Associative learning theory assumes that prediction error is a driving force in learning. A competing view, probabilistic contrast (PC) theory, is that learning and prediction error are unrelated. We tested a learning phenomenon that has proved troublesome for associative theory--retrospective revaluation--to evaluate these two models. We previously showed that activation in right lateral prefr...

The paper presents the fiscal theory of the price level in a variety of models, including endowment economies with lump-sum taxes and production economies with proportional income taxes. We offer a microeconomic perspective on the fiscal theory by computing a Slutsky-Hicks decomposition of the effects of tax changes into substitution, wealth, and revaluation effects. Revaluation effects arise w...

GAAP mandates a variety of departures from historical cost asset valuation. Here we o¤er a simple model that leads to such variety, depending on regulatory objectives and the magnitude of various economic forces. The central feature of the model is entrepreneurial investment in an asset followed by private information that cannot be communicated. A lemons problem arises in the asset resale mark...

Associative learning theories assume that cue interaction and, specifically, retrospective revaluation occur only when the target cue is previously trained in compound with the to-be-revalued cue. However, there are recent demonstrations of retrospective revaluation in the absence of compound training (e.g., Matute & Pineño, 1998a, 1998b). Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to assume that cue in...

The retrieval-extinction paradigm, which disrupts the reconsolidation of fear memories in humans, is a non-invasive technique that can be used to prevent the return of fear in humans. In the present study, unconditioned stimulus revaluation was applied in the retrieval-extinction paradigm to investigate its promotion of conditioned fear extinction in the memory reconsolidation window after part...

Accountants have long disputed whether financial statements should report current values and the effects of price changes. Indeed, the two kinds of adjustment are often confused. This study examines the asset revaluation and Current Cost Accounting (CCA) disclosure decisions of UK firms in 1983, using a costly contracting framework. We find the two decisions appear to have been taken for very d...

When energy prices increased suddenly and unexpectedly in 1973-74 and 1979-80, a portion of the long-lived capital stock in U.S. manufacturing was rendered economically less valuable. In this paper we develop an analytical framework, consistent with the theory of cost and production, that provides an appealing structural interpretation of this capital revaluation phenomenon. In the spirit of a ...

Financial conspiracies today blend together antisemitic tropes and spiritual visions with ideals of political reform economic salvation. It is tempting to locate such phenomena at the periphery financial order, situating them within a delusional space beyond judicious concepts money, finance, wealth, value. But also possible take paranoid finance as an extreme, radical appropriation logic inher...

In studies on avoidance learning, a warning signal is followed by an aversive outcome (US) unless the participant makes a particular response. Several theories have been developed to try to explain the mechanisms underlying avoidance learning. Surprisingly, stimulus-response (S-R) theories and cognitive theories of avoidance learning have rarely been compared experimentally. These theories diff...