe the probable evolutionary process from the formation of Earth to the emergence of life, which was deduced by using a common event-the establishment of the first genetic code encoding [GADV]-amino acids-as a juncture for the results obtained from the two approaches.

  8. Evolutionary Steps in the Emergence of Life Deduced from the Bottom-Up Approach and GADV Hypothesis (Top-Down Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kenji Ikehara

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available It is no doubt quite difficult to solve the riddle of the origin of life. So, firstly, I would like to point out the kinds of obstacles there are in solving this riddle and how we should tackle these difficult problems, reviewing the studies that have been conducted so far. After that, I will propose that the consecutive evolutionary steps in a timeline can be rationally deduced by using a common event as a juncture, which is obtained by two counter-directional approaches: one is the bottom-up approach through which many researchers have studied the origin of life, and the other is the top-down approach, through which I established the [GADV]-protein world hypothesis or GADV hypothesis on the origin of life starting from a study on the formation of entirely new genes in extant microorganisms. Last, I will describe the probable evolutionary process from the formation of Earth to the emergence of life, which was deduced by using a common event—the establishment of the first genetic code encoding [GADV]-amino acids—as a juncture for the results obtained from the two approaches.

  9. Rationing in the presence of baselines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hougaard, Jens Leth; Moreno-Ternero, Juan D.; Østerdal, Lars Peter

    2013-01-01

    We analyze a general model of rationing in which agents have baselines, in addition to claims against the (insufficient) endowment of the good to be allocated. Many real-life problems fit this general model (e.g., bankruptcy with prioritized claims, resource allocation in the public health care...... sector, water distribution in drought periods). We introduce (and characterize) a natural class of allocation methods for this model. Any method within the class is associated with a rule in the standard rationing model, and we show that if the latter obeys some focal properties, the former obeys them...

  10. Rational management of epilepsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viswanathan, Venkataraman

    2014-09-01

    Management of epilepsies in children has improved considerably over the last decade, all over the world due to the advances seen in the understanding of the patho-physiology of epileptogenesis, availability of both structural and functional imaging studies along with better quality EEG/video-EEG recordings and the availability of a plethora of newer anti-epileptic drugs which are tailormade to act on specific pathways. In spite of this, there is still a long way to go before one is able to be absolutely rational about which drug to use for which type of epilepsy. There have been a lot of advances in the area of epilepsy surgery and is certainly gaining ground for specific cases. Better understanding of the genetic basis of epilepsies will hopefully lead to a more rational treatment plan in the future. Also, a lot of work needs to be done to dispel various misunderstandings and myths about epilepsy which still exists in our country.

  11. Influence of individual rationality on continuous double auction markets with networked traders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Junhuan

    2018-04-01

    This paper investigates the influence of individual rationality of buyers and sellers on continuous double auction market outcomes in terms of the proportion of boundedly-rational buyers and sellers. The individual rationality is discussed in a social network artificial stock market model by embedding network formation and information set. Traders automatically select the most profitable trading strategy based on individual and social learning of the profits and trading strategies of themselves and their neighbors, and submit orders to markets. The results show that (i) a higher proportion of boundedly-rational sellers induces a higher market price, higher sellers' profits and a higher market efficiency; (ii) a higher proportion of boundedly-rational sellers induces a lower number of trades and lower buyers' profits; (iii) a higher proportion of boundedly-rational buyers induces a lower market price, a lower number of trades, and lower sellers' profits; (iv) a higher proportion of boundedly-rational buyers induces higher buyers' profits and a higher market efficiency.

  12. Rationality alters the rank between peer punishment and social exclusion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sui, Xiukai; Wu, Bin; Wang, Long

    2018-02-01

    Peer punishment and social exclusion are two ways to punish free-riders. Previous work usually focuses on how their presence, either peer punishment or social exclusion, shapes the evolution of cooperation. Little attention has been given to which of these two strategies is favored by natural selection when they are both present. Here we investigate how rationality alters the ranking of these two strategies. Under weak rationality, for compulsory public goods games, peer punishment has an evolutionary advantage over social exclusion if the efficiency of punishment or the cost of exclusion is high. Furthermore, this rank is preserved for voluntary public goods games where loners are involved. Under strong rationality, however, peer punishment cannot prevail over social exclusion for both compulsory and voluntary public goods games. This indicates that rationality greatly alters the rank between peer punishment and social exclusion. Moreover, we find that this ranking is sensitive to the rationality. Our work thus gives an insight into how different types of punishment evolve.

  13. Rationality District Policy Proliferation and Villages in Town Bandar Lampung

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Novita Tresiana

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available This study is based on the premise that regional growth is a product of public policy, as the government attempts to solve public problems. Within the framework of rationality, then the expansion policy should be the result of rational choice, including the selection of alternatives for the achievement of objectives, contain a fundamental value and appropriate to achieve the end result (outcome is desired. The purpose of this paper is: to describe the process of policy-making division and rationality that are used to describe the actors in the division policy. The method used is qualitative. This paper raised the research findings that the process of defining the division policy, not the solutif effort the problem for substantive society and rationality that are used in the determination of policy, dominated model of rationality dustbin, as a structural response to the interests of elite (political, transactional, not a system response (legislative and executive to address the factual issues relating to the welfare of society.

  14. Does food complexity have a role in eliciting expectations of satiating capacity?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marcano, Johanna; Morales, Diana; Vélez-Ruiz, Jorge F; Fiszman, Susana

    2015-09-01

    New strategies for formulating healthy, balanced food with enhanced expected satiating capacity are a hot topic. The present work tests the hypothesis that adding complexity to food will result in higher expectations of satiating capacity. Different kinds of "visible" particles (wheat bran, ground coconut, flaxseeds and oat meal) were added to cheese pies with the aim of increasing the complexity of both their appearance and their texture. Two more basic recipes were also prepared with no particles added. Instrumental texture measurements, complexity and expected satiating capacity consumer scoring and sensory profiling of the six pie formulations were performed. In addition, the consumers were asked to write down the characteristics they took into account in their pie complexity scores. For pies with very similar instrumental TPA hardness and resistance to penetration values, a clear trend that emerged was that the more complex the texture, the higher the satiating capacity expectations. The qualitative analysis of the terms mentioned by consumers was of great value for understanding the concepts underlying the appraisal of the samples' complexity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Field Dependency of Argumentation Rationality in Decision-Making Debates

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bouwmeester, O.

    2013-01-01

    This study argues that the rationality behind strategic decisions, which is characterized as expressive, social, or instrumental rational, has to be aligned with the argumentation field of the decision, which is characterized as subjective, intersubjective, or objective. A multiple case study

  16. The effects of a ration change from a total mixed ration to pasture on rumen fermentation, volatile fatty acid absorption characteristics, and morphology of dairy cows

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schären, M.; Seyfang, G.M.; Steingass, H.; Dieho, K.; Dijkstra, J.; Hüther, L.; Frahm, J.; Beineke, A.; Soosten, von D.; Meyer, U.; Breves, G.; Dänicke, S.

    2016-01-01

    To investigate the effect of the change from a concentrate and silage-based ration (total mixed ration, TMR) to a pasture-based ration, a 10-wk trial (wk 1-10) was performed, including 10 rumen- and duodenum-fistulated German Holstein dairy cows (182 ± 24 d in milk, 23.5 ± 3.5 kg of milk/d; mean

  17. [Rationalization in 20th-century Czechoslovak pharmacy practice - commission for rationalization and standardization in medicine, veterinary medicine and pharmacy - part 1].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babica, Jan; Rusek, Václav

    2014-06-01

    In the 1920s Czechoslovakia, an increased attention was paid to the new ideas of scientific management (Taylorism), work rationalization and standardization. This was reflected in the foundation of the Masaryk Academy of Work in 1920. An effort to implement the new principles into health care led to the establishment of the Commission for Rationalization and Standardization in Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy (RANOK) within the Department of Natural Science and Medicine of the Academy. Within RANOK, the group for pharmacy worked between 1928-1932. The first part of the paper describes the scientific management and standardization movement in interwar Czechoslovakia, and the establishment of Masaryk Academy of Work and RANOK, including the group for pharmacy. The paper discusses the work objectives of the commission and presents concise biographies of the group for pharmacy members, too. The second part will be focused on the work results, relative failure and role of the group. Masaryk Academy of Work Comission for Rationalization and Standardization in Medicine Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy (RANOK) work rationalization standardization pharmacy practice.

  18. Musical Expectations Enhance Auditory Cortical Processing in Musicians: A Magnetoencephalography Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jeong Mi; Chung, Chun Kee; Kim, June Sic; Lee, Kyung Myun; Seol, Jaeho; Yi, Suk Won

    2018-01-15

    The present study investigated the influence of musical expectations on auditory representations in musicians and non-musicians using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Neuroscientific studies have demonstrated that musical syntax is processed in the inferior frontal gyri, eliciting an early right anterior negativity (ERAN), and anatomical evidence has shown that interconnections occur between the frontal cortex and the belt and parabelt regions in the auditory cortex (AC). Therefore, we anticipated that musical expectations would mediate neural activities in the AC via an efferent pathway. To test this hypothesis, we measured the auditory-evoked fields (AEFs) of seven musicians and seven non-musicians while they were listening to a five-chord progression in which the expectancy of the third chord was manipulated (highly expected, less expected, and unexpected). The results revealed that highly expected chords elicited shorter N1m (negative AEF at approximately 100 ms) and P2m (positive AEF at approximately 200 ms) latencies and larger P2m amplitudes in the AC than less-expected and unexpected chords. The relations between P2m amplitudes/latencies and harmonic expectations were similar between the groups; however, musicians' results were more remarkable than those of non-musicians. These findings suggest that auditory cortical processing is enhanced by musical knowledge and long-term training in a top-down manner, which is reflected in shortened N1m and P2m latencies and enhanced P2m amplitudes in the AC. Copyright © 2017 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Rational Choice Theory and the Politics of Education: Promise and Limitations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyd, William Lowe; And Others

    1994-01-01

    Rational choice theory and its three branches (game theory, collective choice theory, and organizational economics) has altered the face of political science, sociology, and organizational theory. This chapter reviews rational choice theory, examines a small body of work that relies on the rational choice paradigm to study educational politics,…

  20. Cyborg pantocrator: international relations theory from decisionism to rational choice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guilhot, Nicolas

    2011-01-01

    International relations theory took shape in the 1950s in reaction to the behavioral social science movement, emphasizing the limits of rationality in a context of high uncertainty, weak rules, and the possibility of lethal conflict. Yet the same discipline rapidly developed "rational choice" models applied to foreign policy decision making or nuclear strategy. This paper argues that this transformation took place almost seamlessly around the concept of "decision." Initially associated with an antirationalist or "decisionist" approach to politics, the sovereign decision became the epitome of political rationality when it was redescribed as "rational choice," thus easing the cultural acceptance of political realism in the postwar years. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.