The article examines probability revision behavior based on data generated by single and joint information systems. The bases for measurement comparison have numbered a few less than the number of measurements themselves. Some authors consider the behavior of income in response to changes in accounting methods. Other authors appeal to underlying economic variables and suggest that some measurements more realistically reflect the economic phenomena than other measurements. The author remarks that, although this research project is germane to several accounting issues, its merit does not lie in the fact that it resolves these accounting issues, but rather that it presents a systematic set of theoretical statements for interpreting the issues and predicting behavior. Messages from an information system discriminate among the underlying set of objects on which the system operates. The ring of an alarm clock discriminates among times of day, a stop sign discriminates among possible operations of an automobile and a book cover discriminates among possible contents of the volume.

Reviews the book "Introduction to Accounting: Economic Measurement for Decisions," by William J. Bruns.

Accounting systems, Incomplete information, Accounting techniques

Compensation plans, Uncertainty, Decision making, Cost variance

In an experimental setting when outcomes are stochastically related to actions, predictions of equilibrium behavior depend not only on the participants' preference orderings of outcomes, but also on their orderings of lotteries on outcomes as well. We introduce and test a reward structure that can be utilized in any experimental setting to allow the experimenter to decree beforehand the subjects' preferences for lotteries on experimental outcomes. We show analytically that the proposed reward structure can induce subjects to behave as if they have the decreed preference function defined on experimental outcomes. Empirical tests using two different choice settings provide evidence to support this ability to control preferences.