Abstract
The research reported in this dissertation investigates whether or not decision makers adequately adjust their information processing in response to a change in accounting methods. Initially, the decision makers are asked to establish selling prices for twenty hypothetical new products, using quantitative data regarding unit product costs, elasticity of demand, nature of competition, and average competitor prices. After being told of a change in accounting methods (i.e., a change from the variable costing method of determining product costs to the full costing method), decision makers in the experimental units are asked to set prices for twenty additional new products. The decision makers' responses are then used to determine whether or not they are functionally fixated. Subjects were students at various levels of their educational achievement. By providing the decision makers at each of the levels of education with varying quantities of information about the change in accounting methods, this research will help to provide answers as to whether level of education and quantity of information provided are factors in how subjects respond to a change in accounting methods. This dissertation shows that a significant proportion of the decision makers exhibit functional fixation (i.e., do not adequately adjust their information processing) in response to a change from the variable product costing method to the full costing method.
Gulley, Lawrence (1986). A determination of the effects of a change in information processing caused by a change in accounting methods. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -16375.