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This study considers the ability of the audit team to configurally process information, that is, to piece together information cues held by individual team members and recognize the underlying pattern in the information. It also examines how the hierarchical structure of the audit team impacts the team's ability to process information and affects the quality of decisions made by the team. The study also considers the ability of a specific audit procedure, the fraud brainstorming session required by Statement on Auditing Standards No. 99, to overcome barriers to communication and improve team judgments in subsequent tasks. I recruited 57 dyads (114 professional auditors) from public accounting firms to complete an experimental instrument, and employed a 2x2 between-groups ANOVA, manipulating team structure (peer versus hierarchical teams) and the level of the counterfactual prime (team brainstorming session versus individual strategic prompting). I find evidence of a relationship between team structure and judgment quality, but interestingly it is in the opposite direction predicted. Research from other domains suggests differences in status within the hierarchical team may hinder communication and lead to process losses. However, I find the opposite to be true in the accounting domain. When auditors are paired in hierarchical dyads, the senior auditor assumes a leadership role, taking greater interest in the content of his/her teammate's workpapers, asking more questions, and motivating the staff auditor to volunteer a greater amount of information, which results in a higher quality judgment. Thus, this study provides initial evidence that the hierarchical nature of the audit team does not lead to the process losses documented in other domains as the assumption of a leadership role by the senior auditor allows the team to overcome any challenges inherent in the hierarchical structure. This study also considers the ability of the SAS 99 fraud brainstorming session, serving as a counterfactual prime, to lead to improved decisions later in the audit process. As predicted, the brainstorming session conducted during the planning stage of the audit increases the amount and quality of communication during the testing phase and leads to better judgments. These results are of importance for accounting firms as they determine which audit team members are required to participate in the brainstorming session. While a novice auditor may not make significant contributions to the planning decisions made during the brainstorming session, my study finds there are benefits from staff auditors participating in the brainstorming session, over and above what they are able to contribute to the session itself. Participation of staff auditors in the brainstorming session strengthens communication and enhances team-level cognition in subsequent tasks, improving the ability of the audit team to detect fraud throughout the course of the audit. These findings may be relevant for other forms of teamwork, including management teams, audit committees, and interdepartmental taskforces. / Ph. D.

Many important questions remain unanswered regarding how we recognize faces. Methodological inconsistencies have contributed to confusion regarding these questions, especially those surrounding three purported face processing mechanisms—featural, configural, and holistic—and the extent to which each play a role in face recognition. The work presented here aims to 1) empirically test the assumption that several face recognition tasks index the same underlying construct(s), and 2) contribute data to a number of ongoing debates concerning the reliability and validity of various methods for assessing integrative (i.e., holistic and/or configural) aspects of face processing. Experiment 1 tested the assumption that various tasks purporting to measure integrative face processing index the same construct(s). It is important to test this assumption because if these tasks are in fact measuring different things, then researchers should cease interpreting them as interchangeable measures. Using a within-subjects design (N = 223) we compared performance—as reflected by accuracy and reaction time measures, as well as two types of difference scores—across four of the most commonly used integrative face processing tasks: The Partial Composite Face Effect Task, the Face Inversion Effect Task, the Part Whole Effect Task, and the Configural/Featural Difference Detection Task. Analyses showed that within-task correlations were much stronger than those between-tasks. This suggests that the four conditions within each task are measuring something in common; In contrast, low correlations across tasks suggest that each is measuring something unique. This in turn suggests these tasks should not be seen as assessing the same integrative face-processing construct. Exploratory factor analyses corroborated the correlation data, finding that performance on most conditions loaded onto a single factor in unrotated solutions, but onto separate factors in direct oblimin-rotated solutions. In Experiment 2, we investigated the question of whether integrative face processing performance is related to face recognition ability. We did this by assessing the degree to which results from four widely-used integrative face processing tasks correlate with a measure of general face recognition ability, The Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT). The four integrative processing tasks used in this study only partly overlapped those from in Experiment 1. They were: The Complete Composite Face Effect Task, the Partial Composite Face Effect Task, the Part Whole Effect Task, and the Configural/Featural Difference Detection Task. As with Experiment 1, we used a within-subjects design (N = 260) and analyzed a variety of performance variables across these tasks. Analyses demonstrated low to moderate positive correlations between performance on the task conditions and performance on the CFMT. This suggests that the constructs the tasks reflect do contribute to face recognition ability to a modest degree. These analyses also replicated parts of Experiment 1, showing weak correlations between tasks. Also similar to Experiment 1, factor analyses generally revealed task conditions loading onto a common first factor in the unrotated factor matrix, but loading separately in the rotated factor solution. In addition to providing evidence regarding the nature of integrative face processing tasks, the data presented here speak to a number of other questions in this domain. For instance, they contribute to the debate regarding which kinds of difference scores (subtraction-based or regression-based) are more reliable, as well as the reliability of the various tasks used to investigate integrative face processing. In addition, the data inform the debate over whether the Complete or the Partial version of the Composite Face Effect Task is the superior measure of integrative face processing. In summary, the studies presented here indicate that the previous literature in face recognition needs to be interpreted with care, with an eye to differences in methodology and the problems of low measurement reliability. The various methods used to investigate integrative face processing are not assessing the same thing and cannot be taken as reflecting the same underlying construct.

付記する学位プログラム名: 霊長類学・ワイルドライフサイエンス・リーディング大学院 / 京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第22721号 / 理博第4630号 / 新制||理||1665(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 足立 幾磨, 准教授 後藤 幸織, 教授 高田 昌彦 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

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Informelle Berichte zeigten größere Amplituden der durch Gesichter ausgelösten N170 Komponente im Ereigniskorrelierten Potenzial (EKP) bei asiatischen als bei kaukasischen Probanden. Als mögliche Ursache vermutete ich unterschiedliche Erfahrungen mit logographischen bzw. alphabetischen Schriftsystemen (Schriftsystem-Hypothese) oder die verstärkte Exposition mit unbekannten Gesichtern während der Immersion in eine neue soziale oder ethnische Umgebung (soziale Immersions-Hypothese). Zur Überprüfung dieser Hypothesen führte ich zwei kulturvergleichende Studien mit Erwachsenen bzw. Kindern durch. In Studie 1 untersuchte ich einheimische Chinesen und nicht-chinesische Auswärtige in Hongkong und deutsche Einheimische und chinesische Auswärtige in Berlin. Die Auswärtigen an beiden Orten zeigten größere N170 Amplituden auf Gesichter als die Einheimischen. Außerdem zeigten Deutsche, die erst kurze Zeit in Berlin lebten ähnliche Amplituden wie langjährige Einheimische. Insgesamt unterstützt Studie 1 die soziale Immersions-Hypothese, dass die Immersion in eine neue ethnische Umgebung zu einer Vergrößerung der N170 führt. Studie 2 untersuchte die Schriftsystem-Hypothese bei chinesischen und deutschen Erstlesern am Ende der ersten oder zu Beginn des zweiten Schuljahres an ihrem jeweiligen Heimatort. Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die Schriftsystem-Hypothese, dass chinesische Kinder eine größere N170 auf Gesichter zeigen als deutsche. Insgesamt konnte die vorliegende Dissertation zwei neue Einfluss-Faktoren auf das Gesichterverarbeitungs-System nachweisen, das erworbene Schriftsystem (logographische versus alphabetisch) und die Erfahrung sozialer Immersion in eine neue ethnische Umgebung. Diese Effekte zu ganz unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten der Entwicklung (Kindheit vs. junges Erwachsenen-Alter) zeigen, dass das Gesichterverarbeitungs-System über lange Zeit seine Plastizität behält. / Informal reports have shown larger face-elicited N170 component of event-related potential (ERP) in Asians than Caucasians participants. I proposed that different experience with logographic versus alphabetic scripts (script system hypothesis) or by exposure to abundant novel faces during the immersion into a new social and/or ethnic environment (social immersion hypothesis) as a possible cause. To test these hypotheses, I conducted two cross-cultural ERP studies with adults and Children. In Study 1, I examined Chinese locals and non-Chinese foreigners in Hongkong, and German locals and Chinese foreigners in Berlin. It turned out that the foreigners in both locations showed larger N170 amplitudes to faces than the locals. In addition, Germans who had only lived in Berlin for a short time showed similar face N170 amplitudes as long-term Berlin residents. In sum, Study 1 supports the social immersion hypothesis that immersing into a new ethnic environment drives an increase of face N170. Study 2 investigated the scripts system hypothesis in Chinese and German early readers assessed at the end of the first-grade or at the beginning of the second grade in their respective home towns. The findings support the script system hypothesis that Chinese children showed larger face N170 amplitudes than German children. Overall, the present thesis demonstrated two new influencing factors on the face processing system, the acquired script system (logographic vs. alphabetic) and the social immersion experience in a new ethnic environment. More specifically, learning to read a visually complex logographic Chinese script or immersing into an other-ethnic social environment facilitates early perceptual processing of faces. These effects acquired at different stages of development (early childhood versus young adulthood) show that the face processing system retains its plasticity over a long period of time.