Pilar Fuster-Parra

Ranking Features on Psychological Dynamics of Cooperative Team Work through Bayesian Networks

The aim of this study is to rank some features that characterize the psychological dynamics of cooperative team work in order to determine priorities for interventions and formation: leading positive feedback, cooperative manager and collaborative manager features. From a dataset of 20 cooperative sport teams (403 soccer players), the characteristics of the prototypical sports teams are studied using an average Bayesian network (BN) and two special types of BNs, the Bayesian classifiers: naive Bayes (NB) and tree augmented naive Bayes (TAN). BNs are selected as they are able to produce probability estimates rather than predictions. BN results show that the antecessors (the “top” features ranked) are the team members’ expectations and their attraction to the social aspects of the task. The main node is formed by the cooperative behaviors, the consequences ranked at the BN bottom (ratified by the TAN trees and the instantiations made), the roles assigned to the members and their survival inside the same team. These results should help managers to determine contents and priorities when they have to face team-building actions.

New Results on Possibilistic Cooperative Multi-robot Systems

This paper addresses one of the main problems to solve in a multi-robot system, allocating tasks to a set of robots (multi-robot task allocation-MRTA). Among all the approaches proposed in the literature to face up MRTA problem, this paper is focused on swarm-like methods called response threshold algorithms. The task allocation algorithms inspired on response threshold are based on probabilistic Markov chains. In the MRTA problem literature, possibilistic Markov chains have proved to outperform the probabilistic Markov chains when a Max-Min algebra is considered for matrix composition. In this paper we analyze the system behavior when a more general algebra than the Max-Min one is taken for matrix composition. Concretely, we consider the algebra \(([0,1], S_{M},T)\), where \(S_{M}\) denotes the maximum t-conorm and T stands for any t-norm. The performed experiments show how only some well-known t-norms are suitable to allocate tasks and how the possibility transition function parameters are related to the used t-norm.

Multilevel Psychological Analysis for Cooperative Work Teams

In this study, we try to discover the natural psychological dynamics in a cooperative work team. We have selected a group of individuals that can help us to explore the psychological processes when working in a team. A new tool is used which has been developed from the most relevant conceptual frameworks existing at the moment, the Cooperative Workteams Questionnaire, (CWQ). In this paper, we present the psychometric characteristics and impact encountered by the conceptual framework. We also present an analysis of the results obtained from applying this framework.

Preference structures

The problem of the consistency of qualitative judgements about the difference of attractiveness between alternatives is studied. Our proposal deals with smooth t-conorms to be used for aggregation of elementary judgements.

On the Problem of Aggregation of Partial T-Indistinguishability Operators

In this paper we focus our attention on exploring the aggregation of partial T-indistinguishability operators (relations). Concretely we characterize, by means of (T-\(T_{\min }\))-tuples, those functions that allow to merge a collection of partial T-indistinguishability operators into a single one. Moreover, we show that monotony is a necessary condition to ensure that a function aggregates partial T-indistinguishability operators into a new one. We also provide that an inter-exchange composition function condition is a sufficient condition to guarantee that a function aggregates partial T-indistinguishability operators. Finally, examples of this type of functions are also given.

A Bayesian Approach to Sport Injuries Likelihood: Does Player’s Self-Efficacy and Environmental Factors Plays the Main Role?

The psychological factors of sports injuries constitute a growing field of study, even from the point of view of the prediction of their occurrence. Most of them, however, do not take into account the likelihood of the injuries’ occurrence and the weight and role of the psychological variables on it. We conducted a study building up a Bayesian Network on a big sample of athletes, trying to assess these probabilistic links among several relevant psychological variables and the injuries’ occurrence. The sample was constituted by 297 athletes (239 males, 58 females) from a wide range of sports: track and field; judo; fencing; karate; boxing; swimming; kayaking; artistic rollerskating, and team sports as football, basketball, and handball (Mean age: 25.10 ±-3.87; range: 21–38 years). Several psychological variables, such as anxiety, social support, and self-efficacy were studied. Also, we recorded the history of injuries as well the body mass index and personal epidemiological data. The overall picture of the generated graph and Bayesian Network and its analysis – including the use of hypothetical data by means of several instantiations – includes the nuclear role of the Self-Efficacy regarding the injuries’ occurrence likelihood; the decreasing impact of the competitive anxiety previous to the injury; the probabilistic independence of the players’ risk behaviors, and the relevance of the environmental clues such the use of coping strategies and social support in order to build up a good level of Self-Efficacy after the occurrence of an injury. All these data are relevant when designing both preventive and recovery interventions from the multidisciplinary as well as from the psychological point of view.

Team Cooperation and Its Factors: A Confirmatory Analysis

Recently knowledge has been obtained about the Cooperative meta-dynamics in performance teams, and also on the fit between the manager’s and team member’s beliefs about teamwork and performance. To obtain this, a specific instrument has been created and validated, the Questionnaire on Cooperation in Performance Teams (CWQ). The need for such this kind of tool is double fold: first, to combine the most relevant conceptual theories in a short and friendly usable instrument, and to obtain easily applicable knowledge addressed to managers and coaches working with performance teams. In order to accomplish fully with this aim, a confirmatory analysis of the new instrument is required too. Consequently, the CWQ was administered to 218 players of performance sports teams (Mean age = 21.12; SD = 6.72; mean years of experience = 11.42; SD = 6.33). The data analysis consisted on the study of the main components (forcing and without forcing the number of factors), with a Varimax rotation. The results confirm the validation of the CWQ both for the “A” and “B” versions of the questionnaire and the existence of four meta-factors: 1. Global cooperation with the team; 2. Cooperation for personal growth in the team; 3. Emotional cooperation, and 4. Conditional cooperation. The four factors shown factorial weights similar to those obtained in the previous exploratory study. These data confirms its transcultural and transituational invariance of the CWQ, as along with its conceptual validity and the solid theoretical conception of the abovementioned factors, and also its applicability in various performance environments. In addition, a mathematical analysis has been introduced to evaluate the symmetry between cooperative work beliefs from both coach and player views, embedded in the conceptual framework of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory.

On Weighting Triangles Using Fuzzy Relations and Its Application to Aggregation Functions

In this work, a new lattice L determined by the class of weighting triangles as a base of L-fuzzy subsets is proposed. Furthermore, extended orders and operators which are obtained by means of fuzzy binary relations \(F_{\triangle }\) associated to a weighting triangle are included. Moreover, some new expressions have been defined for Extended Ordered Weighted Averaging operators, and Extended Aggregation functions.

New Advances in the Aggregation of Asymmetric Distances. The Bounded Case

In 1981, J. Borsik and J. Dobos studied the problem of how to merge, by means of a function, a family of distances into a single one. To this end, they introduced the notion of distance aggregation function and gave a characterization of such functions. Later on, in 2010, the notion of distance aggregation function was extended to the framework of asymmetric distances by G. Mayor and O. Valero. Thus, asymmetric distance aggregation functions were introduced and a characterization of this new type of functions was also given. Concretely, the aforesaid characterization states that the functions which allow to merge a family of asymmetric distances into a single one are exactly those that are amenable, monotone and subadditive. In the present chapter we consider the problem of aggregating a family of bounded asymmetric distances. To this end, the notion of bounded asymmetric distance aggregation function is introduced and a full description of such functions is provided. The obtained results are illustrated by means of examples. Furthermore, the relationship between asymmetric aggregation functions and the bounded ones is discussed.