We consider the role of preferences in the assessment of an agent's freedom, visualized as the opportunity for choice. After discussing several possible intuitive approaches to the problem, we explore an approach based on the notion of preference orderings that a reasonable person may possibly have. Using different sets of axioms, we characterize the rules for ranking opportunity sets in terms of freedom. We also show that certain axioms for ranking opportunity sets are incompatible.

The classical theory of rational choice is built on several important internal consistency conditions. In recent years, the reasonableness of those internal consistency conditions has been questioned and criticized, and several responses to accommodate such criticisms have been proposed in the literature. This paper develops a general framework to accommodate the issues raised by the criticisms of classical rational choice theory, and examines the broad impact of these criticisms from both normative and positive points of view.

This paper studies a ranking rule of the following type axiomatically: each voter places k candidates into n categories with ranks from n to 1 attached to these categories, the candidate(s) with the highest aggregate score is (are) the winner(s). We show that it is characterized by a monotonicity condition and a multi-stage cancellation property.

In decision-making involving multiple criteria or attributes, a decision maker first identifies all relevant evaluative attributes in making decisions. Then, a dominance principle is often invoked whenever applicable: whenever an option x is better than an option y in terms of some attribute and no worse than y in terms of any other attributes, x is judged to be better than y. If, however, this dominance principle is not applicable, then the decision maker determines the relative importance between the identified (...) evaluative attributes, consults with contextual features of the options under consideration, and makes a decision. It is shown that the combination of these principles runs into problems in the presence of rationality properties, such as transitivity, and a weak continuity requirement on decisions. The paper gives examples from welfare economics, and theories of individual and group decisions. (shrink)

A robot that is easy to teach not only has to be able to adapt to humans but also has to be easily adaptable to. In order to develop a robot with mutual adaptation ability, we believe that it will be beneficial to first observe the mutual adaptation behaviors that occur in human–human communication. In this paper, we propose a human–human WOZ (Wizard-of-Oz) experiment setting that can help us to observe and understand how the mutual adaptation procedure occurs between human (...) beings in nonverbal communication. By analyzing the experimental results, we obtained three important findings: alignment-based action, symbol-emergent learning, and environmental learning. (shrink)

This paper develops a general and unified framework to discuss individual choice behaviors that are constrained by the individual’s internalized norms. We propose a new notion of rationalizablity of a choice function that incorporates such constraints, and axiomatically study several norm-constrained choice behaviors.

Gender plays an important role in various aspects of second language acquisition, including lexicon learning. Many studies have suggested that compared to males, females are less likely to experience boredom, one of the frequently experienced deactivating negative emotions that may impair language learning. However, the contribution of boredom to gender-related differences in lexicon learning remains unclear. To address this question, here we conducted two experiments with a large sample of over 1,000 college students to explore the relationships between gender differences (...) in boredom and lexicon learning. In Experiment 1, a cohort of 527 participants completed the trait and state boredom scales as well as a novel lexicon learning task without awareness of the testing process. In Experiment 2, an independent cohort of 506 participants completed the same novel lexicon learning task with prior knowledge of the testing procedure. Results from both experiments consistently showed significant differences between female and male participants in the rate of forgetting words and the state boredom scores, with female participants performing better than male participants. Furthermore, differences in state boredom scores partially explained differences in the rate of forgetting words between female and male participants. These findings demonstrate a novel contribution of state boredom to gender differences in lexicon learning, which provides new insights into better language-learning ability in females. (shrink)

This article uses Lancaster's characteristics approach to rank sets of alternative combinations of commodity characteristics. It is assumed that there exists a reference point or reference level from which the individual evaluates set expansions in appropriate directions. We provide an axiomatic characterization for such a case.

The notions of personal connection and social networks are key ingredients of the increasingly important concept of social capital in social sciences in general and in economics in particular. This paper discusses the problem of measuring personal connection and the extent of social networks that may exist in a society. For this purpose we develop several conceptual and analytical frameworks. In the process, we axiomatically characterize several measures of personal connection and social networks.

This paper develops a conceptual framework, which can accommodate a wide range of value judgements used in ethical evaluations of extended social states and which can be used to differentiate different categories of value judgements by referring to the type of information on which they may be based. The notions of consequentialism, non-consequentialism, exclusive focus on personal well-being, exclusive focus on utility, etc. are conceptualized in operational ways in the framework. The framework and the discussion of different types of ethical (...) criteria that may be used in evaluating extended social states contribute to conceptual clarity about the ethical bases of public policies. (shrink)

Kindergarten climate has been reported to be closely associated with teachers' retention intention, yet the underlying mechanism of this association remains unclear in some ethnic minority areas in China. Based on the Personal-Environment Fit Theory and Organizational Support Theory, the research aims to examine the correlation between kindergarten climate and retention intention of Chinese kindergarten teachers in ethnic minority areas and the chain mediating role of perceived organizational support, as well as the psychological empowerment. In total, 1,199 Chinese kindergarten teachers (...) were recruited from ethnic minority areas to complete the questionnaires. Based on their responses, the main findings of the study were listed as follows: A supportive kindergarten climate has a positive correlation with perceived organizational support, psychological empowerment, and retention intention. A positive kindergarten climate would increase the retention intention only through the indirect path of perceived organizational support, psychological empowerment, as well as the chain mediating path between these two variables. Taken together, these results further explained the interplay between kindergarten climate and teachers' retention intention. Implications for research on retention intention were discussed. Theoretically, it enriches the theoretical basis related to the external environmental resources and individual cognition. Practically, it means that educational policymakers will need to issue new guidelines to ensure that more kindergarten teachers are retained in China's ethnic minority areas. (shrink)

To identify the common and specific structural basis of bipolar depression and unipolar depression is crucial for clinical diagnosis. In this study, a total of 85 participants, including 22 BD patients, 36 UD patients, and 27 healthy controls, were enrolled. A voxel-based morphology method was used to identify the common and specific changes of the gray matter volume to determine the structural basis. Significant differences in GMV were found among the three groups. Compared with healthy controls, UD patients showed decreased (...) GMV in the orbital part of the left inferior frontal gyrus, whereas BD patients showed decreased GMV in the orbital part of the left middle frontal gyrus. Compared with BD, UD patients have increased GMV in the left supramarginal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus. Our results revealed different structural changes in UD and BD patients suggesting BD and UD have different neurophysiological underpinnings. Our study contributes toward the biological determination of morphometric changes, which could help to discriminate between UD and BD. (shrink)

A key issue in social intelligence design is the realization of artifacts that can fluently communicate with people. Thus, we proposed a two-layered approach to enhance a robot’s capacity of involvement and engagement. The upper layer flexibly controls social interaction by dynamic Bayesian networks (DBN) representing social interaction patterns. The lower layer improves the robustness of the system by detecting rhythmic and repetitive gestures. We designed a listener robot that can follow and record humans’ explanation on how to assemble and/or (...) disassemble a bicycle. The implementation of this system is described by assembling the key algorithms presented in this paper. (shrink)

兵家文化是以战争为研究对象的科学文化,本书深入浅出地阐述军事文化中的精华,并分解为上百个问题,如为什么说牧野之战体现了姜太公卓越的军事指挥才能?姜太公为什么被称为兵家始祖?“曹刿论战”发生在什么时候? 等。.