L’histoire (du 20e siècle) continue. Réflexions sur la signification du 11 septembre 2001

Article for general public (2001)

Aggregation functions for multicriteria decision aid

Presentation (2001, November 26)

In many domains we are faced with the problem of aggregating a collection of numerical readings to obtain a so-called mean or typical value. The main object of this talk deals with the aggregation ... [more ▼]

In many domains we are faced with the problem of aggregating a collection of numerical readings to obtain a so-called mean or typical value. The main object of this talk deals with the aggregation procedures used in multicriteria decision making problems. In.such problems, values to be aggregated are gathered in a score table and represent evaluations of alternatives according to various criteria. Aggregation operators are proposed to obtain a global score for each alternative taking into account the given criteria. These global scores are then exploited to establish a recommendation or prescription. In many problems it is important to take into consideration the interaction between criteria. Until recent1y, criteria were supposed to be independent and the aggregation operator which was often used was the weighted arithmetic mean, with all its well-known drawbacks. Such an operator is not suitable when interacting criteria are considered. However, this problem has been overcome by the contribution of fuzzy integrals, such as the Choquet and Sugeno integrals. [less ▲]

"Fortalecer los niños!" Aspectos psicológicos del entrenamiento de los deportistas juveniles

Scientific Conference (2001, November)

tamquam mortuus - Das mittelalterliche und frühneuzeitliche Leprosenwesen in den Rheinlanden unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Kölns

Scientific Conference (2001, October 05)

Selected issues of feedback and motor learning

Scientific Conference (2001, October)

How does the brain discriminate familiar and unfamiliar faces? A pet study of face categorical perception

in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (2001), 13(7), 1019-1034

Where and how does the brain discriminate familiar and unfamiliar faces? This question has not been answered yet by neuroimaging studies partly because different tasks were performed on familiar and ... [more ▼]

Where and how does the brain discriminate familiar and unfamiliar faces? This question has not been answered yet by neuroimaging studies partly because different tasks were performed on familiar and unfamiliar faces, or because familiar faces were associated with semantic and lexical information. Here eight subjects were trained during 3 days with a set of 30 faces. The familiarized faces were morphed with unfamiliar faces. Presented with continua of unfamiliar and familiar faces in a pilot experiment, a group of eight subjects presented a categorical perception of face familiarity: there was a sharp boundary in percentage of familiarity decisions between 40% and 60% faces. In the main experiment, subjects were scanned (PET) on the fourth day (after 3 days of training) in six conditions, all requiring a sex classification task. Completely novel faces (0%) were presented in Condition 1 and familiar faces (100%) in Condition 6, while faces of steps of 20% in the continuum of familiarity were presented in Conditions 2 to 5 (20% to 80%). A principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that most variations in neural responses were related to the dissociation between faces perceived as familiar (60% to 100%) and faces perceived as unfamiliar (0 to 40%). Subtraction analyses did not disclose any increase of activation for faces perceived as familiar while there were large relative increases for faces perceived as unfamiliar in several regions of the right occipito-temporal visual pathway. These changes were all categorical and were observed mainly in the right middle occipital gyrus, the right posterior fusiform gyrus, and the right inferotemporal cortex. These results show that (1) the discrimination between familiar and unfamiliar faces is related to relative increases in the right ventral pathway to unfamiliar/novel faces; (2) familiar and unfamiliar faces are discriminated in an all-or-none fashion rather than proportionally to their resemblance to stored representations; and (3) categorical perception of faces is associated with abrupt changes of brain activity in the regions that discriminate the two extremes of the multidimensional continuum. [less ▲]

Sex differences in spatial cognition: A critical test of the "hunter-gatherer" theory.

Scientific Conference (2001, September 08)

The present study tested two predictions of the “hunter-gatherer” theory of sex differences in spatial cognition. According to this theory, men and women have faced different evolutionary pressures on ... [more ▼]

The present study tested two predictions of the “hunter-gatherer” theory of sex differences in spatial cognition. According to this theory, men and women have faced different evolutionary pressures on their spatial capacities (Ridley 1994). On average, males are hence expected to exhibit better navigational capacities than females (Martin 1998), while females can be assumed to exhibit better incidental object location memory capacities than males (Silverman & Eals 1992, Eals & Silverman 1994). Our study directly addressed this alleged pattern of sexual dimorphism in spatial abilities using (1) a spatial navigation task involving the exploration of a computer-based 3D virtual environment developed by Martin (1998); and (2) an exact replication of the object location memory task developed by Eals et al. (1994), involving pseudo-objects in order to reduce contamination by verbal encoding strategies. Results replicated the well-established male advantage in spatial navigation, while showing an unexpected female disadvantage in incidental object location memory. Further research is thus needed to explore the assumed female advantage in object location memory. [less ▲]

Valenzbeurteilung und Persongedächtnis: Effekte der Urteilsqualität und des Verarbeitungsziels auf den Abruf von Personinformation.

Scientific Conference (2001, September)

On the Equivalence of Taxes Paid by Employers and Employees

in Scottish Journal of Political Economy (2001), 48(4), 461-70

In this paper we study the employment effects of a budget neutral restructuring of taxes levied on employers and employees. We derive conditions for taxes levied on workers to have the same employment ... [more ▼]

In this paper we study the employment effects of a budget neutral restructuring of taxes levied on employers and employees. We derive conditions for taxes levied on workers to have the same employment effects as taxes levied on firms under standard processes of wage determination. [less ▲]

Simone de Beauvoir, Les Bouches inutiles, edition with introduction

Book published by Duckworth (2001)

Intended for students, an edition with introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's only produced play of 1945, which anticipates many of the key ideas of Le Deuxieme Sexe. Set in the late-medieval Low Countries ... [more ▼]

Intended for students, an edition with introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's only produced play of 1945, which anticipates many of the key ideas of Le Deuxieme Sexe. Set in the late-medieval Low Countries, the play depicts a city forced to expel its non-fighting population : the women, children and the elderly. it explores inequality, and who is valued within a society. [less ▲]