bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation
Authors: Horgan John
Published: March 2003

In The End of Science, I argued that particle physics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, and other fields of pure science have entered an era of diminishing returns (Horgan, 1997). Although scientists will continue refining and extending current theories and applying their knowledge in the realms of technology and medicine, they may never again achieve insights into nature as profound as quantum mechanics, relativity theory, the big bang theory, natural selection, and DNA-based genetics. One reasonable objection to the book was that mind-related research, of all current scientific enterprises, has the most revolutionary potential, and it deserves a more thorough treatment than it received in The End of Science. I responded to this objection by writing a book that focused on “mind-science” (Horgan, 1999). The Undiscovered Mind considered not only the debate over consciousness, which was the primary focus of The End of Science; it also reviewed the record of fields such as clinical psychology, psychiatry, behavioral genetics, evolutionary psychology, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience. I contended that there has been little progress in understanding the mind, replicating its properties, or treating its disorders—especially compared with the extravagant claims made by proponents of certain approaches. In this article, I summarize some of my book's main points.
Metacontrast Masking and Attention
Authors: Shelley-Tremblay John , Mack Arien
Published: March 2003

Metacontrast masking is generally considered an effect of preattentive processes operative in early vision. Because of the growing evidence of the role of attention in other phenomena previously considered low level and preattentive, its possible role in masking was explored in three experiments in which meaningful target stimuli known to capture attention (one's own name or a happy-face icon) were compared with control stimuli identical in spatial frequency and luminance. Not only were these salient stimuli significantly more resistant to masking than the control stimuli, but when one of the meaningful stimuli served as a mask, its strength was increased relative to a less meaningful variant, documenting the strong influence of attention on masking.
The Relation Between Implicit and Explicit Learning: Evidence for Parallel Development
Authors: Willingham Daniel B. , Goedert-Eschmann Kelly
Published: March 2003

Much research has focused on the separability of implicit and explicit learning, but less has focused on how they might interact. A recent model suggests that in the motor-skill domain, explicit knowledge can guide movement, and the implicit system learns in parallel, based on these movements. Functional imaging studies do not support that contention, however; they indicate that learning is exclusively implicit or explicit. In the experiment reported here, participants learned a motor sequencing task either implicitly or explicitly. At transfer, most of the stimuli were random, but the sequence occasionally appeared; thus, it was not obvious that explicit knowledge could be applied to the task. Nevertheless, participants with explicit training showed sequence knowledge equivalent to those with implicit training, implying that implicit knowledge had been acquired in parallel with explicit knowledge. This result has implications for the development of automaticity and of motor-skill learning.
Viewpoint Dependence and Object Discriminability
Authors: Hayward William G. , Williams Pepper
Published: March 2003

In an attempt to reconcile results of previous studies, several theorists have suggested that object recognition performance should range from viewpoint invariant to highly viewpoint dependent depending on how easy it is to differentiate the objects in a given recognition situation. The present study assessed recognition across depth rotations of a single general class of novel objects in three contexts that varied in difficulty. In an initial experiment, recognition in the context involving the most discriminable object differences was viewpoint invariant, but recognition in the least discriminable context and recognition in the intermediate context were equally viewpoint dependent. In a second experiment, utilizing gray-scale versions of the same stimuli, almost identical viewpoint-cost functions were obtained in all three contexts. These results suggest that differences in the geometry of stimulus objects, rather than task difficulty, lie at the heart of previously discrepant findings.
Involuntary Listening Aids Seeing: Evidence From Human Electrophysiology
Authors: McDonald John J. , Ward Lawrence M.
Published: March 2003

It is well known that sensory events of one modality can influence judgments of sensory events in other modalities. For example, people respond more quickly to a target appearing at the location of a previous cue than to a target appearing at another location, even when the two stimuli are from different modalities. Such cross-modal interactions suggest that involuntary spatial attention mechanisms are not entirely modality-specific. In the present study, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded to elucidate the neural basis and timing of involuntary, cross-modal spatial attention effects. We found that orienting spatial attention to an irrelevant sound modulates the ERP to a subsequent visual target over modality-specific, extrastriate visual cortex, but only after the initial stages of sensory processing are completed. These findings are consistent with the proposal that involuntary spatial attention orienting to auditory and visual stimuli involves shared, or at least linked, brain mechanisms.
Differences, Not Ratios, Control Choice in an Experimental Analogue to Foraging
Authors: Fantino Edmund , Goldshmidt Jay N.
Published: March 2003

In choice between outcomes with different delays to reinforcement, most theories require that choice be governed by the ratio of the delays, not by the difference between them, a requirement also consistent with Weber's law. Instead, delay-reduction theory and optimal-foraging theory stipulate, under conditions of the present experiments, that the difference between the delays, and not the ratio between them, controls choice. This prediction was assessed using a procedure, widely used in foraging experiments, in which pigeons chose between accepting and rejecting either of two delays when offered. Across conditions, the delays either differed by a constant amount, with the ratio between the delays varying, or differed by changing amounts, with the ratio between the delays constant. In each of six experiments, rate of acceptance of the longer delay depended only on the difference between the two delays and not on the ratio between them, supporting delay-reduction and foraging theory.
Recognition and Source Memory as Multivariate Decision Processes
Authors: Banks William P.
Published: March 2003

Recognition memory, source memory, and exclusion performance are three important domains of study in memory, each with its own findings, its specific theoretical developments, and its separate research literature. It is proposed here that results from all three domains can be treated with a single analytic model. This article shows how to generate a comprehensive memory representation based on multidimensional signal detection theory and how to make predictions for each of these paradigms using decision axes drawn through the space. The detection model is simpler than the comparable multinomial model, it is more easily generalizable, and it does not make threshold assumptions. An experiment using the same memory set for all three tasks demonstrates the analysis and tests the model. The results show that some seemingly complex relations between the paradigms derive from an underlying simplicity of structure.
The Attractiveness of Nonface Averages: Implications for an Evolutionary Explanation of the Attractiveness of Average Faces
Authors: Halberstadt Jamin , Rhodes Gillian
Published: March 2003

Researchers have argued that humans' attraction to average faces reflects an evolved psychological mechanism to identify high-quality mates. If this direct-selection account is correct, there is no reason to expect a similar averageness bias for stimuli that are irrelevant to reproductive fitness. The current study, however, found a strong relationship between averageness and attractiveness for dogs, wristwatches, and birds. The most parsimonious explanation is that humans have a general attraction to prototypical exemplars, and that their attraction to average faces is a reflection of this more general attraction. We tested whether a general preference for familiar stimuli can account for the attractiveness of averageness. This account was not supported for dogs or birds, but could not be ruled out for watches.
On the Transition from Childhood Amnesia to the Recall of Personal Memories
Authors: Bruce Darryl , Dolan Angela , Phillips-Grant Kimberly
Published: March 2003

When adults are asked to report and date personal memories of their pasts, they show childhood amnesia, that is, diminished recall of experiences over the childhood years. This way of demonstrating the phenomenon was supplemented in the present study with a more direct approach: Participants reported events of early childhood that they knew they had experienced (because of family stories, photographs, etc.) but did not actually remember. The resulting cumulative relative frequency distributions produced by the two methods were substantially different, with the median age of remembered events being 6.07 years and of known events, 3.20 years. We suggest that the mean of these two ages, 4.64 years, gives a good indication of when childhood amnesia is eclipsed by personal memories in adults' recall of their personal pasts.
William James and the Unconscious: Redressing a Century-Old Misunderstanding
Authors: Weinberger Joel
Published: March 2003

Contrary to received wisdom in psychology, William James did not oppose postulating unconscious processes. This mistaken belief stems from a misreading of a passage in his Principles concerned with disproving the metaphysical notion that mental states are composed of elementary mental units. The term unconscious had been co-opted by individuals who supported this position. Unconscious did not mean then what it means now. Analysis of the rest of the Principles, his later works, and his reactions to the works of others reveals that James actually supported what we would now term unconscious processes. He even contributed to their study with his notions of the “fringe,” “habit,” and “subconscious incubation.” Causes and effects of this misunderstanding are discussed.
Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Loneliness in Children
Authors: McGuire Shirley , Clifford Jeanie
Published: March 2003

This report presents the results of the first behavioral genetic studies of children's loneliness. Data were collected using both an adoption design and a twin-sibling design. As part of the Colorado Adoption Project, 133 sibling pairs (69 biologically related pairs and 64 unrelated pairs in adoptive families) completed a general loneliness scale when they were 9, 10, 11, and 12 years old. As part of the San Diego Sibling Study, 142 sibling pairs (22 monozygotic twin, 40 dizygotic twin, and 80 full-sibling pairs) between the ages of 8 and 14 years old completed a scale assessing loneliness at school. Both studies showed significant heritability and nonshared environmental influences for children's loneliness.
How Special are Objects? Children's Reasoning About Objects, Parts, and Holes
Authors: Giralt Nuria , Bloom Paul
Published: March 2003

Discrete physical objects have a special status in cognitive and linguistic development. Infants track and enumerate objects, young children are biased to construe novel words as referring to objects, and, when asked to count an array of items, preschool children tend to count the discrete objects, even if explicitly asked to do otherwise. We address here the question of whether discrete physical objects are the only entities that have this special status, or whether other individuals are salient as well. In two experiments, we found that 3-year-olds are just as good at identifying, tracking, and counting certain nonobject entities (holes in Experiment 1; holes and parts in Experiment 2) as they are with objects. These results are discussed in light of different theories of the nature and development of children's object bias.
Emotion Knowledge as a Predictor of Social Behavior and Academic Competence in Children at Risk
Authors: Izard Carroll , Fine Sarah , Schultz David , Mostow Allison , Ackerman Brian , Youngstrom Eric
Published: March 2003

Following leads from differential emotions theory and empirical research, we evaluated an index of emotion knowledge as a long-term predictor of positive and negative social behavior and academic competence in a sample of children from economically disadvantaged families (N = 72). The index of emotion knowledge represents the child's ability to recognize and label emotion expressions. We administered control and predictor measures when the children were 5 years old and obtained criterion data at age 9. After controlling for verbal ability and temperament, our index of emotion knowledge predicted aggregate indices of positive and negative social behavior and academic competence. Path analysis showed that emotion knowledge mediated the effect of verbal ability on academic competence. We argue that the ability to detect and label emotion cues facilitates positive social interactions and that a deficit in this ability contributes to behavioral and learning problems. Our findings have implications for primary prevention.
Incidental Learning of Real-World Regularities
Authors: Kelly Stephen W. , Burton A. Mike , Kato Takashi , Akamatsu Shigeru
Published: March 2003

The large literature on incidental learning relies almost exclusively on laboratory experiments. Whenever researchers have attempted to demonstrate incidental learning of real-world regularities, they have typically failed to show learning. For example, it is well established that people do not learn regularities in everyday objects, such as the left-right orientation of faces on coins, despite a very large exposure to them. In this report, we examine this apparent contradiction. We argue that most studies exploring real-life incidental learning use tests that are not as sensitive to low-confidence information as those traditionally used in laboratory tasks. Using more sensitive measures, we show that it is possible to learn regularities from British and Japanese cultural life as a direct result of exposure to these regularities. Further, confidence measures suggest that although the information may be acquired incidentally, it can be expressed with and without concomitant awareness of that knowledge.
Representation of Visuotactile Space in the Split Brain
Authors: Spence Charles , Kingstone Alan , Shore David I. , Gazzaniga Michael S.
Published: March 2003

Recent neurophysiological research in the monkey has revealed bimodal neuronal cells with both tactile receptive fields on the hand and visual receptive fields that follow the hands as they move, suggesting the existence of a bimodal map of visuotactile space. Using a cross-modal congruency task, we examined the representtion ofvisuotactile space in normal people and in a split-brain patient (J. W.) as the right arm assumed different postures. The results showed that the congruency effects from distracting lights followed the hand around in space in normal people, but failed to do so in the split-brain patient when the hand crossed the midline. This suggests that cross-cortical connections are required to remap visual space to the current hand position when the hand crosses the midline.
Predicting the Effects of Actions: Interactions of Perception and Action
Authors: Knoblich Günther , Flach Rüdiger
Published: March 2003

Many theories in cognitive psychology assume that perception and action systems are clearly separated from the cognitive system. Other theories suggest that important cognitive functions reside in the interactions between these systems. One consequence of the latter claim is that the action system may contribute to predicting the future consequences of currently perceived actions. In particular, such predictions might be more accurate when one observes one's own actions than when one observes another person's actions, because in the former case the system that plans the action is the same system that contributes to predicting the action's effects. In the present study, participants (N = 104) watched video clips displaying either themselves or somebody else throwing a dart at a target board and predicted the dart's landing position. The predictions were more accurate when participants watched themselves acting. This result provides evidence for the claim that perceptual input can be linked with the action system to predict future outcomes of actions.
Paying Attention to Time as one Gets Older
Authors: Lustig Cindy , Meck Warren H.
Published: March 2003

Age-related changes in attention and interval timing as a function of time of day were examined using a temporal bisection task with single and compound auditory and visual stimuli. Half of the participants in each age group were tested in the morning, and half were tested in the afternoon. Duration judgments were found to be shorter for visual signals than for auditory signals. This discrepancy was greater in the morning than in the afternoon and larger for the older than for the younger adults. Young adults showed equal sensitivity to signal duration for single and compound trials and higher sensitivity in the afternoon than in the morning for both signal modalities. In contrast, older adults showed impaired sensitivity on compound trials and the greatest sensitivity overall to single visual trials in the morning. These results suggest that age-related reductions in attentional resources may cause older adults to focus on signals that require controlled attention during specific phases of the circadian cycle.
A Dissociation Between Attention and Selection
Authors: Remington Roger W. , Folk Charles L.
Published: March 2003

It is widely assumed that the allocation of spatial attention results in the “selection” of attended objects or regions of space. That is, once a stimulus is attended, all its feature dimensions are processed irrespective of their relevance to behavioral goals. This assumption is based in part on experiments showing significant interference for attended stimuli when the response to an irrelevant dimension conflicts with the response to the relevant dimension (e.g., the Stroop effect). Here we show that such interference is not due to attending per se. In two spatial cuing experiments, we found that it was possible to restrict processing of attended stimuli to task-relevant dimensions. This new evidence supports two novel conclusions: (a) Selection involves more than the focusing of attention per se; and (b) task expectations play a key role in determining the depth of processing of the elementary feature dimensions of attended stimuli.
Color-Based Motion Processing Is Stronger in Infants Than in Adults
Authors: Dobkins Karen R. , Anderson Christina M.
Published: March 2003

One hallmark of vision in adults is the dichotomy between color and motion processing. Specifically, areas of the brain that encode an object's direction of motion are thought to receive little information about object color. We investigated the development of this dichotomy by conducting psychophysical experiments with human subjects (2-, 3-, and 4-month-olds and adults), using a novel red-green stimulus that isolates color-based input to motion processing. When performance on this red-green motion stimulus was quantified with respect to performance on a luminance (yellow-black) standard, we found stronger color-based motion processing in infants than in adults. These results suggest that color input to motion areas is greater early in life, and that motion areas then specialize to the adultlike state by reweighting or selectively pruning their inputs over the course of development.
Inhibitory Tagging on Randomly Moving Objects
Authors: Ogawa Hirokazu , Takeda Yuji , Yagi Akihiro
Published: March 2003

Inhibitory tagging is a process that prevents focal attention from revisiting previously checked items in inefficient searches, facilitating search performance. Recent studies suggested that inhibitory tagging is object rather than location based, but it was unclear whether inhibitory tagging operates on moving objects. The present study investigated the tagging effect on moving objects. Participants were asked to search for a moving target among randomly and independently moving distractors. After either efficient or inefficient search, participants performed a probe detection task that measured the inhibitory effect on search items. The inhibitory effect on distractors was observed only after inefficient searches. The present results support the concept of object-based inhibitory tagging.
Child-Care Structure → Process → Outcome: Direct and Indirect Effects of Child-Care Quality on Young Children's Development
Authors:   NICHD Early Child Care Research Network
Published: March 2003

With data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, we used structural equation modeling to test paths from structural indicators of child-care quality, specifically caregiver training and child-staff ratio, through a process indicator to child outcomes. There were three main findings: (a) Quality of maternal caregiving was the strongest predictor of cognitive competence, as well as caregivers' ratings of social competence; (b) quality of nonmaternal caregiving was associated with cognitive competence and caregivers' ratings of social competence; and (c) there was a mediated path from both caregiver training and child-staff ratio through quality of nonmaternal caregiving to cognitive competence, as well as to caregivers' ratings of social competence, that was not accounted for entirely by family variables. These findings provide empirical support for policies that improve state regulations for caregiver training and child-staff ratios.
Expertise Training with Novel Objects Leads to Left-Lateralized Facelike Electrophysiological Responses
Authors: Rossion B. , Gauthier I. , Goffaux V. , Tarr M.J. , Crommelinck M.
Published: March 2003

Scalp event-related potentials (ERPs) in humans indicate that face and object processing differ approximately 170 ms following stimulus presentation, at the point of the N170 occipitotemporal component. The N170 is delayed and enhanced to inverted faces but not to inverted objects. We tested whether this inversion effect reflects early mechanisms exclusive to faces or whether it generalizes to other stimuli as a function of visual expertise. ERPs to upright and inverted faces and novel objects (Greebles) were recorded in 10 participants before and after 2 weeks of expertise training with Greebles. The N170 component was observed for both faces and Greebles. The results are consistent with previous reports in that the N170 was delayed and enhanced for inverted faces at recording sites in both hemispheres. For Greebles, the same effect of inversion was observed only for experts, primarily in the left hemisphere. These results suggest that the mechanisms underlying the electrophysiological face-inversion effect extend to visually homogeneous nonface object categories, at least in the left hemisphere, but only when such mechanisms are recruited by expertise.
Infants of Depressed Mothers, Although Competent Learners, Fail to Learn in Response to Their Own Mothers' Infant-Directed Speech
Authors: Kaplan Peter S. , Bachorowski Jo-Anne , Smoski Moria J. , Hudenko William J.
Published: March 2003

Depressed mothers use less of the exaggerated prosody that is typical of infant-directed (ID) speech than do nondepressed mothers. We investigated the consequences of this reduced perceptual salience in ID speech for infant learning. Infants of nondepressed mothers readily learned that their mothers' speech signaled a face, whereas infants of depressed mothers failed to learn that their mothers' speech signaled the face. Infants of depressed mothers did, however, show strong learning in response to speech produced by an unfamiliar nondepressed mother. These outcomes indicate that the reduced perceptual salience of depressed mothers' ID speech could lead to deficient learning in otherwise competent learners.
Visual Attention and Coactivation of Response Decisions for Features from Different Dimensions
Authors: Feintuch Uri , Cohen Asher
Published: March 2003

The role of visual attention in task performance has been extensively debated. On the basis of the dimensional-action model, we hypothesized that a major role of attention is to transfer response decisions from targets on which it is focused to high-level centers dealing with response execution. This hypothesis predicts that response decisions for two targets will interact only when attention is focused on both targets, and only when the response to the targets is defined by different dimensions. Three experiments, using the redundancy-gain paradigm, tested and confirmed this prediction. Experiment 1 showed that coactivation of two cross-dimensional targets occurred only when the targets were positioned in the same location, not when they were in separate locations. Experiment 2 manipulated the focus of attention and showed that coactivation can occur even for targets positioned in different locations if they are both within the attentional focus. Experiment 3 showed that this attention-induced coactivation does not occur for targets from the same dimensional module. These results suggest that a major role of attention is postperceptual and involves gating of selected responses to executive functions.
Studying Multi‐level Governance. Examples from French Translations of the Structural Funds
Authors: Smith Andy
Published: March 2003

The term ‘multi‐level governance’ synthesizes the overlapping nature of the European Union and implicit theories of EU‐state‐subnational interdependence. Although stimulating as an overriding framework, the concept’s explanatory powers are not self‐evident. Using illustrations from implementation of the structural funds within three French regions, this article endeavours to operationalize multi‐level governance by concentrating upon what it could help to study and what it might contribute in terms of analysing change. A case is made for focusing research upon variations in patterns of governance through developing a rapprochment between the study of public action and that of political representation.
Reconceptualizing the British State: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges to Central Government
Authors: Smith Martin J.
Published: March 2003

Britain is generally perceived as having a hierarchical and unified political system with power concentrated in the central institutions of the state. This conception has not only influenced analysis but has affected the behaviour of politicians. However, in recent years both conceptions of the state and, how it operates, have been challenged. Conventional approaches concerned with the internal workings of the state have largely taken the nature of power as unproblematic. Consequently they have oversimplified the nature of power relationships within the state. In the last five or ten years the dominant conceptions of the core state have been questioned by theoretical and empirical challenges such as globalization, the core executive, the reform of government, bureau‐shaping and new approaches to power. The article analyses how these challenges require a reconceptualization of the central British state.
Shifting Agendas, Changing Regulatory Structures And The ‘New’ Politics Of Environmental Pollution: British Coastal Water Policy, 1955–1995
Authors: Jordan Andrew , Greenaway John
Published: March 2003

Policies in areas or subsystems which are dominated by well‐established policy communities tend to stability. However, policies that have firm political support and a solid ideological underpinning are occasionally subject to marked and whole‐sale shifts which then stabilize around a new equilibrium position. This article examines one such discontinuity in policy: British coastal water policy between the 1950s and the 1990s. Once the concern of engineers and local authority interests, the question of how to deal with the sewage generated by coastal communities is now deeply contested between a wide variety of different actors including environmental groups and European authorities. What was once a relatively well‐managed, professionalized policy community has become unstable as new ideas and domestic regulatory structures have forced the government to justify principles and practices that were implicit or simply rhetorical. This empirical example of what Weale has termed the ‘new’ politics of pollution, is tested against models of social learning developed by Paul Sabatier and Peter Hall, both of which lay great stress on the importance of changing ideas and beliefs as the main ‘motor’ of policy change.
Competitive Tendering In Local Government: A Review Of Theory And Evidence
Authors: Boyne George A.
Published: March 2003

The introduction of compulsory competitive tendering in UK local government reflected conventional public choice theories of bureaucracy. These theories suggest that competition for service contracts will lead to lower expenditure and higher efficiency. Extensions and criticisms of the classical public choice model yield very different conclusions. First, the problems of bureaucratic supply are less severe than originally assumed, and secondly competition may itself generate new problems such as transaction costs, erosion of trust between principals and agents, and rent seeking. The impact of competition on spending and efficiency is therefore indeterminate, and must be established empirically. However, studies which evaluate the effects of competitive tendering in local government are few in number, cover a limited range of services, and are methodologically flawed. Therefore neither the initial imposition of competitive tendering by the Conservatives, nor its planned abolition by Labour, can be traced to a solid foundation of theoretical or empirical support. Theoretical and methodological problems that need to be resolved by further empirical studies are identified.
The Privatization Process At The Irish Sugar Company – Logical Incrementalism Or Ensemble Des Jeux?
Authors: Leavy Brian
Published: March 2003

This article presents an empirical analysis of the privatization process at Comhlucht Siuicre Eireann Teoranta (CSET), the Irish Sugar Company. The CSET privatization was significant in being the first in the modern Irish political context. It was also significant in that the primary momentum for the process was generated and sustained by strategic action at firm level. Yet, it was a transformation in which firm strategists were rarely in full control of events, and one that had national as well as organizational implications. The analysis suggests that even the most robust of firm‐level models of change alone provides an inadequate guide to fully understanding such processes. It examines the case for viewing them through a more multi‐level perspective.
On The Nature Of Audit Judgements: The Case Of Value For Money Studies
Authors: Keen Justin
Published: March 2003

The National Audit Office (NAO) undertakes Value For Money (VFM) studies, which are used as the basis of evidence in hearings of the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts. VFM studies are therefore integral to the process of accountability of public bodies to Parliament for their use of resources. This paper examines the production of VFM studies by the NAO, and in particular the ways in which audit teams arrive at their judgements. It introduces a theoretical frame‐work which highlights: (i) the interplay of intuitive and analytical thinking as VFM teams assemble and interpret data and, (ii) the ways in which teams use three distinct types of judgement criterion in studies, based on the use of multiple empirical indicators about some event, the logical coherence of the auditee’s behaviour, and consensus about ‘what actually happened’.
Compulsory Competitive Tendering And Local Government Financial Services: An Analysis Of The Views Of Local Government Accountants In The North West Of England
Authors: Wilson John
Published: March 2003

Between 1979 and 1997, successive Conservative governments sought to reduce the scale of public sector activity and to introduce competition in the provision of public sector services. A central feature of this policy was the introduction of compulsory competitive tendering (CCT). CCT was initially confined to blue collar services but, by means of the Local Government Act 1992, it was extended to white collar, professional services, including financial services. However, though potentially extremely significant, the support for and implications of such a policy are issues which have been inadequately researched. Because of this, research has been under‐taken into financial services CCT and has included a questionnaire survey of 300 professionally qualified accountants employed in 17 local authorities in the North West of England, drawn from county councils, district councils and metropolitan authorities. The article presents the findings of the survey, with a particular focus on the views of accountants on CCT in general and financial services CCT in particular. In addition, it provides evidence that the CCT process, irrespective of views on CCT and its appropriateness for specific activities, has changed culture and attitudes in the case of local government finance professionals.
MI 6’s Requirements Directorate: Integrating Intelligence into the Machinery of British Central Government
Authors: Davies Philip H.J.
Published: March 2003

The following article examines the relationship between the British Secret Intelli‐gence Service (SIS, a.k.a. MI 6) and the machinery of central government, particularly departments of state and other agencies which employ information generated by the SIS. It is argued the main link between the SIS and its consumers in British government is the SIS’s requirements ‘side’, embodied throughout most of the post‐war era in the form of a Requirements Directorate. The article argues that the Requirements mechanism operates as a line of communication between the SIS and its consumers separate from the Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO), although there is overlap and interdependency between the two architectures. This discussion traces the development of the ‘requirements side’ from the interwar period up to the post‐Cold War era using information from archival sources and a programme of interviews with former UK intelligence officials. It is further argued that the structure and process of the SIS ‘requirements side’ has developed and changed as a consequence of changes in the structure of demand in the machinery of British government, including adapting to the increasingly central role of the JIO. However, despite that increasingly central role of the JIO, the ‘requirements side’ has continued to serve as the first point of contact between the SIS and its customers in Whitehall.
Re‐assessing the Role of Departmental Cabinet Ministers
Authors: Marsh David , Richards David , Smith Martin J.
Published: March 2003

The study of the core executive has been dominated by discussion of the Prime Ministers and Cabinet with only limited serious treatment paid to ministers. However, ministers and departments are crucial actors in the core executive. This article examines the multiple roles and varying impacts of ministers. More particularly, we initially develop a classification of ministerial roles, which builds upon, but develops, work by Headey, James and Norton. Subsequently, we use this classification to pose two key questions. Which roles do particular ministers stress? In what ways has the balance between these roles changed in the last twenty‐five years?
Planning, Performance And Public Services
Authors: Boyne George
Published: March 2003

The policies of the Labour government in the UK place renewed emphasis on rational planning in the public sector. The government’s assumption is that this approach to decision making will lead to improvements in performance. Although the theoretical costs and benefits of rational planning have been widely debated in the public administration literature, no systematic empirical research on the impact of planning on the performance of public organizations has been conducted. By contrast, the relationship between rational planning and the success of private firms has been investigated extensively. A meta‐analysis and critical review of this evidence suggests that planning is generally associated with superior performance. However, important questions remain unresolved. For example, under what circumstances does planning work best, and which elements of planning are most important? Therefore, although it may be appropriate to encourage public agencies to consider carefully the potential benefits of planning, rational processes should not be imposed upon them.
In Search of the Regulatory State: Evidence From Scotland
Authors: Midwinter Arthur , McGarvey Neil
Published: March 2003

Recent research has suggested that there is movement towards a ‘regulatory state’ in the UK with regulation an expanding area of government. This article identifies key Scottish differences from UK practice and suggests the growth and scale of regulation inside Scottish government is more modest than suggested by UK‐wide research. It also reviews existing oversight arrangements within Scottish government for public service delivery bodies and questions whether many of these activities warrant the label ‘regulation’, arguing that a more accurate description is performance management.
The Financial Crisis of the Local Authorities in Israel: A Resource‐Based Analysis
Authors: Carmeli Abraham , Cohen Aaron
Published: March 2003

The financial crisis affecting many of the local authorities in Israel has a significant influence on their ability to supply municipal services of an appropriate amount and quality. So far, studies have been addressed to the financial crisis from a political approach by discussing aspects such as the problematic interrelation between central and local governments together with resource allocation. In this paper we investigate the financial crisis of many local authorities in Israel from a strategic point of view. However, this is by no means to argue that other approaches such as institutional and political ones are not important. Rather, the paper investigates whether the financial crisis affecting many Israeli local authorities is a result of their own strategies and practices.

Specifically, we have used the resource‐based approach to explore the nature of their joint crises and the potential strategic responses that the local authorities should adopt in order to move into a more favourable state. In particular, we examine three resource‐based systems: customer‐oriented, organizational culture, and human resources, as the strategic roots of this crisis. We also examine the way they could produce a sustainable competitive advantage and could lead local authorities from the present position to a better one. The article recommends that the heads of local authorities should move to a resource‐based strategy in order to perform both more efficiently and effectively.
Path Dependencies in European Integration: A Constructive Response to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer
Authors: Holzinger Katharina , Knill Christoph
Published: March 2003

There is no doubt about the political necessity of the Eastern enlargement of the European Union and corresponding reforms of its political institutions. By contrast, the shape and content of these reforms is a subject that is highly contested between the member states. In this context, when the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, presented his vision of future development for Europe his ideas were refreshingly welcome. However, Fischer’s ideas imply, in many respects, a turning away from hitherto accepted paths to European integration. The main claim we want to make in this paper is that, against the backdrop of this breach with the present European‐level institutional system, the chance that the Fischer initiatives could come to political fruition must be viewed with scepticism. On the basis of this finding, which rests essentially upon a historical‐institutionalist analysis, we develop an alternative concept for a European constitution.
Leading and learning? Knowledge transfer in the Beacon Council Scheme
Authors: Rashman Lyndsay , Hartley Jean
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the Beacon Council Scheme as a distinct policy element within the UK government’s wide–ranging local government modernization agenda. The aim of the Beacon scheme is two–fold. First, reward for high performing councils and second, the achievement of substantial change by sharing ‘best practice’ from identified centres of excellence. The scheme presupposes an implicit theory of organizational change through learning. The Beacon Council Scheme is based on the assumption that the organizational preconditions exist which will facilitate learning, and through its application to practice, improve service delivery. The paper analyses the presumed and possible conditions which facilitate or impede interorganizational learning and service improvement through the scheme. The paper then examines empirical data from 59 local authority elected members and officers about their attitudes towards and motivation to take part in the Beacon scheme during the first year of its existence. The data indicate that there are differing motivations for participation in the scheme and that these reflect different learning needs. The experiences of local authority participants suggest that the formulators of the dissemination strategy at the heart of the scheme have not yet given sufficient consideration to the processes of interorganizational learning, the conditions that support such learning between authorities and the embedding of new understandings, practices and organizational cultures in the receiving authority. This suggests that the underlying theories of organizational learning and cultural change may be insufficiently developed to create and sustain the kind of transformational change that is intended by central government.
The threat of organizational downsizing on the innovative propensity of R&D professionals
Authors: Bommer Michael , Jalajas David
Published: March 2003

Downsizings, re‐engineering, and restructuring continue to be strategic initiatives employed by the management of US companies. Although the lay‐offs that result from these activities have yielded some short‐term benefits for companies, over the long term, the ability of the firm to innovate new products and processes may be compromised.

In this article four antecedent variables of individual innovation are identified: a willingness to take risks, a willingness to make suggestions, the degree to which one is motivated by the job, and the degree to which one is motivated by fear. A model is developed and hypotheses proposed to test the effect of the threat of downsizings on these four factors. The results of our study revealed that these threats have a significant effect on all four factors in a direction which is detrimental to the propensity of R&D professionals to be innovative.

The article concludes with suggestions for R&D managers in a downsizing environment to foster the innovation process at the individual level.
Managing learning in informal innovation networks: overcoming the Daphne‐dilemma
Authors: Van Aken Joan E. , Weggeman Mathieu P.
Published: March 2003

In this article we discuss the nature and productivity of informal innovation networks, i.e. informal collaborative arrangements between organizations engaged in product or process innovation. Such networks can be used in any phase of the innovation process, but their informal nature makes them especially suited for its fuzzy front end. We explore their potential in technology exchange and learning on the basis of a combination of organization network theory and knowledge management theory. We discuss issues in network governance and network operational management and discuss the basic dilemma – which we named the Daphne‐dilemma – facing attempts to improve the productivity of informal innovation networks: too little management effort may lead to under‐exploitation of their potential and poor productivity, but too much management effort may destroy their informal nature and hence their creative and explorative potential.
International product transfer and production ramp‐up: a case study from the data storage industry
Authors: Terwiesch Christian , Bohn Roger , Chea Kuong
Published: March 2003

Many high‐tech industries are shifting their focus from minimizing time‐to‐market to minimizing time‐to‐volume. This puts the tail end of product development, the production ramp‐up, in a critical position. This article presents a case study of product transfer and production ramp‐up in the hard disk drive industry. We provide a detailed description of the ramp‐up period. By documenting detailed time‐series of several operational measures, we also shed light on the various forces that allow an organization to increase its production volume. Finally, the setting allows us to study product transfer from development in the USA to an Asian production facility. We find that the physical distance is successfully overcome by several mechanisms.
Network positioning and R&D activity: a study of Italian groups
Authors: Filatotchev Igor , Piga Claudio , Dyomina Natalya
Published: March 2003

Traditionally, R&D studies focus on organisational characteristics and internal context factor effects on a firm's R&D activities. This paper extends previous research by analysing firm–level R&D expenditures in the wider context of inter–organisational networks. Using sample of 2002 manufacturing firms in Italy, it provides evidence that R&D intensity is linked to a firm's positioning within an industrial group's hierarchy. Further tests on the antecedents of R&D expenditures are carried out in relation to the effects of firm characteristics and industry factors. Important findings include a significant and positive association between R&D intensity and the firm's size, performance, intangible assets and industry concentration. These findings suggest that, in addition to firm–level factors and its market environment, network resources and organisation may play an important role in driving the intensity of the firm's R&D expenditures.