In this paper, we report on a novel visual motion illusion. When hundreds of dots move in straight trajectories and random directions without colliding, the trajectories are perceived as wriggling rather than straight (Experiment 1). We examined the nature of this "wriggling motion trajectory illusion" via six separate experiments. The illusion was most pronounced when there were a large number...

The literature testing for long-run impacts of fiscal policy on growth at the macro level has generally ignored short-run dynamics and treated all counties’ fiscal-growth dynamics identically. This paper examines how robust previous ‘long-run’ results for OECD countries are to new empirical methods that model short-run dynamics and allow fiscal-growth responses to be heterogeneous both across c...

The déjà vu illusion occurs when a person has an inappropriate feeling of familiarity in a situation that is objectively unfamiliar or new. The amorphous nature of this experience has made identifying its etiology challenging, but recent advances in neurology and understanding of implicit memory and attention are helping to clarify this cognitive illusion. More specifically, déjà vu may result ...

In recent years, inequality has risen in the region alongside rapid economic growth. The widening income gap strengthens the case for a government response, and fiscal policy is one of the most suitable policy instruments to promote a more equitable society that provides opportunities for all. Developing Asia has trailed other parts of the world in equity-promoting fiscal expenditures, namely e...

The McGurk illusion is a prominent example of audiovisual speech perception and the influence that visual stimuli can have on auditory perception. In this illusion, a visual speech stimulus influences the perception of an incongruent auditory stimulus, resulting in a fused novel percept. In this high-density electroencephalography (EEG) study, we were interested in the neural signatures of the ...

Values have very important functions in any society. The significance  becomes so clear when a society has been exposed to changes and strengthening social cohesion is viewed as an essential subject. Great changes as the Islamic Revolution and the Imposed War have been happened in Iran during last several decades. In this line, generations can be understood via  direct or indirect experience of...

The term fiscal sustainability has many definitions, though it almost always refers to the fiscal policies of a government or the public sector. One concept of sustainability relates to solvency, the ability of the government to service its debt obligations in perpetuity without explicit default. Rarely does fiscal sustainability analysis reach the conclusion that a government is insolvent unle...