“Hypothesis,” or “assumption?”

Are Category Labels Features or Naïve Assumption?

Category labels are known to guide inductive generalizations by modifying the representation of stimuli (i.e., the labeling effect); yet, the mechanisms of this effect remain unclear. One view suggests that shared category labels increase overall similarity between items as shared physical features do. The other view suggests that category labels are qualitatively different from category featur...

African Eve: Hoax or Hypothesis?

The replacement hypothesis proposes that “modern humans” evolved only in sub-Saharan Africa, through a speciation event rendering them unable to breed with other hominins. They then spread throughout Africa, then to Asia, Australia and finally to Europe, replacing all other humans by exterminating or outcompeting them. In this critical analysis of the replacement hypothesis it is shown that it ...

An Empirical Study of Probability Elicitation Under Noisy-OR Assumption

Bayesian network is a popular modeling tool for uncertain domains that provides a compact representation of a joint probability distribution among a set of variables. Even though Bayesian networks significantly reduce the number of probabilities required to specify probabilistic relationships in the domain, the number of parameters required to quantify large models is still a serious bottleneck...

Parallel Distributed-processing Challenges the Strong Modularity Hypothesis, Not the Locality Assumption

The Efficient Market Hypothesis, the Gaussian Assumption, and the Investment Management Industry

The purpose of this paper is to disclose how the Gaussian form of the concept of market efficiency is at the origin of the contemporary professional debate on passive index-linked management which continues on despite the growing popularity of indexing among investment management practitionners in Europe. This particular Gaussian form entered the investment management industry in the 1970’s and...