Group Beliefs : Studies on the Nature and Logic of Collective Doxastic Attitudes

This thesis studies the nature and logic of collective doxastic attitudes, or what is referred to in ordinary language as "group beliefs". Beliefs and other intentional attitudes are attributed to groups and collections of people, and such attributions are used to explain and predict the actions of groups. The thesis develops an understanding of group beliefs as voluntarily adopted views or acceptances rather than as ordinary beliefs. Such an understanding can provide new answers to questions concerning collective knowledge and justification of group beliefs, and it allows developing modal logics with collective doxastic and epistemic notions. The thesis consists of six articles. The first three articles are philosophical studies concerned with the nature of group beliefs. The last three articles are logical studies that aim at developing proof-theoretical calculi for reasoning about collective doxastic attitudes.

Offering Development in the Restaurant Sector. A Comparison Between Customer Perceptions and Management Beliefs

The present study concentrates on a small – but important – area of marketing: offering development within the service sector, more exactly the restaurant sector. The empirical part of the study has been carried out in the Helsinki metropolitan area using six successful restaurants. First, a conceptual offering development model is developed based on how the management perceives the offering development processes. Second, customer perceptions of offerings and management beliefs about how the customers perceive the offerings are analysed. Finally, an extended offering development model is created based on the management perceptions (the first model) as well as on observed gaps between customer perceptions of offerings and management beliefs about the customer perceptions. The study reveals that customer perceptions and management beliefs are rather similar but also that some differences exist. These differences are taken into account in the extended offering development model (the second model). The empirical data was collected through interviews and surveys. All together 393 customers and 14 managers participated in the study. The study suggests that successful offering development has to be closely connected with the general strategy of the company. A shared vision within the company in combination with a systematic strategic offering development process create a sound basis for the practical development work. The main contribution of the study is the extended offering development model forming a framework for further studies within the area.

Teachers' attitudes to and beliefs about web-based Collaborative Learning Environments in the context of an international implementation

"Fifty-six teachers, from four European countries, were interviewed to ascertain their attitudes to and beliefs about the Collaborative Learning Environments (CLEs) which were designed under the Innovative Technologies for Collaborative Learning Project. Their responses were analysed using categories based on a model from cultural-historical activity theory [Engestrom, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding.- An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit; Engestrom, Y., Engestrom, R., & Suntio, A. (2002). Can a school community learn to master its own future? An activity-theoretical study of expansive learning among middle school teachers. In G. Wells & G. Claxton (Eds.), Learning for life in the 21st century. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers]. The teachers were positive about CLEs and their possible role in initiating pedagogical innovation and enhancing personal professional development. This positive perception held across cultures and national boundaries. Teachers were aware of the fact that demanding planning was needed for successful implementations of CLEs. However, the specific strategies through which the teachers can guide students' inquiries in CLEs and the assessment of new competencies that may characterize student performance in the CLEs were poorly represented in the teachers' reflections on CLEs. The attitudes and beliefs of the teachers from separate countries had many similarities, but there were also some clear differences, which are discussed in the article. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved."

Mud-packing frog: A novel breeding behaviour and parental care in a stream dwelling new species of Nyctibatrachus (Amphibia, Anura, Nyctibatrachidae)

Reproductive modes are diverse and unique in anurans. Selective pressures of evolution, ecology and environment are attributed to such diverse reproductive modes. Globally forty different reproductive modes in anurans have been described to date. The genus Nyctibatrachus has been recently revised and belongs to an ancient lineage of frog families in the Western Ghats of India. Species of this genus are known to exhibit mountain associated clade endemism and novel breeding behaviours. The purpose of this study is to present unique reproductive behaviour, oviposition and parental care in a new species Nyctibatrachus kumbara sp. nov. which is described in the paper. Nyctibatrachus kumbara sp. nov. is a medium sized stream dwelling frog. It is distinct from the congeners based on a suite of morphological characters and substantially divergent in DNA sequences of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene. Males exhibit parental care by mud packing the egg clutch. Such parental care has so far not been described from any other frog species worldwide. Besides this, we emphasize that three co-occurring congeneric species of Nyctibatrachus, namely N. jog, N. kempholeyensis and Nyctibatrachus kumbara sp. nov. from the study site differ in breeding behaviour, which could represent a case of reproductive character displacement. These three species are distinct in their size, call pattern, reproductive behaviour, maximum number of eggs in a clutch, oviposition and parental care, which was evident from the statistical analysis. The study throws light on the reproductive behaviour of Nyctibatrachus kumbara sp. nov. and associated species to understand the evolution and adaptation of reproductive modes of anurans in general, and Nyctibatrachus in particular from the Western Ghats.

Lo patronal, lo estatal y lo parental en la autobiografía de Ankhtifi de Mo'alla

Resumen: Entre las principales contribuciones académicas de Alicia Daneri, sobresale un estudio monográfico sobre el Primer Período Intermedio (Las Dinastías VII-VIII y el período heracleopolitano en Egipto, 1992). Allí, la Autobiografía de Ankhtifi de Mo‘alla es considerada en el marco de un análisis de la crisis política y socioeconómica que la historiografía ha señalado como el rasgo distintivo de la época. Posteriormente, Jan Assmann (The mind of Egypt, 2002 [1996]) ha abordado esa misma autobiografía, para destacar la emergencia de un nuevo tipo de actor social durante tal período, interpretado en clave de patronazgo. Ciertamente, aquella escena política en crisis facilita la percepción de una lógica social ligada a las prácticas patronales. Sin embargo, tal cosa no implica que otras grandes lógicas de organización social como aquellas que corresponden al ámbito estatal y al del parentesco no continúen gravitando con fuerza. El propósito de este artículo es el de reconsiderar la Autobiografía de Ankhtifi en un intento por vislumbrar el alcance específico de lo patronal, lo estatal y lo parental en el texto, lo que a su vez permite una reflexión más amplia sobre las características de la organización social y política en el valle del Nilo durante el Primer Período Intermedio.

La “responsabilidad parental” del código argentino proyectado

Resumen: Ante la posibilidad de la reforma y unificación de los Códigos Civil y Comercial en la Argentina, el presente artículo presenta un paneo de las principales modificaciones en materia de responsabilidad parental.

La separación y el conflicto parental: efectos en las relaciones afectivas de los hijos adultos jóvenes.

323 p.

Socioeconomic status, parental support, motivation and self-confidence in youth competitive sport

World Conference on Psychology and Sociology 2012

A reason for unreason: returns-based beliefs in game theory

Players cooperate in experiments more than game theory would predict. We introduce the ‘returns-based beliefs’ approach: the expected returns of a particular strategy in proportion to total expected returns of all strategies. Using a decision analytic solution concept, Luce’s (1959) probabilistic choice model, and ‘hyperpriors’ for ambiguity in players’ cooperability, our approach explains empirical observations in various classes of games including the Prisoner’s and Traveler’s Dilemmas. Testing the closeness of fit of our model on Selten and Chmura (2008) data for completely mixed 2 × 2 games shows that with loss aversion, returns-based beliefs explain the data better than other equilibrium concepts.

Confidence in beliefs about pain predicts expectancy effects on pain perception and anticipatory processing in right anterior insula.

Psychological factors play a major role in exacerbating chronic pain. Effective self-management of pain is often hindered by inaccurate beliefs about the nature of pain which lead to a high degree of emotional reactivity. Probabilistic models of perception state that greater confidence (certainty) in beliefs increases their influence on perception and behavior. In this study, we treat confidence as a metacognitive process dissociable from the content of belief. We hypothesized that confidence is associated with anticipatory activation of areas of the pain matrix involved with top-down modulation of pain. Healthy volunteers rated their beliefs about the emotional distress that experimental pain would cause, and separately rated their level of confidence in this belief. Confidence predicted the influence of anticipation cues on experienced pain. We measured brain activity during anticipation of pain using high-density EEG and used electromagnetic tomography to determine neural substrates of this effect. Confidence correlated with activity in right anterior insula, posterior midcingulate and inferior parietal cortices during the anticipation of pain. Activity in the right anterior insula predicted a greater influence of anticipation cues on pain perception, whereas activity in right inferior parietal cortex predicted a decreased influence of anticipatory cues. The results support probabilistic models of pain perception and suggest that confidence in beliefs is an important determinant of expectancy effects on pain perception.

Effect of parental stock size on F-1 genetic structure in the bay scallop, Argopecten irradians (Lamarck, 1819)

Three F-1 families of the bay scallop, Argopecten irradians, were produced from one, two and 10 individuals. The genetic changes in these populations, which suffered recent and different levels of bottleneck, were analysed using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) techniques. In the parental stock, a total of 330 bands were detected using seven AFLP primer pairs, and 70% of the loci were polymorphic. All F-1 groups had a significantly lower proportion of polymorphic loci when compared with the initial stock, and loss of the rare loci and reduction in heterozygosity both occurred. The progeny of the larger population (i.e., N=10) exhibited a lesser amount of genetic differentiation compared with the progeny from N=2, which showed lesser differentiation than progeny from N=1. The effective population sizes (N-e) in N=1, 2 and 10 were estimated as 1.50, 1.61 and 2.49. Based on regression analysis, we recommend that at least 340 individuals be used in hatchery populations to maintain genetic variation.