Dichotomous IRT models can be viewed as families of stochastically ordered distributions of responses to test items. This paper explores several properties of such distributions. More in particular, it is examined under what conditions stochastic order in families of conditional distributions is transferred to their inverse distributions, from two families of related distributions to a third fa...

Vegetation is traditionally regarded as passive, doing nothing but what is essential to grow and survive. Evidence is accumulating, however, in support of formerly esoteric notions that plants can communicate, remember, even count--features that one would call cognitive if they were observed in animals. Michael Gross reports.

The participants of this Conference run mathematics outreach programmes and mathematics competitions in countries with very diverse educational and cultural traditions. It would be futile to try to seek a single universal solution to educational and methodological problems that we encounter in our work. However, we have one thing in common: we work with mathematically able children. It is likel...

BACKGROUND Cerebellar involvement in spatial data management has been suggested on experimental and clinical grounds. OBJECTIVE To attempt a specific analysis of visuospatial abilities in a group of subjects with focal or atrophic cerebellar damage. METHODS Visuospatial performance was tested using the spatial subtests of the WAIS, the Benton line orientation test, and two tests of mental r...

The purpose of this research was to analyze the calculation abilities in Alzheimer Disease (AD). Twenty right-handed patients meeting the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria for AD were studied. Age ranged from 64- to 88-year-old. A neuropsychological test battery including language, memory, constructional abilities, attention, mathematics, and abstraction tests was adminis...

Historical evolution and cross-cultural differences in spatial abilities are analyzed. Spatial abilities have been found to be significantly associated with the complexity of geographical conditions and survival demands. Although impaired spatial cognition is found in cases of, exclusively or predominantly, right hemisphere pathology, it is proposed that this asymmetry may depend on the degree ...

This chapter demonstrates that a person’s level of cognitive abilities is a key determinant of financial decisions. Households with high cognitive abilities tend to participate more in the stock market and accumulate more financial wealth than households with low cognitive abilities. Upon participation, portfolio performance improves with experience but it is negatively correlated with age due ...

We investigate the relationship between aging, cognitive abilities and retirement using the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a household panel that offers the possibility of comparing several European countries using nationally representative samples of the population aged 50+. We use a version of the model proposed by Grossman (1972) as a guide for our empirical specif...

One typically observes differing trends in the distribution of gross incomes across countries. Where do these inequalities originate from? We consider a simple model where individuals have identical preferences but different abilities, and we investigate the impact on the distribution of gross income of changes in the way abilities are distributed among the individuals. Journal of Economic Lite...

Tony Parker has already got a number of books to his credit which are extremely useful as case-histories of criminals and are also good literature. From a position of complete non-intervention, as in The Courage of his Convictions, when he allows the man in question .to emerge as a person exactly in the terms he himself wants to, he has gradually grown more confident and skilled and now adds ot...