Contribution from neuropsychology to the study of semantic memory

Semantic memory has been studied from various fields. The first models emerged from cognitive psychology from the hand of the division proposed by Tulving between semantic and episodic memory. Over the past thirty years there have been parallel developments in the fields of psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology and cognitive neuropsychology. The present work is to review the contributions that have emerged within the neuropsychology to the study of semantic memory and to present an updated overview of the points of consensus. First, it is defined the term "semantics" conceptually within the field of neuropsychology. Then, there is a dichotomy that passes through both psychological and neuropsychological models on semantic memory: the existence of modals versus amodal representations. Third, there are  developed the main theoretical models in neuropsychology that emerged in an attempt to explain categoryspecific semantic deficits. Finally, more robust contributions and points that still generate some discussion are reviewed.

Piecemeal Oligopoly, Exchange Rate Uncertainty, and Trade Policy.

Este artículo analiza el efecto sistemático de la volatilidad de la tasa de cambio, cuando un gobierno local debe evaluar políticas comerciales estratégicas lineales y cuadráticas. Este ejercicio se realiza para modelos de mercado Cournot y Bertran. El modelo prueba que tanto el esquema lineal como el cuadrático tienen el mismo efecto sobre el bienestar social de los países, y que la volatilidad de la tasa de cambio domestica lleva a los gobiernos a reducir los subsidios a las exportaciones o bajan los impuestos a las exportaciones, de acuerdo a la variable estratégica elegida por las firmas. La tasa de cambio extranjera tiene diferentes efectos dependiendo de si las firmas producen bajos rendimientos a escalas constantes o decrecientes.

Does uncertainty cause inertia in decision making? An experimental study of the role of regret aversion and indecisiveness

Previous research has shown that often there is clear inertia in individual decision making---that is, a tendency for decision makers to choose a status quo option. I conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate two potential determinants of inertia in uncertain environments: (i) regret aversion and (ii) ambiguity-driven indecisiveness. I use a between-subjects design with varying conditions to identify the effects of these two mechanisms on choice behavior. In each condition, participants choose between two simple real gambles, one of which is the status quo option. I find that inertia is quite large and that both mechanisms are equally important.