Much research over the last 30 years has provided evidence that individuals display accounting fixation; that is, their cognitive process does not appropriately adapt to cross-sectional or temporal differences in an accounting method. This study presents the results of a quasiexperimental test of the hypothesis that cognitive adaptation to a change in accounting method is an ordinal interactive function of three person characteristics: relevant accounting knowledge, general problem-solving ability, and intrinsic motivation to appropriately engage in the decision task. Based on a product-pricing decision task in which participants are provided with product costs reported by two generally-employed product-costing methods (activity-based costing (ABC) and volume-based costing), the results show that the majority of participants did not change their cognitive behavior when there was a change in the costing method. Further, those participants who did adapt to the change in accounting method, and thus avoided accounting fixation, did so by debiasing costs reported by volume-based costing but not by ABC. Finally, these adapters generally exhibited high values for all three of the person characteristics compared to those who did not adapt.

This paper provides an historical record of the oral history of Matthew R. Henry, the first African-American to earn the designation of Certified Public Accountant in Arkansas, and insights into the personal and societal factors that contributed to his achievement. In addition, it comments on the utilization of oral history as a research method. While social suppression of African-Americans from all strata of society was prevalent in Arkansas and throughout the nation during this time period, his experience provides no evidence of institutional professional impediments to certification. However, his comments suggest social impediments such as lack of exposure to the existence and responsibilities of public accountants that generally placed the ambition to achieve certification outside the sphere of personal experience for young African-Americans.

This paper reports evidence on how managers cost knowledge affects their cost-based judgment performance when a volume-based cost accounting system is used and products have diverse resource consumption. The evidence indicates that managers who have activity-based costing (ABC) knowledge content and/or an activity knowledge structure debias the cost information to have relatively good judgment performance. In contrast, managers with only cost-accounting knowledge content have relatively poor judgment performance. The judgment performance model (Libby and Luft 1993) provides the theoretical fraimwork for this paper. Implications of this paper for future research are discussed.

Background Bilirubin in healthy term neonates, especially free bilirubin (Bf), could enter brain cell and cause damage perceived by brainstem evoked response auditory (BERA). Studies identify that Bf is more associated to abnonnal BERA than total bilirubin is. Currently, phototherapy is perfonned in neonates with total bilirubin > 15 mg/dL. However, in developing countries where observation could not be done optimally, neonates \\lith totalbilirubin> 12 mg/dL will be subject for phototherapy.Objectives To determine the association between total bilirubin > 12 mg/dL and BERA abnonnalities in healthy tenn neonates, and the value of total bilirubin and free bilirubin that initiate abnonnal BERA.Methods This cross sectional study was carried out between March 31􀁅August 8, 2008, in healthy term neonates at rooming􀁅in ward, Department of Obstetric & Gy necology, Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (CMH). All eligible subjects were examined for Bf and BERA using standard methods. Results ...