Showing papers by "School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences published in 2011"

Structure of Urban Movements: Polycentric Activity and Entangled Hierarchical Flows

Abstract: The spatial arrangement of urban hubs and centers and how individuals interact with these centers is a crucial problem with many applications ranging from urban planning to epidemiology. We utilize here in an unprecedented manner the large scale, real-time 'Oyster' card database of individual person movements in the London subway to reveal the structure and organization of the city. We show that patterns of intraurban movement are strongly heterogeneous in terms of volume, but not in terms of distance travelled, and that there is a polycentric structure composed of large flows organized around a limited number of activity centers. For smaller flows, the pattern of connections becomes richer and more complex and is not strictly hierarchical since it mixes different levels consisting of different orders of magnitude. This new understanding can shed light on the impact of new urban projects on the evolution of the polycentric configuration of a city and the dense structure of its centers and it provides an initial approach to modeling flows in an urban system.

Optical Brain Imaging Reveals General Auditory and Language-Specific Processing in Early Infant Development

Abstract: This study uses near-infrared spectroscopy in young infants in order to elucidate the nature of functional cerebral processing for speech. Previous imaging studies of infants’ speech perception revealed left-lateralized responses to native language. However, it is unclear if these activations were due to language per se rather than to some low-level acoustic correlate of spoken language. Here we compare native (L1) and non-native (L2) languages with 3 different nonspeech conditions including emotional voices, monkey calls, and phase scrambled sounds that provide more stringent controls. Hemodynamic responses to these stimuli were measured in the temporal areas of Japanese 4 month-olds. The results show clear left-lateralized responses to speech, prominently to L1, as opposed to various activation patterns in the nonspeech conditions. Furthermore, implementing a new analysis method designed for infants, we discovered a slower hemodynamic time course in awake infants. Our results are largely explained by signal-driven auditory processing. However, stronger activations to L1 than to L2 indicate a language-specific neural factor that modulates these responses. This study is the first to discover a significantly higher sensitivity to L1 in 4 month-olds and reveals a neural precursor of the functional specialization for the higher cognitive network.

New Public Management et professions dans l’État : au-delà des oppositions, quelles recompositions ?

Abstract: La multiplication de reformes, au sein des administrations, mobilisant des principes et des instruments inspires de la doctrine du New Public Management (NPM), a provoque protestations et mobilisations collectives de la part de nombreux groupes professionnels dans de nombreux secteurs (sante, education, justice, travail social, recherche…). Ces phenomenes font surgir des interrogations sur le devenir des groupes professionnels inscrits dans les services publics en particulier sur la remise en cause de leur autonomie par les reformes NPM. L’opposition entre NPM et professions, pour heuristique qu’elle soit, n’epuise pas l’analyse. Faut-il penser ces changements en termes de declin des professions, de retrecissement des autonomies professionnelles, de mutations des modeles professionnels, de recomposition du professionnalisme, etc. ? Ces questions se situent au carrefour d’une actualite vive — en France et en Europe — et de reflexions sociologiques continues. Elles sont developpees et traitees ici a partir de terrains empiriques, d’echelles d’analyse et d’experiences de recherche variees. Les contributions a ce dossier explorent ainsi les declinaisons des tensions entre NPM et professions.

The Direct-Perception Model of Empathy: a Critique

Abstract: This paper assesses the so-called "direct-perception" model of empathy. This model draws much of its inspiration from the Phenomenological tradition: it is offered as an account free from the assumption that most, if not all, of another's psychological states and experiences are unobservable and that one's understanding of another's psychological states and experiences are based on inferential processes. Advocates of this model also reject the simulation-based approach to empathy. I first argue that most of their criticisms miss their target because they are directed against the simulation-based approach to mindreading. Advocates of this model further subscribe to an expressivist conception of human behavior and assume that some of an individual's psychological states (e.g. her goals and emotions, not her beliefs) can be directly perceived in the individual's expressive behavior. I argue that advocates of the direct-perception model face the following dilemma: either they embrace behaviorism or else they must recognize that one could not understand another's goal or emotion from her behavior alone without making contextual assumptions. Finally, advocates of the direct-perception model endorse the narrative competency hypothesis, according to which the ability to ascribe beliefs to another is grounded in the ability to understand narratives. I argue that this hypothesis is hard to reconcile with recent results in developmental psychology showing that preverbal human infants seem able to ascribe false beliefs to others.

Understanding Human Relations (Kinship Systems)

Abstract: Everywhere humans structure their social field, amongst others, by way of what is called a kinship system. Such systems include aspects of language (kinship terminology), aspects of practice and strategy (marriage, normative behaviours) and aspects of transmission and social reproduction (inheritance and descent). This chapter provides the theoretical and methodological tools to investigate this important social field.

What are they up to? The role of sensory evidence and prior knowledge in action understanding.

Abstract: Explaining or predicting the behaviour of our conspecifics requires the ability to infer the intentions that motivate it. Such inferences are assumed to rely on two types of information: (1) the sensory information conveyed by movement kinematics and (2) the observer's prior expectations – acquired from past experience or derived from prior knowledge. However, the respective contribution of these two sources of information is still controversial. This controversy stems in part from the fact that “intention” is an umbrella term that may embrace various sub-types each being assigned different scopes and targets. We hypothesized that variations in the scope and target of intentions may account for variations in the contribution of visual kinematics and prior knowledge to the intention inference process. To test this hypothesis, we conducted four behavioural experiments in which participants were instructed to identify different types of intention: basic intentions (i.e. simple goal of a motor act), superordinate intentions (i.e. general goal of a sequence of motor acts), or social intentions (i.e. intentions accomplished in a context of reciprocal interaction). For each of the above-mentioned intentions, we varied (1) the amount of visual information available from the action scene and (2) participant's prior expectations concerning the intention that was more likely to be accomplished. First, we showed that intentional judgments depend on a consistent interaction between visual information and participant's prior expectations. Moreover, we demonstrated that this interaction varied according to the type of intention to be inferred, with participant's priors rather than perceptual evidence exerting a greater effect on the inference of social and superordinate intentions. The results are discussed by appealing to the specific properties of each type of intention considered and further interpreted in the light of a hierarchical model of action representation.

Framing Joint Action

Abstract: Many philosophers have offered accounts of shared actions aimed at capturing what makes joint actions intentionally joint. I first discuss two leading accounts of shared intentions, proposed by Michael Bratman and Margaret Gilbert. I argue that Gilbert’s account imposes more normativity on shared intentions than is strictly needed and that Bratman’s account requires too much cognitive sophistication on the part of agents. I then turn to the team-agency theory developed by economists that I see as offering an alternative route to shared intention. I concentrate on Michael Bacharach’s version of team-agency theory, according to which shared agency is a matter of team-reasoning, team-reasoning depends on group identification and group identification is the result of processes of self-framing. I argue that it can yield an account of shared intention that is less normatively loaded and less cognitively demanding.

Fundamental solutions of homogeneous fully nonlinear elliptic equations

Abstract: We prove the existence of two fundamental solutions Φ and of the PDE \input amssym $$F(D^2\Phi) = 0 \quad {\rm in} \ {\Bbb{R}}^n \setminus \{ 0 \}$$ for any positively homogeneous, uniformly elliptic operator F. Corresponding to F are two unique scaling exponents α*, > −1 that describe the homogeneity of Φ and . We give a sharp characterization of the isolated singularities and the behavior at infinity of a solution of the equation F(D2u) = 0, which is bounded on one side. A Liouville-type result demonstrates that the two fundamental solutions are the unique nontrivial solutions of F(D2u) = 0 in \input amssym ${\Bbb{R}}^n \setminus \{ 0 \}$ that are bounded on one side in both a neighborhood of the origin as well as at infinity. Finally, we show that the sign of each scaling exponent is related to the recurrence or transience of a stochastic process for a two-player differential game. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Broad Themes of Difference between French and Americans in Attitudes to Food and Other Life Domains: Personal Versus Communal Values, Quantity Versus Quality, and Comforts Versus Joys

Abstract: Analysis of previous literature on the role of food in life in France and the United States suggests some fundamental differences in attitudes which may generalize outside of the food domain. Questionnaire results from French and American adults suggest that, compared to the French, Americans emphasize quantity rather than quality in making choices, Americans have a higher preference for variety, and Americans usually prefer comforts (things that make life easier) over joys (unique things that make life interesting). The American preference for quantity over quality is discussed in terms of the American focus on abundance as opposed to the French preference for moderation. The American preference for variety is reflective of Americans’ more personal as opposed to communal food and other values.

Mentalizing under influence: abnormal dependence on prior expectations in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract: An impaired ability to appreciate other people's mental states is a well-established and stable cognitive deficit in schizophrenia, which might explain some aspects of patients' social dysfunction. Yet, despite a wealth of literature on this topic, the basic mechanisms underlying these impairments are still poorly understood, and their links with the clinical dimensions of schizophrenia remain unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the extent to which patients' impaired ability to appreciate other people's intentions (known as mentalizing) may be accounted for by abnormal interaction between the two types of information that contribute to this ability: (i) the sensory evidence conveyed by movement kinematics; and (ii) the observer's prior expectations. We hypothesized that this is not a generalized impairment, but one confined to certain types of intentions. To test this assumption, we designed four tasks in which participants were required to infer either: (i) basic intentions (i.e. the simple goal of a motor act); (ii) superordinate intentions (i.e. the general goal of a sequence of motor acts); (iii) social basic; or (iv) social superordinate intentions (i.e. simple or general goals achieved within the context of a reciprocal interaction). In each of these tasks, both prior expectations and sensory information were manipulated. We found that patients correctly inferred non-social, basic intentions, but experienced difficulties when inferring non-social superordinate intentions and both basic and superordinate social intentions. These poor performances were associated with two abnormal patterns of interaction between prior expectations and sensory evidence. In the non-social superordinate condition, patients relied heavily on their prior expectations, while disregarding sensory evidence. This pattern of interaction predicted the severity of 'positive' symptoms. Social conditions prompted exactly the opposite pattern of interaction: patients exhibited weaker dependence on prior expectations while relying strongly on sensory evidence, and this predicted the severity of 'negative' symptoms. We suggest both these patterns can be accounted for by a disturbance in the Bayesian inferential mechanism that integrates sensory evidence (conveyed by movement kinematics) into prior beliefs (about others' mental states and attitudes) to produce accurate inferences about other people's intentions.

Preference Is Biased by Crowded Facial Expressions

Abstract: Crowding occurs when nearby flankers impede the identification of a peripheral stimulus. Here, we studied whether crowded features containing inaccessible emotional information can nevertheless affect preference judgments. We relied on gaze-contingent crowding, a novel method allowing for constant perceptual unawareness through eye-tracking control, and we found that crowded facial expressions can bias evaluative judgments of neutral pictographs. Furthermore, this emotional bias was effective not only for static images of faces, but also for videos displaying dynamic facial expressions. In addition to showing an alternative approach for probing nonconscious cognition, this study reveals that crowded information, instead of being fully suppressed, can have important influences on decisions.

Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Communication via Pointing

Abstract: Communicative pointing is a human specific gesture which allows sharing information about a visual item with another person. It sets up a three-way relationship between a subject who points, an addressee and an object. Yet psychophysical and neuroimaging studies have focused on non-communicative pointing, which implies a two-way relationship between a subject and an object without the involvement of an addressee, and makes such gesture comparable to touching or grasping. Thus, experimental data on the communicating function of pointing remain scarce. Here, we examine whether the communicative value of pointing modifies both its behavioral and neural correlates by comparing pointing with or without communication. We found that when healthy participants pointed repeatedly at the same object, the communicative interaction with an addressee induced a spatial reshaping of both the pointing trajectories and the endpoint variability. Our finding supports the hypothesis that a change in reference frame occurs when pointing conveys a communicative intention. In addition, measurement of regional cerebral blood flow using H2O15 PET-scan showed that pointing when communicating with an addressee activated the right posterior superior temporal sulcus and the right medial prefrontal cortex, in contrast to pointing without communication. Such a right hemisphere network suggests that the communicative value of pointing is related to processes involved in taking another person's perspective. This study brings to light the need for future studies on communicative pointing and its neural correlates by unraveling the three-way relationship between subject, object and an addressee.

Never Mind the Bottle. Archaeobotanical Evidence of Beer-brewing in Mediterranean France and the Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages During the 5th Century BC

Abstract: This article reports on an example of early archaeobotanical evidence for beer-making in Iron Age South-Eastern France. An archaeological sample from a fifth century BC house at the site of Roquepertuse produced a concentration of carbonized barley (Hordeum vulgare) grains. The sample was taken from the floor of the dwelling, close to a hearth and an oven. The barley grains are predominantly sprouted and we argue that the assemblage represents the remains of deliberate malting. Malt was most likely related to beer-brewing. The neighboring oven could have been used to stop the germination process at the desired level by drying or roasting the grain. Beer-making evidence in Roquepertuse is discussed in the context of the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the Iron Age Western Mediterranean using archaeological and historical data.

Gaining insight into benzodiazepine prescribing in General Practice in France: a data-based study

Abstract: Background: In recent decades, benzodiazepine (BZD) prescriptions have been called into question in most European countries by physicians and health authorities alike, and guidelines on medical indications and treatment duration have been established to avoid long-term use and dependency. In France, many public policy measures have been implemented as BZDs are among the most prescribed medications. General practitioners (GPs) were identified by the Caisse d’Assurance Maladie (the French public health insurance fund) as high prescribers for these drugs. In this context, the aim of the study was to determine GPs’ rates and to identify correlates of BZD and Zdrugs prescribing. Methods: Data on patient characteristics, diagnoses and BZD prescriptions were drawn from French GPs’ electronic medical records. These were accessed via the database which the Societe Francaise de Medecine Generale, the French Society of General Practice, has been compiling since 1993 in a network of 90 GPs working mainly in solo practices. The participants in this network routinely register data in their daily practice. The present study examined 51,216 patients from 52 GP practices and we performed a multivariate logistic regression. The dependent variable was whether a patient was prescribed BZD at least once during 2006. Results: In the present study, 12.5% of patients older than 18 were prescribed BZDs at least once during 2006 and the average (SD) was 2.6 (2.4) BZD prescriptions/patient/year. The adjusted odds (confidence interval) of having at least one BZD prescription were 1.20 (1.10 - 1.30) in patients older than 65; 1.05 (1.01 - 1.10) in women; 1.25 (1.17 1.33) in patients with associated comorbidities (cardiovascular diseases) and 1.76 (1.62 - 1.92) in heavy consumers of health care (more than 4 consultations with a GP per year). Conclusions: The present study showed the persistence of high rates of BZD prescription by GPs, particularly in women and older patients, which highlights the difficulties of implementing effective public policies and the necessity of using new approaches enabling doctors and patients to understand the true relative advantages, disadvantages, and consequences of using these drugs and of non-pharmaceutical treatments.

The Epistemology of Forgetting

Abstract: The default view in the epistemology of forgetting is that human memory would be epistemically better if we were not so susceptible to forgetting—that forgetting is in general a cognitive vice. In this paper, I argue for the opposed view: normal human forgetting—the pattern of forgetting characteristic of cognitively normal adult human beings—approximates a virtue located at the mean between the opposed cognitive vices of forgetting too much and remembering too much. I argue, first, that, for any finite cognizer, a certain pattern of forgetting is necessary if her memory is to perform its function well. I argue, second, that, by eliminating “clutter” from her memory store, this pattern of forgetting improves the overall shape of the subject’s total doxastic state. I conclude by reviewing work in psychology which suggests that normal human forgetting approximates this virtuous pattern of forgetting.

What's that got to do with the price of fish? Buyers behavior on the Ancona fish market

Abstract: In this paper we analyze the Ancona wholesale fish market (MERITAN) where transactions take place in three simultaneous Dutch auctions. Our objective is to characterize the behavior of market participants and, in particular, that of buyers in such a market structure. Our analysis shows that buyer–seller relationships are less important than in a pairwise bargaining market such as the Marseille Fish market but that a significant amount of “loyalty” is still present under the auction mechanism. We provide an explanation of the “declining price paradox” for the fish market of Ancona by linking the rule used by the buyers to set their bid to the relationship between the variation in the price of the last transactions in the day and the quantity of fish available on that day. In fact, the average price tends to increase for the last transactions on days characterized by a limited supply of fish.

Punishment is not a group adaptation : Humans punish to restore fairness rather than to support group cooperation ()

Abstract: Punitive behaviours are often assumed to be the result of an instinct for punishment. This instinct would have evolved to punish wrongdoers and it would be the evidence that cooperation has evolved by group selection. Here, I propose an alternative theory according to which punishment is a not an adaptation and that there was no specific selective pressure to inflict costs on wrongdoers in the ancestral environment. In this theory, cooperation evolved through partner choice for mutual advantage. In the ancestral environment, individuals were in competition to be recruited in cooperative ventures and it was vital to share the benefits of cooperation in a mutually advantageous manner. If individuals took a bigger share of the benefits, their partners would leave them for more interesting partners. If they took a smaller share, they would be exploited by their partners who would receive more than what they had contributed to produce. This competition led to the selection of a sense of fairness, a cognitive adaptation aiming to share equally the benefits of cooperation in order to attract partners. In this theory, punishment is not necessary for the evolution of cooperation. Punitive behaviours are only a way to restore fairness by compensating the victim or penalizing the culprit. Drawing on behavioural economics, legal anthropology, and cognitive psychology, I show that empirical data fit better with this framework than with the theory of group selection. When people punish, they do so to restore fairness rather than to help the group.

Singular solutions of fully nonlinear elliptic equations and applications

Abstract: We study the properties of solutions of fully nonlinear, positively homogeneous elliptic equations near boundary points of Lipschitz domains at which the solution may be singular. We show that these equations have two positive solutions in each cone of $\mathbb{R}^n$, and the solutions are unique in an appropriate sense. We introduce a new method for analyzing the behavior of solutions near certain Lipschitz boundary points, which permits us to classify isolated boundary singularities of solutions which are bounded from either above or below. We also obtain a sharp Phragm\'en-Lindel\"of result as well as a principle of positive singularities in certain Lipschitz domains.

Judging as a non-voluntary action

Abstract: Many philosophers categorise judgment as a type of action. On the face of it, this claim is at odds with the seeming fact that judging a certain proposition is not something you can do voluntarily. I argue that we can resolve this tension by recognising a category of non-voluntary action. An action can be non-voluntary without being involuntary. The notion of non-voluntary action is developed by appeal to the claim that judging has truth as a constitutive goal. This claim, when combined with a conception of judging as a way of settling a question, explains both why judging is genuinely agential, and why it is nevertheless non-voluntary.

Assessing Signal-Driven Mechanisms in Neonates: Brain Responses to Temporally and Spectrally Different Sounds

Abstract: Past studies have found that in adults that acoustic properties of sound signals (such as fast vs. slow temporal features) differentially activate the left and right hemispheres, and some have hypothesized that left-lateralization for speech processing may follow from left-lateralization to rapidly changing signals. Here, we tested whether newborns’ brains show some evidence of signal-specific lateralization responses using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and auditory stimuli that elicits lateralized responses in adults, composed of segments that vary in duration and spectral diversity. We found significantly greater bilateral responses of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) in the temporal areas for stimuli with a minimum segment duration of 21 ms, than stimuli with a minimum segment duration of 667 ms. However, we found no evidence for hemispheric asymmetries dependent on the stimulus characteristics. We hypothesize that acoustic-based functional brain asymmetries may develop throughout early infancy, and discuss their possible relationship with brain asymmetries for language.

Importance of crop varieties and management practices: evaluation of a process-based model for simulating CO2 and H2O fluxes at five European maize (Zea mays L.) sites

Abstract: This paper is a modelling study of crop management impacts on carbon and water fluxes at a range of European sites. The model is a crop growth model (STICS) coupled with a process-based land surface model (ORCHIDEE). The data are online eddy-covariance observations of CO2 and H2O fluxes at five European maize cultivation sites. The results show that the ORCHIDEE-STICS model explains up to 75% of the observed daily net CO2 ecosystem exchange (NEE) variance, and up to 79% of the latent heat flux (LE) variance at five sites. The model is better able to reproduce gross primary production (GPP) variations than terrestrial ecosystem respiration (TER) variations. We conclude that structural deficiencies in the model parameterizations of leaf area index (LAI) and TER are the main sources of error in simulating CO2 and H2O fluxes. A number of sensitivity tests, with variable crop variety, nitrogen fertilization, irrigation, and planting date, indicate that any of these management factors is able to change NEE by more than 15%, but that the response of NEE to management parameters is highly site-dependent. Changes in management parameters are found to impact not only the daily values of NEE and LE, but also the cumulative yearly values. In addition, LE is shown to be less sensitive to management parameters than NEE. Multi-site model evaluations, coupled with sensitivity analysis to management parameters, thus provide important information about model errors, which helps to improve the simulation of CO2 and H2O fluxes across European croplands.

Phrasal prosody constrains word segmentation in French 16-month-olds.

Abstract: Infants who are in the process of acquiring their mother tongue have to find a way of segmenting the continuous speech stream into word-sized units. We present an experiment showing that French 16-month-olds are able to exploit phonological phrase boundaries in order to constrain lexical access. Using the conditioned head-turning technique, we showed that infants trained to turn their head for a bisyllabic word responded more often to sentences that contained this word, than to sentences that contained both syllables of this word separated by a phonological phrase boundary. We compare these results with similar results obtained with English-speaking infants, and discuss their implication for lexical and syntactic acquisition.