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Judgments
Kinds of Judgments Terms modified by Judgments Selected AbstractsSUBJECTIVITY, JUDGMENT, AND THE BASING RELATIONSHIPPACIFIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2009JOHN K. DAVIS Moral and legal judgments sometimes depend on personal traits in this sense: the subject offers good reasons for her judgment, but if she had a different social or ideological background, her judgment would be different. If you would judge the constitutionality of restrictions on abortion differently if you were not a secular liberal, is your judgment really based on the arguments you find convincing, or do you find them so only because you are a secular liberal? I argue that a judgment can be based on the considerations the subject claims as justification even when it depends on personal traits. [source] THE ORDINAL AND CARDINAL JUDGMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE CHANGES IN SINGAPORE, 1982?99THE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 1 2003PUNDARIK MUKHOPADHAYA This paper analyzes the changes in social welfare in Singapore using both cardinal and ordinal measures. Labour Force Survey data published by the Manpower Research and Statistics, Department of the Ministry of Manpower, Singapore are used. It is observed with the use of Lorenz dominance technique that social welfare in Singapore during 1999 is less than in 1991 while an unambiguous conclusion cannot be made on the welfare ranking of 1982 and 1991 or of 1982 and 1999. According to the generalized Lorenz dominance, 1999 ranks first; however, this criterion is also unable to make any unambiguous ranking between 1982 and 1991. The ranking based on Sen social welfare function shows a continuous increase in the social welfare in Singapore. But when a more general social welfare function is used a different ordering might occur. [source] The Error of Judgment: Struggling for Neutrality in Science and JournalismCONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2002Article first published online: 2 DEC 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] Narrating Evil: A Post-metaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgment by María Pía LaraCONSTELLATIONS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRITICAL AND DEMOCRATIC THEORY, Issue 2 2009Ernesto VerdejaArticle first published online: 24 JUN 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] Arendt versus Ellison on Little Rock: The Role of Language in Political JudgmentCONSTELLATIONS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRITICAL AND DEMOCRATIC THEORY, Issue 2 2002Meili Steele First page of article [source] Judgment and action knowledge in speed adjustment tasks: experiments in a virtual environmentDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2003Susanne Huber Two experiments were conducted to investigate children's and adults' knowledge of time and speed in action and judgment tasks. Participants had to set the speed of a moving car to a new speed so that it would reach a target line at the same time as a reference car moving at a higher speed and disappearing in a tunnel at the midway point. In Experiment 1 (24 10-year-olds, 24 adults), children's and adults' speed adjustments followed the normative pattern when responses had to be graded linearly as a function of the car's initial speed. In a non-linear condition, only adults' action responses corresponded with the normative function. Simplifying the task by shortening the tunnel systematically in Experiment 2 (24 10-year-olds, 24 adults) enabled children to grade the speeds adequately in the action conditions only. Adults now produced normative response patterns in both judgment and action. Whether people show linearization biases was thus shown to depend on the interaction of age, task demands and response mode. [source] Ramsey on Judgment: The Theory of "Facts and Propositions"DIALECTICA, Issue 4 2004John M. Vickers Ramsey's "Facts and Propositions" is terse, allusive, and dense. The paper is far from easy to understand. The present essay is an effort, largely following Brian Loar's account,1 to say what Ramsey's goal is, to spell out what he took to be the means to accomplish it, and to show how those means, at least in the terms of F&P, cannot accomplish that end. I also contrast Loar's own account of judgment, explicitly modeled on Ramsey's view, with the latter. The exercise is not at all academic. Loar makes clear the striking depth and originality of Ramsey's insights. [source] Guilt, Shame, and Rehabilitation:The Pedagogy of Divine JudgmentDIALOG, Issue 2 2000Niels Henrik Gregersen First page of article [source] Psychological Characteristics Contributing to Expertise in Audit JudgmentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 2 2006Pamela Kent Prior research has sought a better understanding of the relation between audit expertise and judgment of auditors. The motivation for this study is derived from the need to further understand psychological characteristics contributing to audit expertise. This paper adopts part of a framework derived from the decision-making literature in psychology and applies it to auditing. Shanteau proposes that expert decision makers inherently possess 14 psychological characteristics. The importance of these characteristics is assessed using the perceptions of 55 practising auditors from three national accounting firms in Australia within and across four phases of the audit using a survey instrument. The results indicate that each of the 14 characteristics is important across all four phases of the audit in varying degrees. In addition, the degree of importance varies across characteristics and between audit phases. These findings indicate that psychological characteristics are associated with audit expertise to be applied and tested in future research. [source] EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Systematic review of current executive function measures in adults with and without cognitive impairmentsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVIDENCE BASED HEALTHCARE, Issue 3 2010Sabrina Pickens PhDc MSN ANP-BC GNP-BC Abstract Background, Executive function pertains to higher cognitive processes historically linked to frontal lobes. Several measures are available to screen for executive function; however, no gold standard exists. The difficulty in assessing executive function is the existence of its many subsets. Objectives, To evaluate the psychometric properties of executive function measures and determine the most effective measure(s) through a systematic review of the literature. Search strategy, The search strategy utilised a comprehensive literature review of articles written in the English language published from January 2003 to September 2009. The following electronic databases were searched: SCOPUS, PUBMED, Medline Ovid, PsychArticles and CINAHL Plus. Initial key words used were ,executive function', ,measures', ,reliability' and ,validity' followed by the addition of ,traumatic brain injury'. The initial search elicited 226 articles, of which 28 were retrieved. After further exclusion 19 were included in the review. Results, Eight measures underwent factor analysis and 18 underwent various forms of reliability and/or validity testing. Factor analysis showed different aspects of executive functions. According to preset evaluation criteria, only the Test of Practical Judgment performed all of the recommended reliability and validity testing. Reviewer's conclusion, Of the recently developed measures, several show promise for future use yet further validity and reliability testing is warranted. Future tool development should measure all subsets of executive function rather than only a few and include the recommended components of reliability and validity testing. [source] Practice and the Human Sciences: the Case for a Judgment-Based Practice of CareJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 3 2005Mary L. Nolan PhD MA. No abstract is available for this article. [source] Skeletal Estimation and Identification in American and East European Populations,JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES, Issue 3 2008Erin H. Kimmerle Ph.D. Abstract:, Forensic science is a fundamental transitional justice issue as it is imperative for providing physical evidence of crimes committed and a framework for interpreting evidence and prosecuting violations to International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The evaluation of evidence presented in IHL trials and the outcomes various rulings by such courts have in regard to the accuracy or validity of methods applied in future investigations is necessary to ensure scientific quality. Accounting for biological and statistical variation in the methods applied across populations and the ways in which such evidence is used in varying judicial systems is important because of the increasing amount of international forensic casework being done globally. Population variation or the perceived effect of such variation on the accuracy and reliability of methods is important as it may alter trial outcomes, and debates about the scientific basis for human variation are now making their way into international courtrooms. Anthropological data on population size (i.e., the minimum number of individuals in a grave), demographic structure (i.e., the age and sex distribution of victims), individual methods applied for identification, and general methods of excavation and trauma analysis have provided key evidence in cases of IHL. More generally, the question of population variation and the applicability of demographic methods for estimating individual and population variables is important for American and International casework in the face of regional population variation, immigrant populations, ethnic diversity, and secular changes. The reliability of various skeletal aging methods has been questioned in trials prosecuted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Prosecutor of the Tribunal against Radislav Krsti, (Case No. IT-98-33, Trial Judgment) and again in the currently ongoing trial of The Prosecutor of the Tribunal against Zdravko Tolimir, Radivolje Mileti,, Milan Gvero, Vinko Pandurevi,, Ljubisa Beara, Vujadin Popovi,, Drago Nikoli,, Milorad Trbi,, Ljubomir Borovcanin (IT-05-88-PT, Second Amended Indictment). Following the trial of General Krsti,, a collaborative research project was developed between the Forensic Anthropology Center at The University of Tennessee (UT) and the United Nations, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Office of the Prosecutor (ICTY). The purpose of that collaboration was to investigate methods used for the demographic analysis of forensic evidence and where appropriate to recalibrate methods for individual estimation of age, sex, and stature for specific use in the regions of the former Yugoslavia. The question of "local standards" and challenges to the reliability of current anthropological methods for biological profiling in international trials of IHL, as well as the performance of such methods to meet the evidentiary standards used by international tribunals is investigated. Anthropological methods for estimating demographic parameters are reviewed. An overview of the ICTY-UT collaboration for research aimed at addressing specific legal issues is discussed and sample reliability for Balkan aging research is tested. The methods currently used throughout the Balkans are discussed and estimated demographic parameters obtained through medico-legal death investigations are compared with identified cases. Based on this investigation, recommendations for improving international protocols for evidence collection, presentation, and research are outlined. [source] Life-Satisfaction Is a Momentary Judgment and a Stable Personality Characteristic: The Use of Chronically Accessible and Stable SourcesJOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 3 2002Ulrich Schimmack ABSTRACT Social cognition research indicates that life-satisfaction judgments are based on a selected set of relevant information that is accessible at the time of the life-satisfaction judgment. Personality research indicates that life-satisfaction judgments are quite stable over extended periods of time and predicted by personality traits. The present article integrates these two research traditions. We propose that people rely on the same sources to form repeated life-satisfaction judgments over time. Some of these sources (e.g., memories of emotional experiences, academic performance) provide stable information that explains the stability in life-satisfaction judgments. Second, we propose that the influence of personality traits on life satisfaction is mediated by the use of chronically accessible sources because traits produce stability of these sources. Most important, the influence of extraversion and neuroticism is mediated by use of memories of past emotional experiences. To test this model, participants repeatedly judged life-satisfaction over the course of a semester. After each assessment, participants reported sources that they used for these judgments. Changes in reported sources were related to changes in life-satisfaction judgments. A path model demonstrated that chronically accessible and stable sources are related to stable individual differences in life-satisfaction. Furthermore, the model supported the hypothesis that personality effects were mediated by chronically accessible and stable sources. In sum, the results are consistent with our theory that life-satisfaction judgments are based on chronically accessible sources. [source] An fMRI Study of Number Processing in Children With Fetal Alcohol SyndromeALCOHOLISM, Issue 8 2010Ernesta M. Meintjes Background:, Number processing deficits are frequently seen in children exposed to alcohol in utero. Methods:, Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine the neural correlates of number processing in 15 right-handed, 8- to 12-year-old children diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or partial FAS (PFAS) and 18 right-handed, age- and gender-matched controls from the Cape Coloured (mixed ancestry) community in Cape Town, South Africa, using Proximity Judgment and Exact Addition tasks. Results:, Control children activated the expected fronto-parietal network during both tasks, including the anterior horizontal intraparietal sulcus (HIPS), left posterior HIPS, left precentral sulcus, and posterior medial frontal cortex. By contrast, on the Proximity Judgment task, the exposed children recruited additional parietal pathways involving the right and left angular gyrus and posterior cingulate/precuneus, which may entail verbally mediated recitation of numbers and/or subtraction to assess relative numerical distances. During Exact Addition, the exposed children exhibited more diffuse and widespread activations, including the cerebellar vermis and cortex, which have been found to be activated in adults engaged in particularly challenging number processing problems. Conclusions:, The data suggest that, whereas control children rely primarily on the fronto-parietal network identified in previous studies to mediate number processing, children with FAS/PFAS recruit a broader range of brain regions to perform these relatively simple number processing tasks. Our results are consistent with structural neuroimaging findings indicating that the parietal lobe is relatively more affected by prenatal alcohol exposure and provide the first evidence for brain activation abnormalities during number processing in children with FAS/PFAS, effects that persist even after controlling statistically for group differences in total intracranial volume and IQ. [source] Cultural Intelligence: Its Measurement and Effects on Cultural Judgment and Decision Making, Cultural Adaptation and Task PerformanceMANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2007Soon Ang abstract We enhance the theoretical precision of cultural intelligence (CQ: capability to function effectively in culturally diverse settings) by developing and testing a model that posits differential relationships between the four CQ dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural) and three intercultural effectiveness outcomes (cultural judgment and decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance in culturally diverse settings). Before testing the model, we describe development and cross-validation (N = 1,360) of the multidimensional cultural intelligence scale (CQS) across samples, time and country. We then describe three substantive studies (N = 794) in field and educational development settings across two national contexts, the USA and Singapore. The results demonstrate a consistent pattern of relationships where metacognitive CQ and cognitive CQ predicted cultural judgment and decision making; motivational CQ and behavioural CQ predicted cultural adaptation; and metacognitive CQ and behavioural CQ predicted task performance. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our model and findings. [source] "I Followed the Rules, and They All Loved You More": Moral Judgment and Attitudes toward Fictional Characters in FilmMIDWEST STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2010CARL PLANTINGA First page of article [source] The Pervasive Impact of Moral JudgmentMIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 5 2009DEAN PETTIT A series of recent studies have shown that people's moral judgments can affect their intuitions as to whether or not a behavior was performed intentionally. Prior attempts to explain this effect can be divided into two broad families. Some researchers suggest that the effect is due to some peculiar feature of the concept of intentional action in particular, while others suggest that the effect is a reflection of a more general tendency whereby moral judgments exert a pervasive influence on folk psychology. The present paper argues in favor of the latter hypothesis by showing that the very same effect that has been observed for intentionally also arises for deciding, in favor of, opposed to, and advocating. [source] Clinical Reasoned Judgment and the Nursing ProcessNURSING FORUM, Issue 2 2009Loucine M. Huckabay RN Every nursing school student is taught the nursing process as a systematic framework for processing patient information to make clinical decisions. This article provides a model for integrating a conceptual model of critical thinking into the nursing process, with the goal of enabling nurses to think critically, reason accurately, and make appropriate clinical decisions about their patients. Eight elements of critical thinking provide the universal structure of thought processes: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, and logic. The model provides nurses with a practical approach for making effective clinical decisions. [source] A Model to Describe the Relationship Between Knowledge, Skill, and Judgment in Nursing PracticeNURSING FORUM, Issue 4 2006PNC(C), PhD(c), Robin J. Evans BScN This paper explores the relationship between knowledge, skill, and judgment and proposes a model to describe that relationship. Through illustration of the components and interrelationships within this model one can more clearly understand the nature of nursing work. Drawing on Benner's work on novice to expert, the model shows the interrelationship and the evolution of knowledge, skill, and judgment in a nurse's practice. [source] The Persistence of Patriarchy in Franz Kafka's "Judgment"ORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 2 2000David Pan Though commentators such as Gerhard Neumann have read Kafka's "Judgment" as a critique of patriarchal authority and the tyranny of familial relations, the story's powerful effect originates from the affirmation of patriarchal authority which motivates its plot. The story situates the protagonist in a conflict between the demands of a patriarchal family and a universalist culture outside the family based on friendship. The victory of the father and the resulting death of the son function as part of an attempt to recover traditional structures of authority which have been eroded by a modern notion of culture based on individual freedom and ,elective' affinities rather than binding ones. The death of the son is not an example of senseless repression but of a self-sacrifice of modern and individualist desires in favor of the patriarchal authority of the father. [source] Judgment of excellence in scholarshipORTHODONTICS & CRANIOFACIAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2002O. Tuncay [source] Clinical Judgment Versus Decision Analysis for Managing Device AdvisoriesPACING AND CLINICAL ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 10 2008MITESH S. AMIN M.D. Introduction: Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) and pacemaker (PM) advisories may have a significant impact on patient management. Surveys of clinical practice have shown a great deal of variability in patient management after a device advisory. We compared our management of consecutive patients in a single large university practice with device advisories to the "best" patient management strategy predicted by a decision analysis model. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of all patients who had implanted devices affected by an advisory at our medical center between March 2005 and May 2006 and compared our actual patient management strategy with that subsequently predicted by a decision analysis model. Results: Over 14 months, 11 advisories from three different manufacturers affected 436 patients. Twelve patients (2.8%) were deceased and 39 patients (8.9%) were followed at outside facilities. Management of the 385 remaining patients varied based on type of malfunction or potential malfunction, manufacturer recommendations, device dependency, and patient or physician preferences. Management consisted of the following: 57 device replacements (15.2%), 44 devices reprogrammed or magnets issued (11.7%), and 268 patients underwent more frequent follow-up (71.3%). No major complications, related to device malfunction or device replacement, occurred among any patient affected with a device advisory. Concordance between the decision analysis model and our management strategy occurred in 57.1% of cases and 25 devices were replaced when it was not the preferred treatment strategy predicted by the decision model (43.9%, 37.3% when excluding devices replaced based on patient preference). The decision analysis favored replacement for all patients with PM dependency, but only for four patients with ICDs for secondary prevention. No devices were left implanted that the decision analysis model predicted should have been replaced. Conclusions: We found that despite a fairly conservative device replacement strategy for advisories, we still replaced more devices when it was not the preferred device management strategy predicted by a decision analysis model. This study demonstrates that even when risks and benefits are being considered by experienced clinicians, a formal decision analysis can help to develop a systematic evidence based approach and potentially avoid unnecessary procedures. [source] Does Judgment at Nuremberg Accurately Depict the Nazi War Crimes Trial?THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE, Issue 2 2008Henry Gonshak First page of article [source] Determining dangerousness in sexually violent predator evaluations: cognitive,experiential self-theory and juror judgments of expert testimonyBEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 4 2007Joel D. Lieberman Ph.D. Past research examining the effects of expert testimony on the future dangerousness of a defendant in death penalty sentencing found that jurors are more influenced by less scientific clinical expert testimony and tend to devalue scientific actuarial testimony. This study was designed to determine whether these findings extend to civil commitment trials for sexual offenders and to test a theoretical rationale for this effect. In addition, we investigated the influence of a recently developed innovation in risk assessment procedures, Guided Professional Judgment (GPJ) instruments. Consistent with a cognitive,experiential self-theory based explanation, mock jurors motivated to process information in an experiential condition were more influenced by clinical testimony, while mock jurors in a rational mode were more influenced by actuarial testimony. Participants responded to clinical and GPJ testimony in a similar manner. However, participants' gender exerted important interactive effects on dangerousness decisions, with male jurors showing the predicted effect while females did not. The policy implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Is there progressive cognitive dysfunction in Sjögren Syndrome?ACTA NEUROLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 3 2010A preliminary study Martínez S, Cáceres C, Mataró M, Escudero D, Latorre P, Dávalos A. Is there progressive cognitive dysfunction in Sjögren Syndrome? A preliminary study. Acta Neurol Scand: 122: 182,188. © 2010 The Authors Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Munksgaard. Objective,,, The aim of this study was to determine the progression of cognitive dysfunction in primary Sjögren Syndrome (SS). Methods,,, Twelve subjects with SS were compared with ten subjects with migraine and ten healthy controls on neuropsychological, mood and fatigue tests at baseline and 8 years later. Results,,, At follow-up, SS subjects performed below subjects with migraine on the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) but did not differ on other tasks. Compared with controls, both clinical groups obtained lower scores on simple reaction time, patients with SS obtained lower scores on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and patients with migraine performed below controls on the Benton's Judgment of Line Orientation Test (JOLO). Clinical groups did not differ on cognitive changes over time, except that migraine subjects improved on verbal fluency. Compared with baseline, both SS and migraine patients were more impaired on simple reaction time, Trail Making Test part B, Stroop and JOLO. However, they showed higher scores on verbal and visual memory, WCST and CPT reaction time. SS also showed higher levels of depression and fatigue than migraine and controls, with no significant changes over time. Discussion,,, Preliminary evidence indicates some cognitive deficits in both SS and migraine following a pattern of fronto-subcortical dysfunction without a significant cognitive decline over time. [source] Naive Analysis of Food Web Dynamics: A Study of Causal Judgment About Complex Physical SystemsCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 4 2000Peter A. White When people make judgments about the effects of a perturbation on populations of species in a food web, their judgments exhibit the dissipation effect: a tendency to judge that effects of the perturbation weaken or dissipate as they spread out through the food web from the locus of the perturbation. In the present research evidence for two more phenomena is reported. Terminal locations are points in the food web with just a single connection to the rest of the web. Judged changes tended to be higher for species at terminal locations than for species the same distance from the perturbation but at nonterminal locations. Branches are points in the web where a route splits into two or more routes. Judged changes tended to be lower for species following branching points than for species the same distance from the perturbation but not following branching points. It is proposed that the findings can be explained as effects of a mental model employing concepts of influence and resistance. Under this model a perturbation is a change in energy level at a point in the system that acts as an influence affecting the rest of the system. The basic concepts in this model are domain-general and on that basis it is predicted that the dissipation effect should be found in judgments of any physical system to which notions of influence and resistance can be applied. [source] ,Why do they hate us?' Reframing immigration through participatory action researchAREA, Issue 2 2010Caitlin Cahill Why do ,they' hate ,us'? is a painful starting point for trying to make sense of the tangled web of global restructuring, politics and racism. My discussion draws upon ,Dreaming of No Judgment', a participatory action research project developed with young people in Salt Lake City, Utah that explores the emotional and economic impacts of stereotypes upon immigrant communities. My analysis focuses upon the disjunctures between the dominant immigration discourse and the everyday experiences of young Latino immigrants. Drawing upon borderlands scholarship, starting with embodied everyday lived experiences and concerns, here I consider how the questions, concerns and feelings of young people offer new openings for reframing immigration. In conclusion, I reflect upon how PAR might be a transformative ,construction site' for reworking and responding to social injustices through the arts. [source] The Impact of Internal Auditor Compensation and Role on External Auditors' Planning Judgments and Decisions,CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 2 2001F. Todd Dezoort Abstract This paper reports the results of an experiment that investigates how external audit planning is affected when internal auditors have incentives and the opportunity to bias their evaluations. Specifically, we draw on attribution theory to examine how internal auditor eligibility for incentive compensation and participation in consulting (i.e., two factors that provide incentives to bias audit evaluations) affect external audit planning. In addition, we examine the effects of incentive compensation and a consulting role across two routine internal audit tasks , an objective tests of controls task and a subjective inventory valuation task , to evaluate whether their effects are contingent upon task subjectivity (i.e., opportunity to bias audit evaluations). Seventy-six external auditors from four Big 5 public accounting firms participated in an experiment that manipulated internal auditor compensation (fixed salary versus incentive compensation), the type of work that the internal auditors routinely perform (primarily auditing versus primarily consulting), and audit task subjectivity (objective tests of controls versus subjective inventory valuation). Our results suggest that the nature of internal auditors' compensation and work affect audit planning recommendations differently. The opportunity to receive incentive compensation results in less reliance on internal auditors' work and greater budgeted audit hours, but only for the subjective task. Although a consulting role decreases perceived internal auditor objectivity, it has a limited effect on planning recommendations. Specifically, consulting has no effect on reliance, and leads to greater budgeted audit hours only when incentive compensation is available. We discuss potential explanations for the results as well as implications for audit research, practice, and regulation. [source] Decision Making with Uncertain Judgments: A Stochastic Formulation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process*DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 3 2003Eugene D. Hahn ABSTRACT In the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), priorities are derived via a deterministic method, the eigenvalue decomposition. However, judgments may be subject to error. A stochastic characterization of the pairwise comparison judgment task is provided and statistical models are introduced for deriving the underlying priorities. Specifically, a weighted hierarchical multinomial logit model is used to obtain the priorities. Inference is then conducted from the Bayesian viewpoint using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. The stochastic methods are found to give results that are congruent with those of the eigenvector method in matrices of different sizes and different levels of inconsistency. Moreover, inferential statements can be made about the priorities when the stochastic approach is adopted, and these statements may be of considerable value to a decision maker. The methods described are fully compatible with judgments from the standard version of AHP and can be used to construct a stochastic formulation of it. [source] The frog pond beauty contest: Physical attractiveness and electoral success of the constituency candidates at the North Rhine-Westphalia state election of 2005EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2008ULRICH ROSAR Since posters with photographs of these candidates are omnipresent on the streets during the election campaign, many voters are at least familiar with their facial appearance. As a consequence, the attractiveness of the constituency candidates substantially influences voter behaviour. This is shown by the example of the North Rhine-Westphalia state election of 2005. Judgments about the attractiveness of the constituency candidates were collected by means of a web survey among members of an online access panel. Respondents were confronted with portrait photographs of local candidates and asked to rate their attractiveness. According to the truth-of-consensus method, the attractiveness score of a candidate is computed by averaging across the different ratings he or she has received. Voter behaviour is captured by the real-life election results in the constituencies. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||