(Access the University of Navarra) (Photo by Carlos Pelta)
The annual Meeting of the "European Mathematical Psychology Group" (EMPG 2012) has been held at the University of Navarra (Pamplona, SPAIN), 29-31 August, 2012, and has been a great success. The key of this success has been Professor Christine Choirat, chair of the Meeting, whose excellent organization has been acknowledged by all concerned. Thanks to Professor Choirat and to the colaborators of the Economics Faculty and thanks to the University of Navarra for receiving so favourably this Meeting. The next Meeting will be celebrated in Postdam (Germany).
Between some of the most interesting talks I will emphasize the following:
On Wednesday, Professor Jacqueline J. Meulman (Leiden University) spoke in a plenary talk about the new approach developed in Leiden called nonlinear multidimensional data analysis. Professor Noventa (University of Padua) presented in colaboration with Professors Stefanutti and Vidotto, an analysis of item response theory and Rasch models based on the most probable distribution method. Professor Budescu (Fordham University) analyzed test-taking behavior showing that penalties for incorrect answers have detrimental effects for both Test-Takers and Test-Makers. Professor Hudry (Telecom ParisTech) showed the NP-hard nature of the computation of a linear order or of a complete preorder under remoteness conditions. Professor Doignon (Brussels) described a geometric interpretation of therelationship between the probability distribution on knowledge states and the derived distribution on response patterns. Professor Núñez-Antón in colaboration with Professors Arostegui and Quintana, talked about the comparation of the outcomes of eight techniques of logistic regression for studying data from depressive patients. Professor García-Pérez (Complutense University of Madrid) proposed a solution for the problem of residual analysis in contingency tables. Professor Carlos Pelta presented his computational system based on agents (PSICO-A) for teaching Psychology and the journey was closed by Professor Farina (Siena) with an experiment about choice reversal in anticipatory feelings.
On Thursday, Rutherford (Keele University) developed a plenary talk about methodological problems concerning to the hypothesis to be tested in Psychology. Professor Colonius (University of Oldenburg) analyzed his Universal Fechnerian Scaling technique, a method for computing subjective distances among stimuli from their pairwise discrimination probabilities. In the afternoon Professors Erber, Goebel and Nan from Vienna, presented their systems for pattern recognition training by using visual feedback to the amputee.
Undoubtely the most emotive presentation of the Meeting was developed by Professor Jean-Claude Falmagne (University of California, Irvine), pioneer of the Mathematical Psychology and founder member of the European Mathematical Psychology Group. Professor Falmagne remembered the contribution and aspects of the life of the late Professor and friend Duncan Luce, one of the most important mathematical psychologists in 20th century.
Professor Alcalá-Quintana described an extension of her indecision model in psychophysics for producing second choices that are consistent with empirical data obtained under a second-choice paradigm without resorting to the increasing-variance assumption. The model uses a proper two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) task with a three response format. Just at that moment Professor Laming (University of Cambridge) established a correlation between the 2AFC paradigm and data corresponding to psychophysics.
On the last day Professor Pigozzi (Paris Dauphine) developed in an interesting plenary talk her application of the labeled deductive systems theory to the psychological aspects of the argumentation. Professor Suck (Universuty of Osnabrück) introduced his investigations about set valued random variables and Professor Induráin (UPN) spoke about results concerning to separability properties relative to semiorders (results obtained in colaboration with Professor Estevan and professors Candeal and Gutiérrez-García). Finally Professors Stefanutti, de Chiusole and Spoto (University of Padua) introduces their ideas on the basic local independence model, a restricted latent class model for probabilistic knowledge structures.
On Wednesday, Professor Jacqueline J. Meulman (Leiden University) spoke in a plenary talk about the new approach developed in Leiden called nonlinear multidimensional data analysis. Professor Noventa (University of Padua) presented in colaboration with Professors Stefanutti and Vidotto, an analysis of item response theory and Rasch models based on the most probable distribution method. Professor Budescu (Fordham University) analyzed test-taking behavior showing that penalties for incorrect answers have detrimental effects for both Test-Takers and Test-Makers. Professor Hudry (Telecom ParisTech) showed the NP-hard nature of the computation of a linear order or of a complete preorder under remoteness conditions. Professor Doignon (Brussels) described a geometric interpretation of therelationship between the probability distribution on knowledge states and the derived distribution on response patterns. Professor Núñez-Antón in colaboration with Professors Arostegui and Quintana, talked about the comparation of the outcomes of eight techniques of logistic regression for studying data from depressive patients. Professor García-Pérez (Complutense University of Madrid) proposed a solution for the problem of residual analysis in contingency tables. Professor Carlos Pelta presented his computational system based on agents (PSICO-A) for teaching Psychology and the journey was closed by Professor Farina (Siena) with an experiment about choice reversal in anticipatory feelings.
On Thursday, Rutherford (Keele University) developed a plenary talk about methodological problems concerning to the hypothesis to be tested in Psychology. Professor Colonius (University of Oldenburg) analyzed his Universal Fechnerian Scaling technique, a method for computing subjective distances among stimuli from their pairwise discrimination probabilities. In the afternoon Professors Erber, Goebel and Nan from Vienna, presented their systems for pattern recognition training by using visual feedback to the amputee.
Undoubtely the most emotive presentation of the Meeting was developed by Professor Jean-Claude Falmagne (University of California, Irvine), pioneer of the Mathematical Psychology and founder member of the European Mathematical Psychology Group. Professor Falmagne remembered the contribution and aspects of the life of the late Professor and friend Duncan Luce, one of the most important mathematical psychologists in 20th century.
Professor Alcalá-Quintana described an extension of her indecision model in psychophysics for producing second choices that are consistent with empirical data obtained under a second-choice paradigm without resorting to the increasing-variance assumption. The model uses a proper two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) task with a three response format. Just at that moment Professor Laming (University of Cambridge) established a correlation between the 2AFC paradigm and data corresponding to psychophysics.
On the last day Professor Pigozzi (Paris Dauphine) developed in an interesting plenary talk her application of the labeled deductive systems theory to the psychological aspects of the argumentation. Professor Suck (Universuty of Osnabrück) introduced his investigations about set valued random variables and Professor Induráin (UPN) spoke about results concerning to separability properties relative to semiorders (results obtained in colaboration with Professor Estevan and professors Candeal and Gutiérrez-García). Finally Professors Stefanutti, de Chiusole and Spoto (University of Padua) introduces their ideas on the basic local independence model, a restricted latent class model for probabilistic knowledge structures.
