The Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies
Around Juli 2001 we had moved from Amstelveen to The Hague and from Tenerife to Barcelona. We had made a report about the proposed questionnaire for the ESS and the pilot study. Now Willem had to start the research project in the NIAS. For that reason we moved to The Hague.
Looking around in The Hague
We had only occasionally visited The Hague in the past but now that we lived there, we started to explore the town. We lived in a neighborhood which had a bad reputation because many migrants lived there. However we liked it because we could buy in their shops other products than we were accustomed to. Occasionally there were also local street fares that were fun. We never had problems there, only once Irmtraud had the experience in a dry cleaning shop that a muslim man did not know how to deal with a female client and had to ask his wife to help her.
We liked the government area, the museums and the cultural life. We even watched a play till the end. This had not happened for a long time. Of course we also went to the beach which was just a tram ride away from our house.
Looking around in The Hague
We had only occasionally visited The Hague in the past but now that we lived there, we started to explore the town. We lived in a neighborhood which had a bad reputation because many migrants lived there. However we liked it because we could buy in their shops other products than we were accustomed to. Occasionally there were also local street fares that were fun. We never had problems there, only once Irmtraud had the experience in a dry cleaning shop that a muslim man did not know how to deal with a female client and had to ask his wife to help her.
We liked the government area, the museums and the cultural life. We even watched a play till the end. This had not happened for a long time. Of course we also went to the beach which was just a tram ride away from our house.
I, Willem, liked to go skating in the evenings at the skating rink of The Hague. Often it was very crowded there with two or even three groups of skaters next to each other. One night, when I was skating there with my friend Arie I made a wrong move, fell in such a bad way that the skate of another person cut my thigh. I was bleeding very badly. With Arie I went to a hospital where they had a problem to stop the bleeding of a blood vessel which was cut by the skate. Finally at 4 in the morning Arie could deliver me at home again.
Since then I went in the morning to the skating rink because there were fewer people. At least twice a week I went there to skate with the seniors. With a man who had worked all his life in agriculture I switched the head position of the group of older skaters. Normally we continued skating around an hour till the ice was prepared again and we had to make a break.
Since then I went in the morning to the skating rink because there were fewer people. At least twice a week I went there to skate with the seniors. With a man who had worked all his life in agriculture I switched the head position of the group of older skaters. Normally we continued skating around an hour till the ice was prepared again and we had to make a break.
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Research at NIAS
In the fall of 2001 the research started at the NIAS. In the video you can see that this was the place to study. The topic of our research group was response behavior in survey research. This was studied from different perspectives: psychology, linguistics, political science, information processing. |
The research would be done by a mixed group of scientists, experienced researchers like Milton Lodge (political scientist) and Jaap Murre, Wil Dijkstra (psychologists) Akos Munnich (mathematician) and also several young researchers like William van der Veld and Stasja Draisma (survey researchers) Bregje Holleman (linguist), and Antonio Chessa (mathematical psychologists).
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The most striking information came from Milton Lodge. He told about the last election campaign in 2000 where a new tool was used to influence people. He showed a video where during the word "bureaucrats" the word "rats" appeared but so shortly that one could not observe it but our eyes and brain registered it and the idea of the adverticement was to connect for the viewers the word "bureaucrats" with something negative "rats".
This was in the year 2000. In 2016 Facebook information was used by Cambridge Analytics to influence people. One may wonder what they will do this year during the elections in 2020.
An information processing robot
With Akos Munnich I worked on “an information processing robot”, as a model of automatic human information processing. We used the most recent models about human information processing. The information in text form could be received and stored and if questions were asked about the same issue the robot could automatically provide answers based on the stored information. This was exciting work but we could not finish the research in the time we had at NIAS. When we were at home again we had too much other things to do so that we did not finish this interesting project. With other projects of our group the same happened.
One year is too short for fundamental research. If there is no continuation the knowledge gained is lost again. Nevertheless we had a very nice time as a group and with the other visitors of the NIAS but in the end the result was rather limited.
An information processing robot
With Akos Munnich I worked on “an information processing robot”, as a model of automatic human information processing. We used the most recent models about human information processing. The information in text form could be received and stored and if questions were asked about the same issue the robot could automatically provide answers based on the stored information. This was exciting work but we could not finish the research in the time we had at NIAS. When we were at home again we had too much other things to do so that we did not finish this interesting project. With other projects of our group the same happened.
One year is too short for fundamental research. If there is no continuation the knowledge gained is lost again. Nevertheless we had a very nice time as a group and with the other visitors of the NIAS but in the end the result was rather limited.
Irmtraud looked for new activities as well
Irmtraud, had to look for new activities after she had finished the coding for the ESS. She went to the National Archive for interesting documents about decision making. She detected a book about the Los Alamos project concerning the development of the nuclear bomb. This was interesting because so far we studied decisions of politicians. In this book there were decisions of physicists. There were arguments made about the use of the bomb at the end of WW II. Irmtraud analyzed these decisions and we made a report about it. The arguments of the physicists were not different from those of politicians.
She also collected documents connected with the life of Margret of Austria because she was considering to write a novel about her life.
Irmtraud, had to look for new activities after she had finished the coding for the ESS. She went to the National Archive for interesting documents about decision making. She detected a book about the Los Alamos project concerning the development of the nuclear bomb. This was interesting because so far we studied decisions of politicians. In this book there were decisions of physicists. There were arguments made about the use of the bomb at the end of WW II. Irmtraud analyzed these decisions and we made a report about it. The arguments of the physicists were not different from those of politicians.
She also collected documents connected with the life of Margret of Austria because she was considering to write a novel about her life.
A Christmas present in Barcelona
Around Christmas we went to our new flat in Barcelona. We enjoyed the life in Barcelona again. Joan Manuel invited us to have a talk with him. During this meeting he asked Willem whether he was interested to apply for an ICREA professorship. This was a program in Catalunya to invite recognized professors to come to work in Catalunya and in this way to contribute to the improvement of the research in Catalunya. He also asked Willem if he would like to teach at ESADE in survey research. Both proposals sounded very nice to him. He had no problem with teaching and getting a position as ICREA professor which seemed interesting to him. They made an application for the ICREA position and it looked as if our move to Barcelona would get a very different form than we had expected before
Around Christmas we went to our new flat in Barcelona. We enjoyed the life in Barcelona again. Joan Manuel invited us to have a talk with him. During this meeting he asked Willem whether he was interested to apply for an ICREA professorship. This was a program in Catalunya to invite recognized professors to come to work in Catalunya and in this way to contribute to the improvement of the research in Catalunya. He also asked Willem if he would like to teach at ESADE in survey research. Both proposals sounded very nice to him. He had no problem with teaching and getting a position as ICREA professor which seemed interesting to him. They made an application for the ICREA position and it looked as if our move to Barcelona would get a very different form than we had expected before