Recent Progress In Mathematical Psychology

Mathematical psychology is an interdisciplinary area of research in which methods of mathematics, operations research, and computer science in psychology are used. Now more than thirty years old, the field has continued to grow rapidly and has taken on a life of its own. This volume summarizes recent progress in mathematical psychology as seen by some of the leading figures in the field as well as some of its leading young researchers. The papers presented in this volume reflect the most important current directions of research in mathematical psychology. They cover topics in measurement, decision and choice, psychophysics and psychometrics, knowledge representation, neural nets and learning models, and cognitive modeling. Some of the major ideas included are new applications of concepts of measurement theory to social phenomena, new directions in the theory of probabilistic choice, surprising results in nonlinear utility theory, applications of boolean methods in the theory of knowledge spaces, applications of neural net ideas to concept learning, developments in the theory of parallel processing models of response time, new results in inhibition theory, and new concepts about paired associate learning.

This volume is the third volume of papers originating from the European Mathematical Psychology Group. Earlier volumes were: E. Degreef & J. van Buggenhaut (Eds.), Trends In Mathematical Psychology, Amsterdam, North-Holland Publ. Cy., 1984, and E.E. Roskam & R. Suck (Eds.), Progress in Mathematical Psychology, Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publ. As the title indicates, this volume presents work in progress, which was reported in one of the recent annual meetings of the European Mathematical Psychology Group. The Group finds it worthwhile to disseminate this work, using a review process which is somewhat less strict, and a publication lag which is shorter, than would be the case for standard international journals. The editor is happy that the meetings of the European Mathematical Psychology Group are regularly attended by colleagues from overseas. Their contributions also appear in this volume, as was the case in earlier volumes. Despite apparent heterogeneity, the reader will observe that European mathemati cal psychologists have a keen interest in basic issues of mathematical modeling and measurement theory, and that also substantive topics, such as decision making, per ception, and performance are studied in the context of formal modeling. Also, and per haps of more than casual importance for future developments, is the fact that theory, experiment, and data analysis go closely together. It should therefore not surprise that psychometric topics, and topics in scaling are represented in this volume, alongside with topics of a more 'purely' mathematical nature.

Sometime in the late sixties, one of the editors of this volume realized that the mathematica psychologists in Europe-an odd lot mostly concentrated in Germany, the Netherlands, France, England and Belgium-were suffering from an acute sense of isolation. The papers that they presented at meetings of their national or regional societies had to be 'sanitized' to the point of misrepresentation. They were misunderstood. The mood was grim, depression was lurking. He decided that urgent action was required: a European gathering of mathematical psychologists was called in April 1971. Not being foolhardy, however, he took the precaution of choosing Paris as the meeting place. Around thirty mathematical psychologists received an invitation. They all came, justifying at least Paris's reputation. The meeting took place at the 'Maison des Belges' of the Cite Universitaire, Boulevard Jourdan, in front of the Parc Montsouris. As far as everyone remembers, the meeting was a full success. A happy birth had taken place. This editor then irresponsibly accepted a position in a university in the US, leaving an infant to the whims of the passers-by. Fortunately, a godfather came along. The next meeting took place in Nijmegen, in November 1971, under the loving care of Eddy Roskam. A tradition was established. The third meeting was in Oxford (1972); then in Marseilles (1973), Regensburg (1974), Stirling (1975), Stockholm (1976) . . . The infant became a toddler, then a vigorous child. This annual meeting is now an important event in the field.

The field of mathematical psychology began in the 1950s and includes both psychological theorizing, in which mathematics plays a key role, and applied mathematics motivated by substantive problems in psychology. Central to its success was the publication of the first Handbook of Mathematical Psychology in the 1960s. The psychological sciences have since expanded to include new areas of research, and significant advances have been made in both traditional psychological domains and in the applications of the computational sciences to psychology. Upholding the rigor of the original Handbook, the New Handbook of Mathematical Psychology reflects the current state of the field by exploring the mathematical and computational foundations of new developments over the last half-century. The second volume focuses on areas of mathematics that are used in constructing models of cognitive phenomena and decision making, and on the role of measurement in psychology.

The field of mathematical psychology began in the 1950s and includes both psychological theorizing, in which mathematics plays a key role, and applied mathematics, motivated by substantive problems in psychology. Central to its success was the publication of the first Handbook of Mathematical Psychology in the 1960s. The psychological sciences have since expanded to include new areas of research, and significant advances have been made in both traditional psychological domains and in the applications of the computational sciences to psychology. Upholding the rigor of the first title in this field to be published, the New Handbook of Mathematical Psychology reflects the current state of the field by exploring the mathematical and computational foundations of new developments over the last half-century. This first volume focuses on select mathematical ideas, theories, and modeling approaches to form a foundational treatment of mathematical psychology.

Mathematical Psychology and Psychophysiology promotes an understanding of the mind and its neural substrates by applying interdisciplinary approaches to issues concerning behavior and the brain. The contributions present model from many disciplines that share common, conceptual, functional, or mechanistic substrates and summarize recent models and data from neural networks, mathematical genetics, psychoacoustics, olfactory coding, visual perception, measurement, psychophysics, cognitive development, and other areas. The contributors to Mathematical Psychology and Psychophysiology show the conceptual and mathematical interconnectedness of several approaches to the fundamental scientific problem of understanding mind and brain. The book's interdisciplinary approach permits a deeper understanding of theoretical advances as it formally structures a broad overview of the data.