Anticipation and Situation-Assessment Skills in Soccer Under Varying Degrees of Informational Constraint

The authors tested the notion that expertise effects would be more noticeable when access to situational information was reduced by occluding (i.e., noncued) or freezing (i.e., cued) the environment under temporal constraints. Using an adaptation of tasks developed by Ward, Ericsson, and Williams, the participants viewed video clips of attacking soccer plays frozen or occluded at 3 temporal points and then generated and prioritized situational options and anticipated the outcome. The high-skill players anticipated the outcomes more accurately, generated fewer task-irrelevant options, and were better at prioritizing task-relevant options than their low-skill counterparts. The anticipation scores were significantly and positively correlated with the option prioritization and task-relevant options generated but not with the total options generated. Counter to the authors’ prediction, larger skill-based option-prioritization differences were observed when the play was frozen than when it was occluded. These results indicate that processing environmental information depends on temporal and contextual conditions.

Event-Based Quantum Mechanics: A Context for the Emergence of Classical Information

This paper explores an event-based version of quantum mechanics which differs from the commonly accepted one, even though the usual elements of quantum formalism, e.g., the Hilbert space, are maintained. This version introduces as primary element the occurrence of micro-events induced by usual physical (mechanical, electromagnetic and so on) interactions. These micro-events correspond to state reductions and are identified with quantum jumps, already introduced by Bohr in his atomic model and experimentally well established today. Macroscopic bodies are defined as clusters of jumps; the emergence of classicality thus becomes understandable and time honoured paradoxes can be solved. In particular, we discuss the cat paradox in this context. Quantum jumps are described as temporal localizations of physical quantities; if the information associated with these localizations has to be finite, two time scales spontaneously appear: an upper cosmological scale and a lower scale of elementary "particles''. This allows the interpretation of the Bekenstein limit like a particular informational constraint on the manifestation of a micro-event in the cosmos it belongs. The topic appears relevant in relation to recent discussions on possible spatiotemporal constraints on quantum computing.

Event-Based Quantum Mechanics: A Context for the Emergence of Classical Information

This paper explores an event-based version of quantum mechanics which differs from the commonly accepted one, even though the usual elements of quantum formalism, e.g., the Hilbert space, are maintained. This version introduces as primary element the occurrence of micro-events induced by usual physical (mechanical, electromagnetic and so on) interactions. These micro-events correspond to state reductions and are identified with quantum jumps, already introduced by Bohr in his atomic model and experimentally well established today. Macroscopic bodies are defined as clusters of jumps; the emergence of classicality thus becomes understandable and time honoured paradoxes can be solved. In particular, we discuss the cat paradox in this context. Quantum jumps are described as temporal localizations of physical quantities; if the information associated with these localizations has to be finite, two time scales spontaneously appear: an upper cosmological scale and a lower scale of elementary “particles”. This allows the interpretation of the Bekenstein limit like a particular informational constraint on the manifestation of a micro-event in the cosmos it belongs. The topic appears relevant in relation to recent discussions on possible spatiotemporal constraints on quantum computing.

Event-Based Quantum Mechanics: A Context for the Emergence of Classical Information

This paper explores an event-based version of quantum mechanics which differs from the commonly accepted one, even though the usual elements of quantum formalism, e.g., the Hilbert space, are mantained. This version introduces as primary element the occurrence of micro-events induced by usual physical (mechanical, electromagnetic and so on) interactions. These micro-events correspond to state reductions and are identified with quantum jumps, already introduced by Bohr in his atomic model and experimentally well established today. Macroscopic bodies are defined as clusters of jumps; the emergence of classicality thus becomes understandable and time honoured paradoxes can be solved. In particular, we discuss the cat paradox in this context. Quantum jumps are described as temporal localizations of physical quantities; if the information associated with these localizations has to be finite, two time scales spontaneously appear: an upper cosmological scale and a lower scale of elementary "particles". This allows the interpretation of the Bekenstein limit like a particular informational constraint on the manifestation of a micro-event in the cosmos to which it belongs. The topic appears relevant in relation to recent discussions on possible spatiotemporal constraints on quantum computing.

Informal Insurance Networks

This paper develops a model of risk sharing in which each individual’s income shock is locally shared ex-post given an ex-ante strategically formed network. Emphasizing the informational constraint of the network such that transfers can only be contingent on local information, the model provides characterizations of the ex-ante efficient network and the pairwise stable networks. While it is no surprise that the unique efficient network is the complete graph, it is interesting that any pairwise stable network features low average degree and almost 2-regular structures, even under individual risk heterogeneity, and it tends to exhibit positive assortativity in terms of risk variances. If expected incomes are also locally shared in addition to income shocks, the pairwise stable network may become more densely connected, achieving efficiency under certain parameter values.

From Rational to Spiritual in the Economic Thought

The paper examines the evolution in the patterns of human economic behavior across the history of economic thought. The author considers the development of the Homo Economicus concept in the view of the scarcity problem in economics and the Homo Socialis concept, with its extreme manifestation - Homo Sovieticus, attested in the former socialist countries of the world. In this context, the author examines the phenomenon of societal constraint on personality. Another prototype of economic behavior - Homo Informaticus and, its boundary manifestation - Homo Interneticus are discussed in the view of the informational constraint phenomenon. The author introduces the Homo Creativus ‘character’, whose behavior is characterized by the attempt to overcome the rational mind constraint. The paper considers the need to adopt the Homo Spiritualis paradigm within the frame of economic thought - a need already highlighted by notorious scholars. According to the writer the urge to develop this paradigm is implicitly determined by the spreading of the underground economy, the globalization and virtualization of the human activity, their impact on human personality. In her approach of the Homo Spiritualis concept the author supports the view that spirituality should not be confused with religion, although the two are related. In practical terms the issue of incorporating spirituality into economics and business courses is approached.

Discrimination, discounting and impulsivity: a role for an informational constraint

Feeding animals often prefer small, quickly delivered rewards over larger, more delayed rewards. Students of feeding behaviour typically explain this behaviour by saying that animals discount delayed benefits. Temporal discounting implies that delayed benefits are worth less than immediate benefits. This paper presents a new explanation of short–sighted decision–making called the discrimination advantage model that does not rely on discounting. A new model that includes several possible causes of discounting is developed. This model has many interesting features, but it cannot account for two empirical results: the strength of the ‘discounting‘ effect and the fact that the time between choice presentations (the intertrial interval or ITI) has no effect. This leads to the conclusion that although discounting may be important it is probably not a complete explanation of the experimental facts. In the discrimination advantage model the observation that the ITI does not affect choice is seen as a strategy to make a cleaner discrimination between delayed alternatives in a noisy world. A simple example shows that when discrimination is imperfect a short–sighted choice rule can, in some situations, lead to a higher long–term rate than a rule that actually compares long–term rates. This idea is developed and extended in several ways.