The claims that “The brain processes information” or “Cognition is information processing” are accepted as truisms in cognitive science. However, it is unclear how to evaluate such claims absent a specification of “information” as it is used by neurocognitive theories. The aim of this article is, thus, to identify the key features of information that information-based neurocognitive theories posit. A systematic identification of these features can reveal the explanatory role that information plays in specific (...) neurocognitive theories, and can, therefore, be both theoretically and practically important. These features can be used, in turn, as desiderata against which candidate theories of information may be evaluated. After discussing some characteristics of explanation in cognitive science and their implications for “information”, three notions are briefly introduced: natural, sensory, and endogenous information. Subsequently, six desiderata are identified and defended based on cognitive scientific practices. The global workspace theory of consciousness is then used as a specific case study that arguably posits either five or six corresponding features of information. (shrink)

Through a series of examples, we illustrate some important drawbacks that the action model logic framework suffers from in its ability to represent the dynamics of information updates. We argue that these problems stem from the fact that the action model, a central construct designed to encode agents’ uncertainty about actions, is itself effectively common knowledge amongst the agents. In response to these difficulties, we motivate and propose an alternative semantics that avoids them by endogenizing the action model. We (...) discuss the relationship between this new framework and action model logic, and provide a sound and complete axiomatization of several new logics that naturally arise. (shrink)

La plupart des projets d’architectures cognitives dans les sciences cognitives et des explications des processus cérébraux dans les neurosciences interprètent l’esprit/cerveau comme réactif : le processus est déclenché par un stimulus et se termine par une réponse. Mais il y a de plus en plus de données laissant penser que le cerveau est endogéniquement actif : des oscillations de l’activité électrochimique à de multiples fréquences ont lieu dans le cerveau même en l’absence de stimuli et ceux-ci servent plutôt à moduler (...) ces oscillations qu’à déclencher l’activité. De plus, des données montrent que cette activité endogène est utilisée dans diverses activités de traitement de l’information. Je m’appuie sur les données issues des enregistrements cellulaires unitaires, de l’EEG et de l’IRMf en situation passive, afin de soutenir la thèse d’un comportement oscillatoire continu dans le cerveau et d’identifier plusieurs manières dont ce comportement peut contribuer à la cognition. Si les sciences cognitives ont pour but de comprendre comment nous effectuons des tâches cognitives, elles ont besoin de développer des architectures cognitives qui intègrent le type d’activité endogène dynamique présentée par le cerveau. (shrink)

Can we build endogenous expectations about the locus of occurrence of a target without being able to describe them? Participants performed cue–target detection tasks with different proportions of valid and invalid trials, without being informed of these proportions, and demonstrated typical endogenous effects. About half were subsequently able to correctly describe the cue–target relationships . However, even non-verbalizer participants showed endogenous orienting with peripheral cues , not depending solely on practice . Explicit instructions did not bring about (...) dramatic advantages in performance .With central symbolic cues, only verbalizers showed reliable endogenous effects . We concluded that endogenous orienting with peripheral cues can occur independently of participants developing explicit hypotheses about the cue–target relationships. (shrink)

This paper studies a sender-receiver game in which both players want the receiver to choose the state-optimal action. Before observing the state, the sender observes a “contextual signal,” a payoff-irrelevant signal that correlates with states and is imperfectly shared with the receiver. Once the sender observes the state, the sender sends a message to the receiver, incurring a small messaging cost. It is shown that there is no miscommunication in any efficient equilibrium if the messaging cost is uniform or contextual (...) information is poorly shared between players. However, if the messaging costs are different between some messages, and contextual information can affect the probability ranking of states and is shared reasonably well, any efficient equilibrium that favors the sender exhibits miscommunication. Furthermore, the messages that cause miscommunication can be coarse or ambiguous, depending on how well players share contextual information. (shrink)

We expose some representations and practices related to the natural environment among Nahua peasants in a village located at the western boundary of Puebla and Guerrero states, in Mexico. Information was obtained by individual interviews and focal groups' work, following an open guide with ecological items considered as rooted in Mesoamerican cultures. The use of some local, vegetal resources, and the local perception of changes, mainly in the water availability, is documented. Survival strategies involve ancestral representations and material products, (...) and entail a high grade of pragmatism. “Natural environment” is framed in a local culture that involves relational and sacred dimensions, usually omitted in other approaches. Hence, for the Temalac peasants, there is no dissection, at an operative level, between “natural facts” and personal or social ones, being these often considered as determinant for the quality and accessibility of resources and weather conditions. We discuss the challenge for these elements posed by a growing migration rate and an increasing external influence. (shrink)

This paper empirically investigates the interaction between repeated transactions and endogenous contractual incompleteness. We design an indefinitely repeated games experiment between identifiable players. In this experiment, the probability of continuation and the level of shared information vary over the treatments. The level of contractual completeness is decided by participants at each period. Our results show that past interactions are a stronger determinant of the level of investment in contractual completeness than the perspective of future business.

One of the most prominent social influences on human decision making is conformity, which is even more prominent when the perceptual information is ambiguous. The Bayes optimal solution to this problem entails weighting the relative reliability of cognitive information and perceptual signals in constructing the percept from self‐sourced/endogenous and social sources, respectively. The current study investigated whether humans integrate the statistics (i.e., mean and variance) of endogenous perceptual and social information in a Bayes optimal way (...) while estimating numerosities. Our results demonstrated adjustment of initial estimations toward group means only when group estimations were more reliable (or “certain”), compared to participants’ endogenous metric uncertainty. Our results support Bayes optimal social conformity while also pointing to an implicit form of metacognition. (shrink)

Using PitchBook’s private equity database of 4548 PE funds from 42 countries for the 2000 to 2012 period, we find that higher reporting frequency is associated with lower information asymmetry in performance reports from general partners to limited partners. We also find that endowments are systematically associated with less reported unrealized returns as a percentage of total returns generated from GPs. Moreover, endowments receive more performance reports from their PE funds, implying more stringent governance. These findings persist after controlling (...) for various institutional and GP characteristics and are robust to several adjustments for endogeneity concerns. This study also contributes to the finance, accounting, and business ethics literature on financial reporting quality. (shrink)

A fundamental aspect of biological systems is their spatial organization. In development, regeneration and repair, directional signals are necessary for the proper placement of the components of the organism. Likewise, pathogens that invade other organisms rely on directional signals to target vulnerable areas. It is widely understood that chemical gradients are important directional signals in living systems. Less well recognized are electrical fields, which can also provide directional information. Small, steady electrical fields can directly guide cell movement and growth (...) and can generate chemical gradients of charged macromolecules against the leveling action of diffusion. At the site of a lesion in an ion‐transporting epithelium, for example, a substantial electrical field is instantly generated and may extend over many cell diameters. There are numerous other situations in which relatively long‐range electrical fields have been shown to exist naturally. Recently, there has been substantial progress in identifying specific processes that are controlled, to some extent, by these endogenous electrical fields. This review highlights these recent data and discusses possible mechanisms by which the fields might affect biological processes. BioEssays 25:759–766, 2003. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Contemporary globalization is largely shaped by the predominant position and strength of the United States, and the concept of globalization is cast upon the polity and social aspects of P.R. China after Reform and Opening. Globalization, though substantially varied in a modern scene, is not without historical and cultural roots. The future holds anew, whereas newly arisen pieces of knowledge and information shed new light on the past, the blood and violence of the political progress on the Chinese soil. (...) This paper digs into the interactive aspect of the Chinese civilization with Western Civilization, and an empirical understanding on the evolvement of the country / nation to the recent shaping, with implication of which might change the dynamic of the Asian area after the global power politics whereof after World War II. (shrink)

In this article, we propose that giving in cash and non-cash differ in their relation with the giving firm’s future corporate financial performance and only cash giving is associated with future CFP. Using a novel dataset from ASSET4 that differentiates corporate giving over a sample period of 2002–2012, we examine three competing hypotheses: agency cost hypothesis that cash giving reflects agency cost and destroys value for shareholders, investment hypothesis that cash giving is an investment by management that aims for better (...) future return, and information hypothesis that cash giving has informational value to shareholders as cash is a critical resource at a firm and giving is a decision by managers who are insiders. We find that indeed, only cash giving is positively associated with future CFP and firm value, measured by Fama–French five-factor abnormal risk-adjusted stock returns, future return on assets, and Tobin’s Q. In addition, we find that the positive association exists only between excess, i.e., unexpected, but not expected cash giving and future CFP. Our empirical findings support the information hypothesis, but neither the agency hypothesis nor the investment hypothesis, and are robust to a number of endogeneity tests, including orthogonalized cash giving, instrumental variable regression using geography-based instruments, and propensity score matching. Furthermore, we show that the positive association between future CFP and unexpected cash giving is only pronounced at firms with good governance and relatively higher sales growth where agency problems are less likely, and at firms with no alternative mechanisms to demonstrate the strength of cash flow. Additionally, we do not find evidence that suggests in-kind giving to possess any informational value. (shrink)

Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, this paper investigates the effects of Internet use on residents’ risk attitudes. Both Generalized Ordered Logit Model and Logit model are used to identify the effects of Internet use. The results reveal an association between Internet use and increases in both subjective and objective risk preferences that remains even after we adjust for possible endogeneity. The heterogeneity analysis also reveals that these impacts are different among groups with different reasons for Internet use (...) and different personal characteristics. Our study expands the research on the effects of Internet on people’s concepts from the micro perspective and suggests that while promoting the application of information technology we should also pay attention to the individual characteristics of residents so that we can better share the “digital dividend” brought by the popularization of information technology in the whole society. (shrink)

The search for knowledge is a fact of any human society in the quest for development, as it is in the nature of human species to do so. This is geared towards humanisation of the society in the attainment of positive social change, which cannot be realised without adequate and informed knowledge from the culture of the people. This form of knowledge is seen from the identity of the people, focusing on the social change of their society. The creation of (...) a national consciousness is a crucial component of the society as it presupposes identity, seen as the heart of any culture that motivates the collective common goal of the people. This paper, using the analytic methodology in the philosophical discipline, therefore argues that the acceptance of cultural knowledge from the platform of its identity in the quest for development in Africa is a conditio sine qua non. (shrink)

This paper clarifies why editors of academic journals should share with their referees the information about the number of referees they consult and the decision rule they apply. Our analysis also rationalizes the common questionable phenomenon of editors who seem to distort the yes or no recommendations of their referees. The editors request a recommendation of whether to accept or reject the paper as well as an assessment of the paper. The editors need the complete reports to make the (...) appropriate correction of the referees' final recommendations. (shrink)

The most disturbing aspects of the growth of underground economies are the interrelated problems of unreported and unrecorded income. A large and growing underground economy can thwart fiscal efforts to establish budget balance and may significantly undermine the veracity of a nation's economic information system. The notion that economic information is itself endogenous raises the possibility that at least part of the economic malaise observed in most Western nations during the past two decades is essentially the result (...) of a statistical illusion. The essays in this 1989 volume examine the problems of defining, measuring and understanding the implications of the underground economies that have emerged in many of the world's developed nations. Empirical chapters examine the conceptual problems of how to measure a phenomenon that attempts to defy detection. Alternative measurement procedures are evaluated. Specific studies are included for the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Norway, Canada, France, the Soviet Union and Hungary. (shrink)

In this study, we examine the empirical association between corporate social responsibility and information asymmetry by investigating their simultaneous and endogenous effects. Employing an extensive U.S. sample, we find an inverse association between CSR engagement and the proxies of information asymmetry after controlling for various firm characteristics. The results hold using 2SLS considering the reverse side of information asymmetry influencing CSR activities. The results also hold after mitigating endogeneity based on the dynamic panel system generalized method (...) of moment. Furthermore, the CSR–information asymmetry relation is amplified in high-risk firms due to managers’ efforts to build a good reputation. Last, we find that CSR engagement is inversely associated with reputational risk measure and lower predicted value of reputational risk is positively associated with lower information asymmetry measures. We interpret these results as supporting the stakeholder theory-based, reputation-building explanation that considers CSR engagement as a vehicle to build and maintain firm reputation thereby enhancing the information environment. (shrink)

The sex ratio at birth in China exhibits a major occurrence of “missing women” due to the high son preference in Chinese culture. Clearly, the large gender discrepancy in China can be explained not only by ethical, moral, or social fairness theories but also by the economic benefits of women's particular abilities, experiences, and talents. This article examines the influence of female chief financial officers on information disclosure violations in order to highlight women's positive contributions. Our data imply that (...) having a female CFO can dramatically lower the number of companies that fail to disclose information. The results are strong after controlling endogeneity with propensity score matching, Heckman's two-stage self-selection model, and CFO change, as well as controlling the gender of the chairman and chief executive officer, utilizing different study periods, and using exogenous shock. We further examined the moderate effects of CFO power and external monitoring, and we found that CFO power magnifies the negative effect of female CFO on violations; the more the power, the more the negative effect of female CFO on violations. We also found that when the firm has effective external monitoring, there are fewer future infractions of information disclosure. (shrink)

Alternative non‐B‐DNA conformations formed under physiological conditions by sequences called flipons include left‐handed Z‐DNA, three‐stranded triplexes, and four‐stranded i‐motifs and quadruplexes. These conformations accumulate and release energy to enable the local assembly of cellular machines in a context specific manner. In these transactions, nucleosomes store power, serving like rechargeable batteries, while flipons smooth energy flows from source to sink by acting as capacitors or resistors. Here, I review the known biological roles for flipons. I present recent and unequivocal findings showing (...) how innate immune responses are regulated by Z‐flipons that identify endogenous RNAs as self. Evidence is also presented supporting important roles for other flipon classes. In these examples, the dynamic exchange of energy between flipons and nucleosomes enables rapid switching of genetic programs without altering flipon sequence. The increased phenotypic diversity enabled by flipons drives their natural selection, with adaptations evolving faster than is possible by codon mutation alone. (shrink)

Richard Bradley’s Bayesian model of preference kinematics is compared with Sven Ove Hansson’s AGM-style model of preference revision. Both seek to model the revision of preference orders as a consequence of retaining consistency when some preferences change. Both models are often interpreted normatively, as giving advice on how an agent should revise her preferences. I raise four criticisms of the Bayesian model: it is unrealistic; it neglects an important change mechanism; it disregards endogenous information relevant to preference change, (...) in particular about similarity and incompleteness; and its representational framework, when expanded with similarity comparisons, may give misleading advice. These criticisms are based on a principle of conservatism, and on two proposals of similarity metrics for the Bayesian model. The performance of the Bayesian model, with and without the similarity metrics, is then tested in three different cases of preference change, and compared to the performance of the AGM model. (shrink)

To understand the endogenous components of the event-related brain potential (ERP), we must use data about the components' antecedent conditions to form hypotheses about the information-processing function of the underlying brain activity. These hypotheses, in turn, generate testable predictions about the consequences of the component. We review the application of this approach to the analysis of the P300 component. The amplitude of the P300 is controlled multiplicatively by the subjective probability and the task relevance of the eliciting events, (...) whereas its latency depends on the duration of stimulus evaluation. These and other factors suggest that the P300 is a manifestation of activity occurring whenever one's model of the environment must be revised. Tests of three predictions based on this “context updating” model are reviewed. Verleger's critique is based on a misconstrual of the model as well as a partial and misleading reading of the relevant literature. (shrink)

Individuals typically produce auditory sequences, such as speech or music, at a consistent spontaneous rate or tempo. We addressed whether spontaneous rates would show patterns of convergence across the domains of music and language production when the same participants spoke sentences and performed melodic phrases on a piano. Although timing plays a critical role in both domains, different communicative and motor constraints apply in each case and so it is not clear whether music and speech would display similar timing mechanisms. (...) We report the results of two experiments in which adult participants produced sequences from memory at a comfortable spontaneous (uncued) rate. In Experiment 1, monolingual pianists in Buffalo, New York engaged in three production tasks: speaking sentences from memory, performing short melodies from memory, and tapping isochronously. In Experiment 2, English-French bilingual pianists in Montréal, Canada produced melodies on a piano as in Experiment 1, and spoke short rhythmically-structured phrases repeatedly. Both experiments led to the same pattern of results. Participants exhibited consistent spontaneous rates within each task. People who produced one spoken phrase rapidly were likely to produce another spoken phrase rapidly. This consistency across stimuli was also found for performance of different musical melodies. In general, spontaneous rates across speech and music tasks were not correlated, whereas rates of tapping and music were correlated. Speech rates (for syllables) were faster than music rates (for tones) and speech showed a smaller range of spontaneous rates across individuals than did music or tapping rates. Taken together, these results suggest that spontaneous rate reflects cumulative influences of endogenous rhythms (in consistent self-generated rates within domain), peripheral motor constraints (in finger movements across tapping and music), and communicative goals based on the cultural transmission of auditory information (slower rates for to-be-synchronized music than for speech). (shrink)

The article is devoted to the research of the information service of open data in the context of influence on the development of the regional economy. The concepts of "ecosystem", "open data", their essence and significance as endogenous and exogenous factors are considered. The state of development of separate elements of the open data ecosystem formed in Ukraine is characterized. The foreign experience of organizing such information resources has been analyzed. The main problems are identified, such as (...) weak integration of regional information resources into a single open data system, insufficient use of the potential of domestic IT professionals. The directions of improving the ecosystem of the open data of Ukraine are proposed. (shrink)

In this paper, prediction markets that encourage traders to bet on matters of life and death are used to explore the varieties and dynamics of moral repugnance. We define moral repugnance as morally charged feelings of revulsion that correspond (correctly, incorrectly, and indeterminately) to moral reasons and contexts. Rich variations of moral repugnance and their dynamic qualities are presented by investigating the contextual frames in which they arise. These contextual frames constitute interacting conditions composed of information about states of (...) affairs, moral reasons, and feelings of revulsion. Through careful study of two medical prediction markets that encourage betting on death, we can observe the interaction between these causal conditions to see how the varieties of moral repugnance emerge. We also present three interesting results that arise from analyzing the dynamics of moral repugnance in response to prediction markets. First, a prediction market can elicit several conflicting types of moral repugnance at the same time. Second, moral indeterminacy can arise in two different ways when judging prediction markets. Finally, some prediction markets can generate a moral endogeneity problem, a disruptive feedback loop between a given prediction market and the morally relevant outcome it predicts. (shrink)

Standard semantic information processing models—information in; information processed; information out —lend themselves to standard models of the functioning of the brain in terms, e.g., of threshold-switch neurons connected via classical synapses. That is, in terms of sophisticated descendants of McCulloch and Pitts models. I argue that both the cognition and the brain sides of this framework are incorrect: cognition and thought are not constituted as forms of semantic information processing, and the brain does not function (...) in terms of passive input processing units organized as neural nets. An alternative framework is developed that models cognition and thought not in terms of semantic information processing, and, correspondingly, models brain functional processes also not in terms of semantic information processing. As alternative to such models: I outline a pragmatist oriented, interaction based, model of representation; derive from this model a fundamental framework of constraints on how the brain must function; show that such a framework is in fact found in the brain, and develop the outlines of a broader model of how mental processes can be realized within this alternative framework. Part I of this discussion focuses on some criticisms of standard modeling frameworks for representation and cognition, and outlines an alternative interactivist, pragmatist oriented, model. In part II, the focus is on the fact that the brain does not, in fact, function in accordance with standard passive input processing models—e.g., information processing models. Instead, there are multiple endogenously active processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales across multiple kinds of cells. A micro-functional model that accounts for, and even predicts, these multi-scale phenomena in generating emergent representation and cognition is outlined. That is, I argue that the interactivist model of representation outlined offers constraints on how the brain should function that are in fact empirically found, and, in reverse, that the multifarious details of brain functioning entail the pragmatist representational model—a very strong interrelationship. In the sequel paper, starting with part III, this model is extended to address macro-functioning in the CNS. In part IV, I offer a discussion of an approach to brain functioning that has some similarities with, as well as differences from, the model presented here: sometimes called the predictive brain approach. (shrink)

Thought-intrusions, automatic inferences, and other unintended thought are beginning to play an important role in the study of psychiatric disease as well as normal thought processes. We examine one method for study of task-unrelated imagery and thought . TUIT likelihood was shown to be reliably measured over a wide range of vigilance tasks, to have high short-term and long-term test-retest reliability, and to be sensitive to information processing demands. Likelihood of TUITs was shown to be different as a function (...) of aging, hyperactivity, time of day, and level of depression. Thus, we now can reliably measure the influence of endogenous and exogenous influences on TUITs. In addition, TUIT measurement was proposed as a minimally interfering and natural second task for determining resource utilization in a primary task. Finally, this method was offered as a reliable approach to quantification of such mental states as obsessions and drug craving and addiction. (shrink)

This study provides evidence on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and firms’ credit ratings. We find that credit rating agencies tend to award relatively high ratings to firms with good social performance. This pattern is robust to controlling for key firm characteristics as well as endogeneity between CSR and credit ratings. We also find that CSR strengths and concerns influence credit ratings and that the individual components of CSR that relate to primary stakeholder management matter most in explaining firms’ (...) creditworthiness. Overall, our results suggest that CSR performance conveys important non-financial information that rating agencies are likely to use in their evaluation of firms’ creditworthiness, and that CSR investments—particularly those that extend beyond compliance behavior to reflect what is desired by society—can lead to lower financing costs resulting from higher credit ratings. (shrink)

Dans cet article j’envisage la problématique du « discours rattrapé par la situation » non comme un fait rare, mais comme une propriété générique de tout événement social : l’organisation du discours en interaction (la conversation, une conférence, une performance poétique) suppose un contexte qu’il contribue réflexivement à structurer. Je souhaite le montrer en ayant recours à l’analyse de situations a priori extra-ordinaires, où des aspects troublants, angoissants, morbides font enfler des phénomènes humains structurant des pratiques sociales en général. Par (...) là, je m’appuierai sur une perspective endogène du contexte, et j’introduirai une discussion sur l’approche interactioniste vis-à-vis de notions telles que l’information, ou la normalité. (shrink)

Artworks are attentional engines. They are artifacts intentionally designed to direct attention to what we might call their artistically salient features. The artistically salient features of a work are those aspects of their formal-compositional structure that carry information about what they express, their point, purpose, or meaning. These aspects of a work reflect the range of compositional strategies and choices an artist has employed to produce their work. Critically, artists deploy exogenous and endogenous perceptual strategies tailored to direct (...) attention and reveal what they mean to express. Painters, for instance, manipulate the perceptual salience of different areas of the canvas to directly engage perceptual systems, e.g. manipulating contrasts in the tonal properties, hue value, or scale of spatial frequency information. However, shared art critical knowledge can also be exploited to indirectly engage endogenous attentional processes, shape perception, and guide a consumer’s understanding of what is expressed in a work. The range of exogenous and endogenous perceptual strategies an artist employs shape what an artifact affords a consumer as an artwork. Access to these affordances depends upon the structure of the works, the structure of perceptual systems, and an understanding of the broad range of art critical and cultural practices that define the artworld for a community at a time. In this chapter I will employ a diagnostic recognition framework and a biased competition theory of selective attention to develop a model for understanding the way artists exploit exogenous and endogenous perceptual strategies in their works and map the complex environment of an artwork. (shrink)

Sociological propositions about the workings of cognition are rarely specified or tested, but are of central relevance to studies of culture, social judgment, and social movements. This paper draws out lessons of recent work from sociological theory, cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience on the embodied nature of knowledge and thought, and develops implications of these lessons for cultural and cognitive sociology. Knowledge ought to be conceived of as fundamentally embodied, because sensory information is a fundamental component of experience as (...) it is stored in long-term memory, and because bodily responses and intuitions often precede reflexive or strategic thought. I argue that the challenge of embodied knowledge for cultural sociology is threefold: to develop cultural theories of motivation; to specify the ways in which the body structures discourses endogenously; and to specify how embodied motivations and embodied discourses interact. (shrink)

Like any other part of the world, Africa is not immune to the intermingling of cultures and civilizations, heritages and horizons, the endogenous and the exogenous, knowledge and imagery. The effects of new communication and information technologies, which still remain the privilege of a minority of political and intellectual elites, cannot conceal the far more profound transformations and reconfigurations that characterize its societies and cultures.

Using the original information from the identification cards of CEOs and signing auditors to hand-collect the data on CEO–auditor dialect connectedness (_CADC_), we examine the effect of _CADC_ on audit opinion shopping (_AOS_), and further investigate the moderating effect of auditor reputation. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms during the period of 2007–2019, our findings reveal that the likelihood of _AOS_ is significantly higher for firms with _CADC_ than for their counterparts. This finding suggests that _CADC_ impairs auditor (...) independence and triggers _AOS_. Moreover, the effect of _CADC_ on _AOS_ is less pronounced for _BIG10_-audited firms than for non-_BIG10_-audited firms, implying that auditor reputation attenuates the relation between _CADC_ and _AOS_. Furthermore, the above findings are robust to alternative proxies for _CADC_ and _AOS_, and our conclusions are still valid after using the Heckman two-stage regressions, the propensity score matching approach, the change model method and the regression discontinuity design to control for the endogeneity issue. Lastly, the impact of _CADC_ on _AOS_ stands only for engagement auditors, but not for review auditors. Overall, our study enriches the existing literature on _AOS_ and auditor independence. (shrink)

There is growing consensus that reward plays an important role in the control of attention. Until recently, reward was thought to influence attention indirectly by modulating task-specific motivation and its effects on voluntary control over selection. Such an account was consistent with the goal-directed (endogenous) versus stimulus-driven (exogenous) framework that had long dominated the field of attention research. Now, a different perspective is emerging. Demonstrations that previously reward-associated stimuli can automatically capture attention even when physically inconspicuous and task-irrelevant challenge (...) previously held assumptions about attentional control. The idea that attentional selection can be value driven, reflecting a distinct and previously unrecognized control mechanism, has gained traction. Since these early demonstrations, the influence of reward learning on attention has rapidly become an area of intense investigation, sparking many new insights. The result is an emerging picture of how the reward system of the brain automatically biases information processing. Here, I review the progress that has been made in this area, synthesizing a wealth of recent evidence to provide an integrated, up-to-date account of value-driven attention and some of its broader implications. (shrink)

Language is an imperfect and coarse means of communicating information about a complex and nuanced world. We report on an experiment designed to capture this feature of communication. The messages available to the sender imperfectly describe the state of the world; however, the sender can improve communication, at a cost, by increasing the complexity or elaborateness of the message. Here the sender learns the state of the world, then sends a message to the receiver. The receiver observes the message (...) and provides a best guess about the state. The incentives of the players are aligned in the sense that both sender and receiver are paid an amount which is increasing in the accuracy of the receiver’s guess. We find that the size of the language endogenously emerges as a function of the costs of communication. Specifically, we find that higher communication costs are associated with a smaller language. Although the equilibrium predictions do not perform well, this divergence occurs in a manner which is consistent with the experimental communication literature: overcommunication. We find that the sender’s payoffs, relative to equilibrium payoffs, are decreasing in the cost of communication. We also find that the receiver’s payoffs, relative to equilibrium payoffs, are increasing in the cost of communication. Finally, we find imperfections in coordination on the basis of the experimental labels. (shrink)

The human brain consists of approximately 100 billion electrically active neurones that generate an endogenous electromagnetic field, whose role in neuronal computing has not been fully examined. The source, magnitude and likely influence of the brain's endogenous em field are here considered. An estimate of the strength and magnitude of the brain's em field is gained from theoretical considerations, brain scanning and microelectrode data. An estimate of the likely influence of the brain's em field is gained from theoretical (...) principles and considerations of the experimental effects of external em fields on neurone firing both in vitro and in vivo. Synchronous firing of distributed neurones phase-locks induced em field fluctuations to increase their magnitude and influence. Synchronous firing has previously been demonstrated to correlate with awareness and perception, indicating that perturbations to the brain's em field also correlate with awareness. The brain's em field represents an integrated electromagnetic field representation of distributed neuronal information and has dynamics that closely map to those expected for a correlate of consciousness. I propose that the brain's em information field is the physical substrate of conscious awareness - the cemi field - and make a number of predictions that follow from this proposal. Experimental evidence pertinent to these predictions is examined and shown to be entirely consistent with the cemi field theory. This theory provides solutions to many of the intractable problems of consciousness - such as the binding problem - and provides new insights into the role of consciousness, the meaning of free will and the nature of qualia. It thus places consciousness within a secure physical framework and provides a route towards constructing an artificial consciousness. (shrink)

Using a sample of Chinese to-be-listed firms during the period of 2006–2012, this study examines the influence of CEO-auditor dialect sharing (CADS) on pre-IPO audit quality and further investigates the moderating effects of auditor reputation and audit firm industry specialization. On the basis of information in personal identification cards, this study hand-collects data about CADS, and then provides strong and consistent evidence to show that CADS is significantly positively related with discretionary accruals (the inverse proxy for audit quality), suggesting (...) that CADS leads to the collusion between the CEO and the signing auditors, elicits pre-IPO earnings management, and eventually impairs pre-IPO audit quality. Moreover, both auditor reputation and audit firm industry specialization attenuate the positive effect of CADS on discretionary accruals. Furthermore, sensitivity tests suggest that above findings are robust to different measures of CADS and discretionary accruals, and above conclusions still stand after controlling for the endogeneity. Lastly, the findings using the post-IPO sample further validate the negative association between CADS and pre-IPO audit quality. (shrink)

Exocyclic DNA adducts are mutagenic lesions that can be formed by both exogenous and endogenous mutagens/carcinogens. These adducts are structurally analogs but can differ in certain features such as ring size, conjugation, planarity and substitution. Although the information on the biological role of the repair activities for these adducts is largely unknown, considerable progress has been made on their reaction mechanisms, substrate specificities and kinetic properties that are affected by adduct structures. At least four different mechanisms appear to (...) have evolved for the removal of specific exocyclic adducts. These include base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair, mismatch repair, and AP endonuclease‐mediated repair. This overview highlights the recent progress in such areas with emphasis on structure–activity relationships. It is also apparent that more information is needed for a better understanding of the biological and structural implications of exocyclic adducts and their repair. BioEssays 26:1195–1208, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The primary purpose of this book is to present some of the key economic concepts that have guided economic thinking in the last century and to identify which of these concepts will continue to direct economic thought in the coming decades. This book is written in an accessible manner and is intended for a wide audience with little or no formal training in economics. It should also interest economists who want to reflect on the direction of the discipline and to (...) learn concepts and achievements in other subfields. The author imparts his enthusiasm for the economic way of reasoning and its wide applicability. Through the abundant use of illustrations and examples, the author makes concepts understandable and relevant. Topics covered include game theory, the new institutional economics, market failures, asymmetric information, endogenous growth theory, general equilibrium, rational expectations, and others. (shrink)

We provide the first comprehensive and robust evidence on the relationship between CSR disclosure quality and the costs of corporate bonds in China. We find that firms with high CSR disclosure quality are associated with lower costs of corporate bonds. Our findings are robust to endogeneity issues arising from reverse causality, omitted variable bias, and the interdependencies between price and non-price terms. The negative relationship between CSR disclosure quality and the costs of corporate bonds is stronger in weak corporate governance (...) firms and in firms located in regions with weak institutional environments. We also find that firms’ misconduct significantly mitigates the influence of CSR disclosure quality. In the additional analyses, we provide evidence that CSR disclosure can offer incremental information beyond the credit ratings. Regarding non-price terms, we conclude that firms with higher quality of CSR information are less likely to be subject to collateral terms, but they tend to include more restrictive covenants. Further analyses also show that compared with low-quality or mandatory CSR disclosure firms, bond investors perceive firms with CSR disclosures rated above “A” categories or voluntary CSR disclosure as less likely to cause asymmetric information problems and thus charge lower risk premiums. Overall, this study demonstrates that CSR disclosure quality is an important determinant that affects both price and non-price bond contract terms. (shrink)

Prior research suggests that the media plays an important information intermediary role in capital markets. We investigate the role of the media in influencing firms’ engagement in corporate social responsibility activities. Using a large sample of 4396 unique firms from 42 countries over the period 2003–2012, we find strong evidence that firms engage in more CSR activities if located in countries where the media has more freedom. This relation is robust to using various proxies for media freedom, an alternative (...) source of CSR data, and to applying the instrumental variables approach to address endogeneity. In additional analyses, we find that the positive relation between media freedom and CSR engagement is stronger for better governed firms and for larger firms. Since the media have the ability to impact reputational capital, we conclude that media freedom affects firms’ incentives to engage in costly CSR activities. (shrink)

Can firms overcome credit constraints with a corporate culture of high integrity? We empirically address this question by studying their investment–cash flow sensitivities. We identify firms with a culture of integrity through textual analysis of public documents in a sample of Chinese listed firms and also through corporate culture statements. Our results show that firms with an integrity-focused culture have lower investment–cash flow sensitivity, even after we address endogeneity concerns. However, we also find that for the culture to reduce the (...) investment–cash flow sensitivity, external stakeholders must be able to verify this culture through a low information asymmetry environment. Overall, our findings show that a corporate culture of high integrity can mitigate a firm’s external transaction costs. (shrink)

We examine the role of alignment between organizational social consciousness and the informal and formal institutions of a country in increasing female representation on boards. Using fixed-effects and Hausman Taylor regression methodology for endogenous covariate with panel data for the years 2006–2020, we find that the greater the alignment between organizational social consciousness and certain formal and informal institutions, the more progress there is toward gender representation on corporate boards in Europe. We also find that more socially conscious firms (...) make the most progress, often going beyond the minimum regulatory targets. By showing the complementarity of these factors, we address the enduring question of how the interplay of formal and informal institutions directly affects corporate behavior, thus contributing to the institutional, public policy/regulatory, and corporate governance literatures. We note the need for policymakers to go beyond mere codification of rules via quotas and simultaneously work toward raising national and organizational social consciousness levels on issues of gender equality. (shrink)

The vast number of neurons in the brain are ceaselessly engaged in spontaneously generated activity in virtue of interactions between those. It is in the background of this intrinsic activity that the brain responds to signals from the environment and from endogenous signals received by way of active mental processes. This spontaneous activity persists in the `resting state' and is modulated by evoked signals resulting from task-induced activity. The two together generate an ongoing process of self-organization in the brain (...) whereby dynamic excitation patterns are set up and correlated with one another in neuronal aggregates of diverse population size in an intricately nested hierarchy. These correlated patterns constitute distributed models of reality, based on which the brain generates expectations, plans, and predictions relating to the dynamically evolving world that we all are embedded in. -/- The process of neuronal self-organization provides the basis for the emergence of a structured mind exhibiting an exquisite functional complexity. Generally speaking, mental (and, in particular, psychological) processes are based on large scale (`macroscopic') neuronal networks, while microscopic and mesoscopic neuronal populations constitute the `substratum' of the mind, where elementary and tiny bits of experience are represented so as to act as atomic ingredients in the more complex processing of compositely constituted information involved in mental activities. -/- Processes in the microscopic and mesoscopic neuronal aggregates occur on relatively short spatial and temporal scales while those in macroscopic networks are slower and distributed across brain regions. The large scale networks operate near the `edge of instability', which means that these networks, taken together, form a system close to criticality---this is what makes the mind possessed of its remarkable fluidity. -/- The neuronal aggregates themselves are in a constant state of flux, with groups of neurons constantly entering and leaving larger aggregates, and with neurons being simultaneously operative in the functioning of more than one aggregates at a time. In the backdrop of this enormous complexity, the operations of the mind constitute a complementary description of the brain-mind complex to those of the neuronal populations---neither of the two is reducible to the other. In other words, the functioning of the mind is not determinable in terms of the activities of the neuronal populations. -/- The `substratum of the mind', made up of microscopic and mesoscopic populations of neurons, in addition to providing the hinterland in which latent operations supporting all mental processes are enacted, is involved more directly with representations of elementary concepts, with distributed memory (in a broad sense), and with heuristics of an elementary and atomic nature that help us in making vast numbers of `decisions' of a similarly elementary nature. (shrink)

Significant progress in the molecular investigation of endogenous bioelectric signals during pattern formation in growing tissues has been enabled by recently developed techniques. Ion flows and voltage gradients produced by ion channels and pumps are key regulators of cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation. Now, instructive roles for bioelectrical gradients in embryogenesis, regeneration, and neoplasm are being revealed through the use of fluorescent voltage reporters and functional experiments using well‐characterized channel mutants. Transmembrane voltage gradients (Vmem) determine anatomical polarity and function (...) as master regulators during appendage regeneration and embryonic left‐right patterning. A state‐of‐the‐art recent study reveals that they can also serve as prepatterns for gene expression domains during craniofacial patterning. Continued development of novel tools and better ways to think about physical controls of cell‐cell interactions will lead to mastery of the morphogenetic information stored in physiological networks. This will enable fundamental advances in basic understanding of growth and form, as well as transformative biomedical applications in regenerative medicine. (shrink)

It’s often claimed in the philosophical and scientific literature on temporal representation that there is no such thing as a genuine sensory system for time. In this paper, I argue for the opposite—many animals, including all mammals, possess a genuine sensory system for time based in the circadian system. In arguing for this conclusion, I develop a semantics and meta-semantics for explaining how the endogenous rhythms of the circadian system provide organisms with a direct information link to the (...) temporal structure of their environment. In doing so, I highlight the role of sensory systems in an information processing architecture. (shrink)

This paper responds to recent criticism from Alejandro Agafonow. In section I, I argue that the dilemma that Agafonow points to – while real – is in no way unique to liberal peacebuilding. Rather, it arises with respect to any foreign involvement in post-conflict reconstruction. I argue further that Agafonow’s proposal for handling this dilemma suffers from several shortcomings: first, it provides no sense of the magnitude and severity of the “oppressive practices” that peacebuilders should be willing to institutionalize. Second, (...) it provides no sense of a time frame within which we can hope that endogenous liberalization should emerge in the local political culture. Finally, it provides no suggestion for what the international community should do if the desired liberalization should fail to materialize within that time frame. In section II, I show that Agafonow’s argument resonates poorly with the concepts and ideas that he claims to adopt from Rawls’s Political Liberalism. Instead, his argument evokes the guiding ideas behind Rawls’s later work The Law of Peoples. I offer a critical perspective on these ideas, focusing specifically on Rawls’s treatment of women’s rights. Section III applies this critical perspective to Agafonow’s arguments, before closing with an example of a more constructive and empirically informed approach that critical studies of post-conflict reconstruction could take. (shrink)

Many-minds arguments are flooding into legal theory. Such arguments claim that in some way or another, many heads are better than one; the genus includes many species, such as arguments about how legal and political institutions aggregate information, evolutionary analyses of those institutions, claims about the benefits of tradition as a source of law, and analyses of the virtues and vices of deliberation. This essay offers grounds for skepticism about many-minds arguments. I provide an intellectual zoology of such arguments (...) and suggest that they are of low utility for legal theory. Four general and recurring problems with many-minds arguments are as follows: (1) Whose minds?: The group or population whose minds are at issue is often equivocal or ill-defined. (2) Many minds, worse minds: The quality of minds is not independent of their number; rather, number endogenously influences quality, often for the worse. More minds can be systematically worse than fewer because of selection effects, incentives for epistemic free-riding, and emotional and social influences. (3) Epistemic bottlenecks: In the legal system, the epistemic benefits of many minds are often diluted or eliminated because the structure of institutions funnels decisions through an individual decisionmaker, or a small group of decisionmakers, who occupy a kind of epistemic bottleneck or chokepoint. (4) Many minds vs. many minds: The insight that many heads can be better than one gets little purchase on the institutional comparisons that pervade legal theory, which are typically many-to-many comparisons rather than one-to-many. (shrink)

This article opens with a brief analysis of key features of the Mexican semi-authoritarian regime. It then moves to a discussion of the critical realist positions and features that inform the strategic-relational approach. Attention is paid to social interactions and causal relations that enable the SRA to trace patterns of punctuated evolution and to highlight the processes of transformation. Since ideal types serve to highlight key characteristics in specifc phenomena, processes and actors, some features of ideal types of the state (...) and of the transition from one type to another are also discussed. In particular, attention is paid to the Keynesian welfare national state and to the Schumpeterian workfare post-national regime ideal types elaborated by Jessop. For it is contended that the specific features of these ideal types could be of great help in broadening the debate on economic restructuring and political reforms in countries such as Mexico. Moreover, the SRA approach provides an insight into the endogenous features of social change and stresses the importance of networking for a strategic agenda as well. For the never-static dynamics of the processes of change the role of situated agents in context is fundamental, as it injects intentionality and acknowledges the contingency of the conditions that surround them. (shrink)

Several theories of consciousness first described about a decade ago, including the conscious electromagnetic information (CEMI) field theory, claimed that the substrate of consciousness is the brain’s electromagnetic (EM) field. These theories were prompted by the observation, in many diverse systems, that synchronous neuronal firing, which generates coherent EM fields, was a strong correlate of attention, awareness, and consciousness. However, when these theories were first described there was no direct evidence that synchronous firing was actually functional, rather than an (...) epiphenomenon of brain function. Additionally, any EM field-based consciousness would be a ‘ghost in the machine’ unless the brain’s endogenous EM field is also able to influence neuron firing. Once again, when these theories were first described, there was only indirect evidence that the brain’s EM field influenced neuron firing patterns in the brain. In this paper I describe recent experimental evidence which demonstrate that synchronous neuronal firing does indeed have a functional role in the brain; and also that the brain’s endogenous EM field is involved in recruiting neurons to synchronously firing networks. The new data point to a new and unappreciated form of neural communication in the brain that is likely to have significance for all theories of consciousness. I describe an extension of the CEMI field theory that incorporates these recent experimental findings and integrates the theory with the ‘communication through coherence’ hypothesis. (shrink)

Using a conviction-based measure, we find that local public corruption exerts a negative effect on the lending activity of US banks. Our baseline estimations show that the difference in public corruption between, for example, Alabama, where corruption is high, and Minnesota, where corruption is low, implies that banks headquartered in the former state grant 0.55% less credit ceteris paribus. Using proxies for relationship lending and monitoring, we also find that these bank characteristics weaken the negative effect of public corruption on (...) lending. These results are robust to tests that address endogeneity, to the use of perception-based measures of corruption, and after controlling for credit demand conditions. In further analysis, we show that these effects are more evident for smaller banks and banks operating in a single state. These findings provide evidence that public corruption could facilitate information asymmetry in the lending market and, thus, could hinder local development by reducing bank credit. (shrink)