Cognitive Assumptions Research Articles

Auditing, Expertise and the Sociology of Technique

This essay argues that the methodological and normative commitments of audit judgement research constrain its ability to address the expressive and persuasive dimensions of audit work. In contrast, a sociology of audit technique is proposed in which the "technicality" of audits is theorised as a product of process of closure rather than as a self-evident feature of audit practice. Accordingly, planning aids, such as the audit risk model, function more as a basis for representing the audit as a rational task than to guide procedures in the field. While these themes may appear to be counterintuitive, they emerge from a close reading of some of the audit judgement literature itself which is unable to develop the symbolic and justificational dimension of the audit process within the constraints of its theoretical framework. The sociology of audit technique inverts the cognitive assumptions of audit judgement research and critically recast the question of auditor expertise.

Opportunism and its critics

Although there is growing agreement that bounded rationality is the appropriate cognitive assumption for describing economic organization,' there is less agreement on how the self-interestedness of economic actors should be described. Transaction cost economics has proposed that economic agents be described as opportunistic, where this contemplates self-interest seeking with guile. That has turned out to be a controversial formulation. I begin with a brief discussion of behavioral assumptions, including an explanation of why opportunism is centrally implicated. Recent approaches to economic organization that emphasize trust are considered in the following section. The effects of suppressing opportunism are examined in the third section and conclusions follow.

Metaphor: From Fixedness and Selection to Differentiation and Creation

By and large, most models of metaphor entertained in contemporary cognitive literature assume that metaphor is a relationship between two given entities whose attributes are defined prior to the relationship established between them. The metaphoric sense is produced through the selection of a subset of these attributes. In this paper I take issue with this view. My discussion is couched in the consideration of four basic cognitive assumptions: (1) the fixedness assumption, (2) the selectional assumption, (3) an assumption about the primacy of constituents over wholes, and (4) an assumption about meaning and interpretation. Against these assumptions I consider metaphors taken from literary texts, the semantics of non-metaphoric linguistic expressions, judgments of similarity, synesthesia, and patterns in both child development and the evolution of culture. An outline for an alternative view of metaphor is then presented, which is couched in the broader context of nonrepresentational psychology. In addition, the functional significance of metaphor is discussed and a pluralistic perspective on metaphor is proposed. Words have a soul. Most readers, and even writers, demand only that they should have a sense. One has to find that soul, which appears in the contact of words with other words. Guy de Maupassant The poet's task [is to] dislocate words into meaning. T. S. Eliot Poetics Today 13:4 (Winter 1992). Copyright ( 1992 by The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics. CCC 0333-5372/92/$2.50. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.118 on Sun, 11 Sep 2016 05:50:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 660 Poetics Today 13:4

Cognitive-behavior therapy and physical disability

This article attempts to assist the cognitive understanding of children and adults with significant physical disability. A discrimination is offered between disability and handicap. Common cognitive schemes and irrational beliefs of people with physical disabilities are explored. The development of belief systems from a social learning perspective and several cognitive assumptions of parents and families of children who have physical disabilities are presented. Finally, certain self evaluative beliefs specifically related to physical disability are examined in terms of how they relate to self image and, concomitantly, behavior. The article offers information arrived upon from the author's clinical practice as well as the author's personal experience as a person with a physical disability.

The Cognitive Assumptions of Literacy: the Case of Modern Japan

The Cognitive Assumptions of Literacy: the Case of Modern Japan

Existential and Cognitive Psychology Contrasting Views of Consciousness

Cognitive psychology is considered by some theorists to have subsumed "third force" views of consciousness. The purpose of the present article is to show that the cybernetic conceptions of cognitive psychology do not explain the qualities of consciousness considered fundamental to existentialists. It is our contention that feedback principles are inadequate to explain self-awareness, volition, and futurity. The core of this inadequacy lies in cognitive psychology's assumption about human reasoning. Cognitive psychologists are shown to rely exclusively upon demonstrative reasoning, whereas existential psychologists are shown to emphasize dialectical reasoning.

Learning to walk is still an "old" problem: a reply to Zelazo (1983).

Zelazo (1983) proposes that two cognitive prerequisites are necessary for the development of locomotion: The conversion of neo-natal reflexive stepping into instrumental behavior and a shift from stereotypical to relational play. I argue that these cognitive assumptions are unnecessary. The disappearance of neo-natal stepping can be explained as a result of increasing leg mass, and the retention of this reflex with practice may be simply an exercise effect. Comparative and evolutionary evidence suggests that locomotion is not associated with abstract reasoning ability. Learning to walk is a complex, gradual process of maturation of motivation, the integration of subcortical pattern-generating centers with the neural substrate for control of posture and balance, and important changes in body proportions and bone and muscle strength. The control of walking is likely the province of mechanism phylogenetically more primitive than the human cerebral cortex. There is no need to invoke cortical explanations when more simple ones are sufficient.

Rational, Repetitive Choice: The Discrimination Model Versus the Camilleri-Berger Model

The best-known model of r ational, repetitive choice in sociology is the Camilleri-Berger Model. The Discrimination Model is a recent competitor to the Camilleri-Berger Model and a thorough comparison is called for. In this paper, the two models are presented and compared in some detail with regard to the way they handle utility and marginal utility; the way they explain (or fail to explain) matching; their cognitive assumptions; their heuristic capabilities for application to social situations; and their predictive accuracy. The Discrimination Model comes out favorably on all counts. In addition, it is a deepet theory because it can specify the conditions under which the Camilleri-Berger Model will furnish accurate predictions.

The paradox of persisting self-punitive behavior

The paradox presented by the “masochist” who persists in behaviors that are followed contingently by seemingly aversive consequences is analyzed. Prototypical data from infra-human experiments are evaluated for their bearing on two theories of self-punitive actions, one based on traditional stimulus-response principles, the other on cognitive assumptions. Although the label “self-punitive” is widely used, a question remains as to whether animals that react so as to bring about so-called noxious outcomes are properly to be described as “punishing themselves.” In an attempt to resolve this question, two major conceptions of punishment are evaluated as they apply to self-punitive studies. Neither conception is deemed adequate because of a lack of criteria for determining which events are aversive. A search for criteria of aversiveness eventuates in a completely relativistic view in which noxiousness and attractiveness are judged to be relational rather than absolute properties of events.

On the Genesis and Development of Literary Systems: Part II

Previous articleNext article No AccessOn the Genesis and Development of Literary Systems: Part IIEarl MinerEarl Miner Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Critical Inquiry Volume 5, Number 3Spring, 1979 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/448006 Views: 6Total views on this site Copyright 1979 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The World Hypotheses Scale: Rationale, Reliability and Validity

Theoretical descriptions are presented for four different sets cognitive assumptions concerning the fundamental meaning of events. These cognitive assumptions or world hypotheses are called formism, mechanism, organicism, and contextualism. The development of a 12-item scale to measure individual preferences for these world hypotheses is described. Finally, several empirical studies are reported in which diverse behavioral correlates have been found for individuals preferences among world hypotheses. Specifically, significant results have been obtained for choice of careers, stability of friendships, and success in both group and individual therapies.

Time and Schizophrenia.

It is possible, albeit reductionistic, to consider the many dysfunctions of reality testing found in schizophrenia as manifestations of a defective time sense. This perspective on schizophrenic discourse, for instance, permits a new grasp of "schizophrenic logic" and a novel approach to therapeutic interpretation. The present paper describes the use of time-related interventions in the psychotherapy of a schizophrenic patient. Several aspects of time sense are outlined. Under each heading are examples from the psychotherapy of Carrie, demonstrating her idiosyncratic notion of that particular temporal concept. Interpretations are aimed at clarifying the cognitive assumptions underlying the patient's expressions.

Budgetary Strategies and Success at Multiple Decision Levels in the Norwegian Urban Setting

The purpose of this article is to test a series of propositions about budgetary decision making, in the form of linear decision models, for the municipal government of Oslo, Norway, and to assess the consequences of such strategic choices for the long-term growth of agency activities. Budgetary decisions for forty-seven agencies at each of the four principal decision-making levels over a nineteen-year period serve as the basis for analysis. Results indicate that while the complexity of strategic choice is not related to long-term agency growth, the acquisitiveness of the agency strategy is an important determinant of growth. Intermediate budgetary reviewers are only partially successful in reducing the relationship between acquisitiveness and growth. Reference to a set of systematic interview materials in these same agencies, relevant to the cognitive assumptions of the models, suggests some reservations about model validity, at least in a minority of cases.

Scientific models and their application in psychiatric models.

THE PURPOSE of this paper is to present three basic scientific models and their utilization in psychiatry. Model is meant to convey the idea of summary or miniature representation of a scientific system or school of thought. Hopefully, our final model will be general enough to contain any phenomenon that might be encountered in psychiatry, not just one phenomenon. Faithfully, this model is systematic enough to touch upon all the parts that go together to constitute the whole. Charitably, it should be in the spirit of scientific methodology; hence it is an attempt at an overview of the experience of man, not a final dictum. Psychiatry needs to give adequate attention to conceptual and cognitive assumptions. A more energetic application of present concepts may in itself have merit, but action alone cannot substitute for knowledge or investigation. For that matter, conceptual as

The Neglected Situation

IT HARDLY seems possible to name a social variable that doesn't show up and have its little systematic effect upon speech behavior: age, sex, class, caste, country of origin, generation, region, schooling; cultural cognitive assumptions; bilingualism, and so forth. Each year new social determinants of speech behavior are reported. (It should be said that each year new psychological variables are also tied in with speech.) Alongside this correlational drive to bring in ever new social attributes as determinants of speech behavior, there has been another drive, just as active, to add to the range of properties discoverable in speech behavior itself, these additions having varied relations to the now classic phonetic, phonemic, morphemic and syntactical structuring of language. It is thus that new semantic, expressive, paralinguistic and kinesic features of behavior involving speech have been isolated, providing us with a new bagful of indicators to do something correlational with.

On Economic Growth: An Essay in Pure Theory. D. M. Bensusan-Butt

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsOn Economic Growth: An Essay in Pure Theory. D. M. Bensusan-Butt Robert M. SolowRobert M. Solow Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 70, Number 3Jun., 1962 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/258653 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1962 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.